SAVED BY MY ALPHA

'No, Alpha, I've been in the kitchen since 4:56 am.' Adelaide smiles and tells me she hasn't seen her. I dash out the front door and catch her scent. I tear my clothes off, transform into my wolf, let out a loud, mournful howl, and sprint in the direction of Aurora's scent. An hour later, I'm deep in the woods when her scent disappears. I run about in different directions, becoming more and more desperate. Aurora, why would you leave me? Where would you go? I think of where she would have gone. The diner would be the only place Aurora would go.

There is no possibility that she would have gone back to her uncle. I run to the diner and change back into my human form, not caring that I am completely naked.

'!Jasper!' I yell. Jasper! The customers all stop in shock at my nakedness. A fat man catches his wife smiling. He puts his hands over her eyes and looks at me unimpressed.

'!Kai! For crying out loud. Put some clothes on! We're filled with customers!' Jasper shouts.

'Aurora! Have you seen her?' I ask urgently.

'No, I have not seen her since she went out with you,' he replies.

'Sh*t! She's gone. Her bag's gone. I have no clue why she'd leave,' I panic.

'I'll call you if I see her. But in the meantime, you need to go. My female clients are looking, and their husbands want to blacken your eye!' Jasper says.

Frustrated, I leave the diner and shift back into my wolf and search the woods, attempting to pick up her scent and finding nothing, no trace of her anywhere. I mind-link Sage and Kieran and tell them to organize search parties. I don't return home for 24 hours until I'm forced to rest.

Then I continue my search for her.

In bed, my chest is stroked by a hand.

'Aurora!' I awaken to Vivian asleep in my bed next to me. I let out a loud growl, which wakes her up.

'Kai, don't growl at me! It would be best if you moved on from her. Aurora left because she doesn't love you. Aurora doesn't want you or the title of being Luna,' Vivian says to me.

'Get out of my bed and out of my room now, Vivian!' I yell.

'Fine! But sooner or later, you're going to have to accept me as your mate, whether you like it or not! You know the elders don't want a weak runaway as Luna!' She says, getting out of my bed.

Springing out of bed, I have Vivian against the wall with my hand grasping her throat.

'Don't you ever call my mate weak again! Do you hear me?' I yell.

Kai, you're hurting me,' she says. I release her, and she falls to the floor. She clutches her neck and gazes up at me, her eyes tearing.

'Get out now and never come back to the Packhouse!' I shout. She gets up and dashes out of the room.

I go downstairs and find Sage.

'Alpha Kai, we sent five search parties to find her while you slept. We still couldn't find any sign of her. We will continue searching until we do find her, Alpha,' I nod and sit at the dining table.

'Sage, order Adelaide to speed up the food. I need to continue searching for Aurora,' I command. Sage nods and retreats to the kitchen.

Seconds later, Adelaide arrives with a plate of food and places it in front of me on the table.

'Alpha Kai! I'm very disappointed in your behavior towards my daughter. She hasn't done anything wrong. Why can't you accept her as your selected mate? At least she won't flee!' Adelaide snaps.

I scowl at Adelaide and answer with a warning growl.

'Adelaide, I suggest you go back to the kitchen because my wolf today is not in the mood to tolerate you or your daughter! I suggest you understand Vivian will never be my mate!' I snap back. Adelaide glares at me and walks back to the kitchen. I finish my food and exit the door, resolved I'll locate Aurora.

'Alpha Kai!' I see one of my best warriors, Leon, sprinting towards me.

'Leon,' I greet him.

'Alpha Kai, we have good news and bad news. Good news first, we picked up Aurora's scent in the city. It's faint, but it's hers.'.

Afraid we haven't found her, but this lead should yield some results that will get your friend back home soon,' he replies. So what's Aurora doing in the city? She doesn't know anyone in the place.

'Good, Leon. I am going into the city with you. I want you to take me to where you tracked her scent.'.

'I'll get Sage to drive us. It would be quicker in wolf form, but we cannot go looking for her naked,' Leon reminds me. I nod and mind-link Sage to bring the vehicle. On the drive, I'm hopeful we'll find her. I should be cradling her in my arms today. I need to inhale her scent, feel the sparks between us, and kiss her lips.

We split up once we get to the city. It's her scent but so faint that we can't follow it. So I think we'll just spend the day in the city looking for her.

Mind-linking Leon and Sage, I say: Maybe she is working in a shop? It would be worth trying the shops for her. I enter hundreds of shops.

. There is no sign of her, and I can't catch her scent anywhere else. Dusk draws near when Sage mind-links me and says he'll stay in the city overnight and keep looking. Leon takes me home to eat and rest, promising to be back in the morning when we'll take over from Sage.

It's an exhausting ride home. I was so sure we would find Aurora today. Arriving back, Adelaide opens the front door.

'Alpha Kai, I must apologize for this morning. I'm afraid I was out of line. I hope you will forgive me,' she says. I lack the energy to fight with her. Forgiveness is easier.

'I forgive you, Adelaide, if you accept Aurora as your Luna,' Adelaide pauses for a moment and nods.

'Of course, Alpha,' she says with a reluctant smile.

'I have prepared your favorite meal tonight, Alpha,' she says to me.

She was indicating the meal that I saw on the table. I sat down and ate alone. Everyone else ate and departed prior to my return home. I feel excessively tired after having eaten.

'Alpha, you look tired.

Want to sleep for the evening?' Adelaide asks. I nod and head to my room. My room starts spinning. I grab onto the armchair and fall into it. I remove my shoes and wait until the spinning stops. My door creaks open.

'Is someone there?' I ask, squinting at the figure I can barely make out.

'It's me!' She says.

'Aurora? Is that you?' I speak and try to rise, but my equilibrium is disrupted. I feel a hand firmly press against my chest.

'Sit down, Kai. I'm here now. I'll take care of you,' she whispers. She sits on my lap astride.

'Aurora, you came back.'

'Of course, I did,' she whispers as she unbuttons my shirt.

'Why did you leave? Where did you go?' I ask.

'All that matters is I'm here with you.'

One of her hands caresses my bare chest as the other undoes my belt. Her lips brush against mine.

'Kai,' she whimpers, taking my hands and placing them on either side of her thighs.

'Aurora,' I breathe.

'I want you to mark me, Kai,' she whispers.

THREE WEEKS AGO-

Tears streamed down my cheek, burning and relentless, as Uncle Luke's hold increased, holding me to the icy bedroom wall. His fist, hard and unforgiving, fists itself in my hair, yanking on my head until my neck screamed in protest. A cracking sensation, and burning pain, as his knuckles connected with my jaw, splitting my lip, the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. My eyes blinded, a whirlwind of agony, as he placed his other hand over my other eye, bruising the soft flesh, forcing until stars explode behind closed eyelids.

I fell to the floor, a shattered rag doll, every gasp a torn sob. "Please, Uncle! Stop this, stop hurting me!" The words tore from my throat, a desperate, futile cry.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE CONSIDERED THAT BEFORE YOU MURDERED HER!" He bellowed, the voice a raw yell, pregnant with venom that sent shivers down my spine.

"Oh, Uncle! You know it was accidental! I did not mean for them to have died!" I began, my voice barely above a whisper, my frame trembling unmercifully. But the word "her" echoed, a discordant note in my terror. Her? My scream dried on my lips, to be substituted by a spasm of chilling fear. We stared at each other with cold concern, the atmosphere thick with a choking silence.

His sickly-hating eyes twisted into a ghastly leer. Trembling with naked terror, a premonition of something worse than the threat of bodily pain, something to sully every recollection, I was frozen.

"Oh Aurora, you're no niece of mine! You never were!" He spat, his voice sinking to a low and ugly growl, slipping into my ears like a snake. "Your mother informed me your real father passed away when she was carrying you. I loved your mother so much I was happy to be your Uncle. She was my Aurora, before she was ever yours. We had an existence, a clandestine one, as she played house with your 'father.'" The words were a toxic bitter pill, a betrayal from the beyond, and my stomach knotted up with a new, nauseating type of sickness. The vision of my mother, the woman I loved, embracing him, this monster standing before me, was a brutal, gut-wrenching blow. This was not only about the loss of my parents; it was a more vile, evil pain, a poisoned bitterness that my own mother had kept such a hideous secret, sleeping with the man standing over me, a predator.

"No! That's not true! Mum would never have kept something like that from me!" I wept, the pain of betrayal a fresh wound layered over a thousand others, my body convulsing with sobs.

"Your mother did not want you to find out the truth until you were eighteen. She wanted you to have an ordinary life. She said to me that once you are eighteen years old you will find out your true identity. I did not realize she actually meant; I guess she was planning to tell you about your biological father then. You will never find out who he was now!" He cackled maniacally, the sound which grated on my raw nerves, as his foot connected with my ribs, a sickening crunch echoing in the small room. A jagged, blinding pain exploded forth, stealing my breath, and I doubled up, clutching at my side, a soundless shriek trapped within me.

And the world swayed. His shadow covered me, a cold, suffocating darkness. Air was heavy with a fear that stole my breath, my thinking, my fight. All urges cried out, but my body refused, a puppet whose strings were cut. The pain in my side, the thudding in my jaw, faded to a dull buzz at the far end of my mind as a new, hollow violation moved in. His hand was violation, a searing brand that took the last shred of childhood and left me with a wintry, shattering emptiness. I closed my eyes, wishing I could just disappear, be anywhere except here, as the world exploded around me into a blur of pain, fear, and an anguish of being utterly, irretrievably shattered.

The door slammed shut behind him, its click echoing like a gunshot through the shockingly still, explosive silence. He was gone, and I was left standing in the wreckage of my own bedroom, a void of what I had been moments prior to that.

I stayed there for what was an eternity, the cold hard ground a bitter comfort against my r*p*d flesh. Each labored breath was a struggle, each movement a fresh wave of agony. My trembling right hand strayed under my clothing, the contours of my broken ribs traced on my flesh, but the body's pain was swallowed up by the far greater, far more searing grief of the soul. Tears, once a flood but now a slow, silent trickle, blotted my vision until darkness took over and brought me into a troubled, haunted sleep.

The next morning, the world was strange. I lurched like a specter, each muscle wailing in pain as I struggled to pull on my work attire. The house was vacant, Luke most likely passed out in some boozy stupor. I pulled my hoodie up over my head, a poor shield from the world, and slid out the front door, shuffling toward work, burdened by a lost innocence that could never be restored.

I was going to school until I was caught with bruises on my arms and my teachers called Uncle Luke in to the principal's office for interrogation. I begged my teachers not to call Uncle Luke. My teachers did not believe me when I told them that I am clumsy and fell down the stairs. I have not been allowed to return to school since then; I was forced to become a waitress and kitchenhand at a diner about a thirty-minute walk from home.

On my way to the job, a black Mercedes tracks me uncomfortably. I have noticed this same vehicle following me for many months. The driver is always looking at me. I have a tendency to drive off the track in the direction away from the road when it approaches, following the longer path to work, through the woods. I enjoy my job and my coworkers. My boss Jasper is really sweet; he always senses that something is amiss but he never requires me to talk about it. His willingness to help is always there, in an unspoken, supportive and documented manner.

I go straight to the kitchen and wash my hands in readiness to prepare the salads and the rest of the food. Extremely hot, I make a beeline towards where I had left my bag on a stool, spilling my hoodie onto it and opening my jumper to cool me down. It is twenty minutes since Jasper shows up to start preparing the first orders of food for the day. A growl is released low; he sounds otherworldly like a wild animal. I look up to find Jasper who's rather upset.

You know you can call on me for help, Aurora, don't you? You don't have to go back home if you don't feel safe. I've got some friends in a nearby town who could provide for you," he says.

"Thanks, I'm fine. I slipped down the stairs. I'll be okay," I say, giving him a small smile.

"You said the same thing last time Aurora…" he says.

"What can I say? My house is old; the stairs are rotting," I tell him, sobbing, and beating my fists on the prep table. Jasper moves over to me, wr