The Alpha King and the Shadow

I finished wiping off the blood on my face as I looked around and smiled. There are ten rogues lying dead, all unrecognizable. I am brilliant. I go to the outer edge of the Blood Moon territory to make sure they got back safely. I see the mother and baby reach the packhouse, just as warriors come my way. They must be following the scent of the mom. I hurriedly climb the tree and start gracefully running back to my pack, bouncing from branch to branch. As I reach the packhouse my father, the Gamma, is there waiting. "Where have you been?" His rough voice asks me. I look at him and stare. He sees the blood I am covered in and that my wolf, Fengari (φεγγάρι) or moon in Greek, is out and lets me be. I go upstairs to my bedroom and clean off. Fen lets me have control back after she gets dressed. "Yeah, no. I am not wearing the all-black leather outfit. You know it scares people." I told her. "You are too soft. Scaring people makes sure they STAY AWAY." She all but shouts at me. Honestly, she scares me a bit, she is a b***h and hates people, and her Greek accent doesn’t help. I, on the other hand, am nicer. I still don’t like people and would prefer for them to stay away, but if they approach me, I am still amiable. I keep the black pants on, but change into a long-sleeve floral blouse. I look into the mirror and see that I got a cut on my head, next to my hairline, that is closing and will now be another scar to add to the collection. My black hair is still wet from the shower and the waves are forming. The black pants are tight showing off my big butt, so I make sure that my blouse is longer. I hate when I can feel the people looking at it. "You look like a school teacher. All you need are the glasses and it will make the look complete." Fen says to me. I was going to reply when my father mind-linked me. "I need you to come to the Alpha’s office when you're done cleaning up." "I’ll be right there father." I mind-link back. "Great, what does tweedle dee and tweedle dumb want now?" My wolf asks. "You need to play nice Fen they are above us." I said to her, "Sh*t, you know they’re scared of me. Like everybody else haha. Let me out, we can really get them to piss themselves." She says. "I hate that you are so mean to everybody. They have been kind to us. They let us do what we do without asking too many questions. Who else would do that?" I ask. "ANYBODY else would be too scared to even say sh*t about what WE do. And it isn’t like we don’t benefit from having us." Fen scoffs. I roll my eyes and decide not to respond. I get to the Alpha’s office and walk straight in. "Father, Beta Jackson, Alpha Jona." I say as I take a seat off to the side of the room. "LeeAca we need to discuss something with you." The Alpha says as my father hands me an envelope. I glance at the envelope and already know what it is based on the writing on it. It is the pack invitation to the Royal Ball. I looked at them, thinking this was a joke. But they all have serious expressions. "No." Is all I said. The Alpha’s eyes snapped to mine. "It is not a request, it is an order. All unmated pack members will be going as per the invitation." "LeeAca you will be attending this year's ball. They will know if you are not there, this year everybody must attend no matter what. The King is being pressured to take a mate and they will be taking measures to ensure that every unmated person will be there. They even said that if one unmated person is not there the pack will be punished." My father said to me. I looked around the room and sighed. "WE ARE NOT GOING TO A BALL." Fen screams at me. "Obviously we are." I said to Fen. She just huffed in annoyance and retreated as far back as she could in my head. "When is it?" I asked the Alpha. "This weekend." He answered. "This weekend?! And you are just now telling me. Why did you not tell me this sooner?" I looked at them all. "We thought it would be like the other years where it was optional. We only just heard yesterday about the requirement this year and you were off on your mission. We leave tomorrow." Alpha said to me. "Okay, I guess I will go start packing." I said. As I got up to leave Luna Laura, one of my only friends, entered. "Oh good you are done, let’s go Lee." She said as she grabbed my hand and dragged me behind her to her room. "She’s lucky I tolerate her, or I would tear her apart for dragging us like a dog." Fen grumbles. I only rolled my eyes at her. Once we got to Laura’s room I saw a rack full of dresses. Oh Goddess no. Fen and I thought. I hate trying on dresses but here we are a half hour later with Laura telling me no to each one. There are only 2 left on the rack, out of the 20 that were there. "Laura, you know I cannot wear any of these." I looked at her pointedly. "Sure you can! Yes they might expose too much skin for you per se, but we can put mesh between the exposed pieces of skin so that you are more comfortable." She says. "This woman thought of it all didn’t she. I bet she has had wet dreams of getting us into a dress." Fen b*tches. I only chuckle. The next dress I try on is a burgundy velvet dress that reaches the ground. It has thicker straps and already has mesh covering the exposed parts of my body. I walk out of the bathroom and Laura gasps. "THAT’S THE ONE!" She all but squeals. I just shake my head and go to look in the mirror. It is pretty. The mesh that is on the sleeves also covers the V that is in the neck line and the U that the dress makes in the back. It actually hides all my scars and tattoos. "We look like a sexy badass. You know we can still move in this dress to kick some ass if we need to. AND the blood would match the dress." Fen says getting excited. I haven’t heard her this excited about anything other than killing in a long time. Yeah, it is. Fen actually likes it too. I tell Laura. "Hell yeah she does, you look hot!" Laura says. Laura has been my friend since we were in grade school. She is the only one that makes me feel like I’m normal, even when others know I’m f*cked up. She is also the only one that Fen doesn’t have a problem with. Fen may grumble about Laura, but I know she likes having at least one person we trust that is not our family. "Well now I have to make sure I have everything ready for this weekend. Aren’t you excited? She asks me. I just look at her. Really? Even if I find my mate Laura, it won’t end well. That’s why I am keeping my handy dandy necklace on at all times." I say grabbing the necklace around my neck. "NO you can’t wear that, your mate won’t be able to find you. It nulls the mate bond. What if this time it is different?" She asks. "I will NOT deal with that again, Larua, and you know why." I say as I grab the dress and head out the door. "Thank you for the dress, I will see you tomorrow." I say as I close the door and head to my mini apartment I have in the packhouse.