The Alpha's Wolfless Breeder

Thirteen Graves

Mitchell's POV.

Some morning the sun rises like a promise, but painfully this was not one of those mornings.

The sky above the Moonbridge was the color of something bleeding to death. Like the heavens were allowed to be ashamed of what they had allowed to happen the night before.

I stood at my window and watched whatsoever above allowing it crawl upward and I absolutely felt nothing.

But the strangest part was that I was supposed to feel grief, a kind of grief that could press me down immensely but it was the exact opposite. A feeling of hollow emptiness, a silent shape of my mother's voice.

I had not slept. I sat on the edge of my bed in my ceremonial attire. Torn. Battered form while starting at the walls and ceiling as night gradually faded into morning.

And morning was here and my mother is still going. No early morning coming in to check on me. The weight of that in itself I couldn't put off my chest.

The smell of the sacred valley had always been the same as usual. Wet earth and grief.

One … two… three ….. twelve..

I had counted each grave in my empty fuzzy head…

These were young Omegas in the pack, young warriors and who stood at the pack borders while I performed my rite.

And the thirteenth grave. That was when I saw it. My mother's grave.

My throat closed so tightly that I couldn't breathe.

Mother's grave was at the edge of the valley. Where she had led the pack’s prayer every full moon as long as one can remember.

Even now like this, just like the way the burial ground was arranged, she was leading. Still ahead of everyone in what she does best.

The hollow pain in my heart grew as I watched her lowered into the ground, dirt covered part of the closed used in covering her.

Around me the pack pressed closed together from my father. To the pack elders. Even his Beta wasn't left out, his always strong face had dissolved into grief. Children buried their faces into their mother's side.

My father who stood with the other elders at the other side of the grave never once looked at me. Not during the walk down from the castle. Not during the elders' prayers or when the first shovel hit the ground to cover the grave.

Father stood perfectly straight, he didn't look at me for once. Of course he didn't have my backbone. Had been lowered there right in front of me in the grave.

I would have gone to meet him and pressed my head to his shoulder the way i had always done when I was young. But that was gone. Especially based on the catastrophic event that happened last night at the rite of my awakening. That I couldn't shift.

The sacred valley emptied slowly, I watched pack members drift back up the hill quietly. Some holding their hands. Others walk quietly and solitary.

Everyone left me. I stared painfully at my mother's grave. Weep dripping from eyes.

Thunder struck. Rain started falling.

Still I didn't move. I stretched my hand towards the grave. Like I should possess magical power big enough to raise up for her to follow me home.

“I… I'm… sooooryy mother…” I muttered the words, with an intense cry. The rain had been diluting the cry before it fell off. I waited beside her grace hoping that she would hear me and stand up and both of us would walk back to the palace and continue the way we have been doing.

I turned and walked to the palace. Dragging my wet boot on the floor. The intensity of the rain had increased, beating me hard from everywhere. I didn't even bother.

I had dragged myself into the palace… I didn't speak to anyone. I didn't have to.

I knew without mama everywhere was just stone. The whole place was quiet and empty just like where I was coming from.

Every part of the palace gave a perfect reflection of her presence. From the flower glass to the design on the wall.

My room is unbearable. The silence is loud and I laid on the bed crying all night. Their windows still look out at the same gray sky, I cannot stay there, I can't breathe there, so I leave.

I didn't know where I was going. But all I knew was that the organs in my legs were pushing me.

There I found myself at the courtroom door. They were thick and carved with the symbol of our pack like the wolf, the moon goddess.

I stood there before the thick door. I wrapped my hand against my chest.

Then I heard voices from the inside. Muffled at first. Then louder and angry.

My father's voice came through. Then some of the elders. They were talking about the burial. The rogues attack and most importantly me. Who couldn't turn to her wolf.

“Mitchell can't remain in the line of succession!”

The voice belongs to the elder Marik. I recognized that even if I was just woken up from sleep.

Elder Marik. That who had always looked at me in a cold way. Whispering to elders. He had always found fault in my presence in pack gatherings.

I have been telling my mother about it , but she had always pushed it aside saying, elder Marik held me in high esteem and always wanted me to carry myself in a way the pack would see me as the ideal Luna to lead the pack one day.

Here is it , he is doing the things he knows how to do best.

“ The Ashford bloodline is sacred!" I could hear his thick, intimidating voice resonating from the Court room through the thick door. " It is tied to the moonsword. It is tied to the protection wards that keep our borders strong.”

His voice came out raw, slicing through thin.

There lies a human girl, who couldn't shift, calling herself the heir!”

His voice came out raw. I held the helm of my garment like the only thing that keeps me breathing.

“This is highly preposterous and a big slap to the face of every ancestor who spilled their precious blood for this pack!”

Knees buckled, like the ground beneath me wanted to cave in. I tried to swallow but I couldn't.

I dragged my feet closer, my ears glued to the thick door.

" Her weakness allows those rogues to breach our borders… our bloody secured border…” Another voice countered, probably a woman, if my guess is right , Lady Voss. Lady Voss? The most fearsome woman in the council committee. Pack knows her as the iron lady, because of the fears she carries. “The rituals failed because she could not complete it. She couldn't retrieve the moon sword. The protection wards faltered because the bloodline was compromised. And twelve of our people are dead because of it.”

Her voice dropped like porcelain on a polished floor.

She was right. Lady Voss was right in all senses.

Twelve people died just because of my weakness. Disaster struck Twelve families all because I couldn't shift.

The thought cracked something inside of me. Living behind a hollow in my heart

“We must restore this pack!” Elder Marik countered, his voice louder than ever. Like he had a score to settle. “ Mitchell or whatever her name is called must be executed or banished immediately.

The word execution rammed into my ears. blinked severally… like it was a joke. I waited for someone to stand up against elder Marik that he has gone too far.

But no, laughs.

“ …Remove her from the line of succession and Alpha Garrison does have no option other than to step down. A stronger leader should enthrone, one whose heir can shift!”

I shifted, the door, the door, those plotting for my family downfall. Thankfully the door didn't creak, neither did it make the smallest noise.

“Please that enough,” Beta Hael’s cut through the room. He sounds tired and broken. “ Alpha Garrison just buried his mate this very morning. He had hardly had anything, he had not slept since yesterday's disaster … Why can't we show him some mercy? Let's show our family some mercy . Give him some time to grieve over his loss.”

“Time?” Lady Voss countered, with some demonic laughter, bouncing off the walls of the courtroom.

“Please stop! Stop right there… Beta Hael, I know is your superior to the throne… your accord respect to him… we too, “ she said raising her shoulders like she owns the floor, " but alpha Garrison can't hide the fact she didn't know that her shameless daughter couldn't shift since she was burned?

Noise resumed, it layered on top of one another. Then die down instantly.

I watched my father looking meek from the throne like a newly born pup who could only feed on his mother's breast milk. The power and finesse he once carried had disappeared through his skin. I watched dejectedly how these terrible elders were using their tongues to piece the skin and break the bones of my father into pieces.

I hated myself for this. Bringing this upon my father, not up to a day that I had hardly lost my mother.

“To crown it all,” Lady Voss continued with her verbal onslaught, “the rogues will return. They will see us now as weak and helpless, our border is porous. Every single day that human girl stays in the palace, gives our enemies a map straight to our heart.”

I curled my shaky fingers into a fist. Tears started falling off. I prevented this. We prevented this. But the stigma defied all solutions.

Then, Elder Marik's voice cut through like a sharp glass.

“By the law of the moon Bridge pack and the will of our ancestors, I call for a vote. Mitchell Ashford shall be stripped off her title, her home and her right to draw breath. All in favor?”

The roar of agreement shakes the doors. I closed my eyes, bit my lower lips, tears dripping off rapidly, waiting for the final words that would end me.