The Alpha's Luna

“Aleysha! Mom shouted from downstairs. “I don't want you sneaking out tonight while your father and I are gone. I pulled Tony's sweatshirt, which I had stolen from him, over my head to hide my smell and opened my bedroom window. “I know. She'd told me every night this week, and I definitely hadn't left the house once...or so she thought. For all she knew, I was the perfect girl she'd been training for years to take her place when she was no longer alpha; the girl who trained relentlessly during the day alone because her mother wouldn't let her train with the bigger wolves; the girl who sat in her room all night, studying textbook after textbook about the most successful alphas in history. Her strengths. Their weaknesses. Their every move. “I'm serious, A," she said, her voice stern and powerful. Do not leave this house. I looked over at my cat, Ruffles, who paused mid”lick to stare brazenly at me from his side of the bed as I crawled out the window, hanging onto the wooden sill with only my upper body. “I won't. Moonlight streamed in through the window, illuminating Ruffles' gray fur. I gave him a kiss and let go of the window, falling two stories to the ground. With a thud, I landed in a pile of blue inflatable lake rafts, which I had strategically placed just below my window for this very reason. Mom knew she was training me to become alpha, but she didn't know that a woman like me had needs. And those needs required me to be at the lake every night at eleven o'clock to meet Tony for our midnight swim. I brushed some dirt off my feet and lifted my nose into the air, inhaling a whiff of ash, coal and marshmallows from next door. The front door of the house opened and I hid behind the bushes in the garden. Mom and Dad had left the house to attend an urgent meeting with other packs in the area. And, apparently, I had not been invited. I watched them impatiently, plucking some berries from the bush and popping them into my mouth. With her eyebrows furrowed in fear, Mom gripped Dad's hand tightly. “Creed is coming," she whispered. I rolled my eyes. Creed is coming. Creed is coming. Creed is coming. That was all they had been whispering all week. The oh”so”big alpha from the east was burning the lands, slaughtering the innocent, taking the weaker herds, and creating an empire for himself. And we were next. Supposedly.Dad closed the front door. “What do you plan to do when he comes? I sighed inwardly, wishing he'd pluck up his courage. I loved Dad more than anything, but sometimes he couldn't think for himself. Ever since my brother Jeremy died”I frowned just thinking about him”he hadn't been the same. He'd lost his purpose to lead this pack with Mom, and he'd let her run it however she wanted, even if her decisions weren't always the most informed. If she would listen to me, I would tell her not to worry about anything. Alphas like Creed were easy to take down as long as we had the right resources: beautiful women, a night he'd never forget, and a few drinks with aconite. “He's slaughtered every herd in his path," Mom said quietly. “We're not as strong as we used to be, and," she looked toward my window, and I turned away so she couldn't see me, "Aleysha can't fight. I snapped a branch off the bush and clenched it into a fist, feeling a surge of shame. Aleysha can't fight. Her words hit me hard, pierced my m*ld*t* heart. Aleysha can't fight. I had heard those words all my life. Everyone in our pack had heard those words, too, and everyone knew it was true. A misfit like me couldn't fight, not after Jeremy was murdered in cold blood by those savage rogues. Aleysha can't fight. Dad shushed Mom and opened the door of the white sedan for her. After putting her in the car, he backed out of the driveway and sped down the street. I got back to my feet, threw the cane to the ground and hurried through the lush green forest hugging myself. D*mn it. I tried so hard to make her happy, to be strong for our pack, to be someone they could be proud of, but...I would never live up to her reputation. I would not be the first alpha female to grace these lands, as Mom was, and I possessed none of the qualities of the adored and honored warriors of Dad's family who had won the Lycanthrope War centuries before. I was just Aleysha, the nineteen”year”old girl running away from her parents' pack to f*ck Tony at the lake. The Wild Sanguine Forest stretched thousands of miles across this continent. And even though Mom only owned about thirty miles in each direction, warriors prowled the thick undergrowth for miles, looking for rogues. There were more guards in the forest compared to the last few nights, which meant one thing. Mom expected Alpha Creed to arrive soon. I sighed and took the hidden route to the lake. I squeezed through a deserted cave, down a slight cliff and off the property without anyone seeing me. No one knew the secret path except me. After surveying the area for a few moments to make sure no one was following me, I rounded one of the larger mountains Jeremy always used to take me to and headed straight for the lake. The air smelled fresh tonight, a sweet but unfamiliar scent wafting through the forest. My fingers brushed the gnarled bark of the trees as I made my way out of the forest and towards the small opening to the lake. The moon glistened on the water, with lightning floating above it. I frowned. I guessed Tony was running late. I sat down on some rocks and dipped my feet into the water, splashing them and creating ripples. All I'd been wanting for the last twenty”four hours was for Tony to playfully push me into the lake with all my clothes on, to see me soaked through to the tiny pink tank top I'd put on for him, to take off my shirt and show me all that thick muscle underneath. My breath hitched and I closed my eyes, heat building up inside me. I couldn't wait for him to touch my p*z*n*s. I drew a finger against them, hardening them. Let him pull my hair. I inhaled the sweet air and squeezed my knees. Let him penetrate me until I begged him to stop. My phone buzzed in my pocket and Tony's name flashed on the screen. Sorry. Dad dragged me to tonight's meeting with your parents. I won't be able to make it until later. I stared at the phone and clutched it until my fingertips turned white. Why was he telling me now and why hadn't he invited me? It was almost as if he had waited until now because he didn't want me to know he was going to attend the meeting without me, the future alpha.

I hummed at the thought that Mom had invited Tony to the meeting instead of her own daughter. My phone rang again and I knew it was Mom nagging me about something important. Mental bonding didn't work at this distance and she never contacted me about anything. Mom: The Bloodline herd was spotted ten miles from our borders. You'd better be home. There it was again. The Bloobline herd. Alpha Creed. Come home now, Aleysha. You know you can't fight. You'll be torn in two, limb from limb. You will die, like Jeremy, at the hands of a monster. I put my cell phone back in my pocket and stared out at the water. Not many people had ever seen Creed up close, and I couldn't find any pictures of him when I looked this morning. Legend had it that he killed so many so fast that people didn't even get a chance to glimpse him. But those who had survived his brutality said he looked like a god, with a back sculpted by the Moon Goddess