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Camilla POV:
A great terror rules these lands, a terror by the name of Lennox Steele, Son of late Alpha Steele, Alpha to the Dark moon pack.
After usurping his father’s throne at the age of 15, Fifteen, when boys should be learning to hunt, to laugh, to dream. But Lennox was no boy. He was something darker, something stitched together with evil. He became a tyrant that all men feared. The young master took it upon himself to waste these lands and kill whatever stood in his way.
They whisper of him in the night, his name crawling across packs like disease.
They tell of His mother who was banished from the pack for infidelity, sent to roam the earth as a weeping woman, her tears endless for her sins.
They tell of his mate, gifted by the moon goddess when he turned eighteen. A gift he slaughtered with his own hands. A mate most wolves would die to protect,he killed. He said she made him weak.
And for that, the moon goddess cursed him. Cursed him to never know peace, cursed him to suffer until he found a second chance.
The only issue is that Lennox thrived in his punishment, he made ruins of several packs who didn’t meet his expectations and tonight, he has reached out doorstep.
My name is Camilla Easton, Daughter of Alpha Easton of the Blue ridge pack and I just turned eighteen.
With the plague of Alpha Lennox, a girl child has been mostly desired among these lands.
Each pack is to present the fairest of all ladies as his bride but if she failed to meet his criteria then she would be killed. The pack would be destroyed and what is left would submit to Alpha Lennox.
I’m seated in my room wearing a white dress as we await the presence of Alpha Lennox,
I hear my mother’s sobs through the heavy wood of my door. My father’s voice follows, deep but trembling, trying to soothe her.
“She is not ready. I don’t want to lose my baby,” my mother wails.
“It’s going to be fine,” my father whispers back, though his voice betrays him. He knows it’s not fine. None of this is fine.
But he tries his possible best to calm his frightened heart.
Truth is, I am scared too, my hands are sweaty and my body shivering. I press my hands to my lap, but they shake, my fingers are cold too. Fear runs through me like fever.
It’s the reason why I have locked myself up in my room until I was needed, I could see the fires from the houses at the borders of the pack, it was Lennox’s doing.
“Do something Honey” My mother pleads, sounding desperate. My father is quiet, he knows that if he did anything or dare fight against Alpha Lennox then the whole pack would be destroyed, down to the last child.
To fight Lennox is to invite the death of every man, woman, and child in our pack.
It was his duty as the Alpha to present his only daughter as the sacrifice, to save his people.
“They are here” a guard hurried towards my father,
I tried to rise, though my legs scream weakness, though every part of me begs to stay hidden. But I cannot. I calmly stood from my seat and walked towards the door, I took a deep breath.
I open the door, the sight of my mother’s tear-streaked face shattering something within me. My father’s hand finds mine, steadying me though I feel him tremble too. Together we walk down the hall. My white dress brushes the stone floor.
When we step into the great hall, my breath leaves me.
There, at the center, stands a man cloaked in black robes lined with silver. He is older, mid-thirties perhaps, his gaze sharp, assessing. But it is not him my eyes linger on.
It is the figure beside him.
Tall and Broad. Muscles stretching his shirt like it could rip apart at any moment. His jaw carved in lines, his dark hair falling in strands. My blood freezes. Could this be him? Could this be Alpha Lennox?
The robed man’s voice spake.
“Come forward.”
I took three steps away from my father and towards him,
I stop before them, and the man circles me like a wolf stalking his prey. His eyes crawl across my body, strip me bare without a single touch. His fingers adjust the rims of his glasses as if to see me better. Then, suddenly, he tugs at the edge of my blouse, pulling the fabric just low enough to reveal the swell of my cleavage then he massaged my breasts.
No idea if that was necessary but I cannot stop him.
He has more power over me and could do what he wanted in the name of Alpha Lennox.
Truth is, being a girl child was a curse in these lands, your life is never yours, we were made for one singular purpose.
Alpha Lennox.
I have heard of mothers killing their girl child at birth, some give them scars that would never fade just to ruin their chances of being with Alpha Lennox.
Even those who had already found their mate were not spared.
Even though my mother denies it, I was told that she tried to kill me too, the minute I was born.
Whether I am accepted or rejected, it still means death. No one wants to be mated to a man cursed by the moon goddess.
The man in front of me sighs, bringing me out of my reverie, he moves back a bit and whispers the one word I have dreaded all my life.