The Older Alpha’s Mate

Chapter 1

Amber POV

In two weeks it will be my 18th birthday, and yet I don’t feel excited about it like I thought I would as a little girl. I had always dreamed of becoming this beautiful, mature young woman like my mother was, meeting my wolf, having my first shift, and finding my mate. But, she isn’t here to guide me. She disappeared 5 years ago today from where I’m originally from, Star Lake Pack. My father instantly fell apart and had no idea how to take care of me on his own. I would find him passed out from drinking almost every night, and I would clean him up and get him to bed. I had a strong connection with my father as a girl so I swore I would always take care of him after my mother was gone, but he decided to ship me away.

He sent me across the country to live with my uncle, Alpha Lucas at the Mountain Moon Pack, one of the biggest packs on the west coast. I was devastated when he told me that he was sending me away, and at 13 years old I didn’t really understand why I couldn’t just stay and take care of him. After all, he did take care of my mother and I my whole life, and he used to be really good at it. He was a strong warrior of my old pack, and he had even begun training me when I turned 12 to prepare me for when I turned 18. He loved my mother so much and he would’ve done anything for her, and for me too.

But, that old life is broken. Now, I live my life as a maid and a cook for my uncle and his family where we live in the packhouse. His wife, Tiffany, treats me like a slave, and he’s too blindly in love with her to see it. He never wanted to take me in and he’s too busy running the whole pack to notice all the mistreatment I receive daily from Tiffany and their two children, Emma and Jesse. Even though we are around the same age, Emma being 18 and Jesse 19, they have never seen me as their equal. They think of me as their little slave girl and nothing more, and their mother is far worse. She takes it as far as beating me if I don’t shine the floor properly or if my cooking isn’t up to her ridiculous standards.

I wake up to my alarm clock reading 4:00am, just as I do every other day to prepare breakfast and lunch before I go to school. Today I am making scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages, bacon, blueberry muffins, and a fruit salad. For lunch, I will make chicken noodle soup with fresh veggies from the garden and homemade sourdough bread. I actually really enjoy cooking and baking, but the fact that I’m forced every day to cook for the family that hates me ruins it for me. They have many private chefs at their disposal but since I told them my love for cooking when I got here, Tiffany decided it a good idea for me to ‘practice’ on them. In reality, she threatened to harm me, but my uncle Alpha Lucas doesn’t know that. I tried to tell him when it first started, but she puts on such a phony face to him that he wouldn’t believe me. He said no woman which he loves could ever do such spiteful things to a child. Little does he know, this is how she has treated me every day since I came to Mountain Moon Pack.

After I prepare the dishes and finish cleaning up, I lay everything out on the giant marble dining room table for the Alpha and Beta families. I add in fresh hydrangea flowers from the garden as the centerpiece, and I turn off the simmer pot filled with vanilla and cinnamon that filled the house with a beautiful aroma. I decided now to get myself ready for school now at 5am while I wait for the family to wake up. Tiffany likes me to wait to eat last to make sure her hateful children get enough to eat, and more often than not they eat my portion too just to ruin my day.

Since my mother was a rogue until she met my father, they think this makes me weak even though it was my father who was supposed to be Alpha, and not my uncle Lucas. My father was about to take over the pack when he met my mother, and he chose to marry her instead. Since she was a rogue, this forfeited his right to be Alpha and Lucas was next in line.

I get up to my small room at the end of the hallway and close the door. I look in the mirror at my skinny, undernourished body, and sigh. It’s not like I was ugly, as I have a nice heart shaped face, long wavy dark brown locks, puckered full lips and a tall 5’7” frame, but I was clearly missing some meat on my bones. None of the other kids at school were as skinny as me, so I stood out, and not in the good way.

I change out of my messy sleeping clothes into my only pair of dark wash jeans and a basic black long sleeve top. I brush though my thick hair, wash my face and brush my teeth, and I decide that today is going to be a good day, no matter what happens. I get my personality from my mother, and she was always a glass half full kind of woman. I really missed that about her.

I gasped as a loud banging comes from my door.

“AMBER!!” I hear Tiffany scream.