The Betrayed Alpha And The Cursed King

Chapter 1

Alara's POV

Relief did not sweeten the night as the air was filled with grief. Silvermoon Pack mourned for my father, the Alpha who just lost his life to a brief sickness.

After the funeral ceremony, dangerous whispers snaked within the pack.

I couldn't hear my own people talk about me with so much distain and hatred.

“She doesn’t deserve to lead.” Someone said.

“We’ll be cursed if she becomes Alpha.” Another person said.

“A half-breed like her? Never.”

The things they said were whispered into the wind and cut me with the harshest of every breath I drew. Of course, I was hurt, angry and pained but I was able to control my anger, feeling very embarrassed and I wanted.

My father had told me to never bow my head in shame, that I am the daughter of the Alpha. It bothered me that he was no longer around because their hatred towards me made me feel like they have the power to chain me.

Their rejection engulfed me as I walked through the village square. My shoulders were heavy with their derision, my chest physically screamed, my heart was a sore, a wound. I was the daughter of the Alpha but all they could see was the witch she got from her mother. A half-breed. A threat to all the things they have known to be sacred.

I said nothing more to them but as I walked back home, I could hear more whispers.

“She’ll never be Alpha.”

But you will not dispossess us of such nonsense if you have an iota of control over your life.

“As she is the follower of her mother – a curse for this pack.”

The words cut through me like sharper knife like words that one doesn’t expect to hear from their lover let alone a close friend. I just continued walking, and would not allow them to see the tears welling up at the back of my eyes. Anyway, there was one thing that I couldn’t avoid looking into and no matter how I tried to avoid it, the information was obvious. They didn’t want me.

In front, the Council was in its meeting chamber, its members muttering in hushed tones. I realized they were planning for the pack, for me, for what I am to become. Whether I would be able to claim my position of the Alpha and become a leader or they would discard me as they always wished for the pack to do.

I paused on the border of the square, the light of the fires providing erratic illumination to the walls. I stopped breathing momentarily as my mind registered the words the man had just uttered. To have my father die, loathe from tha pack, and unsure of my future, all seemed to fold me up and crush me at the same time.

“Alara.”

He whispered and yet his voice seemed to cut through the stifled oppressive atmosphere. I chanced a glance upwards only to find Cal a little further up the path staring at me with worried dark eyes. The first one was his companionship which was a ray of hope in a world that seemed to be spinning black and above taking me with it.

I automatically began walking to him, as if my legs had a will of their own and were heading straight for the only person who didn’t seem to consider me a disaster. The one person who had never left me, did not betray me, did not ignore me even in the worst of all moments when the whole world was against me. Cal hugged me tightly his arms enveloped me like a blanket keeping off the icy vengeance within the eyes of the crowd and on Cecil’s lips.

“They are going to steal it from me,” I murmured so low that I could barely hear myself say the words to him. “They don’t want me to be Alpha.”

His arms went around me and for a second, I could feel how safe it would be to stay in his arms and let everything be alright.

This is where he went wrong.

“Alara,they do not have any idea of what they are discussing. You’re the rightful heir. No one can change that.”

Part of me wanted to accept this, to be warmed by his conviction, but there was that nagging something that refused to let go. “They see me as a curse. A half-breed. They’re afraid of what I am.”

Cal slightly took his face back, just to gaze into my eyes and he had the look of pure determination on his face. “You’re not a curse. You are the daughter of the Alpha, and you will be the Alpha for them as well. They can’t take that from you.”

I looked for trust in his eyes, as much as I desired to see he was speaking the truth, the fear had a choke hold on me. “What if they’re right? What if I’m not enough?”

The unusual intensity in his message overwhelmed me – perhaps because of his blunt delivery of the subtlety of the words, his palms gripping my shoulders, “You are more than enough.”

His conviction was a salve to the ragged edge of pain I felt, it shored up the fear and doubt that had a choke hold on me. Cal was still present, was still confident with me even when confidence was the only thing I lacked. He put in me something I barely could see in myself.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” becoming physical, I locked my hands around his biceps and leaned into him, actually wanting to hold on to him to prevent the evil from seeping in.

“You’ll never have to find out,” he whispered and gently touched my lips with his own.

It was, however, a tender kiss, and for the first time after my father’s demise, I embraced the speck of light. It may have been somewhat subtle, short-lived, but it was there, somewhere within me, this feeling awakened. Perhaps, with this man named Cal, the hatred of the pack may be left far behind.. Perhaps I have the right to be what was always meant to be mine?

Though these characters have some quiet moments of respite The calm is quickly broken.

“I have to go home,” I muttered, stepping back from the young man who was steadily becoming incredibly dear to me. “I need some time to think.”

He smiled.

“Do you want me to walk you back?”

“No,” I said neutrally, though I managed to smile at him. “I’ll be fine. I just need some space.”

Ca­l looked unsure, conflicted but quickly assented. “Alright. Just… be careful.”

“I will.”

Kissing him goodbye,I pulled myself away and walked down the narrow corridor that would lead me to my father's home. The wind was bitter and stagnant and the noises of the village diminished behind me only the sound of the rustling leaves.

It was pitch dark. The evening enveloped me like a blanket and the only source of light was the moon to lighten the forest trail. Attempts to free my mind, to see what would come next, were in vain; the burden of everything – hatred of the pack, the looming start of the Council, the absence of my father – was as oppressive as fog.

I sat staring off and was suddenly distracted by something.

A figure.

I froze.

It stayed by the trees, hidden in the dark, but to me there was something about how it walked, how it held its body.

I blinked and my heart leaped and pounded in my chest. Then the figure stepped forward and the air went thick in my throat as I registered who was standing in front of me.

“Mother?”

There was my late mother, Lily with copper hair blowing in the night with her violet eyes shining in the moon lit night.

The woman before me resembled her to the last detail: stocky, majestic, and delicate, as though she was materialized from mist.

“Mother?” I murmured softly and took one tiptoe closer. My brain went into overdrive as I could know longer fully grasp what was happening. How could this be? She had been dead for years.

But she didn’t respond. She just stood there, her face a mask of neutrality, and her eyes on me as if she was expecting something.

I had started to say something in terms of refusal but before I could say something she disappeared.

Gone, like mist in the wind.

I wanted to move but I couldn’t, my heart pounded in my chest as I looked around and saw that she was no longer there.

Had I imagined it? Or had I truly seen her?

This dark night felt like it was closing in on me and I can feel the chill crawling down my back.

I wasn’t alone anymore.