His Warrior Alpha

A Birthday Surprise

“Good morning, Alpha!” Quinn chirped happily in my ear. “Happy Birthday” I sighed, looking at the alarm clock that sat on the milk crate beside my dingy old cot.

“Quinn, we have discussed this-” She cuts me off

“You are our Alpha though, we don’t belong to this pack.” Quinn gave me a defiant look. Oh, this conversation again….

“Also that, but you know I do not celebrate my birthday.” I sighed. 10 years since that day and every year I relived that awful day in my dreams. “Yanno, she is our pack Beta. Her duty is to you.” My wolf chimed in. “-We do not have a pack, I am not an Alpha and she is not a Beta.-” I responded to her.

“See? Aria agrees with me.” Quinn stuck out her tongue. “And this isn’t just any birthday. This is your twentieth. You can finally find your mate and maybe even get out of this hell hole. Just remember to come back and bust me out, OK?”

She was so sure I would be finding my mate today. “WE are so sure we are finding our mate today!” Aria had been on about this all week. “-And if we did? You think the Alpha is just going to let me off being a slave? Do you remember we still haven’t taken punishment for leaving to get supplies? He said he would wait until his son returned today.-” This almost seemed to make Aria happy. “-Why are you so happy about him returning?-” “No reason.” Aria said with a giggle, disappearing into my subconscious.

I looked up to Quinn, staring at me with a smirk. Why did it always seem like she talked to my wolf more than I did? It was irritating, the two of them together… And now that Aria had disappeared, how was I going to get my questions answered? I sighed heavily. Today was going to be a long day. Glancing at the clock, it was 6:45 am.

“You woke me before my alarm???” I growled at Quinn. She knew I hated being woken up, but waking me before my alarm? That was too far.

“Before you kill me….. Our pack has prepared a surprise for you.” I groaned, which seemed to fill Quinn with more glee.

“WE do not have a pack. If Alpha or any of the ranked officers hear you, they will make an example of one of us. Do you want to be responsible for that?” I knew that it wouldn’t be either of us that would take that punishment. We were already punished for literally anything they could find us at fault for. At this point, we did our best to actually deserve those beatings if we were going to get them anyway. They knew they couldn’t break us this way, so they would punish someone else here. I was certain of it. Alpha or his son, for that matter, did not like to be challenged.

“You say that but what were you doing 2 days ago? Oh, that is right. Getting school supplies and blankets with the money you had to scrounge up by working side jobs for the villagers. Even if you didn’t want to be an Alpha, you have always taken care of your pack.”

She was right, I didn’t want to be an Alpha. That was always Malcolm's destiny. He was gone now too, though after challenging the Alpha of this pack when he was 18. He died protecting me. It was the first time I had made a trip to town to buy supplies to cover the needs of the enslaved that were not being met by the pack. I had carefully saved every penny found in the pack laundry for 6 months and was so happy I could do something to make this a little less shitty. It was how we got the seeds to start the garden so we would have extra fresh food. I wasn’t careful though and the Delta caught me on my way back and said I had to have stolen money to buy things. He wanted to take one of my hands, so my brother challenged the Alpha instead.

Even with our Alpha blood, he was no match for a fully grown adult wolf who certainly was never deprived of enough food and had trained for over 25 years. He fought hard but ultimately was bloodied and his body was cast into the river. I will never forget his last words before he fought. “Melody, I am so proud of you, you always put our people first. Remember, whatever happens, this is not your fault. Take care of not only you, but them for me.”

I hadn’t been punished that day. I guess Alpha Jacob thought watching my brother die at his hands was enough to keep me in my place. Right after, he even told me I could go ahead with the garden. I guess he figured giving me something would pacify me. It hadn’t though. His words burned in my blood every single day. It did make me weary of what we said though.

I lifted my hands in defeat. No use arguing with Quinn, she could almost always win an argument. I was not looking forward to Alpha's son getting home today. I was finally healed completely for the first time in a while. I have even gotten some extra sleep over the last two days.

“So what is this surprise, Beta Quinn?” I used her title to show I had given in for now. She did a little dance which solicited an eye roll from me. I guess between the former members of River Mist who had been enslaved, and the ones from other smaller packs, we had in a way formed our own pack within the Black River pack.

“Ah yes, let's move to the….”Quinn gestured towards the door as if she was showing off a prize. “Pack living area” She giggled as I rolled my eyes again. If she was supposed to be my Beta, she was really getting out of hand. I stood up and grabbed the jacket that hung off of the only chair in the room and followed behind Quinn.

As I exited the room, I could see all of the people were in the living area. Melinda, who acted as the cook and mothered all the younger kids, stood in the center. “Happy Birthday, Melody!” they shouted at me. Melinda held a long sheet cake in her hands. Setting it on the coffee table in front of her, she leaned up to give me a hug.

“See me once you can get a moment alone,” She whispered. I gave her a curious look but she was already cutting up pieces to hand out to the little ones that got out of hand. They were already bouncing around the coffee table asking for a slice.

“Thank you, everyone.” I smiled at the group. This was the closest thing I had to a family now. Quinn stood close beside me and I turned towards her. “How did you get the supplies to bake a cake?” I whispered.

“You should know a magician never reveals their secrets.” She responded with a wink while shoving a piece of cake into my hands. I guess we were having cake for breakfast today. Oh well. Everyone deserves a minute of happiness when we could take one.

There were only three ways to escape this life. 1) find your mate outside of the pack. This was rare and next to impossible, as Alpha strictly controlled any of the slaves being seen by outside packs. Probably because nearly every pack found the taking of slaves barbaric and it could cause diplomatic issues. 2) Find your mate in the pack and be accepted by them and plead your case to the Alpha. It was normal for the pack members to reject their mate if they found out they were a slave. Only 3 people had done this in the 10 years I had been there and each was deeply religious and only willing to take their Goddess' given mate. 3) Most rare of all, complete the warrior trials and become a warrior for the pack. This had only happened once before as it required you to spar with at least 5 of the warriors in training who were between the ages of 16-18. If you last 4 years as a warrior, you gain your freedom free and clear. It normally resulted in the death of the slave as they were unable to hold their own, but it still remained an option. Every 2 years, a couple of wolves try their try at it, though most just to escape this life through death. The next warrior trials are coming up in 6 months.

I walked around for a bit. I had only a little bit of time before I had to return to duty. I picked up and hugged some of the small pups that had started pulling at my work pants to get my attention. As I looked around at my people, I was even more determined that I would be competing in the warrior trials. I had to win. I had to protect them.

“We have to go now!” Arias' voice whined at me. “-Oh so we are talking again?-” She huffed at my response. “Can’t be late today, let's go go go!” She urged me. “-Alright, alright. I don't know what has gotten you so worked up, but we will go.-”

“Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes,” I said as I excused myself outside the front door. I could feel Aria pacing. What was so important about today? I wondered. I started to head the long way, which surprisingly didn’t irritate Aria. I needed to check on the garden and see how our harvest was doing. Tomatoes were coming along really nicely and I knew we had carrots and potatoes stashed away. I made a mental note to ask Quinn to go hunting for a couple of rabbits so we could make some stew. I would do it myself but I had a feeling once Alpha’s son Dawson got back, I would need to spend at least a day or two healing before shifting.

“Alright, enough dilly dallying Mel, we got to go now!” Aria was right, any longer and I would be late. I broke out into a sprint towards the pack house. There was a truck coming today for kitchen supplies and if I was late the truck driver would alert Alpha Jacob. He hated to be inconvenienced but also refused to let anyone else sign off on the truck.

As I approached the pack house I could already see the truck pulled up. The driver, Greg, tapped his foot impatiently. I quickly looked at the clock. It wasn’t even 8 am but he was already there, which meant that later would be much worse. Not only would I get in trouble for slipping into town during my “shift”, I would also be considered late for the truck. If I wasn’t going to spend a night in the dungeons before, I certainly would be now. I could already hear the accusations that I was intentionally late and that I was trying to get the truck to leave without unloading to starve people.As if Greg would leave without unloading his truck. No one did as much business with his food company as the pack house here.

As I went around the building I saw a black truck pulled in front of the pack house.”-Just our luck.-” I sighed internally but Aria didn’t seem to mind. “We are very lucky indeed, You just don’t know it.” “-Whatever-” This back and forth was starting to wear on me. I didn’t have the patience for this wolf.

I tried to make myself scarce as I headed towards the side entrance. Please Goddess don’t let them notice me. I prayed but it went unanswered as someone shouted my name. I turned around and his scent hit me like a ton of bricks. “Mate!” Aria bounced in my head. “-No.No.No.No. He is not our mate.He will reject us.-” Great, I could be rejected for my birthday as well. I pretended I hadn’t heard him and rushed through the door. At least if I was going to be rejected, we could do it in private after the truck was done. Aria whimpered, “Our mate will not reject us.”