The Childless Alpha

Introductions

My name is Alice, and I am the next Alpha of the White Moonstone Pack. I know what you're thinking, I'm a girl and girls generally aren't named as the pack's next Alpha once their parents resign. Well, unfortunately for my parents, I was the only pup my mother was able to carry and eventually give birth to. My parents love me regardless, and have been raising me to take over as Alpha once Dad decides it is time for them to retire. However, I feel as though they wouldn't love me anymore if I told them my deepest, darkest secret. You're probably wondering what secret the daughter of the Alpha and Luna could be hiding from their parents that could make them hate their only daughter. Well, it's simple really. I don't want pups of my own.

I'll let that sink in for a moment.

The future leader and Alpha of the White Moonstone Pack does not want pups of her own.

This means that the Alpha bloodline of the White Moonstone Pack would essentially end with me, and I would produce no heirs. My parents would be furious if they knew this.

Regardless, I have never felt the maternal instinct that my fellow pack members have felt. Once, in a pup-raising class we are required to undertake at school, I had to hide my disgust for the fake baby-doll looking freak and pretend that I enjoyed every minute of playing mummy and gushing about how I couldn't wait until I had pups of my own with the rest of my classmates. My wolf, Storm, would laugh at me in my mind. She too did not want pups, but took great pleasure in having to watch me fake it. Storm may seem like a bit of an asshole, but she means well.

"Better you than me, kid," she would laugh in the back of my mind, "Good luck keeping this up when we find our mate."

I usually just told her to shut up and stop talking about it, however the comment about our mate always made me wonder - what would happen when we found our mate? Would he want to have pups of his own and expect me to fall at his feet at the idea? Or would he too not feel the paternal instinct and not want pups of his own?

"Surely the Moon Goddess wouldn't be so cruel," I replied to Storm, doubting my own words, "It wouldn't make sense for the Moon Goddess to pair us with someone who is the complete opposite to us... right?"

Naturally, Storm would scoff at me, mumble something about how "opposites attract" and then she would essentially curl up and go back to watching me try not to squirm in front of the pack I was set to lead one day.

Anyway, I don't want this whole 'lack-of-wanting-pups' situation to define me, I want to tell you about my life, training to become Alpha Female, my studies and shifting.

At this stage, I am currently 25 years old and am returning home to my pack after completing my law degree.

Usually after high school, wolves would settle into roles within their pack, however we do things differently over here at White Moonstone. The Alpha and Luna - mum and dad, I should say - encourage all the young wolves to go and pursue higher education once they complete high school. It's something that has been happening as long as I can remember in our packs history - we attend a high school that is located near our pack which is attended to by members of our pack as well as the neighbouring packs, but then we are encouraged to complete further education at schools that are mixed with normal humans.

As for high school, it runs like your normal human high school for the most part. The only difference is we have classes that help train us for fighting and we have to learn about being wolves and shifting. Aside from that, we run a curriculum very similar to human high schools, which is good since we are able to receive marks that will allow us to continue higher education with the humans and we don't stick out too much when we do.

As for being the only child of the leaders of this pack, my parents began to train me on how to run this pack alongside my studies. During the day, I would attend school and get a relatively normal education, then instead of homework I would come home and my training as Alpha would begin. I suppose that I should be lucky that I am part of a quite progressive pack - most wouldn't train their only female to be Alpha. They would either ask the Beta or Gamma's son to become the Alpha, or they would wait for their daughter to find her mate who would become Alpha of their pack. My parents never saw any reason why I couldn't be Alpha, and they wanted to make sure that they did everything they could to prepare me to run this pack. They never once said that my future mate would take over and run the pack as Alpha. They said they had complete confidence that I could handle running the pack and would not need to hand it over to someone else.

"But remember honey," dad used to remind me whenever he got the chance, "Your mate is your equal, your other half, and they will be there to support you, as you are to support them."

"And to help provide us with grand-pups!" mum would always interject with a sincere smile. Over the years I learnt to hide my disgust at the thought of having my own pups. They would never forgive me if I didn't.

Last but not least - shifting! It varies from pack to pack, but at our pack, our wolves seem to start talking to us at a young age, sometimes as young as 10. It can be quite daunting, but they cover this in school so that young pups don't think there's something wrong with the voice in their head. However, we don't complete our first shift until we are 16. The shift itself is very painful the first time, as it's quite new, but our wolf is there to talk us through it.

There's not much to say about my first shift. It felt as though all the bones in my body were breaking, even though Storm reassured me that this was natural and would eventually pass. At the time, I didn't believe her, and I said some few choice words to her at the time, which looking back, was not my finest moment.

When my first shift was complete, I found myself looking into the eyes of a fluffy, white wolf with dark brown eyes. That was the first time I got to meet Storm in her proper form, and despite the pain, it is a fond memory that I have.

After that, shifting became less painful and I was able to join the rest of the pack on their pack runs, as well as training in my wolf form. It also felt amazing for Storm to be able to run in the forest and be herself for a while.

I think this is enough background. Let's get on with the story of my life after higher education and returning to the pack after being away for five years. Don't worry, I came back and visited, but it's not the same as living there.