Rival Alphas

Chapter Three

(FIVE YEARS AGO)

MIRABEL REDFORD

Everyone has gotten their wolves, but not me. I am the freak of the pack. The alpha's daughter was born on the wrong day. Well, by the wrong mother, I must add!

I don't know why Dad accepted this but I am sure it has to do with mom. She hates me now more than ever.

When we left the pack to find someone to help me get my wolf, Mom unashamedly told me, "die for all I care if you don't get your wolf."

I have pushed that back. How could I not when Dad has made this journey fun?

The night falls upon us. We are now far away from the White Moon Pack.

Dad looks back and then at me. His face tells me more. Dad is proud of me because I haven’t complained. “Mirabel, I am so proud of you, my child. Indeed, you will be the best alpha of all alphas.”

I hug him, and he squeezes me so hard I have to tap him on the back as if we are at a training ground, “dad, both you and I know I don’t have a wolf. If you don’t pull away, I will suffocate and die.”

“Silly, how is that related to me hugging you?”

“Dad.” I cough. “You have to let go, yeah?”

Dad does, he asks me to keep up the good fight, and very soon we shall rest. We enter a forest and go deeper, for three hours we walk and walk. I am surprised Dad knows his way around here. I would have loved to come here with him so we could play hide and seek.

Get out of the damn gutter, Mirabel.

Dad places down our bags, yeap, I gave him because he constantly kept asking me if the bag was heavier, as if I picked a rock and put it inside while he wasn’t looking.

He offers me some biscuits made by my dear mom, and I accept them. “Eat the biscuit Mirabel, I have a great sense of scent and I would know where you have hidden it.”

Mom doesn’t know how to cook, and whenever she does and my dad brings it to me so we would celebrate together, I would hide it. Seriously, I have no idea why the woman keeps trying to be the best mate when she is a pure devil.

“I will be right back,” Dad tells me, I shake my head, and he leans down and kisses my forehead. “I am going to look for some woods, take care of our bags, yeah?”

“Dad!” I whine.

*

It has been thirty minutes since dad left to search the firewood, I can’t believe I didn’t notice he hadn’t come back. Who would blame me when I was busy staring at the biscuit wondering why dear Luna Debra hates me?

Sometimes, well, most of the time, I spend my time wondering what it would be if mom showed even a tiny bit of affection towards me, and whenever I do, I will get lost inside my head trying to come up with a day she told me she loved me or even showed.

Trust me, even for the little years I have lived, I can’t come with a second dear Debra did.

I shake my head and stand, and for the first time, I finish the damn biscuit. It is as hard as a rock, what did the woman bake it with? I wipe my hand on my dress, apart from the biscuit being hard, it was as oily as f**k.

You can think she dropped herself in the oil and come out with the dough.

Mirabel Redford, dad isn’t here. I shake my head and start calling for dad. “Dad, where are you?”

It is nighttime, and since I don’t have my wolf yet, I can’t see. I keep calling as I guess my way where I saw him heading. “Dad, you are scaring me,” I say, my words choking on my throat. Why am I scared when he is the alpha?

“Dad,” I call again. I hear a squeaky sound, and I follow it. I call repeatedly, my heart accelerating. I am petrified.

For what feels like an eternity, dad calls my name. But no, it is not the same commanding tone I am used to hearing back at the pack. It is broken, intimidated even. Dad can’t be scared, Alpha Redford is powerful, and whenever he commands, every werewolf trembles.

“Mirabel, behind you.” Dad says.

“Dad, where are you? I can’t see.” I claim.

Oh, f**k! At times like this is when I realize why mom hates me for not having my wolf.

“Right,” Dad says. Right, what? Right as in okay or right the direction?

I don’t know. I repeat stupidly, “dad, I can’t see you.”

“Move to the right,” Dad says. I don’t. Instead, like the brainless baboon I am, I move to the left. It is not like I am not good with direction, it is just that some of us are never lacking bad luck. I come face to face with blue glowing eyes, a panic shriek escapes my lips. My dad screams, “don’t hurt my child.”

Panic rushes over me, instead of using the techniques dad have taught me, I get stuck on where I am standing.

The glowing blue eyes move past me, and what I hear next I will never forget in my whole damned life. I hear bones cracking alongside dad’s groans. He is transforming. I turn around screaming, “don’t hurt my dad.”

Well, at least I have moved. Too bad, before I know it, the glowing blue eyes animal sinks its teeth into dad’s neck. The scene in front of me breaks my heart. I try to move to help but nothing happens, it is like someone glued my feet to the ground.

To make it worst, the blue glow from the animal’s orbs makes everything visible. I see dad’s struggle, his wolf’s eyes on me, begging me to run for my dear life. Dad tries to fight back but the animal’s strength is exceptional.

This is heart-wrenching to watch, please someone help. “Please, stop!” I say, my voice barely a whisper.

Dad’s wolf fell with a thud, and the animal won. Dad’s wolf eyes close, and a whimper escapes its lips. I scream bloody murder. The animal turns and faces me.

The eyes turn to green, and then back to blue. They are the most beautiful set of orbs I have ever seen. I get lost in them. I am mesmerized. The animal lowers its head a little bit, it moves toward me. I take a step back, hitting a stone I didn’t hit earlier.

Of course, there is a damn stone!

It takes another one, and its eyes keep changing from blue to green, it lowers its head down, and before I can decipher what I am seeing, it runs off. I watch the direction it runs to, the shadow below it keeps switching as its eyes.

By the time I wake up from my stupid mind, I remember I have been admiring the damn animal to remember dad on the ground whimpering. I drop to the ground and shake dad, dad’s wolf isn’t moving. I cry as I shake him harder, begging the wolf to wake up. Dad can’t be gone.

For the next few hours, I continue shaking him. I stand with my hands above my head and scream bloody murder, hoping the non-existent people I didn’t see when we arrived in the forest come to help.

I then hear a sound, dad is transforming. I lower myself to the ground and cry, “dad, please open your eyes.”

I don’t see anything, I tap around and find his nose, I place my head on his nostrils, and I hear nothing. I place my hands on his chest and there is nothing too. It is not rising or falling. With the little knowledge of resuscitation I know, I try.

In the end, nothing happens.

Dad is dead!

Oh no! Alpha Redford can’t die.

I spend the entire night alternating between shaking him and resuscitating him, I know I am doing nothing but I can’t stop myself. I wail, I run around, I shake him. I am about to go crazy. At dawn, I have l lost my voice, and very soon, if I don’t get help, I will lose my damn mind.

This is my fault. If I had my wolf like everyone else, we wouldn’t have come. If I was just a normal wolf, dad wouldn’t have agreed to this absurd idea of getting help for me to transform.

Mom will murder me for sure. I drop to the ground, endless tears running down my stricken face, a snort forming, I don’t wipe myself. I continue crying and chanting inside my head. “I killed dad, I killed Alpha Redford.”

I can’t leave dad alone in the forest, I should stay here forever and die of hunger and exhaustion, after all, I am a slice of dead meat already. What was that animal and why did it stare at me like that? Dad is energetic both in human form and wolf form, why didn’t he win? Most importantly, why didn’t the wolf killed me so I could rest with dad?

What should I do?