THE BLOOD OATH

ASTERA GODDESS! It’s my 23rd birthday and I’m not feeling it… I am simply not in the mood of celebrating my stupid birthday for several reasons, but mostly because this date is associated with the sudden disappearance of my father, Ivan, the Alpha of the Blackmoon pack, my birthday is associated with the almost death of my mother because my father broke the bond between them, also, I almost died a few times, on my birthday…. Oh! And not to mention the unspoken urgency to find my mate so I can stop being the Alpha of the pack to become a great Luna like I was always meant to be… I am Astera Black, the Alpha of the Blackmoon Pack, the strongest and the largest Wolf Pack of Europe. Let I start from the beginning… YES, I am ALPHA of a pack, not a Luna, because I did not find my fated mate blah blah blah, (nor I will NEVER settle with a chosen mate) and on my 18th birthday, I officially became the ALPHA of the Blackmoon Pack. It was like yesterday when I was just 10 years old when my father broke the mate bond with my mother, Luna Ella, and left her for an elven Queen named Sierra… indeed, my mother was not his fated mate, the one chosen by the Moon Goddess herself for my father, but he was the one who fell in love with her, mated her, marked her, made me, and then dismissed her to run away with his fated mate. I know… What a story! Since then, his closest friend and the Beta of the pack, Tony Gold, stepped in the provisional role of regent Alpha, he trained me ruthlessly, he wanted me to be the strongest she-wolf and to overcome the fact that I, a female, want to take an Alpha position. Even though it was hard, I am grateful for his training and support. (also, this support might have been because I always thought that he secretly loved my beautiful mother, Ella, the Luna of the Pack, but I will come back later about this subject). So, fast-forwarding my sad life, at my 18th birthday, momma stepped out from the role of Luna, I had the passage rite, and Tony and the Elders passed me through the ceremony the well-deserved role of Alpha of the Blackmoon Pack, hoping that I would choose his stupid son, John, as my mate and with that, Johnny would become the Alpha of the pack and I would become his Luna. Ha-ha! What a joke! Over my dead body, I would choose Johnny! My dislike for him goes waaaaaaay beyond since we were kids and I first notice his cowardly nature. OF COURSE, the Elders were not on board at first with the idea of having me, a small female, as an Alpha, but my inner strength (and my pure alpha lineage) convinced them that I was the only option for leading this pack – my pack. Since I became Alpha, my pack increased in size 5 times and became the biggest and richest werewolf pack in Europe, and the second biggest pack from all the Realms, after the Alpha King Albert’s Royal Pack. So you see, big responsibility on my small shoulders. Yes, this is another matter from which discussions and contempt emerged in my pack, my f*****g size… I’m “too small” for a werewolf, as I’m 5’2 feet tall and 110 pounds and the average she-wolf is like 5’8 ft tall… I had to overcome my height “situation” with hard work, strength, agility, intelligence, strategy, (long story short, I had to work 3 times harder than any other Alpha male in any other realm to win the well-deserved respect I have today from almost everyone) and even though I was the youngest pup to have ever shifted (I first force-shifted at my 8th birthday, shifting usually – in Alphas – occurs around the age of 13-14th and in others, around 15-16th birthday – so I force-shifted to survive the attack of a rogue vampire beast who almost pull out the heart from my chest. Even today I have a mark left on my chest, right above my left boob, where the largest rogue vampire I have ever seen, tried to rip my heart out with some goddamn magical knife soaked in who knows what poison that prevented my natural healing ability from healing the cut fast and so I remained with a pretty big scar). Everyone outside my pack knows me as a ruthless b***h and almost everyone respects me, and those who do not respect me, they fear me, but above all, my pack loves me dearly and respects me because they feel how much I care about them and how I would do anything for them, including, at some point, if I do not find my fated mate, considering about choosing a mate… GODDESS! Only the thought of choosing someone I do not love and it’s not fated for me, makes me sick. Knock knock – someone knocking on my office door breaks my thoughts and redirects my attention in the present moment. - “Yes?” I answered lightly. - “Alpha Astera, can I come in?” says my father’s former Beta, Tony Gold, as he stood in the doorway. - “Yes, of course.” Thanks to my Alpha senses, I could smell the anxiety on him. He was not the nervous type, and smelling that amount of stress, made me build up tension. “What is the matter?” I asked. As I was looking at his long face, I realized that I know that face, it is the face that will give me stupid news before breakfast and that will ruin my morning… - “Well, your Beta, Dina… is… well…” he said stumbling and mumbling, which was not at all like him… - “TELL ME NOW!” I asked in a demanding tone, and without even using my Alpha voice, I inspired fear and I saw him involuntary bending his head in an act of submission to my command. - “Well, she was found at the border with RedMoon Pack, wounded and unconscious,” said Tony as his fear started to show off in his trembling voice. - “Where is she now?” I asked calmly, which only added to his already increasing terror. “She is in the medical wing, the doctors are taking care of her as we speak…” said to me in an almost whispering tone. I linked my Gamma, Michala, to join me, and I ran to the medical wing. You see, Dina was not only my Beta, but she was also one of the strongest, and one of the largest she-wolves I have ever seen, not to mention that she was my best friend and like a sister to me. Of course, electing her as my Beta, and not the former Beta’s son, Johnny Gold, raised some questions, but none displayed contempt, not even Johnny. She was a true warrior, she came from a long line of Betas and she deserved the role as my Beta. The fact that someone tried to harm her made my blood boil with anger. She and my Gamma were my best friend since we were born, the only ones who stood by my side when the times were hard and the whole world stood against me. Alongside them, I also had another smart and visionary she-wolf named Olympia as a friend and as my Delta. I’ve meet Olympia 5 years ago. She was a prisoner in Vampire King Edric’s Castle for some time, and when the War came, I found and released her from the dungeon that crazy animal was keeping her. She proved to be very loyal and trustworthy. To be honest, a lot of beings believe that because of me and my team, the Vampire war ended. Thanks to my negotiation and warfare skills and my pack’s support, we manage to come to a deal with vampires, a deal that ended the war. But this is the subject of another story. So, 3 years ago, at my Alpha ceremony, Dina became my Beta, Michala my Gamma, and Olympia my Delta. I kept Tony as my adviser until he would want to “retire”. With my unusual she-wolves gang, we manage to increase the size of the pack five times, to open our borders, to encourage trade between realms, to encourage and improve communication and collaboration between species, to increase our wealth, to bring justice amongst all races and abolish rank-ist mating between wolves. Not to mention putting an end to the Vampire War. Our reform changed the dynamics between realms and these were just some of the many reasons why I was well respected, against the fact that I broke the unspoken rule and I became an Alpha Female, refusing to accept an arranged mating and waiting for my chosen mate to appear. - “How is she?” I calmly asked the poor agitated nurse who tried to put an I V on her with some hydration liquids and fairy cures. - “I… I hmmm… I think ss…she will rrr…recover.” said the soft trembling voice of the nurse. - “She is very strong and she… she already started to hh-heal, but the process is slowed down by the w-w-wolfsbane that was given to her.” I could feel the insecurity in her voice. She did not believe it, but I knew that Dina would recover… she must! My heart started to ease at the feeling of her recovering fast and easily, my nerves calmed, and with that, my Alpha aura started to retract. “Who dared to attack our Beta?” I heard my wolf, Saradi, pacing around my mind, still agitated. “I will rip his head off and I will not even blink” – she said as she let out a loud growl. She hated to kill, but she will do so without a trace of remorse if needed. It is said that the wolf is one with the man, it is part of our soul, part of our consciousness, part of our everything. It is our primal nature, our raw nature, it is we as we are, it represents our naked soul in front of the Moon Goddess and our true selves in front of the pack. My wolf was quite small for an Alpha, mostly because Alphas are only males and they naturally are much bigger than she-wolves. To be honest, my wolf was a bit small even for a female, although she was much bigger than you might expect from my physique because you see – there is a proportion that it is respected: small human – small wolf; big human – big wolf. I was indeed small, but my wolf was much bigger and stronger than me. She was fierce, the bravest of them all, very agile, feisty, smart, funny, and very beautiful. Her fur was chocolate brown, just like my hair, and in the middle of her forehead, she had a small golden star-shaped patch of fur. Her eyes were caramel-brown, and sometimes they would look like wildfire. I loved her deeply and I could not imagine my life without her. She always had my back and she always gave me good advice. She was pretty wise for someone so short-tempered at times. “We will figure this out, love, don’t worry. Nobody messes with MY BETA and gets away with it” I told to Saradi as she started to cool down.