Disclaimer: Don't own Alpha and Omega series

Broken Road

Yelena looked out the window of the social worker's sedan as they drove to her new foster home. She had quit trying to keep up with how many foster homes she went through (she had been through about 6 in 7 years), she had also quit trying to get to know anyone as making friends only lead to heartbreak.

She missed her parents. They had been of a modest income but they had been great people. They had been invited to a party by some of her father's coworkers. The party had been for adults only, so she had stayed home with a babysitter. It had been around two thirty in the morning when her babysitter had realized something was wrong and called the police. That was when her 5 year old world came crashing down.

Their car had been discovered mangled by a hit and run driver. Both of her parents had died on impact. It was learned when they finally tracked down the vehicle half an hour later that the driver was extremely intoxicated. The driver went to jail her parents were laid to rest and she was put in foster care as she had no living relatives left to take her.

Nicolette and Samuel Cornick were the names of her new foster parents. That was the most she gave them was the fact that she would learn their names from that she kept them at a distance.

~*~

Samuel was pacing when the sound of the car arriving caught their attention.

"Samuel, calm down." Nicolette said before she answered the door for the social worker.

"Mrs. Cornick," the woman addressed.

"Yes…" Nicolette didn't like the rigid way this woman held herself. No wonder Yelena was troubled if the people that were managing her care were so frigid.

"Yelena Salazar, she is twelve years old."

A small Hispanic girl joined them. Her fine bone structure and baby face sprinkled with the ghost of several freckles made her look adorable but her expression was striking in its sheer blankness. Her espresso colored eyes showed that there was more under the surface than she wanted them to see but her carefully schooled expression showed nothing outwardly, if anything she looked tired and bored.

"Welcome," Nicolette gave her a warm smile and invited her in.

The social worker gave a curt goodbye and left.

"Yeah, don't expect much from her" Yelena said biting back the part of her that would have called her social worker a bitch.

Yelena was wearing a pair of threadbare blue jeans that didn't fit right and a well worn sweatshirt with a strange cartoon bunny in a straight jacket that read "Cute but psycho, evens the score" along with a pair of canvas sneakers that had at one point been white but now were a dingy grey color. This was unacceptable and Samuel could barely contain his growl she deserved better she deserved clothes that looked decent and fit her properly.

"Welcome" he smiled. He was used to blank expressions from his brother but not someone so young. He could smell an injury on her but he didn't say anything, he would give her time to unpack and rest before teaching her about the werewolves of this town.

They showed her to her room and Samuel called his father to let him know she was there and tell him what was going on.

"How is she?" Bran asked.

"Its bad, da… it's like she has completely shut down." Samuel replied sadly. "Then again, if what she has to wear is anything to go by, I don't blame her. She's been in the system since she was five and she lost her parents just in the blink of an eye. It hurts my heart to even think how badly she is hurting."

"Me too, son, what happened to them was senseless. How hard is it to get someone to drive you home when you're drunk?" Bran replied.

"I don't know, da, it seems like people think they are the exception to the rule that they can drive well while drunk then they end up killing someone."

~*~

Yelena really didn't unpack much, just the bare essentials. She never did anymore as she always anticipated having to pack right back up just as she got the room just the way she wanted it. She looked in the bathroom and noticed they had period pads in there that were labeled for teenagers. She hadn't started for the first time yet but it was comforting to know they were there if she needed them.

Samuel and Nicolette were great people. The thought that they, and a lot of the population of this tiny town, were werewolves had scared her at first but she adapted well to it in time.

School was something Yelena did because she had to, but that didn't mean she didn't apply herself to her classwork, she did and made good grades. She just kept to herself and tried to skate under the radar as she moved through her day.

Samuel was shocked to learn Yelena was very gifted in math to the point that the math of her grade level was too easy and left her bored.

It was a Thursday and Yelena had found the math particularly boring. They were supposed to go over the page together then do a packet on their own but she had already finished the page after the teacher had gone over question one.

"Yelena you realize we were supposed to go over all of the questions together."

"You were going too slow. This stuff is easy." She said disinterestedly.

The teacher, Mr. Davis, picked up the paper and looked it over expecting all, or at least the majority of the answers to be wrong, but they were right.

"I'm shocked… you got them right." He said in genuine surprise setting the paper down.

"Like I said, easy," she shrugged. "Math has always been super easy for me."

She pulled out a book to read as the teacher went over the rest of the questions with the class. He then stopped and put a packet on Yelena's desk.

"This was the assignment for everyone to do on their own… go ahead and get a head start.

She sighed, put her book away and started the new assignment. She liked math so it didn't bother her too bad to do it was just the book was just getting good.

That evening Samuel was surprised when Kevin Davis called him.

"Mr. Cornick, I'm calling about Yelena Salazar, I'm talking with the principal about giving her a test to see if she might be able to handle moving up a grade in math. She seems so bored in my class, like at this level I can't teach her anything she doesn't already know or can't quickly figure out in a few minutes.

"That sounds like it might be a good idea, if she isn't being challenged she's probably bored."

"She is"

~*~

Yelena sighed, this was pointless, she wouldn't be here long, she never was. They would find some reason to get rid of her, they always did.

She humored them, took their test and passed. Her schedule was then altered to move her up a grade in math as if she had already completed seventh grade math and was currently in eight grade for that subject and in that move she found a fun challenge for the first time.

Samuel had noticed she often smelled as if she had an open cut or scrape. He never asked questions about it as he didn't want her to feel that she wasn't entitled to her privacy. She appreciated that from them but that didn't mean they got past her defenses, those were iron clad.

"I wish she would let us in." Nicolette sighed sipping her tea that night. "She's been here for 2 months."

Samuel squeezes his mate's hand he knew she had hoped to have some kind of bond with Yelena by this point but with Yelena's history it wasn't going to be that easy.

"I know, but we just need to give her time, she'll open up in her own time." Samuel assured her.

"I hope you're right."

To Be Continued…