I am Alpha

Chapter Nine.

I stood there, mind whirring as his lips left a trail from my ear down my neck as he smelled me.

"You smell so good." He whispered again, as two wisps fluttered around us.

"What do you mean, you're here for me." I mocked his accent.

"You've never seen me before today." I continued when he kept his nose buried in my neck, not answering.

"I have... seen you, before..." His reply came muffled, sounding hesitant and intoxicated.

"When?" I say breathily. Also wanting to sound aroused but pressing for answers while I can get them.

"The clearing. 5 years ago, in the final days of that awful battle."

The clearing 5 years ago... I was 14 and had fought with my Alpha in that clearing.. He was there?

"Why were you there?" I said.

"I was taking the lay of the land I planned taking while the guard was preoccupied." His voice sounded low and completely distracted.

I held onto his forearm, and willed him to answer my next question.

"Do you still plan on taking our land?"

"This land will be mine as you will be." His voice sounds in disarray.

"How do you plan on taking this land or me, when I will not go with you." I can feel a power coursing through my veins and shooting at this Alpha, who is dazed. He licks my neck, making me gasp and then nipping and sucking there.

"By force."

I realize we are making a scene when he holds me to him, and rests his mouth at the crook of my neck and shoulder. My marking spot.

The one meant for my mate to bite and leave their mark, to seal the mating bond.

His sharpened canines graze against the area and the power I felt whirring in me went cold and empty. I pushed him off me with all the force I could muster, making him stumble back a few steps.

My breath is heaving and my body is still remembering the way he touched me. His phantom breath is still lingering on my skin. His despicable words echoing in my head.

He tried to mark me...

Take me by force.

My anger heated my blood to a boil.

He looked at me with a wild look on his face, feral and full of lust. I clenched my jaw and glared at him as menacingly as I could.

He didn't just want me, he was here because of me? For me and for my Alpha's lands... My people's lands..

Maybe I was his mate, and this is why he was acting like this, but hell to that. He was not my mate. I could never give myself over to such a beast.

I started to feel nauseated. My stomach was roiling and I felt unbearably hot.

I could see his beast come toward the surface, his brown eyes dilating so much, his eyes now looked black. His canines were still out, and he was trying to make towards me again when I took a step back. I curtsied and made a show of it, my joints aching suddenly, and my knees were shaking. A wisp now floating around me in a flurry of light.

"Thank you for the dance Alpha Brenigan." I said, and left him there in a flourish. I half walked half jogged to the bathroom, the wisp following me still but no longer illuminating me but allowing me to fall in it's darkness.

I locked myself into a small chamber room, far from the ballroom. A clean chamber pot behind a red curtain, and a fancy mirror on the opposite side. It was illuminated only by a single candle in a sconce on the wall.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked pale and sick. My pupils were large and my skin was coated with sweat and was hot. Too hot. There was a wash basin filled with cool water that was once warm, that I used on my arms and dabbed my forehead.

I'm still too hot. I need out. Out of this palace, away from Alpha Theris and Alpha Brenigan. I poke my head from the door and looked for any familiar faces. There were only two guards marching down the hallway, seemingly looking for someone.

For me, I realized. Somehow the wisp concealed my departure from everyone. I couldn't stay in this bathroom, I needed outside.

When the guards pass by, I slip silently into an alcove in the hallway, and when the slate was clear I made my way to a secret passageway that servants use to get in and out of the palace. The door was locked but I pushed on it hard, breaking the lock.

I've never been this strong before. And I'm nearly taken aback by it, but I don't have the time or the capacity to think about it.

I book down the dimly lit hallway, sprinting now. I kicked off my shoes somewhere in the run, not caring about the trail I left, nor stopping to hide from passing servants anymore.

Just a quick escape was all I needed. So when I made it out of the servants passage to behind the castle near some large barrels filled with waste, I kept running, barefoot through calf deep snow.

I still felt so hot. My skin was burning as if my blood truly was boiling it from the inside out, and my joints complained severely at the running . I fell into the snow on my hands and knees. I'm panting like a dog when I look up to see the moon, a temporary part in the clouds to reveal its fullness.

I felt a slight relief at the sight of it. Breathing in deep gasps of the frozen night air. It wasn't snowing anymore, but the sky was bright purple, so I knew there was still more to come.

I heard a door from the palace squeak open and a guard yell. "I found her!"

More foot steps followed and I could hear them trudge to the snow for me. I look back and see Alpha Theris, Jack and Xander make there way towards me, as well as four other guards escorting Alpha Brenigan and another man that I have never seen before.

Jack and Xander both came up to me, Jack checked me for injuries while Xander simply knelt at my side while his partner asked if I was okay. I barely heard him, the beat of my own heart overtaking my senses.

Alpha Theris yelled my name, shooting an aura at me. Jack backed away from me in submission, but Xander stayed kneeling. I looked at him, his eyes had a green ring around the incredibly large pupils, the black almost engulfing the green entirely.

I heard my name again, Alpha aura pulsing, and finally Xamder bowed his head and backed away from me. Submitting as well but not immediately as he should.

Before I could respond to the Alpha, a sudden and terrible tearing feeling in my skin rips through my body, and the bone in my upper arm breaks. I scream, when another and then another starts to break.

My hip bones dislocate and then relocate, my spine ripping apart, and my thigh muscles stretching and expanding as the bones in my legs break and reform. The bones in my skull crack and enlarge. I feel myself tear through my dress.

After what felt like hours, but it very well could have been minutes, I laid there, shaking and panting. No longer in pain but in shock from it, all the same.

Everything seemed sharper. I could hear the party happening on the other side of the castle, I could smell the worms that lay below a foot of snow and another foot of dirt. I look down at large black paws, and back at my body that is covered with sleek black fur.

I look up at the crowd of people, all looking at me slightly shocked. Though Alpha Theris only seemed mildly surprised and unhappy that others were here.

But then his scent wafted towards me, and I could smell Alpha Theris.

My wolf recognized him. He was... family? The scent of his blood that was my scent. His blood was mine, and mine was his.

An emotion registered on his face, and he nodded. Then his voice sounded in my head, pounding against my brain though his mouth did not move.

"I told you I have made mistakes. Shift back and we will talk about this"

I snarled at him. I was his daughter? Or was I a cousin or sister?

"Find some clothes for her." He says to someone, this time out loud. "Faire, shift back."

I did not know how, but I did not care to shift back. I had my wolf, finally. And when I looked at Alpha Brenigan, his possessive stare looked predatorial, and my wolf did not like it.

I took a step back from all of them, growling menacingly. I wanted to run, so that's what I did. Through the snow to the dense forest beyond.

"Do not let him out of your sight." I heard Alpha Theris shoot out an order. And then I felt, rather than heard, him give chase.

I ran faster. As fast as my wolf could go. I swerved around trees, and leaped over logs. I ran, until I felt a nip at my heels. I turned around and stood in an attack position. Alpha Theris in Wolf form came to a skidding stop too, panting and circling me.

He was large and dark sleek black like I was. Our wolves looked the same. I growled.

"Traitor." I say it in my head but shoot the thought towards him. Hoping it sticks in his head.

"Shift back." The words rang in my head as his wolf barked twice with each syllable.

"f**k You." I bark back. I wanted to kill him. to sink my canines into his throat.

But something shifted in my stance, and I could feel my bones cracking again. I was shifting back anyway, not quite able to control my shift yet. After a painful reverse reenactment of my bones breaking, soon I was laying in the snow, cold and shaking and naked.

The Alpha stood down now that I was no longer a threat. His ears back and his head low. Not quite submitting to me, but giving a bleak apology. He lowered himself at me so I could crawl onto his back.

I sneer at him, but he just gives me a nod to get on. I'm shaking but I still don't get on. Instead on shaking legs I try walking back through the snow, but already I could feel my toes numb from the piercing cold. The giant wolf nudges me with his head, and I was so week it caused me to fall into the snow.

I didn't realize I was crying until I look back at the wolf. My emotions heightened from my shift, and my body aches painfully.

"You will tell me everything." I yell at him, my voice breaking from the cold, and the emotion that tore at my throat.

He just lowers his head again, so I am able to climb atop the massive wolf. Digging my hands into his thick fur. He runs back, and it's multiple miles of biting cold wind before we make it back to the palace.