Alpha. Brother. Mate

My hand slipped from a tight grip and the grip tightened further. My hand felt numb, my feet grew weary. I stumbled but the grip on my left hand kept me from falling. The person holding me led me around trees, dodging branches and animal traps. I felt my movement slow. Even the hand holding me could not stop me from stumbling more and more as we ran. I was let go of all of a sudden. Then I came face to face with a big black wolf with red eyes. The wolf lowered itself and with familiar ease, I placed a hand on its back and climbed on. My arms tightened around its neck, my legs squeezed into its sides as it galloped through the woods, the wind blowing my hair backwards. My eyes were blurry as I looked back with a sense of nostalgia. A single sob escaped my lips, then I felt warmth spread through me like the sun. “You have to be brave, Remi. Be brave for mummy and daddy,” said a familiar voice in my head. I jerked awake with a gasp, tears streaming down my cheeks. I swiped them away in anger. I was pathetic enough. I didn’t need to cry because of stupid dreams to make myself feel even worse. The dream had been so vivid, so real, it felt like I was reliving a past life. I had had the same dream frequently for the past three months and I always woke up crying. The man in my dream did not have a face. No matter how familiar he felt, how much he felt like a memory rather than an illusion, I did not know him. I felt the other part of my being rouse. My senses sharpened, my eyes flashed for a second, my nose picked up distant smells, I heard the crow of a c**k over a hundred metres away and the colours in my room came to life. My wolf was awake. Like a rising moon, I felt a part of me that had been curled up unravel. In a split second, Deena was at her peak and hunger smacked me in the face. “Goddess! I’m starved!” Deena exclaimed.  I couldn't tell if all werewolves named their wolf sides. I did not remember how Deena had come about her name. Had I named her or did she name herself? I did not know a lot of things. All werewolves were required to attend Wolf School; special lessons organised by each pack to educate young wolves about their wolf half. By the time the lesson on names had been taught, I was already a certified ‘delinquent.' I spent most of my time cleaning after pack members, therefore, skipping school and earning punishments that made me even more unavailable for school. However, I did know that werewolves first establish contact with their wolf side a year before their bodies can shift. I had established contact with Deena when I was ten years old. To say that I had been terrified would be an understatement. Everyone knew contact with their wolves happened a year before their first shift and a wolf's first shift usually happens on the first full moon after their eighteenth birthday. I was too young to be speaking to my wolf. The only other explanation for the voice in my head was madness. Even as a child, I understood voices in one's head didn't scream mental wellness. Deena had explained everything to me. I was sceptical at first but I didn’t dare tell my parents about it. I was enough trouble without adding unusual to my list of faults. She has been my best friend ever since. I know it’s weird. I didn’t have to complete Wolf School to know that a person and their wolf are one and the same and Deena being my best friend made me my best friend, but it is what it is. Deena represented a part of me that was brave and outspoken, a real alpha, but I was more in touch with my human side, the weak side that got picked on and kicked about. I dragged myself to the kitchen even though I wanted to hide away in my room for the rest of eternity. The house was quiet save for the two steady heartbeats coming from my parents' room and the chewing coming from the kitchen. My heart sank. The only other person asides my parent and I happened to be Dylan Vaughn, our next Alpha and my wicked elder brother. Even before I set foot in the kitchen, I could smell the mess he’d made in there. Almost all the dishes we own were piled in the sink, reeking of raw eggs. There was coffee splashed everywhere and bread crumbs on the floor. “Oh good. You’re here,” Dylan growled and I cowered.  “G-good morning,” I stuttered. I hated this. I hated what fear made me and most of all, I hated myself. I didn’t want to cower! I wanted to stand my ground like the alpha I was and command the respect I deserved. But that was easier dreamt of than done. “I’ve told you times without number! You have to be up early to make my meals. That’s the only relevance you have to this pack!” He yelled and I flinched. “Do you not want to be in this pack? I can kick you out very soon if you continue being useless,” He reminded me.  He was twenty already, old enough to become Alpha. The only thing delaying his handover was his mate. Alphas rarely ever got to lead without finding their mates first. I overheard him telling Mother recently that he could feel his mate close by. The preparations for our father to hand over his title had started. A part of me wanted to growl at him (Deena, Deena, Deena) but I repressed that part. I wanted to remind him that I was an Alpha too, that I had as much chance to lead the pack after Dad, but I wasn’t one for jokes. I couldn’t challenge Dylan for the Alpha position. I was not strong enough. Myself and my wolf, we were never trained. “I-I’m s-sorry,” I answered which seemed to anger him more. “You better be. Clean up this kitchen before Mum gets out, you useless thing!” With that, he shoved past me. My body tingled and my breathing sped up but I was too focused on completing my task to wonder why. By the time I finished cleaning the kitchen, I was running late for school. Ignoring the pang of hunger in my stomach, I rushed to my room to get ready. I left the house before my parents got out and I was grateful for that small good. School was another home away from home for me. A living hell. Everyone in school knew my family, even the few humans there knew we were to be respected but they also knew I wasn’t worthy of any respect.  I was shoved, harassed, ridiculed, and pointed at when I walked to class. I paid no mind to them. Keeping my head down, I speed walked to class, narrowly missing bumping into Dylan's friends. Although Dylan was in college, his gamma, Jake, was a senior like myself because he got held back. Jake as well as a few other wolves and human jocks made up Dylan’s former clique. These people were at my house more times than I was. It was my duty to clean up after them.  A quick sniff of the air and I caught Dylan and his beta, Mason's scent, unsurprisingly. There was ten times the number of werewolves in our local high school than the college twenty minutes away. Most werewolves that go to college chose to travel and explore for a chance to find their mate, except the leaders who were mandated to stay close for their packs. Since our existence had to be kept hidden from humans, we wolves hung around with our kind to avoid slipups. Hence Dylan’s presence in our school. I thought of Mason and my heart skipped a beat. In a world with cruelties and darkness, he was my one bright spot. He happened to be the brother of my archenemy— as dramatic as that sounds it’s very true — but it didn’t matter. No one on earth was kinder to me than Mason. He was the only person at school, asides from my omega friend, Clara, who didn't call me names or tried to ruin my life. I had a teeny tiny crush on him. OK, I had a huge crush on him. But it was impossible to not crush on Mason. He was handsome, smart and nice. I was fairly certain he liked me too but we never hung around the same crowd. I crossed my finger, hoping to be his mate. I got to find my mate on my eighteenth birthday which just happened to be the next day. I almost forgot!