THE WEIGHT OF DREAMS

Freda's POV

With tears streaming down my face, I ran out of the meeting room. I ran past a lot of my pack members who were sneering and murmuring in my direction, and it only served to intensify my pain. Normally I had developed a natural resistance to their gossip and talk behind my back, but today, it just got to me.

"It's the half-human. Why is she crying? What a weakling."

"Pathetic and useless. I can't believe the Alpha even had a child with a human."

"18 and still wolfless. So pitiful."

The mocking words drilled into my head, swirling around my thoughts. They haunted me and made my heart break even more as I continued to run towards my room. My heart broke even more as I realized the full extent of my loneliness. My father had ignored me completely when I turned to him for help. My stepmother and Juliet were just literal assholes whose life goal was to make my life a living hell. Reed, my step brother, never showed a reaction to anything unless it concerned him. To sum it all up, I was alone.

I arrived at my room and banged the door shut, also bolting it. I didn't want any disturbance. I just wanted to lie down on my bed and cry myself to sleep. Today has officially turned into the worst day of my life. I got rejected from the college of my dreams, which meant I definitely have to go back to the wolf academy tomorrow. My stepmother and step sister were actively making sure I wouldn't get any breathing space, and I had to go to a place infested with vampires all for the sake of a 'diplomatic meeting'. I was so frustrated.

I buried my head into my pillow and cried my eyes out. I called out for my mother, wishing she could hear my call and get me out of this hellhole, but I knew it was just wishful thinking. I was stuck here.

Tears continued to flow like a broken dam and finally, out of exhaustion, I fell asleep.

I usually had dreamless nights because, let's face it, what was there to dream about in this sort of hopeless situation? The environment (pack) I was living in had a way of just making anything I set my mind to feel like a wasted venture.

Tonight, however, I actually dreamed about something or should I say… someone.

I found myself standing before a colossal black castle. The stormy skies behind it provided the perfect backdrop, giving the castle an eerie vibe around it. The jagged spires on the castle stood tall and looked as if they could pierce the heavens. The walls looked like they were made from a sort of rock that seemed to absorb all the light in the vicinity, making the castle even darker. I took a look at my surroundings and the skeletal trees whose branches formed into scary monster shapes did nothing to ease my mood.

"Where am I?" I thought as I stared at the castle's huge iron gates. I hadn't had a dream for a long time, and the first thing I dream about is this depressing scene right here. Great, just great. Today just ended on a terrible note.

I noticed the mist around the castle was gathering together and forming something that looked like a human shape. The mist formed a human, and then standing before my eyes was a tall and broad-shouldered man. I had this urge to run away from there, but I couldn't move. It was as if the man held me with his gaze. I was supposed to feel fear and terror, but strangely I felt none of those emotions. Instead, I felt a sense of longing for the man as I stared at him, which honestly was straight-up weird.

He had very pale skin, almost as white as snow. He wore black clothes which provided a sharp contrast to his pale skin, but it was his eyes that caught my attention and stole my breath. Crimson orbs that stared at me with an intensity that left me captivated. Yes, you heard me, captivated. I wasn't afraid, I was instead mesmerized. I didn't understand why my feelings were all over the place.

I opened my mouth to speak, but before a word could escape my mouth, a gust of wind blew towards us from nowhere. The man began to disappear just like the mist. I felt a sense of longing well up inside me as I stretched my hand towards him to stop him from dissolving, when everything went black.

I woke up with a gasp. Sweat was streaming down my face as I thought about the odd dream I just had. The soft morning light filtered through the window, signifying the rise of a new day.

I stretched my body and I relaxed back on my bed. My thoughts were all swirling around one thing: the man who I had dreamt of. I had strangely felt attracted to him, which baffled me greatly because why would I feel attracted to a man I just met in my literal dreams? Granted, he was attractive in an eerie kind of way, but this was not the kind of feelings I should be developing for a figment of my imagination.

I shook my head and decided to forget about the dream. I had more pressing matters to attend to, like the day of the diplomatic meeting with the vampires. A meeting that was forced down my throat all in the name of duty to the pack—a pack that I wouldn't even give a damn about if they got ravaged by the vampires. I had no one here, no emotional connection to anyone, so why should I even bother?

I sighed heavily as I jumped off the bed. I padded over to my window and gazed down at our pack's territory. It was beautiful to the other wolves, with green landscape and rolling hills that seemed to stretch towards the sky, the dense forest beyond that had ancient trees with branches that stretched out, and a crystal-clear river that winds its way through the heart of our territory and wide roads that made motoring possible. It was a beautiful blend of nature and urban habitation for others, but I couldn't see it. All I could see was prison disguised as a paradise for people like me.

I sighed once again and headed to the shower. I had school to attend, and like always, it wasn't going to be pretty at all. Constant bullying and ridicule was always the order of the day for me anytime I went to school, but that was what being a half-human can do to you.

My only solace in school was my friend Kara. She strangely was nice to me since the first day of attending the school. I had initially thought it was all a façade, but she kept the niceness up and I warmed up to her, becoming best friends in the process.

I showered and dried up while taking out the uniform of Moonstone Academy and sighed yet again.

It was going to be another long day.