This is my first Fan Fiction story, so I hope you enjoy. Reviews welcome, the good and the bad! And a big thank you to SuperNatural1985, for all your help and your amazing stories that inspired me to write this.

I own nothing except some original characters I sometimes bring in. The Otherworld and all its characters belong to Kelley Armstrong.

Ch 1 Broken

All I hade ever wanted was to go home. It had been my dream and obsession for the past seven years and now that any chance of realising it had vanished before my eyes all I could do was mourn the loss of my hopes and dreams. It had been one chance at starting a new life away from my parents and the aches that living here gave me.

Abbey, my best friend and sister in all but blood, stared at me with disbelieving eyes and only then did I realize that I had shown more of myself than I ever had with her. She had glimpsed this side of me before, the broken me, but I had always tried hard to hide it from her, not wanting to worry her anymore than she already did.

"Why didn't you say anything? I could have helped you, Kim. You know I would have," she said, sounding more than a little hurt. I couldn't blame her. She had asked me on numerous occasions in the past two weeks what was wrong and I'd just shrugged her off every time. I knew that what hurt her the most was that I hadn't trusted her with this, but I don't think she understood just how alone I felt most of the time.

"I just needed to do this alone, hun. I needed to know that I could take care of my self, but I obviously…can't," I said softly, almost choking on the last word. I bit my lip hard to stop more tears from falling but it was no use. They fell mercilessly and Abbey quickly moved her chair over to me, taking me in her arms and comforting me like I had comforted her so many times before.

My eyes hurt the moment I started crying since I had spent the entire day doing so. That morning I had made sure that my dreams wouldn't come true, at least not for a while. The result was a tear filled morning which only got worse when my mother got home and yelled at me like she never had before.

All I had ever wanted from the moment my mother forced me to move to the States with her and her new husband was to go back home, to go back to Australia. I didn't fight, though. I knew it was pointless. From an early age I had learned that any argument with my mother only left you battered and broken. At first it had been easy to stand back up and go another round with her, but now I just stayed down. In fact, it had been years since we'd had a real argument. They only one that did the arguing was her. All I did was wait until she had deflated and then I would leave to go break down in my room, being careful that she or anyone else didn't hear me.

Since I couldn't go back being a minor I waited for my chance when I became of age. The problem was I had no money, at least not enough. My stepfather had shipped me to Spain with his brother to work in the ambos as an EMT for which you only needed and eighty hour course to do. But once I had started earning money, my parents stopped paying for my things, like clothes and such, so I had to pay it with my money.

The problem was that even if I had had money, I would have had a very hard time trying to convince my parents of letting me go. When I told them that I wanted to go to uni in Australia, my mother blew a gasket and my stepfather broke me down into a million tiny pieces. A lot of things were said in that conversation, none which left me feeling any better about myself than I already did. One thing had been made clear, though. They weren't going to help me go back.

I took a gap year—to my parents' eternal disappointment—and applied to uni here in Michigan but also in Australia and started looking for work. When I didn't find anything, I fell into a depression that had been building up until now. I had been watching as my dream came undone and it only got worse when I was rejected from uni here and accepted in Australia. I got the letter of acceptance two weeks ago and not a day had passed without me breaking down. I always had to make sure no one heard me, though. That would just make them ask questions I would rather not answer for fear of the consequences. Plus, I doubted they really cared if I was crying anyway.

"We should go," I croaked after a while, trying hard to not think of all the things my mother had said to me that morning when she had walked in on me when I was deferring to the uni. It was so bad that I had left home and hadn't been back for six hours. I'd called Abbey as soon as I walked out the door and she had been by my side not twenty minutes later, skipping out on school and waiting all day for me to finally tell her what had happened. She had no idea how much that gesture meant to me.

"I'm not leaving until I know you're okay, Kim, and you're obviously not okay," she said firmly, pulling me tighter against her. I whimpered slightly despite myself and pulled back away from her, pushing her soaked curly hair back and rubbing my sore eyes.

"I'll be okay, hun, I promise. But I won't be for a while," I murmured and looked around at our coffee shop, inwardly smiling as I remembered why we had chosen this as our place to meet. It was our personal joke. Why do they sell tea at a coffee shop?

Abbey didn't look convinced of my words and honestly neither did I. I was lucky my stepfather was away for work or this morning would have been much worse, if that was even possible. But he would be back tomorrow. I bit my lip to stop more tears from falling at the thought of what awaited me tomorrow and stood. Abbey followed suit and quickly embraced me once more, whispering that everything would be okay and that she was here for me. All I could with nod since I couldn't trust myself to utter a comprehensible word without sobbing.

After one last reassurance, she let me go and started heading towards the door, glancing back to make sure I was following her. Normally, I was the one watching out for her. It had been like that ever since we met. She had been a mess and I had been an even bigger mess, but I helped her through her troubles and became the older sister she had always wanted and never had.

She opened the door to the shop and stepped out to the cold October night. I quickly followed her, still wiping at my eyes, and didn't see the large body I barrelled into. I stumbled back with an apology but felt someone grip my arm, hard. I glanced up, blinking back the tears that still threatened to fall, and met an icy cold gaze.

"You okay?" the guy asked, his eyes never straying from mine. I nodded and looked away from him, just wanting to get out of here. The guy was cute, I'd give him that, with light brown hair that fell into his eyes and strong features, but I just couldn't bring myself to take an interest in guys in the state I was in.

I made to walk past him and to Abbey who was waiting for me just outside the door, but the guy still had a firm grip on my arm. I tried to pull away, but he held me tight, clearly not perturbed by the fact that everyone in the coffee shop was staring at us. I looked up into his eyes, intending to ask him to let him go, but his gaze was so possessive that I was left speechless.

"Sorry," he suddenly said and let go of my arm, taking a step back. "I thought you were someone I know." I didn't even have the strength to care about what had just happened and just walked out the door. Abbey muttered something about a perve but then fell silent, lost in her thoughts and me in mine until it was time for us to part.

"Call me tomorrow, Kim," she ordered. "I swear if you don't, I'll break down the door to your house," she threatened now and I was glad that I hadn't told her just how badly off I had been for the past few weeks or she would have been dragging me to her place right about now.

"Okay, I promise," I said softly and she hugged me, holding me tightly against her. I leaned my head against her shoulder, whispering a goodbye and then turned down my street before the water floods broke loose again.

Slowly, I made my way back home, dreading the moment I had to face my mother again. She would yell of course, she always yelled. She had never, as far as I remembered, tried to rein in her anger. She gave it free rein and my sister Camille and I had had to live with that for our entire lives.

I walked past a clothes store and spotted my reflection in the glass. I stopped in my tracks and stared at myself, taking in my puffy and red eyes. I looked worse than normal. I wasn't ugly—at least I didn't think so, despite what I had been told for years. I just looked different. I had a large mix of bloods in my genetics. South American from my other's side and Spanish, French and Italian from my biological father's side. I looked most South American, though, with olive coloured skin, dark wavy brown hair and dark eyes, but I still had a European look to my features. Still, I wasn't beautiful, far from it.

Ever since I had arrived to the States I had started to overeat. Not much, but enough to give me the extra weight that brought out my butt and large hips, though most of my weight concentrated down on my legs, making them chubby and ham looking. The fact that I was small didn't help matters.

I turned away from my reflection, not wanting to look at myself a moment longer, and started down the streets again, wishing I could be anywhere else but here in Holland, Michigan. The cold night air just made me miss my home all the more. It was rarely ever cold there with the sun in the sky almost all year round.

My heart ached with longing for the home I had lost and I quickened my pace until I found an empty street and collapsed against a wall. It was late, very late, and I had only seen a couple of people since I'd left Abbey, so no one saw me break down. I cried and hiccupped into the night, feeling like I had reached the point of no return. I had no idea what would happen to me now, but as far as I was concerned all I could see was pain and hurt in my future.

Some time later—I had no idea how much had passes since I'd come undone—I heard a noise from somewhere in front of me. I snapped my head up and found myself face to face with a monster. I gasped and pressed myself against the wall behind me and took another look at what stood before me. It was a dog, the largest I had ever seen, but what made it a monster were the eyes. They looked almost human and were an icy blue colour that had chills running down my back.

I stayed absolutely still as the dog stared at me and sniffed the air around me. I held back the fear as I tried not to think about how the dog was able to look down on me. Even if I was standing, he would be able to reach my shoulders, I was sure. He was an effing big dog.

I forced myself to stop thinking about the dog's size and to think about how to get away from the dog. But before I could think of anything, the dog bent down to my hand that was on my lap. I tried to pull it away but it was too late. The dog bit down hard and I gasped in pain. The dog pulled back and stared at me, cocking his head to the side as if he was listening to something.

Suddenly, the dog turned around and ran. I stared after it as it ran down the street and disappeared from view. I looked down at my hand and saw the puncture wounds, blood trickling down my hand. I quickly put pressure to them and let more tears fall. Could my day get any worse?

"Are you okay, hun?" I suddenly heard and looked up to see someone standing before me, but I could barely see them through my blurry vision. I wiped the tears away with my good hand and saw a tall woman standing before me. I quickly stood up and realized that she was a least a good six inches taller than me. She wore her long blonde hair in a ponytail and her blue eyes were watching me as if she was searching for something. I also saw something else, something animal like in her eyes, but I couldn't be sure.

"I'm fine," I said just as I saw her nostrils flare. I made to move past her, but she grabbed me by my arm and lifted the hand up so she could see it. Her eyes turned hard suddenly and then turned her gaze on me. "It's just a bite," I said, shrugging, more than a little perturbed by the woman's touching.

I started to pull my hand back when suddenly my knees gave way beneath me and my world swayed around me. I tumbled down and felt myself being caught by strong arms before blackness enveloped me.