The Ultimate Alpha’s Disgraced Mate

It all goes to hell

Vekra

The bells wake me up.

I shoot upright, blinking sleep from my eyes. Sometime during the night, Avril must have stepped out while I slept. My head hurts from the alcohol of yesterday and the bells clang through my ears, forcing a pained groan from me. If I had gone through my Shifting already, there would be no morning hangover.

A soft groan from the bed has me jumping up in a panic.

“Mother!” I run to her side, elated to see her waking up.

Her expression is filled with pain as she peers at me.

“Vekra, darling, what is that horrible noise?” She asks. I laugh, giddy with relief.

“Mother!” I throw my arms around her and hug her tight, the tight ball in my chest finally dissolving. Everything will be fine, I’ll get someone to find Father and he’ll come back home. Last night will be a nightmare.

“Why are you acting like I died and came back?” She asks with a small laugh, hugging me back. She has no idea how scared I was through the night that she would not make it. “I’m so glad you’re fine.” I say into her shoulder.

“Of course I am. And why do you smell funny? What have you been up to?”

Shit, the spell wore off. But my fears of being caught are nothing compared to my relief at seeing her well and nagging as usual. Better to be caught by her than Father.

I pull back with a grin, but my smile drops when I see the red bead trailing down her nose.

“What is it?” She asks when she sees my horrified face. This can’t be happening.

“Mother... your nose.”

She wipes at it and her hand comes away bloody. She pales and her second nose starts bleeding.

I jump into motion, grabbing a shirt and pressing it to her nose.

“Hold it.” She does as I say, her body shaking.

Werewolves have the fastest healing rate in all of Folkland so I have never seen a nosebleed before.

“Where’s your Father?” She asks.

“Keep the pressure.” I tell her.

“Where is he?” She grips my hand and that’s when I see her nails. They are blackened.

My eye widen and my jaws drop open. No way.

I run behind her and grab the zipper of her gown, tearing the gown as I force it open to expose one shoulder.

A choked sound escapes my chest.

“No.” I whisper. The nightmare did not end.

On my mother’s shoulder is a blooming red shape of a lotus flower. She is marked for death.

“What is it?” She asks, her voice strong despite that I can see her body shaking. “Vekra, what did you see on my back?”

Tears stream down my face and I press a hand to my lips to silence my cries. How do I tell my mother that she is going to die? Absolutely no one has ever survived the lotus poisoning. It’s dark dark magic that corrupts the magic of our blood.

No, I refuse to let this happen.

“Look at me, Mother.” Her wide eyes meet mine, fearing the worst. “You are one of the strongest people I know and you must fight this.”

“I’m dying aren’t I?” She says, looking down at her nails.

“Mother.” I grab her hand, bringing her attention back to me. Tears build at the back of my eyes and I blink them away. “If anybody can fight this infection, it is you. Do it for me, Mother, and for Father.”

Her eyes fill with tears.

“My baby.” She cups my chin. “So grown now.”

Tears are running down both our faces now and I link our fingers, struggling to cling to the lie I’m telling her.

“Don’t.” I gasp out. “Don’t act like you’re leaving.” It is unheard of. We are immortal.

Is this my punishment for last night? It’s bullshit. Never once did I think the goddess cruel before, but I’ll detest her if she lets my mother die.

“Never doubt yourself okay?” She says through tears. “You are beautiful, kind and you are perfect, inside and out. Let your heart guide you.”

“Stop it” I cry. “Stop it, please.” I’m not ready for this.

She pulls me closer and kisses my brow, and the door slams open. Avril runs inside, looking like he just got out of a fight.

“They are here.” He gasps out.

“Who?”

I did not think the day could get worse. I was wrong. He pulls me over to the window and I watch the outside with a sinking feeling.

“Sentinels.” I say in a horrified whisper.

The most feared group of wolves, Sentinels are each hundreds of years old, able to hold the precarious shift between human and wolf. They are fast, powerful and deadly, with black fumes trailing out from their skin. And they signify bad news, extremely bad news.

My head swims.

“Avril.” I grip his hand, fear making me weak. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sorry.” He whispers. He doesn’t either.

“Why are Sentinels on our territory?” Mother asks. “Vekra, help me up. I need to find out what’s going on.”

“Wait, don’t move.”

She collapses back when she tries to stand, her face pained.

She was numb at first, and now she is weak. Next will be pain, and then death.

My life is crashing down around my ears and I can only watch.

“Goddess.” I whisper in horror. “This can’t be happening.”

Avril and my mother are looking at me like I can spin out a solution but my head is empty. We are doomed.

“I’ll see what the Sentinels want.” I say instead, hurrying towards the door. It is suddenly blocked by a Sentinel and his hand lashes out and grips my throat as I cry out.

“Let go of her!” Avril yells and comes at him.

“Avril no!” I choke out. The Sentinel throws him against a wall and with a scream, I throw myself at him. My punches don’t have much effect but I am tenacious and I leap on his back and go for his eyes.

He grabs me off his back and throws me off and pain explodes in my spine as I hit the wall hard. Avril runs for me and helps me up and the Sentinel’s black-tinged eyes fix on my mother’s weak form.

“Don’t you dare!” I growl, stepping forward.

Rollen, my father’s beta comes crashing into the room and takes a stance between us.

“You must get through me first.” He snarls.

The Sentinel moves, faster than my eyes can track. When he stops, he has Rollen’s throat in his hand as the huge man hangs suspended from the ground. And then he rips his throat out.

A sharp scream pierces my ears, mine. To my horror, Rollen’s unconscious body drops to the ground. In one move, he rips his head from his neck and punches out his heart, squeezing it in his fist.

He’s dead. The man I grew up knowing and trusting is dead.

My scream is filled with anguish as I run at the human-wolf blend, my entire being screaming at me to kill, kill, kill.

Avril yanks me back and holds me prisoner despite my thrashing.

“Let me go!” I scream, scratching at him. “I will f*****g kill you. You will pay for this.”

“Get a hold of yourself.” He shakes me hard.

“Get your hands off me Avril.”

“He will f*****g kill you.” He whispers harshly into my ear. “He will kill you and then he will kill the Luna.” He says.

I stop struggling, crying as I stare at the blood creeping over the floor. Avril lets go of me tentatively.

“The Alpha left the pack to you Vekra. You must think with your brain not your heart.”

I almost laugh. They just killed a member of the pack in front of me, what sort of leader am I anyway?

The Sentinel watches, waiting for us to make one wrong move.

“We surrender.” I say bitterly. If I was stronger, perhaps I could have done something.

More Sentinels pour in and they grab us, roughly dragging us out.

“She’s ill!” I yell, twisting to look at the Sentinel grabbing my mother. “Please, don’t hurt her.” My voice breaks and they don’t listen. They drag us all out roughly, shoving us down in the yard with the rest of the pack. Children huddle in their mother’s arms with tear stained faces. Alec meets my eyes frightfully, as pale her mother.

“You have no right to do this.” I say, my hands fisted with outrage. The humiliation on my pack’s faces makes me furious.

“Don’t we?” The leader of the Sentinels steps forward and I rear back. He stepped out of nowhere. His monstrous meld of human and wolf face fixates on me and my spine tingles. It is nothing like the daring thrill I felt staring into Alpha Zaden’s soulless eyes. The power emanating from the Sentinel is darker, sicker.

“Listen carefully.” His booms, looking us over with such naked hatred that my heart pounds. “Your pack has committed the gravest of sins against the Folk.”

“You have the wrong pack.” I say. “Our pack causes anything but trouble!”

“Speak again, and I will see how much your tongue can wag when I open your throat.” He says and I blank.

Avril squeezes my hand, silently begging me to remain quiet. The Sentinel faces everyone again.

“The actions of your Alpha cannot be forgiven, and Olive pack must bear the consequences.”

No...

All this time, I’ve held onto this ridiculous hope that Father will come back as quietly as he left and make everything right. He promised me that he would be back. That hope shatters.

You could hear a pin drop in the silence as we wait for the announcement.

“Alpha Din killed The Ultimate Alpha, betraying him by stabbing him in the back like a coward.”

I gasp, echoed by hundreds of others. That can’t be right. Father and Alpha Kole are friends, Father would never in a million years murder him, talk less of in such a shameful way.

“It must be a mistake, a set up. My father would never do that.” I cry out.

“You really do talk a lot.” The Sentinel snarls through huge teeth and strides for me. To my horror, my mother is faster, shoving herself between me and the Sentinel. My body grow cold.

“Forgive my daughter, Sentinel. The entire pack is in shock.”

“Mother what are you doing? Get up!” I pull at her but she shrugs me off.

I made sure she was behind me for a reason. I didn’t want her to catch any of the Sentinels’ eyes again.

The Sentinel smiles, exposing long wolf teeth. The cold in my body expands.

“Your daughter you said? You must be the Luna of the pack. You look smart enough to know what must happen. Someone must pay the price.”

Mother bows her head to the ground.

“Take me, and spare my daughter.”

“What? No. Mother get up, what are you talking about?!” I pull at her desperately, not wanting to believe I’m witnessing this horrible conversation.

Dear Selene, if you have one iota of mercy, please spare my mother. I’m crying so hard it seems I’m made of tears.

“Never. You’ll touch my mother over my dead body.” I say, shoving myself between them.

“Vekra.” She hisses, infusing her voice with power, but she is too weak from the poisoning. I throw off her command and motion to my gamma.

“Avril. Take her.”

But Avril betrays me. He jerks me from between them and his arms come around me like iron bands.

“No!!! No! Don’t do this. Avril, I’ll hate you forever if you let them do this. Release me!” I claw and scratch at him to let go but his grip is solid.

I watch as the Sentinel shows off long, red-tipped claws.

“No! Mother, no! Please, stop them. No.” I’m crying hysterically, breaking inside and no one is listening to me.

Her eyes soften and she smiles.

“I love you, my girl.” She says.

The Sentinel rips out my mother’s throat. Her head goes flying in one direction and her body in another. And yet another Sentinel is there, punching her heart out.

She’s dead.

My wail pierces the air, long and ominous and Avril does release me now. I walk on shaky steps to where my mother’s head rests and fall to my knees, barely able to see through the tears. Her body spurts blood grotesquely some meters away.

I raise my face to the sky and scream.