The Alpha and Her Match

p r o l o g u e

'What if the man that wants to take her crown is the same man that wants to steal her heart?'

In a battle of love and duty... what will win? Or are there winners when the heart is involved?

I was born with the name Anna Volkov. It wasn’t until a few years later did I learn that I had a different name and this name was more important than anything else for I am; Anna Basco, the Heir to the Throne, Princess of the Werewolves and the future Alpha of all Alphas.

This name is foreign to me, the title even more disconcerting. For I have never felt like a princess nor did I live like one.

I was born and raised in beautiful, cold, very cold Russia. And there I am just Anna. Small. Tough. Daughter of the Alpha. Soldier. Warrior. Cold weather lover. Awful soup maker.

My days are spent in the frozen forests, loving the feel of the cold and the chill of our lands. But still I was just little Anna Volkov, running across the snowy land and making snow angels wherever I went.

On the other hand, there is also the Basco name… and the Basco name is synonymous with royalty and power. Leadership. Responsibility. Unbending strength. Love for the Kingdom. Those were the words often used to describe them… us. I keep forgetting it’s us.

I am one of them or, more accurately, the last of them.

Secretly, I like the Volkov name better, like my mother who also preferred the name. If not for her bright blue eyes, no one would even know she was a Basco. She never even speaks of it.

Taboo. I heard the guards say. If one were to want to stay alive, one should never mention such things.

Because that name is a heavy burden to carry. There are endless expectations, a bloodline to continue as soon as possible and a werewolf race to lead.

Alexandra Volkov is my mother, eldest of the Basco children— the supposed Queen before she abdicated her throne and became the Alpha to the biggest pack in the world. She won the title in a traditional and incredibly deadly tournament that to this day people still remember but never talk about. Something about a death that ruined it all— ruined her.

Before the tournament, they say my mother smiled a lot, laughed even, played around and drank a little too much. She does none of that anymore, at least not often enough. I can count on one hand the amount of times she smiled or laughed. I don’t even remember her ever being truly happy.

That is not to take away from my mother’s brilliance when it comes to being Alpha of Russia. I have heard nothing but praises and gracious compliments about my mother’s ways of leading her people. Ask anyone in our lands and they will say how much it has improved because of her. She only needs some major— extreme improvement in her interpersonal skills. Everyone was regarded with a straight face or a punch to the gut. There was no in between.

She leads with an iron fist, keeping our cold lands rich and prosperous. We faced no poverty, no hunger, no war, no troubles. We lived a perfect life… a spoiled life.

We are safe under her rule and in that safety, I was lucky enough to have the luxury of being myself with nothing holding me back. My mother always said that she never wanted me to feel what she felt in that castle. Entrapped with only one way out of it.

She told me that I could be a Queen, an Alpha, a human maybe, anything at all, as long as I wanted it.

Anything.

It all depended on me.

I was free to choose and she made sure I had the power to decide. My entire life, no one bothered me or asked what I wanted to do lest they be punished by my mother if caught. She was always very sensitive about that and I know it’s because of her past.

A past she refuses to go into detail about.

“I want your decision to come from you.” My mother would press, looking grave. “Do what is right for yourself and no one else.”

“What if I want to be a Queen?” I teased, knowing it was not something she wanted from me. “What if I want to live in the castle?”

I didn’t.

I loved where I was and had no plans of ever leaving... I think.

She surprises me by nodding her head. “Then you will be Queen. Whatever you want, Anna.”

All I wanted was to make her proud, to make her happy… for once.