The Wolfless Girl and Her Mafia Alpha

Chapter 1: The Wolf-less Girl The ballroom of Silver Moon Academy glittered like it was made of diamonds and stars, chandeliers hanging so low you could see your reflection in a thousand crystals. Music played, expensive perfume filled the air, and every girl wore a dress that cost more than a house. But I was the shadow no one wanted to see, the stain on their perfect night. Tonight was the Mating Ball. The most important night for every eighteen-year-old werewolf girl in all of North America. Every Alpha family sent their daughters here. Tonight the Moon Goddess would whisper to our wolves and show us our fated mate. For most girls, it was a fairytale come true. For me, it was my execution. My name is Ava Carter. Today I turned eighteen. And I am the only girl in the entire 200-year history of Silver Moon Academy with no wolf. Not a weak wolf. Not a sleeping wolf. NO wolf. Silence inside where everyone else had a second soul. I stood at the huge golden entrance, my hands sweaty and cold. I wore my mother's old blue dress. My mother, Elena Carter, died when I was ten. She was a human. My father was a werewolf warrior who left us the moment he realized I had no wolf scent as a baby. He said I was defective. My mother raised me alone in a tiny apartment outside the pack border until she got sick. Now I lived in the academy's servant attic, cleaning floors to pay for my schooling. This blue dress was all she left me, besides a small silver locket that never opened. I had spent three nights sewing this dress, fixing the hem, adding small pearls I found. But under these expensive lights, next to girls in Valentino and Dior, it still looked cheap. Like me. "Oh my Goddess, look, it's the human!" Jessica Silver, the Beta's daughter and the queen bee of the academy, shouted loudly as I entered, making sure everyone heard. She wore a tight red designer dress that showed everything, her wolf was a beautiful red auburn. She hated me since childhood. "Oh sorry, my mistake. Not human. Wolf less freak. Even worse than human." Her minions laughed. Whispers started everywhere like poison. "She actually came? Does she think someone will want her? Does she think the Moon Goddess made a mistake?" "She has no wolf. She cannot even shift. She cannot smell a mate. She is useless. She should be a servant." "My father said her mother was a human who tricked a werewolf into mating. That's why she is wolf less. Dirty blood. She should not even be allowed in academy." I kept my head down, my long brown hair hiding my face, and went to the darkest corner, near the drinks table where servants were. My chest hurt so much I thought my heart would break. Every other girl had her wolf whispering inside, giggling, excited. I had only silence. Since I was born, cold, dead silence. I had tried everything. Herbs, witches, praying under full moon for 18 years. Nothing. On the stage, the music stopped. Headmistress Luna Moon called for silence. Alpha Jason Silver stepped up. Jason was 20, tall, handsome like a Greek god, with golden hair, blue eyes, perfect muscles. He was the Alpha's only son of our pack, Silver Moon, the strongest pack in the state. His wolf was a huge golden beast, 8 feet tall. Every girl in academy dreamed of being his mate. Including me, secretly, shamefully. He had been kind to me once when I was 12, gave me his sandwich when I had no lunch. He closed his eyes to find his mate. The Goddess would tell his wolf. The whole ballroom of 500 students went silent. Every girl held her breath, pushed their chests out, hoping. His eyes opened. They were glowing gold. He sniffed the air, his Alpha nose searching for his mate scent. He looked around, over all the beautiful girls. Then his eyes landed on me. In the dark corner. For one second, my heart stopped beating. Time stopped. The world stopped. He stared at me. I stared at him. Could it be? Could the Moon Goddess be so cruel and so kind at the same time to give me, the wolf-less girl, the future Alpha as mate? Maybe this was my miracle. Maybe my wolf was hiding and would appear now. Maybe he would save me. He started walking down from the stage. Step by step towards me. The crowd parted like the Red Sea. All eyes on me. Some girls gasped in jealousy, in anger. Jessica's face twisted. He stood in front of me. He was so close I could smell his expensive cologne, his Alpha scent of pine and power. He looked down at me, his nose twitching, trying to scent me. Then his face twisted. From confusion to disgust. Like he smelled something rotten, something dead. He stepped back. "Not you," he growled, loud enough for the entire hall of 500 students, teachers, Alphas to hear. His voice was full of pure hate and disgust. "I thought I smelled something... but it's nothing. It's you. Moon Goddess would never curse me with a wolf less freak like you. You have no wolf. You have no scent. You have no power. You are nothing. A human pretending to be one of us. A parasite in our academy." He turned to the crowd and shouted, his Alpha voice booming, "I, Jason Silver, future Alpha of Silver Moon Pack, REJECT this wolf-less thing as my mate! Even if Goddess made a mistake and you were my mate, I REJECT YOU! I would rather be mateless forever, alone, than be mated to a defective girl like you! You should have been killed at birth!" The words REJECT echoed. Silence for one second. One terrible second where I could hear my own heart breaking. Then the entire hall erupted in laughter. Loud, cruel, merciless laughter. Phones came out to record. Jessica laughed the loudest, clapping. "Rejected! Even before being mated! Classic wolfless! She thought Alpha Jason would want her! Delusional!" Headmistress did nothing. Teachers looked away. No one defended me. Because I was wolf-less. Because I was nobody. Tears burned my eyes so hot I thought I would go blind. My legs shook. I couldn't breathe. The shame was like acid fire on my skin, burning me from inside. I ran. I pushed through the laughing crowd, my torn dress catching, out of the ballroom, out of the academy gates, into the dark forbidden forest where humans and unshifted girls were not allowed to go after midnight. The guards at the gate shouted, "Hey! No entry! Forbidden after 11!" But I didn't care. Let them shout. I didn't care if rogues killed me, if vampires drank me, if witches cursed me. Anything was better than that shame. Let them eat me. At least the physical pain would be real, not this soul pain. The forest was cold and dark and ancient. The trees were so tall they blocked the moon, the same moon that hated me. The air was freezing. My feet bled because I lost my old shoes while running, glass and thorns cutting me. My blue dress tore on branches, now ragged. I collapsed against a big old oak tree, its bark rough, and finally cried. All the tears of 18 years. All the loneliness. All the bullying. All the silence inside me. "Why, Moon Goddess? Why did you make me wolf-less? What did I do in my past life? My mother died, my father abandoned me because I had no wolf, I have no friends, no pack, no one! I clean toilets to survive! Why do you hate me so much! Give me a wolf! Or take my life! I don't want to live like this anymore!" The wind answered with cold, shaking the leaves. Then I heard it. A low, dangerous, deep growl that made every hair on my body stand up, that made my human blood turn to ice in my veins. Not a rogue growl. Rogues growl like mad, rabid dogs, uncontrolled. This was controlled. Deep from the chest. Powerful. Alpha. Dominant. The kind of growl that made even Alpha Jason look like a puppy. I froze. My tears stopped. My heart stopped. Between the trees, I saw lights. Two white bright lights cutting through darkness. Car lights. A black Bentley, the most expensive car in the world, was parked deep inside the sacred forest. Impossible. No car, no human machine could enter this sacred forest. The ancient magic barrier stopped all humans, all technology. Only the strongest, oldest Alpha blood magic could break it. Leaning against the car, arms crossed, was a man. Even in the dark, even from 30 feet away, I could see he was not normal. Not human. Not normal werewolf. Something more. Tall, maybe 6'4, 26 years old, in an expensive black suit that couldn't hide the huge muscles underneath, the suit stretched over his biceps, his chest. His white shirt was open at the neck, showing a tattoo of a black wolf. His hair was jet black, messy, like he ran his hands through it. His face was sharp, jawline like cut stone, cheekbones high, lips cruel and full. And his eyes... his eyes were silver like liquid moonlight, but colder. So cold they could freeze fire. They glowed faintly in the dark, like a predator's. He looked like a god. A cruel, dark god who punished people for fun. A mafia king. My brain screamed his name before my mouth could, a name every child in Silver Moon City knew to fear. Darius Black. The Mafia Alpha. The man who owned all of Silver Moon City, all the businesses, clubs, banks, all the packs secretly paid him 30% tribute every month. He was half werewolf, half nightmare. His pack was not a normal pack, it was the Black Mafia. They killed without shifting, with guns and knives. They were richer than the human government. He was 26 and already the most feared Alpha in America. FBI, werewolf council, no one could touch him. He was not supposed to be here. He never came to academy events. He said mates were weakness for weak Alphas. He said he would never take a mate, he would choose. His silver eyes found mine in the dark. And they narrowed. The growl came from him. I tried to stand, to run, to scream. My legs gave out completely. I fell back hard against the tree, bark scraping my back. I was trapped. He started walking towards me. Slow. Predatory. Like a lion hunting a wounded deer. Each step made the ground tremble slightly. I could feel his Alpha aura from 20 feet away, crushing me, heavy like a mountain. My human lungs couldn't breathe. This was not like Jason aura. This was 100 times stronger. This was death and power. "Well," his voice was deep, rough, like gravel and smoke and whiskey, and it sent shivers down my spine that were not from cold, but from something deep inside my empty chest. "What do we have here? A little rabbit crying in my forest? A little human trespassing where she shouldn't be?" I couldn't speak. Tears still on my face, mouth open. He crouched in front of me, so close. He smelled like expensive cologne, dark smoke, black coffee, and pure power. Pure, raw, ancient Alpha power that made my human body weak and hot at the same time. Something strange tingled in my stomach, a flutter I never felt before. He lifted my chin with one finger, his finger rough with calluses from fighting. His touch was burning hot, like fire. "A wolf-less girl," he whispered, his silver eyes glowing brighter as he studied me, my torn blue dress, my bleeding feet, my tear-streaked face, my mother's locket. "Crying in my forest. On your birthday, I guess? Eighteen today? All alone?" How did he know? How did he know it was my birthday? "You are bleeding," he said, looking at my feet, my knees. His jaw clenched angrily, like my bleeding offended him personally. Like someone dared to hurt something that was his. "Who did this to you?" "I'm sorry," I whispered, voice broken, small. "I will leave... I didn't know this was your... your territory... Please don't kill me..." "No, you won't leave." He stared at my lips, at my tears, his gaze too intense, too possessive, like he was memorizing me. "What is your name, little human? Tell me." "A-Ava. Ava Carter." "Ava." He said my name like he tasted it, like he owned it from that moment, like a prayer and a curse. "Do you know who I am, Ava Carter?" "Everyone knows you. You are Darius Black. The Mafia Alpha. The most dangerous Alpha." A dark, dangerous smile touched his lips, making him even more handsome and more terrifying. The smile didn't reach his eyes, which stayed cold silver. "And do you know what happens to little girls who trespass in the Mafia Alpha's territory, Ava? Especially pretty, wolf-less little girls with no one to protect them? No pack? No family?" My heart was beating so fast I thought it would explode out of my chest. I shook my head. He leaned closer, his mouth inches from my ear. I could feel his hot breath on my cold skin. I shivered, and not from cold. "They become mine. My property. My responsibility." Before I could react, before I could scream, he picked me up in one strong arm, like I weighed nothing, like I was a doll made of feathers. I gasped, my hands instinctively grabbing his suit jacket. "Put me down! What are you doing? Let me go! You can't!" He looked down at me, his silver eyes now completely black with possession and something else, something primal, hungry, that made my whole body shiver and my empty chest feel warm for the first time in 18 years. "You have no wolf to protect you, Ava Carter," he growled, his voice no longer fully human, his canines slightly longer. "Your precious Alpha just rejected you. The whole academy laughed at you. No one wants you. No one loves you." Tears fell again. "But I do. I want you. From now on, I will protect you. Whether you want it or not. Whether you fear me or not." He carried me towards his black Bentley, opening the passenger door like I was a queen. "You're mine now, wolf-less girl. Mine. And no one, not even the Moon Goddess herself, will take you from me."