The Hidden Alpha-Luna

“Wake up! It's 5:45, and you’re 15 minutes late. The Alpha has an important meeting at 7:15. Breakfast should be ready to be severed by 6:15 today. Now, get up and get down to the kitchen and help Tyrene.” Barks Odessa, even though she is an Omega like the rest of us servants, she’s been made Head Omega.

Meaning that she’s in charge of making sure that we are kept in line. In this pack, I'm an Omega but I’m the daughter of an Alpha and Alpha-Luna. My mother was born to be a Luna but her wolf was an Alpha female. So, the village elders started calling her an Alpha-Luna, because of her birth and wolf. My father was the Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack. I was two years old when rouges attacked our village. My mother told me to hide until I didn’t hear fighting anymore. So, I ran and hid in a tree facing my village, and as I watched my home burn to the ground, I saw a neighboring pack arrive to help my family but they were too late. My whole pack died that day, except me. Well, not physically anyway.

The neighboring pack finished off what rouges didn’t run away. When I came out of hiding the pack warriors could smell that I belonged to the Bloodmoon Pack, that’s why they took me in 17 years ago. This is what I'm forced to remember every day when they call me an Omega. I mean I already have PTSD from watching my entire pack being slaughtered. So, the Black-Briar Pack took me in and made me an Omega because I'm an orphan. No one has bothered to ask about my birthday or even anything about me except for Tyrene, that’s why she’s my best friend.

Tomorrow's my birthday, May 24th, the day I come of age to find my mate. I already have my wolf, she’s been my second comfort since I was 13, she was an Alpha-Luna like my mom. As a werewolf, you shift and get your wolf between the age of 13 and 16, but you can only tell who your mate is after turning 19 years old. And that’s how old I'll be tomorrow.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Tyrene says as I enter the kitchen to help her finish breakfast.

“Hey Ne. Why didn’t you wake me to help?” I say rubbing the and out of my eyes.

“Because I was up pretty early. Couldn't sleep.” Tyrene says shrugging her shoulders.

“Again? That’s three times this week alone. I think you should tell Odessa that you need to see the pack doctor.” I say I as start taking trays of food to the dining hall.

“Yeah right, so they can tell me how crazy I am. I don’t think so.” Tyrene says behind me as she brings another tray of food out.

“I doubt they’ll call you crazy Ne. We're Omegas remember. We are the “weaker” members and they have to check on you if you tell them you’re having night terrors.” I say as we enter the kitchen to grab more trays of food.

“Now you know that’s not what they are. And you’ve seen what they did to my mother when she told the pack doctor about her “night terrors”. So, I think I'll keep them between you and me for now, if that’s alright.” Tyrene says with a pained look on her face.

She wasn’t wrong, Aniyah, Tyrene’s mom came out about her night terrors being visions when we were 10. The whole pack got scared and when Aniyah went to talk with the pack doctor, they just called her crazy. For a while, Aniyah stopped talking about her visions mainly due to the pack doctor heavily sedating her daily. Then the visions got too strong for the sedation and Aniyah began having night terrors from her visions and would wake several neighbors with her screams. She started talking about attacks from rouges and allied packs due to the Black-Briar Pack not being active in providing aid for other packs. All of which never came true. So, after six months of Aniyah scaring the village with her visions or night terrors as the doctor called them, she was publicly executed by beheading on the charges of blasphemy and causing unnecessary panic.

“Yeah, you’re right. Maybe don’t tell the pack doctor but we need to understand these visions. Your mom wasn’t the only one to have them, besides you, right?” I say reliving the moment Aniyah's’ head went rolling off the executioners’ block and landed in front of a screaming Tyrene.

“Right. My grandmother had them and her father did too. There are at least 10 people in my family that I know of that had night terrors. That's how we become Omegas or so my grandmother told me. One of my great grandparents got into some trouble before they started having the visions and it ruined my family’s reputation to the point we were dropped to Omegas.” Tyrene says as we bring the last of the food out to the dining hall.

“Very good girls. Thank you, you may go and clean up for breakfast.” Odessa says once we place the last tray of food.

“Yes, ma’am.” we both say and run to our room to change.

Tyrene and I change into our daytime clothes then head back to the dining hall where the Alpha and Luna are eating, preparing for their meeting at 7:15, which is in 30 minutes.

“Good morning girls. Breakfast is wonderful. Thank you!” Luna Jessica says as we walk in.

“You’re welcome, Luna. May we grab a plate?” Tyrene asks.

“Of course. After all, you cooked it, you should've had the first plates.” Luna Jessica replies.

“Where’s Odessa?” Alpha Liam asks.

“Oh, I think she’s checking on the other Omegas,” I say grabbing a plate of food.

Tyrene grabs her plate of food and we turn to leave when Luna speaks up.

“You’re welcome to stay and eat with us. No one else is going to be awake till about 8:00.” Luna Jessica says.

“Stephen won’t be joining the meeting?” The words just fell out of my mouth before my brain had time to stop them.

“No, he hasn’t earned his place at this meeting.” Alpha Liam says.

“Oh, I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.” I speak.

“Not a problem. Maybe, if the pack knows that their soon-to-be Alpha is not trying to learn how to run this pack, Stephen would give a sh*t.” Alpha Liam says.

“Yes, but let’s not talk about that right now, my dear. I've heard from a little birdie that tomorrow is a special day for you, Brea.” Luna Jessica says.

I look over at Tyrene and she mouths ‘Not me.’ “Uhm, yes. Tomorrow, I turn 19.” I say looking at my plate of food.

“What are you two doing in here? You know you’re not to dine with the Alpha or Luna. Get up.” Odessa says as she enters the dining hall.

“Odessa, tell me why they aren’t allowed to dine with us. Especially when your Luna, my mate, asks them to.” Alpha Liam interrupts her.

“Oh, uhm. I'm sorry Alpha, I didn’t know. I'll just leave.” Odessa says bowing and turning to leave.

“Not before you answer my question.” Alpha Liam growls causing Odessa to be at a standstill. An Alphas’ command cannot be ignored.

“Yes, Alpha. They aren’t allowed to dine with you or the Luna because I forbade them.” Odessa says.

“And why is that?” Luna Jessica asks.

“Because Brea doesn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. And Tyrene shouldn’t be in general public after what happened to her mother, let alone dine with the Alpha and Luna.” Odessa says.

“Wow. Did you girls know that’s what she thinks of you? Is she like this to all the Omegas?” Luna Jessica asks us.

“Uhm, yes Luna. We all know what Odessa thinks of us that’s why we try to not be seen by you Luna, the Alpha, Stephen, and the Beta family. Odessa tells us that we’re not good enough to even look at the leaders of this or any pack. And when we do get caught speaking to anyone high up in the pack we get punished. And that’s why sometimes we’ll be short-staffed when serving meals.” I say while Tyrene looks away from the Alpha and Luna.

“That’s why you two were barely looking at us.” Alpha Liam says.

“Yes, Alpha,” Tyrene says still not looking at them.

“Alpha, please. I don’t what they are talking about. I have never laid a hand on any of the Omegas.” Odessa says pleading.

“Aaron, take Odessa to one of the cells. I will deal with her later. Now ladies if you’ll excuse Jessica and me, we have to get ready for our meeting.” Alpha Liam says.

Tyrene and I both stand and bow as the Alpha and Luna leave the room. After Aaron, the Alphas Gamma takes Odessa out of the room and to the cells in the pack house, Tyrene and I run with our food to tell the other Omegas what just happened. As we enter the Omega Quarter of the pack house, there's a strong smell of blood.

“What’s happened?” I say as I see three Omegas standing around Sarah, my second roommate.

“Odessa said she’s been seen speaking to Randell, Stephen’s best friend, and soon-to-be Beta.” one of the girls says.

“Sarah told her that Randell was her mate. Once Odessa heard that she began beating Sarah with anything she could grab. She threatened anyone who came near to stop her and even hit a few of us with a lamp handle.” another girl said, holding her head.

“I’ll kill her!” I say growling.

“Brea, relax. No one else knows you’re an Alpha. Don’t bring that voice out. Liam will kill you.” Tyrene says through our personal mind-link.

Nodding my head, I take a few breaths to calm myself before speaking again. “Well, we won’t have to worry about Odessa anymore. Especially after this. We need to get Sarah to the infirmary and I'll find Randell, she’s going to need him to heal.”

Everyone nods and four girls carry Sarah from the Omega Quarter to the infirmary. I turn to Tyrene who has a look of worry in her eyes.

“Go, it’s okay, stay with Sarah. I'll send Randell when I find him and I'm going to Aaron about this.” I say then walk away from Tyrene who just nods her head and runs after Sarah.

I take off smelling the air in search of Randell. As an Alpha, you can differentiate each pack member's smell and call it forth. It makes track for Alphas so much easier. So, I make it to the pack house front yard and concentrate on calling for Randell’s scent. Once I catch his scent, I take off running in the direction of the rec house. Ringing the doorbell, I wait on the porch for someone to answer. Kevin, another Omega, answers the door.

“Kevin, I need to find Randell and I know he’s here,” I say frantically.

“Okay, yeah. What’s wrong? They're celebrating that he found his mate.” Kevin says.

“That’s why I'm here. Sarah...” I start saying before being interrupted.

“Sarah what?” Randell runs to the door and asks with a worried look on his face.

“She was beaten by Odessa because she didn’t believe that you two were mates. Sarah’s been taken to the pack infirmary but she’s going to need you with her to heal.” I say as quickly as possible.

Randell’s eyes switch back and forth between black and his normal emerald green color.

“Randy, go to her. We’ll see about Odessa.” Stephen says stepping next to his best friend and placing a hand on his shoulder to ground him.

“Actually Alpha. Your father had Odessa put in a cell by Gamma Aaron. I was heading to him next to inform him of what has happened.” I say looking down signaling a sign of respect that I'm not even sure I mean.

“I’ve told you, Brea, call me Stephen. I'm not the Alpha yet. And thank you for coming to Randy first.” Stephen says.

“Sarah’s my friend. Randell's her mate, she’s injured. I know that mates need each other during times of need. I only want for her to be okay.” I say nodding.

“And she will be. Thank you, Brea.” Randell says as he runs toward the infirmary building.

“So, my dad already has Odessa in the cells? Why?” Stephen asks.

“Because she told the Alpha and Luna what she thought about the rest of us Omegas and Tyrene mentioned we get punished if seen with anyone high up in the pack,” I speak.

“So, that’s why you and all the Omegas always ran from me. And I thought it was because y’all thought I was a bully.” Stephen says with clarity in his voice.

I only nod and say, “I have to inform Gamma Aaron what Odessa did. I won’t be a bother any longer.”

I turn to leave when Stephen grabs my arm and says, “Tell Aaron that Stephen said to save a piece of Odessa to beat for Randell.”

After I nod, Stephen lets go of my arm and runs back to the pack house in search of Aaron. Aaron is in the kitchen of the pack house washing blood off his hands.

“What happened, are you okay?” I say walking into the kitchen.

“Oh. It's not mine. I heard from Stephen and Randell what Odessa did to Sarah. Did you forget that you can mind-link me?” Aaron says.

“No, it’s just Odessa never let us mind-link anyone. If we did it was only the other Omegas and even then, we had to hide it. Because she would never believe who we were talking to and we’d get beat.” I say trying not to see the look of sadness on his face.

“Why didn’t you girls tell us sooner?” Aaron asked sadly.

“Would you guys really have believed us?” I say before walking away and heading to the pack infirmary.

As I’m walking to the infirmary Aaron's mind-links me and says, “I would’ve.”

I mind-linked back “Maybe.”

I continued walking when I heard Tyrene scream. It was a blood-curdling scream, so I took off running to where I heard it. I try mind-linking her but it’s like she put up a block and I can’t reach her. When I do I see that she is on the ground with five rouges surrounding her.

“Think you can run away, do you? We just wanted some answers, now we’ll just kill you instead.” one of the rouges says.

“Oh, yeah. You and what army?” I say making all five of them turn around.

Laughing, the biggest one says, “And what do we have here? The calvary?”

Smirking, I say, “Why don’t you find out?”

A menacing grin formed on his face before he shifted into his wolf. His wolf was brown with red patches and big, but my wolf was bigger. However, because of my unique situation, I rarely shift around the pack's village, and today’s no different. I'm an Alpha-Luna, I can take these pesky rouges without needing to shift anyway. All I need are my claws which are easy enough to bring forward. Once the rouges see I won’t shift they each lounge at me in turn. The big rogue seems like the leader so I go for him the hardest. The pack teacher taught us that if rogues come in packs, taking down the leader usually makes the rest back down. These guys are here on a mission though from what I heard walking up, so they might not give in so easily. The brown wolf with red patches lounges at my throat while I'm distracted, shoving a gray wolf away from Tyrene, but the brown wolf is slammed into the building by a black wolf. Looking over I notice that it’s Aaron’s wolf.

“I don’t need your help.” I mind-linked him.

“Yeah, sure. On your left,” he says back.

I turn just in time to be smacked to the ground by a red rogue wolf. I'm holding his face inches away from mine as he is chomping his teeth. He mistakenly moves one of his back legs allowing me to get my feet under his stomach and I send him flying off me and into a tree. As soon as I'm up, a small black wolf runs at me baring his teeth, one spin kick to the face and he was down for the count. So, that leaves three wolves needing to be put down. Only at this point in time Alpha Liam comes running out with about ten warrior wolves and the three rogues surprising surrender.

“So, you can fight off five rouges, but not Miss Odessa.” Alpha Liam says looking at me.

I put my head down and say, “I never fought Odessa because she carried a Wolfsbane-soaked dagger that she’d pull out whenever any of us tried to intervene. Quite a few of us have been stabbed by that dagger.”

“Well, I think we need to have a talk later about what’s happened here but for now get Tyrene into the infirmary for her own bed.” Alpha Liam says pointing at a lifeless-looking Tyrene.

“Yes sir. Thank you.” I say and grab Tyrene and carry her in by myself since I’ve already been caught throwing a wolf into a tree using my feet.

“Where did Brea come from again? Why haven’t we known about her strength?” Alpha Liam asks the warriors around him.

“She’s from the Bloodmoon Pack, sir. But as for her strength, no one knew, we all thought she was an Omega.” one of the warrior wolves said.

Of course, no one had the answer for not knowing about my strength because I never shifted in front of anybody except Tyrene, my best friend. Now she’s laying in a hospital bed and if I couldn’t hear her heart beating slowly, I would assume she was dead. What in the world could those rogues want with her, she’s never even left the territory.

“Hey Doc, is she going to be alright?” I ask as the doctor comes in to check on Ne’s vitals.

“Well, we gave her an injection with blue mountain flower, swamp fungus, and blisterwort, to help speed up her healing process. Since she hasn’t found her mate, this is the best we can do to help her heal faster.” the pack doctor said and when I nodded my head, she left the room.

“Ne, can you hear me? Please say something!” I mind-link her through our personal link that no one else can tap into.

“Brea? What’s going on?” Tyrene says back through the mind-link.

“OH MY GOD!! You can hear me now.” I say almost jumping out of my seat.

“Brea, why can’t I open my eyes?” Tyrene asks panicking.

I look at her and can tell she's trying to open her eyes but they won't budge.

“Hold on let me get the doctor,” I say and run to the door.

“Doctor Sandi. Tyrene needs help!” I yell out the door, which brings in the doctor and two nurses.

“What’s wrong?” Doctor Sandi asks.

“She said she can’t open her eyes,” I tell her.

Nodding, she puts her hand out to one of the nurses who hands her a cloth in sterile packaging. Sandi opens the packaging, takes out the cloth, and places it over Tyrene’s eyes before waiting a few seconds. Once Tyrene starts moving her eyelids beneath the cloth the doctor wipes her eyes and removes the cloth.

“I guess we found a new healing injection that works faster than the others.” Doctor Sandi says before leaving the room for a few minutes.

“So, what happened? Why did those rogues attack you? What questions did they want to have answered?” I ask rather quickly.

“I don’t really know. They were asking about Odessa. And when I said I didn’t have any information on her, they said I was lying and started punching and kicking me.” Tyrene's mind-linked me.

“Why would rogues be looking for Odessa?” I say mind-linking Ne, and she just shrugs.

Just then the doctor comes in with a couple of nurses. “How are you feeling Tyrene?” Sandi asks.

“I’m pretty sore. And I don’t really feel like talking to anyone right now.” Tyrene says.

“That’s fine. Just focus on getting better. We'll be here if you need us.” Sandi says before turning to leave.

“Hey, Sandi? What was that cloth that you put over her eyes? And why couldn’t she open them on her own?” I ask before she walks out the door.

“Well, when you brought her in, we put a solution on her eyes that prevents damage or infections to the eyes, especially from the injuries she sustained. The reason she couldn’t open them is that we needed to wipe the solution off, it’s like medical glue only it comes off simply with a gauze pad soaked in rose hip and lily water. We have the same solution over Sarah’s eyes.” Sandi says.

“Oh. Okay, thank you for explaining that.” I speak.

She smiles and leaves the room. I look over at Tyrene and she’s fast asleep. For werewolves, sleep is one of the best things to do to heal faster. So, I quietly get up and go to check on Sarah who is just two rooms over.

*** KNOCK KNOCK***

“Come in,” Randell says on the other side of the closed door.

“Hey,” I say peeking my head into the room.

“Hey, Brea. Come on in.” Randell says looking up from Sarah.

“How’s she doing?” I ask.

“Well, Odessa did a number on her. But the doc used a new injection to help speed up the healing process. They ran a couple of blood tests because they thought they were getting errors.” Randell said.

“What type of errors did they think they were getting?” I asked

“Well, the tests kept coming back that Sarah has enough Wolfsbane in her system to kill five shifted wolves. Yet, there’s no smell of it anywhere on her. The tests are wrong, right? There's no way Odessa could have given her Wolfsbane without anyone noticing the smell.” Randell said.

“How many tests did they run?” I ask.

“Four,” Randell says sighing.

“Okay give me a second. I'll be right back. I'll figure this out.” I say before leaving the room.

“Doctor Sandi?” I mind-link the doctor.

“Yes, Brea? Is Tyrene alright?” Sandi links back.

“Yeah, she was asleep when I left to check on Sarah. Can I see Sarah’s blood tests?” I link asking her.

“Why do you want to see them?” Sandi asks in the link.

“I may be of help. To figure out why she could have so much Wolfsbane in her system without us noticing.” I linked back.

“I didn’t think of that. Odessa has been abusing you girls right under our noses for so long. I'm sorry that I never noticed. Come to the nurses’ station, I'll have the test results ready.” Sandi links to me.

“It’s not your fault. We were too afraid to seek help. Odessa always said no one would believe us over her anyway. And alright I'm coming to the nurses’ station.” I linked back.

I reach the nurse’s station and Sandi was waiting with the test results in her hands.

“We took four tests and each time we kept getting this substance in her system that we don’t know what is or where it comes from,” Sandi says opening the files.

“Huh? You don’t know what Strongylodon macrobotrys is?” I ask.

“No. Do you know what it is?” Sandi asks.

“No, but I know where Odessa kept her Wolfsbane stash. Maybe we’ll find whatever this is there.” I speak.

“Okay, you go look and see if you can’t find what this substance is. I'm going to go check on Sarah and Tyrene while you’re gone.” Sandi says putting the files back.

Nodding, I leave the hospital and head to where Odessa kept her Wolfsbane. She never kept it in or near the packhouse because she knew it would be destroyed by the Alpha. Odessa found an abandoned shed in the woods a little way behind the packhouse, she would only go there at night, probably afraid of being caught. It’s a little shed that if I never followed her one night, I would have thought no one has used it in decades. It's dark out now but lucky my wolf can see better in the dark than I can so I ask to borrow her sight.

“Kendra. We have to get to the shed; can I borrow your night vision?” I ask her in our mind-link.

“Of course, Brea. Anything to protect our friends.” Kendra, my wolf, mind-links back.

I feel her push her eyes forward, now anything blurry or too far away in the dark is like I placed binoculars over my eyes. This also means that my eye color is now Kendra’s, and I can’t have anyone see me like this, since no one knows I have shifted except Tyrene. Walking towards the packhouse I can see that there are several members throughout the house, more than usual. Either they are waiting on news of Sarah and Tyrene or they are angry about the rouges getting into our lands without our border patrol sensing them. As I walk past the stairs at the front of the porch the door opens.

“Brea? Is that you?” Gamma Aaron asks stepping outside.

“Yes Gamma Aaron, it’s me,” I say making sure that he can’t see my eyes.

“Are you alright? Two girls in the hospital in one night and both are because of Odessa. Did Tyrene say why those rogues wanted to know the whereabouts of Odessa?” Gamma Aaron said, stepping closer to me.

“No, when she started waking up, she wasn’t really in the mode to talk. Not even to me.” I tell him.

“Oh, well when she feels up to it, let me know alright? We need to figure this out before the pack becomes restless.” Gamma Aaron says.

I nod and go to walk away until Aaron stops me and asks.

“Hey, do you want to come in for a bit? There's food and drinks, and everyone is on edge waiting to hear about Sarah and Tyrene while half of them in there want to go to the cells and beat the bricks off Odessa and the five rouges. Nice job by the way.” Gamma Aaron said.

“Thanks, but I'm just going to do a couple of laps around the packhouse and head back to the hospital. Need some fresh air anyway and thanks for looking out for me.” I say before walking away. Thankfully Aaron nodded and went back inside.

“That was close.” Kendra's mind-links releasing a breath that she had been holding.

“You do know you didn’t need to hold your breath. Only I can see you.” I giggle through our mind-link.

“I know that but I didn’t think I could switch our eyes back in time if he had gotten any closer.” Kendra mind-links.

“We’ll be alright. They'll have to find out sooner or later.” I mind-link then continue walking to the shed.

Once at the shed I look around and make sure that I wasn’t followed. Don't need questions that I don’t have the answers to just yet. I spot the Wolfsbane instantly it’s hard to miss a vibrant purple stalk flower in the center of Odessa’s raised garden. Lucky for me Odessa kept track of everything she ever did, and there was a book sitting on a table in the left corner of the shed. The book had descriptions and names of each flower in the raised garden. Strongylodon macrobotrys is a flower known by its other name the Jade Vine, it’s a draping, vine flower and it has beautiful turquoise blue flowers. Odessa placed this flower on top of the wooden lattice panels that were suspended above the garden square. There are many other flowers here, but the Wolfbane is what I was looking for. Though I had this nagging feeling to check through the book once more.

“That nagging feeling is me. If Odessa put Jade Vine and Wolfsbane together what does that mean?” Kendra mind-linked me.

She wasn’t wrong so I read more into the book from the shed and Odessa had found a way to make Wolfsbane stronger, more painful, and longer lasting. Mixing Jade Vine and Wolfsbane made a very potent version of Wolfsbane and without the antidote, Sarah would be in her state for six weeks. Luckily Odessa wrote the antidote in the same book.

“I have to bring this flower to Sandi so she can make the antidote.” I mind-link Kendra as I grab the Selenicereus grandiflorus better known as the Night-Blooming Cereus.

I ran back to the hospital as fast as I could, “We need a butterfly wing, an imp stool, and this flower from Odessa's herb stash. Make a tincture and hurry. I will explain everything after.” I say handing the cactus flower to Sandi. She nods and runs the alchemy lab.

“Brea, we need you to come to the packhouse, please.” Gamma Aaron mind-links me.

“Alright, I'll be right there.” I mind-link back.

I tell the nurse at the nurse's station that I'm needed at the packhouse and to mind-link me if needed back here. She nods her head and I leave to go to the packhouse. Aaron meets me outside and the look on his face tells me I’m not going to like what he has to say.

***CHAPTER ONE CONTINUES IN NEXT CHAPTER***

***CHAPTER ONE CONTINUED***

“I’m sorry but Alpha Liam needs you to come to the cells and speak with Odessa,” Aaron says with a pained expression.

“Oh. Um, I don’t know. Why would he want me to come with him?” I ask.

“Well, because Odessa said that’s the only way she’ll talk.” Aaron sighed.

“Wow. Then I guess I don’t have a choice.” I say.

“I can come with you if you’d like,” Aaron says, rubbing the back of his neck.

What is with him lately, being super nice and overly concerned for me, we aren’t mates I would be able to feel it since my birthday is tomorrow.

“Yeah, I would appreciate that,” I say smiling.

Nodding we both head to the basement leading to the dungeon cells.

“Brea, thank you for coming down. I know this is probably hard and that you might not want to be here, so I thank you for coming down here.” Alpha Liam.

“If this is the only way she’ll talk then I will do what it takes to see that my friend