The Unintentional Alpha

The Night Before

Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ve been trying not to think about it too much because it’s overwhelming. The party has been planned for a few weeks now and after everything was booked and paid for I went completely hands off. The stress was making me break out and I needed to be at my absolute best. I knew that the chance of me finding my mate were so small, but the idea that I could get marked tomorrow is enough for me to take any and every precaution.

For now, I was going to try my hardest to lay back and enjoy my last day of teenagedom. Tomorrow I would be a real adult. Tomorrow, everything would change. Or, at least, I hoped it would.

In my pack, 18th birthdays are a huge celebration, but even more so when you’re carrying the wolf gene. I had turned for the first time four months ago, and I had no idea that I would. I don’t have any special blood. I never met my father, but I would have known if he had the gene. My mom always said we were distantly related to the Beta of the pack, but it was by marriage, so it obviously wouldn’t make a difference for me. When I turned, I went from just an average member, to someone that everyone noticed. I was no longer going to go to human college, despite the fact that I had graduated a semester early from high school specifically to start my program early in the summer. I had been so desperate to leave and try to find myself.

From the moment I wake up until the moment I lock myself in my room at the end of the day, it’s endless social performance that I can barely even keep up. It’s not all bad, though. I’m eating better than I ever have. I’m the recipient of so many gifts and I have a swath of secret (and not-so-secret) admirers. It’s just that I no longer had any say in what happened in my life. I mean, I want to say that I cared, but honestly, I’m really bad at decisions. Having everyone tell me what to do recently has been a shockingly huge relief, even if it has been kind of weird and surreal.

My mom has been researching the other packs in our area non-stop. The Alpha of our pack, Deon Kane, has two children, but they’re both already mated. The Beta has a toddler. If I end up getting marked, which still isn’t definite, it would be by a wolf in another pack. No one else here carries the gene. Even though I’m not part of a prominent family, my birthday party will be an ordeal. The Alpha’s family financed it themselves. When we had attended his younger daughter’s party a few years ago, it had been like something out of a movie. I didn’t assume I would get nearly the same treatment, but after years of not even getting a cake, I knew that this would be extraordinary.

“Get to sleep,” I hear the soft growl in my head. My wolf, Bridget. I’m still getting used to her. Luckily for me, she’s pretty quiet. She doesn’t really bother me or interact with me at all, which is good, because I don’t really know what to say to her. It feels like I would imagine it would feel to have auditory hallucinations, even though I’ve never had any before. She walked me through what was happening when I turned the first time, which I really needed, but since then she’s been keeping to herself. “Sorry,” I say out loud, and then remember that I don’t need to say it out loud. “Sorry,” I say again, but this time it’s in my head. Bridget has gone quiet again, so I try to close my eyes.

Despite the tempting pull of my own anxiety, I drift to sleep. I dream of my mate. He’s tall and strong, with straight white teeth. He’s wearing the fanciest tuxedo I’ve ever seen, and he has eyes only for me. We move so gracefully on the dance floor together while all of the girls who ignored me in school watch jealously from the side of the room. My mom is shining, standing next to the Alpha and the Beta on stage. For some reason, we’re in my high school gym. Suddenly, everyone is laughing. I look down, and I’m completely naked. Fur sprouts from my skin, I feel my spine cracking and my body stretching. My nose becomes a snout as my mate looks on in horror. “I’m so sorry!” I try to say, but it comes out as a howl.

My howl becomes real and I wake myself up with the noise. I look at the clock and it’s only been half an hour since I last looked at it, before I even fell asleep. f**k. I peek anxiously out the window next to my bed, and no one is around. Well, I might not sleep tonight at all then. I try to physically shake off the dream as I pull myself out of bed and into the sneakers next to my door. I think it’s a wolf thing but I’ve been able to move so quietly since I turned. Hopefully without waking up my mom, I’m out of the house and running towards the forest behind me. Bridget is alert now too and I bring her to the front of my mind and left the transformation rip through me. I’ll let her be in control for now. If I can’t sleep at least I can just enjoy whatever ride she takes me on.

“It’s midnight,” she muses as the branches and leaves fly past us. “Happy birthday.”

“Happy birthday,” I think to her. I don’t feel very happy.