A Lone Alpha?

Chapter 1 - MAYA

Jeez I am so sick of this s**t going down in pack. Everything seems so disorganised and messed up. Alpha Marshall needs to sort things out now. It is affecting us too. My Dad is his Gamma and has been coming home for weeks, maybe even months telling us tales of the issues of pack financial problems, rogue problems, inter-pack arguments.

But he had promised they had been dealing with it, that we shouldn’t mention it to anyone. I had guessed coming home and telling us all was just his way of offloading. Thing is they didn’t seem to have dealt with it. Rogue attacks were more frequent. The pack was becoming less well cared for due to lack of money. And of course the regular problems with other packs were becoming a more worrying prospect for us all. Could we lose our pack?......

You see we are from one of many werewolf packs spread out in the countryside that to the human world just look like normal towns, and people would not think anything of. Yeah, we are still what you consider a myth, a folklore.

But still we are there all the same and we function independently, each pack run by an Alpha - clearly ours not very well run right now by our Alpha, Alpha Marshall Wilson.

They have their second in command the Beta who assists in running the pack in many ways, easing the workload of the Alpha - again I question just how badly our Beta, Beta Rob Monroe must be fulfilling his duties.

And a third in command, assisting again the Alpha and Beta and also helping in training the warriors was a Gamma, this being my Dad’s role.

I hate to think of him negatively, but considering how much our pack is going downhill and how much it has worsened within the last year I honestly don’t know how well any of these three have been working. Or maybe there was more going on about that my Dad just did not mention to me or my Mum……

All I knew was that I hated the atmosphere on pack, and the thing was there was no escaping it when I went home as my Dad was constantly stressed, or constantly offloading about the things going on. I probably knew a lot more than most in the pack, and the situation was worse than most knew. f**k it, I need to chill with my friends!

I grab my bag, checking my reflection in the mirror before I leave. My long curly black hair loose down my back, my olive skin still fresh and not needing much make-up, my thick, long eye lashes having a sweep of mascara is all I had bothered with today for meeting my friends. Wearing skinny jeans, a crop top which showed of my curvy waist, and my favourite converse trainers on my feet - let’s hope the sun stays out for me! I headed for Violet’s house.

Violet was one of my best friends. She had been since we started school. We were now 19 soon to be 20 and the closest of friends. Both of us a literal matter of months away from our 20th birthdays, when we would have our first shift, where we would meet the wolves we had been blessed with, the second half of who we were. And we were both so excited! There hadn’t been a moment since we met in school we had not been close, the same with our other best friend Rylee. She was meeting us there too. We’d arranged time at Violet’s house to sit and chill to avoid the hassles of the pack.

The good thing with Violet’s house is she lives just with her older brother, Jace Mathis, one of our pack warriors. Their parents had both passed away in a car accident a number of years ago, but Jace, four years older than Violet had said he would be guardian to Violet, so they had stayed in their family home. And Jace had done amazingly being there for Violet ever since, their home being a regular place we would hang out to escape the stresses of pack. Though escaping the stresses was proving harder as time went on.

The sun was currently shining, it was almost easy to forget the current stresses when the sun was out, as I was walking down the familiar paths of pack. I could hear the happy laughter of young children playing, enjoying the sunshine.

Oh to be that naïve and young again and to be oblivious to all the crap happening, I find myself thinking as I walk to the familiar house of my friend.

“Hey beauty, you off to see Vi?” I hear a familiar voice as I head up the road where my friend’s house is.

I look up to see Levi, another of our pack warriors, and Jace’s best friend. He is tall and muscular being one of the warriors that was a necessity, his skin is tanned from being out in the sun so often training, his thick dark hair shaved at the sides and then it was longer on top but swept back, his big green eyes are watching me. I smile to him. He is a friend of mine too I guess, with the amount of time I spend at Violet’s house, so I spend a lot of time with him too.

"Hey Levi. Yeah. You headed that way?" I reply.

"Good guess. Need to destress" He sighs.

Would appear I am not the only one struggling then.

We open the door, like we regularly do. “Hey bro, I’m here, picked a stray up along the way." Levi jokes.

I laugh and poke him in the ribs. He chuckles.

“That stray be Maya by any chance?” Jace asks with a laugh, “can’t get rid of her can we?” he teases, coming to give me a hug.

I pout at him, as I watched him and Levi laughing. I hear steps bounding down the stairs, and look up. Violet is suddenly in front of me, and boots her brother playfully out of the way so she can hug me.

“Maya!” she says. “You ok?”

“Stressed to hell and back, but other than that yeah wonderful” I smile.

“Hmmm tell me about it beaut’, things don’t get any better, training gets more intense too” Levi smiles gently as he speaks.

“We having a drink then?” Jace asks.

“Sounds good to me bro” Levi says heading through to the lounge, I follow.

Jace heads in to the lounge along with Violet, Rylee now with them, all three of them carrying cans of beer, cans of diet cola and bags of chips and popcorn.

Looks like we are here to chill for the afternoon. I think with a smile.

“They are upping training again J” Levi says as he grabs himself a can of beer from the table.

“What? They can’t keep doing that, we are all going to be burnt out. Will be useless if anything kicks off, as we’d all be too f*****g tired!” Jace grumbles.

I can see what they mean, this whole situation is getting worse. Yeah the warriors need to be well trained but over training them means they are overtired, and over tried means they won’t be as effective if something happens. Why aren’t Alpha and Beta listening?! Or my Dad for that matter? Warrior training is his thing..

“Tell me about it dude, beginning to regret signing up to be a warrior now” Levi sighs.

Wow things have to be bad for him to say that, being a warrior is usually an honour, I have known Levi and Jace for years, and knew they had both looked forward to signing up to their warrior training like their Dad’s had done before them, since they were young boys. For him to be now regretting that decision was meaning the whole situation was beyond dire - well I knew it was, it was a complete f**k up.

“I hate being around pack, around home- everything so stressful” I admit.

I see Levi and Jace look to me with puzzled expressions. They likely think I have it easy being Gamma’s daughter.

“Dad never shuts about all the crap going off. Our house is like so tense all the time, I dread going home.” I mutter.

“s**t beaut’, I didn’t think of that, guessing he under lots of pressure. Though maybe not as much as Alpha and Beta, but not fair he bringing it home to you” Levi looks to me with a sad smile.

“You be ok Maya?” Rylee asks, her voice full of concern.

“You can come stay here over the weekend if you like chick” Violet hooks her arm around my shoulder “sure we can distract you for a while and get you out of that atmosphere”

She was a good friend. And a change of scenery could definitely work.

“ How about getting us all out of that atmosphere?” Jace says.

We all look to him, puzzled expressions on each of our faces. I don’t think any of us have a clue what he is going on about.

“I will book rooms at the hotel club in town, we will get away for the weekend. Think we deserve a break. You girls can tell your parents you’re staying here if you like. There is a spa there too you can relax at. Plus you can come to the club with us for a few drinks, if you behave that is” Jace says.

Now that sounds like a plan……..