Chapter Text
Alejandro was tending to his fire, while Angél slept. It was quiet as the rain fell. He was already twenty-six, his birthday is four months away. Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of his parents' death, but he still remembers it like it was yesterday. It was March ninth, 2001. Gods, it was an average night… until it wasn’t. He had gotten up in the morning like normal, helped his mom with his baby sister. Him and his dad and dog(more of a puppy) walked to school and he walked to work. Alejandro’s father was completely blind after a factory injury, but he still navigated everyday life like he wasn’t. Alejandro barely remembered what his classes were about, they seem so insignificant now. He also spent most of school hiding from bullies.
It was the usual stuff, being poor, being human, and most damning, his family’s active condemnation of the mating proclamation set in place a few years earlier. The one that required all girls of all families to go to special ceremonies at four to see if they’re mated to an alpha. Ending with many girls taken from their homes. Especially human girls, who if chosen, were taken from their homes and given “proper etiquette”. Made him sick. Very seldom did these girls’ return home, and if they did, they were completely different, hostile to family, obsessed with PDA and always pushing the “pack” agenda onto everyone! So, when his baby sister was born, his family said she was male, giving her a boy’s name, dressing her as a boy, everything. His family was already poor, so the home birth made it easier to fake the birth certificate.
But this is getting off topic. Alejandro would hide from his bullies, missing a lot of classes, but his family was destined for manual labor, so he didn’t care. Though there was this one ginger wolf kid who would try to protect him, a kid he couldn’t remember anymore. Alejandro eventually would come home from school, and do average things, homework, chores, and eat dinner. He went to bed that night, expecting nothing to be different. Until he heard the dog, Ginger, barking, waking him up. He thought she needed to be let out, but they had a doggy-door and then it hit him… smoke. His house smelled of smoke. But more than that, there was smoke and fire and his parents screaming. In the middle of the night, his entire house was engulfed in flames. In successfully got Angél out and a few items, but his parents were nowhere to be seen. The dog got out and ran to them and Alejandro ran into the woods, into a small cave he and his dad used to sit in when hunting. And that’s where they stayed…
For a week, they only left the cave for quick hunting trips, and never too far, after a while, Alejandro needed to know what happened, so he put two-year-old Angél down for a nap and told Ginger to protect her and he made his trek into town. He kept his head low and alert high, but no one recognized him or even thought to question the small boy on his own. So, he got a newspaper and read about the tragedy. It took eight hours for someone to call the police, and they just waited for the flames to burn out once they got there. The bodies of his mother, Esmerelda and father, Manuel were pulled out of the rubble, and the two kids were never found. Thought to have been completely burnt in the flames. The paper said it was an accident, a stove left on, because of an incompetent blind man, but Alejandro knew in his heart that was wrong. His father knew the house like the back of his hand, he’d never make a mistake like that, and mom cooks because he’s blind. This entire thing made his blood boil. And he ran to the ruins of the house. It’s only been a week and no police investigation, no one at all. Alejandro dug around the rubble, taking every trinket he could find, anything to bring his parents back, but nothing could. When he returned to the cave, he vowed two things that day.
One, he will find out what happened to his parents that night, and two no one will ever hurt anyone close to him again. But it’s been fifteen years and he still hasn’t found out much about his parents’ murder, all the evidence is ash, he’s the only witness and all the suspects are untouchable at his status. But he has done well at his second goal. Sure, they’re a ghost story now but he and Angél are safe from harm. Ginger is perfectly trained at stealing, Angél is great at cooking, farming and foraging and Alejandro is still good at hunting, clothes making and plan setting. He’s had his hiccups, sure, he had no idea how to deal with her period, and he only has a sixth-grade education, barely since he was missing classes because of bullies. But they're both still alive, Ginger is healthy, and everyone’s happy, what else is needed?
Well, everything was fine, but recently, a new alpha came into term, and he and his beta are sticking their noses into everything. And, annoyingly, they seem extra interested in their case. So, he’s been having to hide a lot more and rely on Ginger’s ability to scavenge and not get put into the pound a lot more. Which wouldn't be that bad, besides losing Ginger that’s really bad, but precious, eighteen-year-old Angél is getting rebellious. She wants to explore more, and sure she doesn't remember the house burning down, or know that her entire existence is ILLEGAL, but Alejandro has done his best to describe their situation, to explain the dangers. But that just makes it more interesting. And Alejandro has taken her on a few in-town trips for supplies, and she never felt in danger, but that’s because he was protecting her!
Alejandro can’t blame her though, he was just as rebellious when he was young too, but his parents explained things so much better. Frankly, his parents were too kind, especially to those wolves, the ones who burnt down their house and killed them. Well, he didn’t know if wolves or humans killed them, but he knew it was a mating extremist group. His parents had explained that not all wolves were bad, but the idea of packs was strange. The removal of choice because of fated “soulmates” and "wolf instincts" made Alejandro's stomach turn and his tongue feel like cilantro. He heard rumors of a compound up north. One the held humans and were above the mating laws of this county.
But it was too far and he wouldn't be able to solve his parents' death from there. Also, it was just rumors, it might not even exist. Alejandro couldn't risk it. He can’t risk Angél. He can’t risk getting caught. He can’t risk the compound being a sting to find defectors and imprison them. He heard stories about what happened to pack defectors, and prison was the safest option, they could be put to death, or "reprogrammed" or left out for the rogues to deal with. But those were stories from when his dad was young. Two alphas ago. So, it could be different now, but again, Alejandro won’t risk it.