Before I Rise

Chapter 1: The Woman in the Woods

16 years later

I was outside my house facing the woods. The sun was setting, casting a warm orange light across the forest. There was a woman standing in front of me. It was the same woman that has been haunting my dreams for months and I have yet to see her face. The only thing I see is her long, dark blonde wavy hair and the long white dress she always wears, that falls onto the forest floor. The dress is so white, that it almost hurts your eyes to look at it.

She begins to walk into the woods. She doesn’t look back to see if I’m following her, as she knows I always will. My curiosity always gets the best of me, even though I know how this will end. We walked into the woods and the sound of birds chirping fills my ears. Squirrels occasionally ran across her feet, not even remotely afraid of her.

We walked a long time in silence, as we always do. I have tried multiple times to speak with her, but she never acknowledges me. By the time we arrived at the crystal clear lake, the moon had rise and cast its shadow across the entire forest. This was completely different from my other dreams, the woman has never brought me here before.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of lighting and a crack of thunder right above our heads. The lake started to boil and the birds stopped chirping. There was an eerie silence across the land. This was definitely new.

“Marcus.” I jumped as I heard her speak to me. It sounded more like she was whispering in my ear. Her voice was light as a feather, yet powerful and strong at the same time.

“Marcus.” She said again, but this time it was louder and more with a panic tone.

“Marcus.” She started to turn around to face me. Excitement rushed through my body, I was about to finally see the face of the woman that has been haunting my dreams for months. Just as I was about to see her face, a flash of light blinds me.

“Marcus!” My eyes flew open. There standing in front of me was my Beta Jacoby.

“Dude, I’ve been trying to wake you up for like ten minutes. We have an issue.” He said.

Rubbing my eyes to adjust to the light in my office I asked him, “What kind of issue?”

“There’s a trespasser on our land, a woman. The twins are bringing her here right now as we speak for questioning.”

“Do they know why she is on our land?” I asked him, annoyed that he would wake me up for this.

“That’s the weird part, she claims she can’t remember anything except for her name.” Jacoby said.

“Really? Have the twins bring her to my office so I can question her.”

“Ok boss man, will do.” For some odd reason, Jacoby loves to call me Boss Man. I think he does it because it irritates the crap out of me.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes.” Jacoby said after mindlinking the twins with my request.

“ So… What were you dreaming about?” He asked me.

“ Your mom.” I said with a chuckle.

“ That’s disgusting and extremely unoriginal.” He said with a glare.

“ Yeah, so is ‘Boss Man’ which you deliberately call me to piss me off.”

“WHAT!? I do no such thing!” Jacoby said with a hand over his heart. I rolled my eyes at that. Jacoby has been this way all our lives, a total jokester. But, he also knows when it’s time to be serious. He was the perfect Beta and best friend.

After a couple of minutes, my office door flew open revealing the twins, Jake and Luke. Between them was a woman. She was absolutely breathtaking. Her long blonde wavy hair looked softer than a kitten’s fur. She was wearing long jeans and a white T-shirt that was covered in grass stains. When I finally connected my brown eyes with her green ones, my heart skipped a beat and time seemed to stop. It felt like I was electrocuted, but in a good way. I felt as though half my soul was missing and she had it, which means this woman was my mate.

“Alpha, what do you want to do with her?” Jake asked me.

I took a few minutes and contemplated on what to do with her. I normally would send trespasser to the dungeons to be interrogated. But this was no ordinary trespasser. One, she apparently had no idea who she is. And second, she unfortunately was my mate.

“Take her to one of the guest rooms and have Alicia run her a bath. Get her some clean clothes as well.” I said, causing everyone to look shocked.

“Stop standing there and do what I say.”

“But she’s a trespasser sir.” Luke said.

I debated whether or not to let them know who exactly she was to me. If I didn’t say anything, they would think I’ve lost my damn mind by letting her stay in the pack house and not the dungeons. But if I do tell them, they will literally drive me nuts with their inappropriate jokes.

After a few seconds of debating, I finally decided to let them know. “No. She’s my mate, therefore she’s your luna.” Jake smiled and Luke still looked shocked. “So go get her cleaned up. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Finally the twins lead my mate out of my office and to a guest room.

“Congrats bro.” Said Jacoby. He assumed I have been waiting for this day ever since I turned 16 just like any other werewolf. However, I secretly was hoping I would never find her. After my mom died in front of me and seeing the state my dad was in for years, having a mate just didn’t appeal to me. Yes. It would benefit the pack greatly for having a Luna, but I’m not sure it would benefit me in any way.

“Thank you. Now I just need to find out who she is and how she ended up on our land.”

“For sure dude. I’ll leave so you can go get to know her. Julie is waiting for me anyway, it’s a date night for us.” I rolled my eyes and chuckled at what he said. Julie was Jacoby’s mate and every night since they met two years ago was a date night.

“I’ll see you later then.” I said. Jacoby nodded his head and walked out of my office.

I know I am supposed to be happy, but I couldn’t help think back to my dream and the fact that my mate just appeared out of nowhere. I couldn’t shake this feeling that the woman was trying to warn me of something. Something bad is coming, something evil. And I was to be ready for it.