Born An Alpha

Chapter 1

*Celeste's P.O.V.*

I dreaded getting up at 6 am every morning but it was the only way I could train. The wolf leaders, or as I like to call them the wolf dictators, had made it illegal to train women. Only women who were deemed "special" enough were allowed to train. My dad was the beta of this pack and therefore he was allowed to roam on pack grounds more freely. He had secretly trained my older sister in combat and now he was training me. 6 am was the only time were it would be just the two of us in the woods. 

I get out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. I had showered the night before, so I just splash some water in my face. I look in the mirror to see my reflection. I was an average height of 5 feet 8 inches. Slender but very strong. My hair was wavy brown and my skin was an olive color. My hazel eyes stare back at me. 

"I look so tired" I tell myself. I make my way back to my bedroom. I change into black leggings, a sports bra and a breathable blue t-shirt. I take the gym bag by the door and two bottles of water. I find my dad outside of the house in wolf form. He puffs in my direction.

"I am sorry dad. I was just so tired from last night I overslept" I tell him. We have mandated classes as wolves. Part of Alpha Mathis ranked-wolves classes for the youth. Last night Professor Dole had to teach us the rules and agreements as most of us were turning eighteen this year. He nods his head in agreement and turns his head. I jump on my dad's back and he begins to run. 

His wolf is a beautiful grey and black color. His name is Apollo and he's definitely bigger and stronger as a ranked wolf but he's the most gentle with me. My dad runs fast but steady. I grip onto him as we get to a clear field, hidden deep in the forest hidden by the tallest and fullest trees. He lowers his body so I can slide off.

I combat as a human for now, as I haven’t gained my wolf yet. I turn around and my dad shifts back. I hear rustling near trees and know he is changing into clothes.

“Okay firefly. Let’s begin” my dad is in position. His feet are apart and his arms are up in blocking stance. "What are we doing first?” I ask him. "Hit me and I’ll begin by blocking you. Then we’ll switch positions and you’ll have to block my every move” He tells me.

My dad never goes easy on me. Every hit that lands, will definitely end up bruising me. My speed has been improving. After what feels like forever, his timer beeps. It signals the end of our session. I lay on the ground, panting and all sweaty. My dad throws me a water bottle and I immediately chug it. He sits down next to me, drinking his water.

“I can’t believe how far you’ve come firefly” he tells me.

“All thanks to you dad. I still have a lot to learn though” I tell him as I sit up.

“I know but by far your learning faster than your siblings” he laughs. Andrea is my older sister. She’s three years older than me. She likes to fights dirty. She reacts without thinking which leaves her unprotected. She’s a much better fighter when Aurora her wolf is in control. She is currently enrolled at the state university. She left before she turned eighteen but my dad visited her before her first shift in order to help her. My older brother Max had a harder time during his training sessions but he’s now one of the best. He is five years older than me and living with his mate Sophia. He’s living with her in her pack grounds. I’m the youngest. 

It’s wasn’t a secret that I was adopted. My parents had never let me feel left out or that I didn’t belong and neither did my siblings or friends. I knew my biological parents had died during a rogue attack but that was about it. I often wondered about them, and what could have been. 

“Come on Celeste. We have to get back” I nod in agreement. He goes behind the bushes and shifts. His wolf Apollo comes out. I jump on his back and Apollo takes off running.

As we get to the house, I slide off my dad’s back and make my way into the house. Our house is a three story five bedroom house. It even has a pool and a hot tub. It’s ten minutes away from Alpha Hans house or Uncle Hans as I call him.

Alpha Hans and Luna Brie have three children. The oldest daughter was Katia, she’s twenty-four and had practically left the continent. She’s in England studying medicine. Then follows Carla, she's the same age as Andrea and living at home. She helps run the pack’s nursery and orphanage. She’s always so bubbly and happy. The youngest and future alpha was Noah. Having just turned eighteen, he was one of my best friends. He was also dating my other best friend Cynthia. She was the daughter of Alpha John and Luna Lyla. Her pack was near our pack and was an average size pack as well. We were a group of best friends, including Melinda and Alex, who were Cynthia’s pack beta and gamma children’s.

Alpha Hans was very noble and forgiving. We were an average size pack of about a hundred members. Although we still had to live by the TrioLaw, Alpha Hans ran his pack fairly. The Triolaw made Omegas inferior, that Omega men were drafted to be warriors whenever the three leaders needed more guards. Omegas had to live in small cottages and could only hold certain freedoms. Only pure blooded alphas could be alphas. Male alphas could only take female alphas as wives to make them their Luna. It was unfair but we couldn’t do anything. The consequences were too severe and damaging. Every once in a while, Helena would send her witches to do surprise inspections. It was unfair to pack members, especially Omegas. It also stated that Alpha, Beta, And Gamma children were to attend Campbell Academies. 

I run upstairs to shower and blow dry my hair. Since January, Noah had been driving to school alone with Cynthia. Everyone believed this was happening because Noah wanted more time with Cynthia in case he found his destined mate. He had turned eighteen in January and Cynthia would be turning eighteen in three weeks. Noah would usually wait for me but now Alex and Melinda pick me up. Since January Noah had put some distance between us and tried to avoid me as much as he could. It hurt but I didn't know why it was hurting this much.

As I’m done with my hair, I put on my black stockings and pleated black skirt. I button my white dress shirt that has the Campbell School symbol on it. Afterwards I put on my black school cardigan and slip into my ballet flats. It’s silly that we have uniforms but I don’t mind. I grab my backpack and tote, and head downstairs. I can hear my parents arguing as I’m going down the stairs.

 “Dan, this is serious. What if that man chooses one of the girls?” My mom argues.

 “Maria, you know I can’t stop this dinner. Even if I wanted to, Hans would never risk getting on Sean’s bad side again” My dad sighs as he says this. They pause as my mom starts the blender. They wait to speak again when the blender is off. I wait by the stairs to hear more.

 “Love, you know he’s on his quest again. I don’t know why he hasn’t given up. The Moon Goddess would never bless him with a mate because he’s an evil man. Let alone bless him enough to have children. You’d think after twenty years he’d stop” My mom argues.

 “I know but he’s not going to stop. You know this and I know this. The worst part is he’s only taking alpha daughters as wives.” My dad pauses before saying, “this will be his fifth wife”.

 "Dan... I’m scared. I don’t want to attend this dinner” my mom is on the verge of tears now. “To think it could be Katia or Carla. We saw them grow up... he can’t...” now my mom’s crying. I know my dad’s comforting her because my mom’s cries are muffled.

I walk in to the kitchen as normal as possible. As soon as I walk in, my mom quickly wipes her tears away and turn away. My dad drops his arms and returns to his chair. 

 “Good morning firefly” my dad says as he smiles.

 “Morning” I say to both. I look at them, wondering if they will let me in on their conversation. My mom is putting my smoothie into my thermos trying to avoid me. After an awkward silence I finally speak. “So... what’s going on?”

Neither of them speak nor look at each other.

 "Seriously? “ I wait for them to respond. Nothing. "Are you guys seriously not going to tell me?” I ask again. I stare at my dad knowing he’ll break first. 

 "Celeste-".

 “Dan don’t” my mother interrupts.

 “She has a right to know” my dad says quickly.

 "Know what?” I ask.

 “Alpha Sean has asked to come here... for a dinner meeting with Hans and his family.” My dad pauses. I continue to stare as him as to press him for more information. "Your Uncle Hans has asked us to join him... for Support” my dad finishes. I look at them puzzled.

 "Celeste” my mom continues. “He’s looking for his next wife. It could well possibly be Katia or Carla"

 "But Katia is in England” I say. 

 "She’s coming home next Thursday.” 

We don’t exactly know what happened to his other wives but it doesn’t take a lot of guessing to know what did happen.

 "When is it?" I ask them. 

 "It's next Saturday" My dad responds. We all stay in our places in silences, not saying anything.

 “I got to go” I finally say after a while. My stomach was cramping. I suddenly feel goose bumps all over my body.

 "Celeste” my mom embraces me “it will be okay”

 "I know mom” I tell her as I hug her back.

 “Have a good day at school and say hi to your friends for us” my dad tells me. I nod as I grab my thermos. I turn back to see my parents stare at each other before staring at me. I walk out of the house and down the field. I reach the front gate to our pack territory and wait for Alex to pick me up.

 “Good morning Beta Celeste” Arnold always greets me and smiles as I wait for Alex.

 “Arnold, I told you just Celeste” I smile at him.

 “Rules are rules Beta Celeste” he smiles back. It’s crazy to think he’s just twenty-three. He seems much older but that’s what happens when you are raising your siblings. Despite looking older, Arnold is very handsome, his red hair with a small beard makes him look like a model. Even with all his guard gear you can see his muscles through it. A black Jeep Wrangler pulls up and I know my rides here.

 “Bye Arnold” I wave as I open the back door to the car. Alex is driving and Melinda is sitting in the passenger seat. They are discussing whether to skip mandated class or not. I slouch into the back seat, taking in everything from the discussion with my parents. 

 “Right Celeste?” Alex asks as I shake away my thoughts.

 “Huh? What?” I ask confused. 

 “It’s not a good idea right Celeste?” Melinda turns around to see me. 

 “What are you two arguing about?” I ask them.

 “Should we skip Doles class?” Alex asks.

 “No” I say laughing. “Dole will definitely write us up” I tell them.

Alex sighs and Melinda agrees. We ride to school discussing the Ridley party happening tomorrow. Saturdays were usually our only days off and the day to catch up. The Ridley brothers, Derek and Michael, always threw huge parties once a month. Michael was the nicest brother but he could be a jerk at times. We pull into school and quickly go to class. I’m a fairly good student. Straight A’s and always make the honor roll. I especially look forward to my science classes. My teachers had recommended I go to university but I wasn’t sure. I applied but I didn’t know if my request to attend would be approved. Yet another TrioLaw.

At lunch time, we sit outside by the garden. Our usual table is under a cherry blossom tree. I make my way and see Melinda, Alex and Cynthia already seated. As I get near, I hear them discussing the Sean dinner. I sit next to Melinda.

 “Celeste did you know?” Melinda asks worriedly.

 “Yeah but”

 “Why didn’t you tell us” Alex interrupts.

 “I didn’t know how to bring it up” I protest. We all just stare at each other. We feared Sean or Helena being within our pack grounds. Not only were they impulsive with their decisions but they had no mercy when it came to us wolves.

 “Poor Noah and his family” Alex says, finally breaking the silence. We all nod in agreement. We all see Noah coming our way. 

I had to admit lately Noah has looked more handsome. His blond hair untamed, his green eyes shimmering in the sunlight, the smallest mole resting on his upper lip. I shook these thoughts away. I couldn’t have these thoughts, this was Cynthia’s boyfriend and one of my best friends. Noah sits next to Cynthia as we all stare at him.

 "Look please nobody say anything” he says. And we don’t, we continue eating our lunch while discussing other things. For a split second I catch Noah staring at me, and then he looks away. His green eyes had a sparkle of lust in them as he looked at me. Wait, is this all in my head? It has to be. It just me. The rest of the day goes fairly normal. School ends at 2:00pm every day. Then we have extracurricular classes. I have an advanced Chemistry class until 3pm, followed by swimming class until 4pm. At exactly 5:30pm we have mandatory TrioClass until 7:30pm. All of our days were long.

As we make our way home, I see Noah walking the path to his home. As I walk past his house I try not to look at him but I can feel his eyes on me. I can feel his green eyes watching me walk away. My legs suddenly feel like Jell-O at the thought of this. I feel the butterflies fluttering in my stomach and small tingles of electricity in my heart. A part of me wants to turn around but I go against this. 

Come on Celeste. Stop thinking about him. I think to myself. Why was I feeling this way? I had always found Noah attractive but lately he wasn't just attractive. He was handsome, gentle, an amazing athlete, a tall muscular guy with a kind heart. My stomach did somersaults as I thought of Noah. I hurry home so I wouldn’t have to feel his eyes on me. 

*NOAH'S P.O.V.* 

Usually after Trio class I rush home to avoid Celeste, but Professor Dole requested that male alphas stay after class. I could feel her walking behind me. Her sweet smell of cinnamon and chocolate was hitting me as I kept walking home. I resisted the urge of running to her and kissing. Holding her in arms, inhaling her sweet scent and telling her that I was her mate. 

It's the mate bond, Hunter my wolf tells me.

I know...it's just...complicated. I tell him. I watch as she speeds by before I walk into into my house. 

But this was beyond complicated. My destined mate was Celeste. The girl that has lived next door to us my whole life, the girl who my parents absolutely adore and my current girlfriend’s best friend. I felt it as soon as I turned eighteen. Having just shifted into my wolf the night before, I was lying in bed healing. My window was slightly open as my room was too warm for my liking. That’s when the sweetest and intoxicating smell hit me. Cinnamon and chocolate in one. It filled my nostrils and my wolf was screaming mate. Before I could make sense of what he was saying, I ran to my window and saw the most beautiful girl in her drive way. She was preparing to shovel snow with her dad, my dad's beta Daniel. Celeste's beautiful hair was in her face until her dad handed her a hat. She smiled and I instantly felt Hunter stir. He was ready to go downstairs and claim her but I couldn't let him. Restraining Hunter was the hardest thing I've ever done. The power struggle was enough to cause me to faint. 

Hunter had been angry with me after this but I explained to him our situation. Not only was I dating her best friend but Alpha Sean had declared that alpha males could only marry alpha females. Unless a miracle happened and the laws changed, Celeste and I couldn't be together. One could only dream. 

She didn't turn eighteen until May so I don't think she felt the mate bond yet. Since I turned eighteen in January I had been trying to avoid contact with Celeste whenever possible. It was only after the basketball game incident that I took this drastic decision. 

Two weeks after I turned eighteen, I had already begun to slowly avoid Celeste. First, I asked Alex to drive Celeste to school my reason being I needed more alone time with Cynthia. Then I would rush home after the day ended. It was torturous but it seemed to be working until the night of the championship game. Our school, Campbell Academy, was going up against Campbell-Franz Academy located near the border of Canada and the U.S. 

Celeste, Cynthia, Melinda and a couple of other girls were our school cheerleaders. Spirits were running high as we tied during the last minute. Michael Ridley and I were the stars of the team and had always worked well together. That night I passed him the ball and he took a shot from half court which luckily went in. We had won. We won the championship. The girls were cheering as loud as they could that night. Michael and I shook hands with our rivals. Afterwards we were posing for pictures with the trophy. It was then that I saw Scott Washington from the rival school flirting with Celeste. Cynthia was laughing with him as well but I could only see Celeste. My eyes were turning black as I felt Hunter coming through. I was trying to control him until I saw Scott twirl Celeste's ponytail. As she gently pushed away his hand, I let out a massive growl and sprinted to them. I could hear the cheers die down as I ran to Scott. I pushed him to the wall with massive force and heard Michael running behind trying to call me down. Scott had already let his wolf take control of his body when he pushed me back and began punching me. I dodged a hit and sprung up to tackle him down by his legs. 

"DO NOT GO NEAR HER AGAIN' I growled and we were both wrestling on the floor by now. 

"GET OFF OF ME" Scott growled back.

I could sense the coaches were trying to tears us apart but it was no use. I tasted blood in my mouth and had heard a bone crack by now. Michael, Celeste, Alex, Cynthia and a couple of the other teammates were trying to pry us apart.  

"STOP NOAH STOP" I felt Cynthia's hands on me. Her and three teammates were trying to hold me down as Michael and Alex grabbed Scott. I finally stopped when Celeste had her hands on me. She was pulling me by the jersey trying to get me to safety. I let go of Scott and held on to her hands. Too many people were on tops of us trying to get us to stop for them to notice this. In that moment I could only feel her. Her hands were sending shock waves through my body as I held on to her. Our eyes only met for a second until I blacked out when Scott took a last good punch to my face. I still remember her delicate hands touching my arms, her worried facial expression, her scent...

Everything after the game was a blur. I was rushed to the emergency room with a severe concussion. The coaches and both headmasters kept threatening to expel us from school. My dad was beyond furious at me for starting the fight and my mom was disappointed. I had never seen them so upset. Only my sister Carla had asked why I’d done it. I wanted to tell her but I couldn’t answer her question. As loyal as she is, my sister could have not been able to keep that a secret.

After both headmasters reported the incident to alpha Sean and alpha Mathis, they let us off with a warning. I was beyond relived but I knew our pack couldn't afford getting punished again. That's why I had to avoid Celeste regardless of how I felt. It hurt to see her everyday but I had to keep us safe. At least this way, I knew she was safe.