The Alpha Target

Prologue

Flashback: 3 years ago

“Please don’t do this,” Cora sobbed, strands of her pink hair glued to her cheeks as the salty tears bled from her eyes. Her voice shaky - her heart thundering in her chest - she desperately shook her head as she pleaded, pleaded for him to stop. “P-please!” She lifted her hand to reach out for him, but he took a calculated step back and Cora found her knees colliding with the muggy soil.

Her golden iris’ lifted to glance up at him. Between the tears building and the torrential rain descending down on her, she couldn’t distinguish many of his features. But she knew there was no remorse – no sympathy - behind those cold, hazel eyes. Not even the goddess-given bond between them had his heart even remotely wrenching at the sight. He could have been made from stone, perhaps he was. Not a twitch on his lips or a quirk in his brow, he peered down at her like it was nothing. Like she was nothing.

He sighed impatiently, folding his muscular arms over his broad chest. “Look at you,” he tsked, “you’re an embarrassment. What would the pack think if I took someone like you as a luna? A weak, pathetic omega.” His gruff voice spat out the remaining three words. Each was a dagger straight to Cora’s heart, inflicting pain she never could have imagined possible.

The day a shifter found their mate should have been the happiest day of their lives. They found the one – the other half of their soul. The one who will love them, protect them, accept them, no matter what. Cora imagined meeting her mate would be as though she had placed the final jigsaw piece in a puzzle, a piece she’d seemed to have lost and miraculously, it was found. It had been right under her eyes the entire time. She anticipated feeling complete, whole. She prepared herself for a piece of happiness she had never been allowed to experience. She expected to feel… love.

But as her fingers dug deeper into the dampened soil beneath her and she gasped for breath, she didn’t feel any of those things. Instead, her heart was constricting as it ached for her mate, her wolf was stirring and whimpering, she felt devastated and worthless. The lump in her throat was growing, her sobs were being muffled by the sound of the rain pattering against the ground. She was drenched, cold and… broken.

With one last hope, she cleared her throat. “Just give us a-a chance, please. Y-you don’t have to do this, Kai. I’m your m-mate. I’ll do better. I’ll b-be what you n-need me to be-e.” She tried to sound strong, tried to demonstrate that she wasn’t weak, she wasn’t pathetic. But the hiccups rupturing from her cries demolished her attempt.

“Save your breath, Omega.” The woman Cora dreaded wandered through the neck of the woods with a sinister smirk plastered across her victorious expression. Cora didn’t know how she could have found them. They were miles away from the pack house, so deep into the edge of the territory by the river which Cora and Kai had played by when they were kids. No one knew about this spot. Their spot. But as the Gamma’s daughter gained in on them and laced her fingers through Kai’s, it became clear. Kai had told her. And not only had Kai told her, they were together. And if Cora needed any concrete evidence of that though, it was only cemented when he leaned down and placed a loving kiss on Dion’s lips.

She flashed Cora a false, sympathetic smile, narrowing her blue eyes on the omega as her drenched rags stuck to her body. Cora imagined she was quite the sight to see. Tears pouring down her face, mud smeared across her legs and arms, her hair that was once tied back into a neat pony now resembled something of a birds nest.

Kai’s eyes returned to Cora’s. He looked bored and irritated, nothing like the sweet boy Cora had grown up beside, nothing like her childhood best friend. “I, Alpha Kai Anderson, re-”

“No! Please, Kai-” Cora started to plead, but a sharp sting across her face suddenly stopped her. She gasped, raising her palm to her cheek in shock as she registered the fact that Dion had just slapped her.

The blonde eyes were ablaze with fury, giving Cora a look that dared her to test the blonde. “You’re nothing but a disgusting Omega,” she spat, “Kai needs a strong woman, someone who doesn’t look like a twig that could easily be snapped, someone who isn’t going to make him a laughing stock, someone who can please him and meet his needs. Someone like me. Now shut the hell up!”

Cora stared blankly at the woman, keeping her sobs at bay, before turning to meet Kai’s gaze in confusion. The Kai she knew was kind and hated people like Dion. He used to tell Cora about all the ways he would make the pack a better place to live when he finally got the Alpha title. He hated violence and bullying, often growing up he had stuck up for her when other pack members had harassed her with name calling because of her rank. He had been there for her during her parent’s death when she was fifteen, held her every night as she cried in his arms. He promised to always be there for her. But this wasn’t that same Kai. The Kai in front of her, she had never met him.

“I, Alpha Kai Anderson, reject you, Cora Harland, as my mate.” He didn’t stutter, his voice didn’t falter once. He just simply sneered down at her like she was a piece of dirt on his shoe.

Cora blinked, ignoring her wolf’s inner whining. She was supposed to accept the rejection, sever the ties between them and reject the bond. But if she did, Kai would never feel the pain she was currently feeling. He would get to walk away from this with no care in the world, while her heart broke beyond repair. He didn’t care about her, her wishes or how much she was hurting, he only cared about himself.

“Accept it, freak,” Dion spat, gripping Cora’s face and whipping her head to face her. “Accept the rejection.”

Cora – holding back her tears and sniffles – stared blankly at the blonde. “No,” she whispered quietly.

She couldn’t give him the satisfaction of what he wanted. Not after how much he had hurt her, betrayed her. Damn her if she was the only one hurting. No, he needed to feel the same pain she felt, he needed to feel his heart shatter the way her was. He needed to feel so desperate and empty that he lost his will to live, just like she did.

“Accept my rejection!” Kai huffed, striding towards her. “I don’t want you. Do you hear me, Cora? I. Don’t. Want. You.”

Dion sneered, her sharp nails digging into Cora’s cheeks, drawing blood. Cora struggled against Dion, but she wasn’t strong enough to remove the blondes hold on her. “Accept it or I’ll kill you.”

Cora laughed menacingly, shaking her head the most she could against Dion’s hold. “You think death scares me? My parents are dead. My mate is trying to reject me. I have no family left. What have I got to live for?” it was the truth. Cora really didn’t have anything left to live for, at least in her eyes. And the reality of watching her best friend, her mate, reject her and ignore her to be with someone like Dion… well, that felt like a fate worse than death.

“Last chance,” Dion threatened, daring the omega to refuse her request. But Cora remained quiet, even if it was the last thing she ever did, she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

“Just take care of it already!” Kai snapped, turning his back on the two women in his life and striding back through the woods, leaving his mate to meet her end by the hands of his girlfriend in the middle of the night. Some birthday this is, Cora thought. Although, somehow, it only felt fitting. Her parents had died on her fifteen birthday and now she would die on her eighteenth. Fate was funny that way.

Dion smirked. “My pleasure.”

Before Cora had the chance to blink, Dion grabbed her by her ponytail and began dragging her to the edge of the river. Cora punched, kicked and scratched Dion in an attempt to loosen her hold, but it was no use. Cora had never done any warrior training, she was defenceless. But that didn’t falter her attempts, she continued to struggle against Dion even when the blonde forcefully shoved the omega into the icy water of the river. “Don’t worry, freak, I’ll look after your precious Kai for you.” Dion laughed, before using all of her force to hold Cora under.

Cora squirmed, she kicked and flapped to get above the water surface. Even when she could no longer hold her breath and water started to fill her lungs, she used all her remaining strength to push against Dion’s hold. She could barely see, the muggy water blurring her vison and the freezing temperatures clouding her mind, but she continued fighting, she would continue fighting until her very last breath. Maybe someone would find them, maybe someone would catch Dion and help Cora. It wasn’t likely, it was two in the morning and no one ever came to this spot – their spot – but perhaps there was still a chance.

But the hope soon faded away when Dion yanked Cora’s hair and smashed her head against the stone river banking. Cora knew she was bleeding, she could feel it pouring out of her, feel her head throbbing, but she was getting tired. She was getting so, so tired. She couldn’t bring herself to fight anymore. Even when she felt Dion release the hold she had on her, Cora couldn’t bring herself to fight. Instead, she let her body go limp and let the current of the water take control over her body. And finally, Cora closed her eyes… the last shred of hope dying, along with her. She was gone.

Suddenly, Cora found herself stood in back on the ground, back where she was moments ago when she refused to accept Kai’s rejection. In a frenzied panic, she spun around on her spot, searching for Kai and Dion, but neither were there. Her head no longer hurt from the hit and water no longer filled her lungs, in fact she felt the best she had done in quite some time. She gazed at her knees, the cuts from her fall earlier that night had disappeared. What the hell is going on?

Her golden orbs met the river again and she gasped, falling to her knees once again as she watched her own lifeless body float in the water. She was dead. She rushed her hand to her mouth as she sobbed, sobbed for the poor defenceless girl that had been left to die by her best friend.

“Please don’t cry, my child.” A soothing voice spoke behind her. Startled, Cora turned to meet the face of the voice only to end up stunned. The most beautiful woman she had ever seen stood beside her. She resembled an angel. Her porcelain skin was without flaws, her crisp aqua eyes were filled with warmth, her long white hair effortlessly flowed around her. She had a golden glow emitting around her, oozing both safety and power. And Cora felt as though she had officially lost her mind. “Moon goddess?”

The woman smiled, almost chuckling at Cora’s aloofness. “It isn’t your time yet, my child. I have plans for you, Cora, and this is only the beginning. Your story… it’s only just getting started.”

Cora frowned and was about the question the woman, when something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She turned to see an older man, dressed in khaki combat wear, rushing towards the river. He jumped into the water and swam to her body, lifting her in his arms. He ran a hand over his wet mousey-brown hair so it was no longer blocking his vision and pressed two fingers against the crook of her neck, checking for a pulse. Concern filled his gray eyes as he hurried her out of the water, laying her body against the hard ground and immediately starting compressions on her chest.

“What is he doing?” Cora turned to the goddess in a panic. “If Kai and Dion find him trying to save me, they’ll kill him!”

The goddess only grinned. “Don’t worry about them. Now you must go back, there is much to do. As I said, it isn’t your time yet, child.”

“Wha-.” Suddenly, Cora’s eyes shot open as she desperately gasped for air. Panic filled her as she struggled to breath and her hand instinctively reached for the sore wound on her head. But it was the sigh of relief that truly caught her attention. “You’re alright,” the unknown man next her breathed. “You’re alive.”

And so she was…