The Replacement Aplha

The Alpha and the Luna

Thomas’s convertible revved into the eight-car garage of the Alpha’s mansion and came to an abrupt halt.

“Did your parents get the text you sent them?” I asked nervously.

“Yup, I told them I would be home in a half hour with my mate. Mom responded with about 15 heart emojis and Dad read the message but didn’t respond. Typical.”

“I wish we could have just told them who your mate was over text,” I sighed.

Thomas turned off the car and flashed me a sympathetic smile. “I know, Scar.”

When we approached the door that lead into the mudroom of the house, I felt so nervous I thought that I might pass out right onto the garage floor.

Breathe, I thought to myself. Taking a deep inhale helped reduced the buzzing in my head slightly.

Thomas laced his fingers between mine and I suddenly felt braver.

No matter what, Thomas would support me. He would be my rock. That was certain. 

We entered the kitchen and saw that Thomas’s parents had been waiting for us. Alpha Demetri was standing and flipping casually through a magazine while Luna Evelynn was setting out an assortment of delicious looking breakfast foods.  

Alpha Demetri looked essentially identical to the last time I saw him two years ago. His tall, muscular physique exuded confidence and power. A neatly trimmed beard outlined his handsome, dark-featured face. As he was looking down at the glossy pages of the magazine, I could appreciate just how long and thick his dark eyelashes were.

I noticed slight changes in Luna Evelynn’s appearance. Her hair, still impeccably perfect and auburn, was cut into a different style and she had unnaturally dense false eyelashes. With a regrettable smugness, I realized that, if you looked closely, you could tell that she had gotten Botox injections, or at least the wolf’s equivalent of Botox injections, in her lips and around her eyes. It was as if in the last couple of years she had went to immense efforts to appear younger.

She turned her attention to the two of us, and when she saw who was grasping her son’s hand, the smile on her plump lips evaporated. Alpha Demetri, however, remained stone-faced and expressionless.

“Mom, Dad…” Thomas started.

“You,” Evelynn breathed softly. She blinked several times, as if I was some sort of mirage or illusion that would go away once reality returned.

“Before you say anything more, let me…” Thomas said before once again being cut off.

“Not her. Anyone but her,” Evelynn cried out. Her dementor started to change from one of disbelief to hysterics. She slammed the dish she had down onto the counter so hard I was shocked that it didn’t shatter into a thousand pieces.

“She killed your brother!” Evelynn almost screeched.

“Mom, please, you’re making Scarlett unconfor….”

“She murdered our son!” she said pleadingly to Alpha Demetri, attempting to stir an emotion out of his controlled state. She was unsuccessful, as Alpha Demetri remained silent.

“She didn’t murder Ben, Mom. She only…” 

“Rejected him which caused him so much heartbreak that he went insane,” she squawked.

I stood motionless, feeling completely useless. Thomas had let go of my hand and taken a protective step forward, as if to shield me from the wrath of his mother.

“If you would just listen…” he said.

“You need to get this sorry-excuse for a she-wolf out of my….”

“Enough,” Demetri growled. One piercing glare towards his wife caused her clamp her jaw shut.

“I love you very much, Evelynn. But you are being extremely rude to the pack’s future Luna. Scarlett didn’t kill Ben. I did.”

“You only were doing what you had to do,” she retorted back to him.

“You’re so quick to make excuses for me, yet you’re so quick to judge Scarlett.”

Luna Evelynn’s eyes flickered over in my direction but said nothing.

“It’s not just coincidence that she’s Thomas’s mate. The Moon Goddess obviously has plans for Scarlett. She’s chosen her not only once, but twice, to become the Luna of our pack. Don’t you see, Evelynn? She is destined to lead.”

“I rejected Ben, but I promise you, Luna, I will not reject Thomas. I love him, and I think I always have,” I heard myself say.

All three pairs of eyes darted toward me.

My face turned hot. I couldn’t believe what had just come out of my mouth. Yet, I knew the moment I had uttered it that it was true. I did love him. Deeply. My love had been hidden under thick layers of denial over all of the years that I knew Thomas. After all, I was meant to be his brother’s mate. I couldn’t allow myself to love him then.

I just wished that I hadn’t confessed my feelings for him in front of his father the Alpha and the fuming Luna of the Rocky Mountain Pack.

I looked down at the spotless tile floor of the kitchen, too ashamed to look up at either of the three faces, especially Thomas’s.

I heard the clicking of Evelynn’s heals as she stormed out of the kitchen. There was a slam of a distant door, then quiet. No one said a word.

I finally obtained the courage to look up at Demetri’s face. It was still hard and unreadable. After a brief moment, he started towards the direction that his wife had exited. Before he left, he paused and gave me a stern look.

“I guess accepting your request to become Healer was the right choice after all,” he said. Before I could respond, he swiftly left the kitchen.

I had no choice but to turn my attention to the wolf that I had just confessed my love for. I had blurted it out so unexpectedly, and so early after we were mated. What the f**k was I thinking?

When I turned towards Thomas, I was taken aback. Instead of being confused, uncomfortable, or petrified, he looked elated.

His deep brown eyes were wide and innocent and beautiful.

“Did you really mean that?” he asked.

“About… the love thing?”

“Yes.” He stepped closer to me and tried to fight the grin that was forming on his tanned face.

“I did… uh I mean… I do. I do love you.”

Thomas kissed me. It was so delicate and gentle that shivers exploded throughout my body, starting at my lips and traveling rapidly downwards to my stomach.

He drew back for a moment and cupped my face in his hands. His face changed to a serious one.

“There’s something I need to show you, Scar.”

My heart sank disappointedly. He didn’t tell me that he loved me back.

I wanted so badly to leave the Alpha mansion. Luna Evelynn despised me. Thomas, my mate, didn’t feel the same way about me that I did for him.

Instead of running away, though, I followed him up the grand, ballroom-like stairs numbly. We passed at least a dozen doors before we reached the one that lead to his room.

I stood by the doorframe as Thomas entered his bedroom and gingerly opened the top drawer of his nightstand.

“I’m afraid I did something terrible,” he confessed. He then removed something that was buried under several pairs of socks and held it out in my direction.

In his palm was an item that I hadn’t seen in over five years. 

SR