Russian Alpha Queen

03

The whole pack stood gathered in the large clearing separating the houses from the forest. Whispers filled the air as most the pack looked around excitedly, with the exception of a pair of males standing off to one side looking completely opposite those around them. Their faces were drawn into a scowl, and their choice in clothing (or lack thereof) indicated to everyone else that they would be shifting soon. While Alexi hadn't told anyone that the new Alpha was a female, word had spread from the handful of other people that had gone running when she howled. Needless to say, there were plenty of people who would not happy about Mila becoming Alpha. There had never before been a female Alpha, and a lot of people had already begun whispering about how her challenge wasn't valid as there hadn't been any witnesses.

The whispers immediately died however as Karine and Alexi followed closely behind the tall redhead who gracefully took a position in front of the pack. Mila's eyes moved around them all, narrowing on the pair of men standing to one side. She knew there'd be challengers, but she was surprised to see there only appeared to be the two.

"Thank you all for coming," Mila announced, her voice booming across the open area. "Many of you have not met me, so let me introduce myself. I am Alpha Mila Petrova, daughter of Alpha Michail Petrov and Luna Manya Petrova." Shocked gasps left the crowd as Mila continued, "I'd like to start this meeting off by making sure everyone knows what happened today. This afternoon, I killed Alpha Ivan. See for yourselves." Mila smiled at this point, reaching behind her back before quickly slamming something into the ground. More shocked gasps and whispers filled the air as the pack took in what it was. A large stick had been driven into the ground, and on it's exposed tip was Alpha Ivan's head, ripped clean from his body, a look of shock stuck on his face and the blood vessels in his eyes had burst, leading to the appearance that Ivan had been crying blood. Mila never took her eyes off the pair that clearly intended to challenge her, and her smile grew as the two men side stepped into the mass of wolves now staring at their Alpha in awe and admiration.

"Ivan took far too much from all of us," Mila began again, her eyes finally leaving her challengers to look at the rest of the pack. "Though I haven't been able to leave my room in a long time, the walls are thin and I heard much of our packs' loss. I'm sorry I was unable to help you then, but I aim to help you now. Things are going to change to improve conditions for all of us. As such, my first announcement is that there will be no more omegas." More gasps left the packs' mouths and Mila raised her hand in a gesture for silence, and the pack took a little longer but eventually settled.

"I understand this is a shock; as far as I know, no other pack has done something like this. But look at us, look around you. I see members from at least eight different packs. I see you all standing aside like we're still separate packs who united under Ivan's demand. How are we supposed to make a home and defend both it and our loved ones if we can't even love those we live with?" she asked. The crowd looked around at one another, realizing their Alpha was right. One look at those in front of her, and she'd figured out the unspoken dynamic in moments.

"We are going to unite as a pack, and we are going to unite Russia!" Mila yelled, looking around again. Many wolves looked like they were with her, but also confused, so Mila continued the speech she'd practiced in the shower. "There will never be another like Ivan. He took everything from you, and I understand your loss; he took everything from me too. I want all of us to come together and heal from what he's done to us. We will come back from the darkness that has enveloped us, and we will be so much stronger for it.

"We'll then take in the rest of Russia. I want to protect all of our brothers and sisters from sick men like Ivan, and the humans that continue to hunt us. We will bring them together and keep them safe. We will unite under one pack so that we may never know war or hate and destruction again. There will be no more orphaned children, no more slaves, no more slaughtering and mutilation of mates or family members. We will live in a time of peace and prosperity though we will be prepared to fight to defend it if need be. We can have a whole town with just wolves, with forests around it wide enough for the entire pack to run together. We can create a safe haven for us all to live safely with our families, and a wonderful place to bring our mates back to.

"Anyone who preferred Ivan's way of living may leave as rogues of their own free will. I will not harm you, and you may take a weeks worth of food and water with you as well." Mila continued. More eyebrows went up - it was unheard of for an Alpha to simply allow those unloyal to them to live, let alone give them supplies and tell them to leave. They were usually killed so they couldn't come back and cause problems later. "However if you choose to leave and come back for any reason, I will assume it is revenge and kill you on the spot," she added, her eyes narrowing once more.

"As for those of you from the original Petrov pack, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't stand up for you when I should have. I was a child and I was afraid. But never again will I be afraid. And if you put your trust in me, you'll no longer have to be afraid either. I have worked every day for six years, four months, and eighteen days to become strong for all of you. To free all of us and allow us to live our full lives free of fear or outside influence. I want all of us to have the chance to grow and thrive and be strong enough that no one will ever be able to take that away from us. I have a plan, and while some of you might think it foolish, it is what this pack is going to work to accomplish, and you may leave or die if you wish to go against it." The audience was completely silent as they stared at their Alpha. She had an air about her that was just so powerful, so confident, and so unwavering, that a majority of the pack already had their hearts behind her before she'd finished her speech.

The first to kneel was the original Petrov pack, much to Mila's delight. Two more packs kneeled at once, and the others fell suit. They could feel the tingle inside themselves as they bonded with their Alpha, their wolves all howling as one to welcome her, but noticing the lack of howl in response. Mila didn't miss the confused glances that were being thrown around, but she would get her wolf straightened out soon, she swore to herself.

In the end, there were only twenty or so people left standing off to one side, waiting for their promised rations before leaving. The two men from earlier standing amongst the rest of the pack members wore dark expressions, their eyes narrowed into slits as they growled at the Alpha. The field filled with growls in return which were quickly silenced by Mila growling herself. She stood her ground, nodding to the men to approach her.

"Are you with me?" Mila asked her wolf. But her wolf gave no reply, simply whimpering and creeping further into her mind. "Fine," she snarled at her wolf, enough rage dripping from that single word to cause her wolf to whimper again and put her tail between her legs. "I will do this on my own. But when I kill them both with my bare hands you will respect me as your Alpha, do you understand me?!" Her wolf let out another whimper at the same time the man closest to her spoke.

"I challenge you for the title of Alpha."

Mila's eyes trailed up and down the man before her. He had thick arm muscles, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and stood around six feet tall. Mila instantly knew she was in for a challenge. The man was definitely going to be a large wolf, and seeing as hers was taking a catnap, Mila was going to have to fight him in her human form.

This was far less than ideal.

"We don't need to fight to the death," Mila stated, showing a very un-Alpha like attitude towards the whole thing. It was meant to be a fight to death, as the old packs had done when first leaving Rome, and to many wolves her act of kindness could be mistaken as blasphemy.

"And dishonor the ways of our ancestors? Yes please, continue to show everyone why women make terrible Alphas. I want to make sure nobody in my pack gets any idiotic ideas like this one." Mila's eyes narrowed at the man. She saw his game. Even if he wasn't able to defeat her, he wanted to turn as many people against her as he could, simply because it hurt his ego. Pathetic.

"Then to the death it shall be. You may undress," she said, exaggerating the amount of confidence she really held. While she did have confidence in her fighting ability, there was the hard truth that if he got his jaws around her throat or a joint, it was game over on her end. He would easily be able to break her wrist or ankle, and Mila had to shake away the mental image of what would happen if he got to her soft throat.

"Aren't you going to? I heard you had no problem with everyone seeing you this morning, you slut," the man growled, spitting towards her feet with the last word.

Growls filled the field, but Mila raised her hand for silence and smirked back at her assailant. "I don't need to shift to kill some pathetic trash like you."

The man growled again, this time shifting into his wolf in the process and immediately jumping at her, a large paw aimed at her face. Mila quickly ducked back while stepping forward, one hand grabbing under his back leg and pushing up while the other shoved down on his neck, using his own momentum against him to flip the wolf onto his back. He shook his head in a daze as his back bounced off the hard ground, and he didn't have enough time to roll away as Mila's foot collided with the side of his head.

The wolf rolled to his feet this time and Mila stepped back, evaluating her opponent. The knock to the head had him looking slightly dazed, and his breathing was heavy after having the air knocked out of him. She needed to bait another attack and continue to tire him out.

"See, I told you I didn't need to shift to take out the trash." Another growl left the wolf's throat as he fell right into her play. He rushed at her again, this time making sure to keep his feet on the ground. Instead he snipped towards her right leg, but rather than stepping back like he'd hoped, Mila surprised him by using it to knee him in the face instead. His head snapped to the side a bit and Mila was quick to follow with a punch to his eye. To each eye actually. And an uppercut.

The wolf was having such a hard time trying to fight this girl. He'd never fought someone who stayed in their human form before. They were much more slender, hard to hit targets, and Mila was able to turn and reposition herself far faster than he was. Regaining his composure, he leapt towards her again, this time going for her side, thinking he saw an opening. He was right about that, but he didn't realize it was an opening Mila had purposefully left him. Quickly turning to her side, Mila let him glide just past where she'd previously stood, wrapping her arms around his throat and clasping her hands together. They barely connected and Mila started to worry her plan to finish this quickly wouldn't work.

Tightening her hold on his throat in one quick thrust, Mila planted her feet into the ground as hard as she could and heaved herself backwards. There was a chance for this move to bite her in the ass, but as she and the wolf fell towards the ground, she thought a quick prayer to the Twin Gods to help her out.

The wolf struggled to free himself, but it was impossible. His wolf body wasn't made for maneuvers like this, and as Mila wrapped one of her legs around his and pushed with all her might, he found he just couldn't roll off of her. Squeezing tighter, Mila could feel the wolf's breathing continue to weaken as he thrashed around trying to free himself. He tried to shift, tried to return to a human form so there'd be some semblance of hope that he would live through this. His mind didn't even think about how he would counter attack. He was in fight or flight mode, wishing desperately to survive, and too panicked to try and calm his wolf at all. All that ran through his mind was death and fear. His vision blurred further, and the sounds of the hammering hearts around him began to fade away as his thrashing lessened.

Mila simply squeezed to her full capacity and felt the wolf's breathing cut off completely. Still she laid there for a good minute or two, making sure the wolf was dead as she felt his muscles relax, her breath almost as heavy as the mass of flesh above her. After catching her breath, Mila huffed and shoved the wolf off her, it's weight hitting the hard ground with a distinctive thud.

The whole field was quiet for a few moments after that. It was like everyone collectively forgot how to breathe as their eyes bulged out of their heads in the direction of their Alpha. Calmly Mila stood, dusting off her clothes and shooting a large smile at her pack. She had done it! She'd defended her pack even without her wolf. Speaking of...

"So what did you think?" she asked her wolf tauntingly.

"That was amazing! I didn't think it could be done. I've never thought of a human using our own bodies against us like that. Where did you learn it?"

"When I was a child my mother and I took Brazilian Ju Jitsu together; a big part of their teachings was to use your opponents weight against them and strike when they open themselves up. It works quite nicely against wolves who aren't expecting it."

Mila was then pulled from one of the first real conversations she'd had with her wolf in years by the thunderous harmony of cheers and howling that came from her pack. Karine and Alexi were the first to reach her before a huge crowd formed around her. Hundreds of voices swirled through her ears as everyone rushed to congratulate their Alpha on her unbelievable victory.

A smile danced on Mila's lips. This was her pack, and she was their Alpha. She didn't expect that tiny statement to make her feel so good.