CHAPTER 1
OLIVIA
“The Southmoon warriors are here! Everyone, get in your houses!” I heard someone announce loudly from a distance that evening, and my immediate response was complete shock and panic.
I was far from my house as I had wandered deep into the woods to hunt for animals which would serve as my dinner for the night, and now I was caught up in an attack.
I gathered my makeshift bow and arrows, standing up from my spot and alerting the deer enough for them to run away.
I ran in the general direction of my pack, trying hard to stop my feet from making too much sounds, but it was almost inevitable as my feet crushed the dry leaves underneath my feet.
Werewolves had extremely sensitive hearing. If any one of them was close by, they would have caught on to the fact that I was there, and I was probably being followed for all I knew.
By the time I got to the pack, I heard shouts coming from the town, where my house was located.
“No, no, no,” I chanted, hiding behind a tree and panting as I caught my breath.
If I got into the town with the decision to sneak into my house, it would only be a suicidal mission as my house was still deep in town, and the warriors were definitely around.
I gasped as I heard the sound of a twig snapping.
I grabbed one of my arrows and aimed it in the direction.
“Who’s there?” I questioned. “Come on out!”
At my challenge, I saw someone’s silhouette appear from behind a tree.
“I’m harmless. I’m just a servant of Alpha August,” the person responded, and I could see her lift her hands in the air to further prove that she was harmless.
The Alpha’s house wasn’t very far from where we were. If she knew just the right time to run and the right places to hide whenever she heard or saw something suspicious, she could make it back in one piece.
“Who are you?” I heard her question as she got closer, but I refused to lower my bow and arrow just yet. I had heard too many tales of werewolves who took the sides of Southmoon and betrayed their own people for their benefit.
“I’m Olivia, a pack member,” I replied.
“My name is Victoria,” she introduced, taking the tip of my arrow and lowering it. “You can’t go into town, Olivia. The warriors have gotten in there, and so have our soldiers. There’s a huge fight.”
“What do you suggest I do? Sit here and wait it out, possibly even get killed?” I whispered when another scream came from the town.
“You should wait it out, yes, unless you’re brave enough to walk into the town and challenge the warriors of Southmoon Pack.”
With that she turned towards the Alpha’s house in the distance and started making her way there, lowering her body so she couldn’t be easily seen by anyone out there.
“Victoria?” I called, my voice shaky from fear.
She stopped, luckily, and turned towards me. Even through the mild darkness, I could see that she had a frown on her face.
“Take me with you, please—”
“To the Alpha’s house during a battle? Are you trying to have me killed? Absolutely not,” she scoffed, turning around and hurrying forward in her bid to get away from me and the battle as fast as she could.
Relentless, I picked up the rest of my arrows and followed behind her.
“If you do not stop following me, I swear I will implicate you and get you killed by the warriors who might be hiding out there and bloodthirsty,” she threatened.
I stopped, but I didn’t give up on trying to get her to take me with her.
“Do you really think the Alpha would be impressed by you letting one of his pack members die for no cause? You can put me in the servants' quarters for the night, and I won’t make a sound. By tomorrow, when this is all over, I’ll leave like I was never there. Please, Victoria.”
Victoria stared at me as she pondered, possibly on whether she could trust me or not, then she blew a breath.
“Come with me. Follow my every step. By tomorrow morning, as soon as dawn hits, you will leave. If you mention this to anyone, I will not be the only one dying, and I’ll make sure of that. Do you understand?”
I didn’t need to say a word. I just nodded, and that was all it took for her to turn around and keep sneaking towards the Alpha’s house.
By the time we reached the Alpha’s house, we got in through the back door and into the servants’ quarters, where Victoria shoved me into her room as soon as possible, hiding my bow and arrows inside her closet.
“What do you even do with these things? Did you really think they would work on those warriors?” She grunted as she pushed the arrows into the closet. I flinched as I heard snaps of wood; a sure sign that some – if not all – of the arrows were being broken by her use of force.
“I use them to hunt for deer,” I corrected her, and this seemed to stun her more than the idea of me using them against the Southmoon warriors.
“Why don’t you just shift into your werewolf form and hunt like the others?” she questioned.
“I just do it the way I prefer,” I shrugged.
After a while of examining me, she sighed and pointed to a separate door in the room. “That’s the bathroom. Freshen up while I go find you something to eat, fall asleep when you’re done eating, and I’ll wake you up tomorrow.”
~~
All of my arrows were broken, and Victoria was practically pushing me out of the Alpha’s house and telling me not to look back or even act like I knew where the Alpha’s house was located.
“What about my arrows—”
“I might make it up to you, I’m sorry!” As she succeeded in getting me out through the back door, she slammed the door, and I was left alone with the cold and quiet air of the morning.
I rounded the house and walked towards the front of the house which led to path of my house, but at the corner, my face hit someone’s chest, and I grunted as I was thrown back.
Before I could fall against my butt, I was caught by the man I had bumped into.
I held on to his hands to keep myself steady.
“Are you okay?” He questioned, causing me to look up and see who he was.
I gasped when my chest constricted at the sight of the man in front of me.
It felt like the air suddenly changed and the wind brought only his scent of freshness into my nostrils.
His eyes widened as though he was also realizing what had just happened.
This man standing in front of me was my mate. Then, I started to realize that his shock started to morph into horror, as if the mate bond had to be a mistake and it wasn’t supposed to happen.
As soon as I started to notice the change in him, I heard someone call out to him, but not in the way I expected someone else to call my own mate.
“My love, what’s going on?”
I turned in the direction of the woman who had called my own mate her love, and my eyes trickled down to her stomach, which was very noticeable – she was pregnant.