Spare For The Alpha

‘Happy 21st birthday Clementine.’ Everyone chimed as I began to blow out my candles reluctantly. Quinn wrapped his arms around my waist before whispering into my ear ‘Don’t forget to wish for me’ with a horrid little smirk on his face. His mother shot eyes at him as he stepped back. Quinn was muscular just like an Alpha should be. He was tall and had dark blonde hair which had swept back in waves. He had piercing blue eyes that most girls fell into. What was I going to wish for? Every birthday I wished I could find my fated mate, that he would fight for me to be released and I could leave. The Moon Goddess never granted that wish, so I wanted to think strategically this year. ‘I wish to leave this place and never come back.’ I whispered as I blew my final candles. I pictured myself running away, my long red hair swishing as I ran. I’d grown my hair to my bum. I didn’t have curly hair, but it wasn’t straight either. It naturally looked a little like I had used curling tongues and then brushed it out. I had green eyes and my skin wasn’t that pale for a redhead. My Mum always said that I was hidden away because the boys wouldn’t be able to resist me, although, I knew the truth. You see, I was the spare. ‘My grandfather was the Beta to the Alpha. They were the best of friends, so it meant our families had been incredibly close. Their children grew up together, my Dad and the current Alpha. I was an only child and I’d grown up with the Alpha's sons, Quinn and Theodore. We were so close and did everything together. Quinn and I shared birthday parties as we were born just three days apart. Our mothers shared pregnancy together, getting cute bump photos, and taking us out on play dates. Then when Theodore came along, three years later, he joined us. Theodore was always shy, we weren’t close when we were really young due to the age gap. He was always jealous of the closeness that Quinn and I shared. He would spread rumours to his parents and pretend we hurt him when we didn’t. He began to grow out of it around the age of ten but that was before it all fell apart. I zoned back into my current reality. Theodore was smiling at me and wished me a happy birthday. He was a little geeky. He wore glasses and had dark short dark hair which he styled to a spiky quiff like Something like you’d see in a barber shop window. He was exceptionally good-looking, a bit buff but he was basically a little brother to me. I wasn’t allowed any other males to visit. Just the Alpha family. I wasn’t even allowed female friends either. Long gone were the days of the large parties with huge groups of friends. Now it was just Mum, our Maids Beatrice and Sally, Alpha Quinn and his fated mate and Luna, Theodore, and their mother Vivian. Their Mother was okay. I think she felt bad for me, she knew none of this was my fault, but she never stopped it either. I was the spare, the backup plan for Alpha Quinn. On our thirteenth birthday’s we began to drift apart. Quinn had become a classic Alpha male. I was no longer an important person in his life but someone he would bully in front of his friends. I used to be a popular girl with a lot of friends, but it all slowly went downhill as I lost more and more. By the time my fourteenth birthday came around, I only had a small group of friends to invite to my next party. I was fine with that though, they were a great bunch of friends and Theodore came too. He was growing up a little, he had stopped tattling and began to look up to me as a big sister figure. Seven years earlier On the night of my fourteenth birthday, I had gone to sleep content with my life. I woke up in the early hours of the morning to loud noises, sirens, alarms, screaming and shouting. I looked out of my window and there were bodies and blood splattered around the streets. My mum had run into my bedroom, grabbing me and hiding me in the wardrobe. Pulling clothes off the hangers and piling them on top of us so that we just looked like a teenage girl's messy wardrobe, rather than two people hiding. I heard my father's cries and screams, his pleading before silence. I knew he was gone. The wardrobe doors opened and I heard them say we had gone. I never thanked my Mum for what she did, she saved our lives but I didn’t feel like I had much of a life left anymore. Present day As everyone began to leave my ‘party’ I looked around at the few balloons, a birthday banner and a couple of presents. I was always grateful for how hard my Mum tried but if she tried a little harder, then maybe we could leave. What good was a big house when we had to live like this? Well I, when I had to live like this. I started clearing up from my birthday. Beatrice smacked my hand, it’s your birthday Clementine, you leave this to me.’ It always surprised me that we were able to keep Beatrice and Sally. They had been the maids of my grandparents and when everything went down seven years ago, they had been able to stay with my Mum. She pleaded to keep them. People didn’t always treat their maids well, but they were family to us. I had a stroll through the garden, it was huge. We had a pool, a pond, flowers and fountains. It wasn’t quite as big as the pack house, but it was the next biggest house in the pack. Far too big for just us four. Mum, Beatrice, Sally and I but it was our home all the same. I watched as some birds bathed in the fountains. They were used to me by now, I wasn’t a bird watcher per se but I didn’t have much else to do so I began to learn about the birds who visited our garden. I would sit and watch them and they would come quite near. My mum was going to get me a puppy for my birthday, but I’d asked her not to because of the birds. I didn’t want a puppy to scare them away from their home.