Chapter 14
“Sebastian, leave him alone,” Hayden Haze hissed at his half brother.
“Shut up, loser. Dad said you can’t tell me what to do,” Sebastian yelled back.
Lucas Michaels was down on the ground. Bloody nose dripped into the dirt.
Sebastian kicked him in the ribs as the younger pup cried.
The kick was pure defiance of Hayden telling him to stop.
It wasn’t the first fight Sebastian had picked on a pup younger than himself.
It wouldn’t be the first time Hayden would get in trouble for telling Sebastian to stop, or simply stopping his half brother from being a bully.
Sebastian wound up to kick Lucas for ‘ramming into him’.
Hayden dove in and pushed Sebastian to the ground.
Yes, he was going to pay for interfering but Lucas didn’t deserve to get beat up for Sebastian actually running into him.
It was Sebastian’s fault. And yet again, Beta Marcus, Sebastian’s dad and Hayden’s stepdad, would defend his son.
Sebastian would walk away consequence free.
“You’re a dead man, loser. Dad’s going to beat the shit out of you.”
Hayden shrugged. He helped Lucas stand up and escorted him to the nurses office. No ‘thank you’, no ‘well done’. The nurse gave Hayden a look of irritation instead.
“When are you going to learn to leave Sebastian alone? You’ll be in here tomorrow getting a cold compress and white willow bark,” she said.
“Better me tomorrow than me and Lucas all year. Anyway, I’m used to it,” Hayden mumbled.
“And you, Lucas Michaels. Stay away from Sebastian. That boy is bad news. Don’t repeat that to anyone. He’ll make your life a living hell if it happens again.” The nurse cleaned Lucas up and sent both boys back to class.
“Thank you, Hayden,” Lucas said before they parted ways.
“No problem.” Hayden nodded.
At thirteen, he knew this conversation with Sebastian and Beta Marcus wasn’t over.
It’d happened too many times. Sebastian got away with everything.
He was two years younger and the favorite son.
No one could compare to his ‘amazingness’ in Beta Marcus’ opinion.
That included the princess of the family, Allison.
Curtis was the youngest and their mom’s favorite.
Kali, his mom, had no room left in her heart for Hayden after Curtis arrived.
Hayden simply ended up at the bottom of every list.
His mother’s first fated mate had died, his real father.
She never talked about him. Hayden didn’t even know his name, or if his biological father had any other family.
They’d only had three months together. A rogue attack had killed his father.
And that was all he knew of his paternal side.
It was a fantasy of ‘what if’ for Hayden.
What if his real father had lived? Would he have loved Hayden? Would his mother have defended him?
To make the situation even worse, Hayden didn’t look like Kali at all.
He must have taken after his dad. Kali had wavy brown hair and light brown eyes.
Hayden had long blond hair and amber eyes.
He may have inherited the shape of her mouth and a fullness in the face, but that was about all.
The long hair was because no one bothered to help him cut it.
He didn’t have access to electric clippers and had come to the belief he could manage his long hair better than worrying about trying to get it cut.
It was impossible to make it look good when he cut it himself.
Sebastian, Allison, and Curtis were spitting images of Kali.
She’d definitely left her stamp on them.
It probably helped Marcus was a brunette, too.
Her second chance mate, his stepfather, hated that he was her second chance and pregnant with her first mate’s brat.
She gave him three more children to apologize for Hayden’s existence.
Hayden became his punching bag for whatever failure he was correctly suffering.
The Ice Claw Pack lacked good leadership from both its Alpha and Beta.
Mom didn’t care. She and Luna Jane were too busy shopping to see what was going on right in front of them.
Hayden quietly closed the back door of the place he was supposed to call home.
He lived in the basement. Not even the whole basement, just a corner.
The rest was the laundry room. That portion had a partition thrown up in front of his mattress.
There was a neatly folded blanket and a small stack of ill fitting clothes at the foot. Three used books were up by his pillow.
He gently walked down the stairs so they didn’t squeak. He just wanted a few more minutes before his supposed ‘dad’ beat him for pushing his half brother. Being quiet wouldn’t stop that from happening. It just gave him a few more moments without additional pain.
He came to an abrupt stop at the sight of Marcus standing at the bottom of the stairs.
The look on his face scared the shit out of Hayden.
Beta Marcus had been drinking again. His dark brown, graying hair was greasy and smashed to the side of his head.
His brown, almost black, eyes were bloodshot.
They glared up at Hayden as he stood frozen on the steps.
“You pushed Sebastian down. You will never touch him again!” he yelled as he grabbed Hayden by the collar of his shirt.
Hayden stumbled the rest of the way down the stairs.
His knees hit the concrete and stung. Hayden tried to lurch away from the Beta but his booted foot caught Hayden in the ribs.
He crumpled to the floor as Beta Marcus’ belt reined down on him.
Strike after strike. He covered his head and tried to wait his stepdad out.
Voices up the stairs gave Beta Marcus pause, but not enough to stop.
“Roll over, boy,” he yelled.
“Please, stop,” Hayden gasped as he obeyed. Refusal would mean the whip. The belt was bad enough. The whip was absolute agony.
Hayden writhed as Beta Marcus left enough marks to match his other side. The jerk was huffing and puffing by the time he put his belt back on.
Hayden looked up enough to realize his partition and bed were no longer in the laundry room. The place was wiped clean of all his things. They were probably in the garbage.
Beta Marcus hauled Hayden upright and shoved him to the stairs.
“You don’t sleep here anymore, you ungrateful brat.”
Hayden scrambled up the stairs as Beta Marcus kept shoving him. He barked his knees and shins on the risers because he wasn’t fast enough.
“Get out of this house, boy,” Beta Marcus yelled as he kicked him out the back door. His mom leaned against the door frame and watched her husband. Her face was expressionless as usual. The only animation she ever had was when she shopped with the Luna.
“To the cowshed. March it.”
Hayden scrambled to his feet and forced his welt covered body to jog to the barn. It belonged to the pack. A throwback to the days when the Ice Claw Pack used to grow its own food. It was still in good enough condition, but was unused and slowly showing signs of falling into neglect.
Hayden slipped inside with his stepdad close behind, “The last stall, boy.”
He gave Hayden an evil smile as he opened the stall door and shoved him inside. “You are no longer welcome in the house. We’ll put your food out the back door at 6. No more school either. School is wasted on you. I’ve already had you withdrawn. My children will be safer without you there.”
“But, father…” Hayden tried to protest. He loved school.
“Shut up,” Beta Marcus growled as he backhanded Hayden.
He fell back onto the mattress they’d actually moved out to the barn.
“Tomorrow you go to work at Evan Bells’ farm.
He needs help getting his farm ready for winter.
Don’t you dare step foot into that school.
You have work to do to cover the cost of all the years you’ve lived here for free. ”
Hayden gasped in air as his stepfather weaved drunkenly out of the barn. His ribs hurt and his shins were scratched and bleeding. It was normal. He wondered what it would be like to go a day without getting hit. What a novelty that would be.
He may have had the mattress but no blankets or a pillow.
That was a problem. The Ice Claw Pack had that name for a reason.
It got bloody cold at night. Fall was rapidly turning into winter.
At least in the basement, the temperature had been consistent all year.
He’d die of hypothermia once the temp dipped just a little farther.
The worst part was his mom not caring. She watched, always a witness, but never intervened.
And from what Hayden could tell, Beta Marcus never abused her or forced her to retreat from her eldest son.
She did it voluntarily. Sebastian, Allison, and Curtis got the benefit of her mothering. Hayden was too much effort.
The day was still light enough to get out and scrounge a few things for his new quarters.
In a way, the barn was a welcome sanctuary.
He no long had to sit in the basement waiting for them to need him to clean something up, or worse, listen to them enjoying their time together.
The nights when they were happiest made Hayden feel empty, unwanted.
He’d spent plenty of time in the barn. His siblings didn’t go in the dirty, musty building.
It was beneath them. The big bonus was the loose floorboards where he could stash a blanket and maybe even a sleeping bag one day.
As long as he didn’t get carried away he could, theoretically, be warm enough in the winter.
Maybe even avoid hypothermia and frost bite.
The dumpster outside the pack house laundry always seemed to have bedding, blankets, and other pieces of clothe that had seen better days.
It wasn’t the first time he’d gone there to get clothes and blankets.
He waited long enough for people to walk out of eye site before he opened the dumpster and climbed in.
He scored with a pair of pants a size bigger than his own.
Two old, slightly ripped blankets were dropped into a corner.
They were in good enough shape and thick enough for the weather at the moment.
At least he wouldn’t freeze tonight. And, the dumpster was clean enough to not have imparted any stench to his new treasures, as pathetic as they were.
The real bummer of the whole deal was school. Hayden loved school, loved to learn. Teachers had always praised his diligence. It was the most kindness he’d ever received. School was also the only place he got a regular meal.
It couldn’t be legal to yank a thirteen year old out of school.
But who could he complain to? The school was run by the Ice Claw Pack.
Alpha Dean and Beta Marcus were the highest authority.
To go above their heads would mean he’d need the help of an adult.
All the adults were scared of Alpha Dean.
People who disagreed with him tended to disappear.
A lot of people had disappeared from the pack.
Hayden envied those people sometimes. His life couldn’t be any worse than it already was.
Those depressing thoughts followed him into restless dreams.
Morning came way too fast. Sebastian, Curt, and Allison were getting on the bus as Ethan Bells came to pick up Hayden. It was embarrassing to climb into his truck instead of getting on the bus.
“Get to work, loser,” Sebastian yelled out of the bus window as they rolled away. Hayden could only imagine the laughter from the other kids. Most was out of terror of Sebastian than true mocking of Hayden. He’d saved a lot of those kids from Sebastian’s fury over imagined slights.
“You had breakfast?” Mr. Bells asked as he drove to his farm.
“No, sir.”
“Sandwich in the glove box for you. My mate said you’ll not go hungry helping us out. With my son away for training, we need help on the farm. Beta Marcus said you quit school? Refused to go back?”
Hayden shook his head as he got the sandwich out. “That’s not the way I remember it, sir.”
“I don’t like liars. Don’t play games with me,” Mr. Bells said sharply.
“Well,” Hayden said as he put the sandwich back in the glove box.
Didn’t want good food to get ruined if Mr. Bells got mad.
“The way I remember it, Lucas Michaels was getting beat up by Sebastian. My stepfather punished me for touching Sebastian by taking me out of school and kicking me out of the house.”
The fields flew by as Mr. Bells drove. Didn’t matter what he thought, or if Beta Marcus found out Hayden told him the truth.
When he got home, he’d get another beating for being home too late, or too early, or talking about family matters, or Sebastian getting an F on another paper.
Whatever the woes of the day, Hayden would pay for it.
“Finish the sandwich, Hayden. Lucas’ nose was broken. The Michaels’ are leaving the pack. Lucas’ dad said thank you and good luck.”
“Oh, well, tell him I said it was no big deal and good luck to them, too.”
Hayden got the sandwich back out and wolfed the rest down. Probably the only meal of the day.
But, Hayden was wrong about that. Mr. Bells had five cords of wood needing to be chopped and neatly stacked.
That would provide heat for the house over the winter.
Mr. Bells chopped while Hayden stacked. Mrs. Bells had lunch ready for them.
A thick chili with bread. It was heavenly, delicious.
She even wrapped a sandwich for him for the drive home.
He’d never be able to eat it if he waited to get to the barn.
“You worked hard today. I’m proud of you. I’ll be buying your services for the next month.”
“Thank you, sir,” Hayden said quietly. He’d still rather be in school but the food was awesome.
“You won’t see a penny of the money you’ve earned, will you?”
“No, sir.” Hayden shrugged. Didn’t really make a difference. If he did have money, one of his sibling would steal it. They believed the lie he was a loser. Felt like truth some days.
“I’ve got a network of people who will be buying your services. It’s the only way we know of to keep an eye on you, and get you fed. Unfortunately, none of us can feed you for free,” Mr. Bells said gruffly.
“Thank you, sir,” Hayden closed his eyes to battle down emotion. “You don’t need to do that.”
“We know what’s happening to you. We’ve all seen it. And yet, you still stand up against them. You’re a good man, Hayden Haze. It’s the least we can do for you. Just too damn bad Marcus is getting his pockets lined in the process.”