Lady Alpha (The Wolves Of Winter Valley)

Natasha POV   The scream of the alarms woke me out of a deep slumber and one of the best dreams of my life. I might have been annoyed if I wasn’t terrified. Those alarms meant that we were under attack, and we had to act or find shelter, depending on our position in the pack. As quickly as possible, I slipped on my robe, jammed my feet into my slippers, and ran from my room. My father and I met in the hall. “Nattie, get the staff and get to the tunnels. Now!” he said and rushed for the stairs. “What’s happening?” I asked, jogging down the stairs after him. “Rogues. A lot of them, and they came to fight. Get to the tunnels!” “I want to fight, Pop,” I shouted at his back, freezing him in his tracks. He turned and retraced his steps, stopping in front of me. Laying his hands on my shoulders, he kissed my brow, then met my gaze. His deep blue eyes were intense on mine. I could feel the love and pride emanating from him, and it made me want to move into those strong arms and soak it all in. “I know you want to fight, my love, and you are one of the finest warriors I’ve ever had the pleasure of sparring with, but you are also our Luna, and you must be protected. When you find your mate, you will become Alpha and it will be your duty to fight to protect our pack. Until then, it is my responsibility.” He released my shoulders and stepped back. “Get to the tunnels.” The tone in his voice told me that he had shifted from my father to my Alpha. I had no choice but to comply. Still, I hesitated, and I watched as he disappeared down the darkened hallway toward the back of the packhouse. For the second time in my life, I knew fear. I knew the nasty metallic taste of it as it rose within me. I knew all too well the chill as my blood turned to ice water in my veins and the constriction in my throat that choked off all sound. Images of the first time I felt terror flashed in my mind, keeping me rooted in place. Mama. A loud noise jolted me out of my memories, and into action. Running toward the rear of the house, I slapped a button on the security panel as I passed. Thick sheets of steel slammed down over doors and windows, preventing entry. The six omegas we employed in the packhouse emerged from the west wing just as I rounded the corner and met me at the wall across from my father’s office. I reached up and pushed a leaf on the ornate nickel wall sconce. An invisible panel slid silently open, revealing a steel door. My fingers shook slightly as I punched in the code and pushed at the heavy steel barrier. After the last omega slipped through, I followed and secured the door. Darcy, the lead omega—a voluptuous woman with dark brown hair tied back in a severe bun and hazel eyes—flipped up the panel of switches illuminating the stairs and the tunnels below. “Go,” I said. “Get to the bunkers.” “You first, Luna. Your safety is more important,” Darcy said and straightened her spine, expecting me to argue. “We’ll go together.” The compromise was accepted with a brief, but firm nod, and the seven of us moved down the stairs as a unit. An explosion, somewhere above, shook the earth causing us to stumble. Penny, the youngest of the omegas with dark blond hair in a bouncy tail and light blue eyes, lurched forward and fell down the remaining stairs, striking her head on the concrete wall below. Darcy and I rushed to her side. She was unconscious and had a thin stream of blood trickling down her temple. I lifted my eyes to the small group. “Go on ahead to the bunkers and tell Dr. Barry to be ready for us. Darcy and I will be along as quickly as we can.” Four pairs of feet broke into a run and fled the corridor. I rose and stepped out of my slippers, then I untied my robe and pulled the belt from its loops. “Luna, forgive me, but what are you doing?” Darcy asked. “Her head snapped back when she connected with the wall. She may have a neck injury. Before I attempt to carry her, I need to stabilize her head and neck. My slippers have hard soles, they should be strong enough to keep her neck from moving around too much. The belt will hold them in place.” I knelt next to Penny and eased the first slipper beneath her neck. She was quite tiny, and my slipper was a perfect fit. The heel rested between the top of her shoulder blades and the toe just above the base of her skull. Quickly, I positioned the second slipper, then wrapped the belt around her head like a bandage. When I was satisfied that the slippers wouldn’t move, I stood up. Darcy stepped forward. “Luna, are you sure you can carry her? Perhaps we should work together,” she said in a strained voice. I knew she wanted to help, but also knew that she couldn’t, and it would have been irresponsible of me to allow her. The woman had been seriously injured in a crash several years before that had shattered her femur and left her with metal rods in her leg and a permanent limp. Carrying any part of Penny would cause her indescribable pain. “It’s okay, Darcy. I can handle it. Just lead the way,” I said, then crouched down and carefully lifted Penny into my arms.   Seth POV   They were coming at us from all directions, dozens of them, united with an apparently common goal. Destroy Winter Valley. My wolf, Justice, leaped out of the way as a ragged looking brown and white wolf charged him from the left, then spun around and tackled him. He sank his teeth into its throat and tore it open. The wolf went instantly limp as it died, and Justice charged forward to defend another of our warriors from a pair of dirty grey wolves. From the corner of Justice’s eye, I saw a blur of dark sable fur leap over the fray and snap the neck of a black and white wolf that had been creeping up on us. Thanks, Harmony. You’re welcome, Beta. Since when do rogues organize? Since now, evidently. Have you seen, Alpha? He was just east of the packhouse with Dad and Gamma. When the last grey wolf fell, I looked around. There were a lot of rogues, but they were still seriously outnumbered, and our soldiers were neutralizing them quickly. A deafening boom rent the air followed by a flash as flames shot up like fingers stretching toward the sky, engulfing the packhouse. The surviving rogues took advantage of the distraction and retreated into the woods. Splintered wood, shards of glass, and twisted metal began to rain down around us. Through my wolf’s horrified eyes, I watched several of our number fall after being struck or impaled by the falling debris. Howls of the wounded echoed. Next to me, I could feel Harmony’s wolf Katie straining to rush to their aid. I wanted to go as well, but we risked being injured or killed ourselves. That urge became nearly overpowering when I felt a sharp jab in my head. Justice whipped his head around and locked eyes with Katie. Her brown eyes shimmered with sadness. My heart sank. That distinctive pain could mean only one thing. Our telepathic channel to our Alpha had severed. Our Alpha was dead. The debris fell for only a few minutes, but it felt much longer. When it stopped, Katie, Justice, and the rest of our soldiers who had been trapped outside of the debris field slowly made their way over the littered ground. I sent three to collect clothes for all of us to put on when we shifted back to our human forms and paused next to one of our fallen. His name was Wesley. He was 19 years old, a recent high school graduate, and planning to start college next fall. He’d just been made a senior warrior. Justice bowed his head in respect, then turned to see Katie comforting a naked man, writhing in pain. I shifted to my human form as soon as the clothing cart arrived. The next few hours were going to be the worst I’d ever experienced. They were going to be worse than any of us had experienced. Never in the history of this pack had we been so viciously attacked. Never had we suffered so many casualties and fatalities. My father had been Beta the last time our pack fought in a skirmish. We’d lost less than two dozen warriors that cold winter day five years before my birth. Typically, it was my Alpha’s responsibility to handle the details where the wounded and the dead were concerned. Alpha Raymond was dead. His daughter was the Alpha now, but she was in the bunkers with those who could not fight—where she was supposed to be. Gamma Keller was also dead, so that left me to do what needed to be done. It had taken three hours to clear the battlefield that had once been our peaceful village community, Winter Valley. The packhouse, a grand circular estate that stood proudly for two hundred years, had been reduced to rubble. Two sets of row houses had been burned to the ground along with five of the free-standing cabins designated for ranked pack members. Cars had been burned or overturned and several shops along the main street had been vandalized and robbed. Rebuilding was going to be an arduous task, but our primary concern was finding accommodations and essentials for those who had lost everything. No one would be left to fend for themselves. Winter Valley wolves took care of their own. I was stalling. My last responsibility for the night was to break the news to Natasha that her father was among the fallen. Unlike Harmony and I, Natasha hadn’t felt the jab of pain upon Alpha Raymond’s death. As was customary, he’d opened telepathic channels to each of his highest-ranked warriors, blocking off all others. A weight settled in my stomach as I started toward the exterior entrance to the tunnels. I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing those magnificent storm gray eyes darken with grief. She’d always been close to her father. Even before her mother’s death, they’d had a special bond. While other Alphas held on to the archaic belief that only sons could inherit the Alpha position within a pack, Alpha Terence Raymond had proudly groomed his daughter to take over upon his retirement. He’d faced down critics and external pressure to merge his pack with another, so there would be a male at the helm. He’d shut them down without hesitation. There had been a Raymond leading this pack for centuries and that would not change simply because the next in line had been born female. Harmony joined me as I reached the entrance to the tunnels. “I was just about to contact you and ask you to come with me. She’s going to need you,” I said as I entered my code into the security panel. “She will later. Nat won’t break until she’s alone. You know that.” Harmony reached back and tied her chin-length, black, curly hair into a stubby tail at the nape of her neck and turned sad amber-colored eyes in my direction. A single shallow gash marred the mocha skin of her cheek. “Yeah, I know. I still think you should be here.” “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I love her,” she admitted quietly, averting her gaze. I had known that she and Natasha were a thing. Everyone knew. It was a celebrated fact that our Luna was a lesbian. It made our pack more diverse, it made us unique, and our members were proud of that diversity. I’d had no idea that they were in love. I’d just never thought about it. Neither had reached the mating age of 25, yet, but that milestone was rapidly approaching, and it could bring heartbreak along with it. I had known both girls since we were kids. We’d all grown up together. I cared about them and was worried that they would end up getting hurt.  “What happens when you two find your mates?” I asked. Harmony drew her gaze back to mine. “We will say goodbye.”   Harmony POV   My heart broke as I said the words. Natasha was everything to me. She was my whole world and had been since high school. We’d navigated the choppy waters of our sexuality in an ancient patriarchal species together. In our pack, we were the first to come out as LGBTQIA+, we set the example. And with the support of our Alpha, we paved the way for others in the pack who may have been hiding who they were. There were nearly 50 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender pack members. Each living their truth with the blessing of the Moon Goddess, as she’d already gifted several of them a mate suited to their sexuality and gender identity. I knew my mate would be a woman, either cis or transgender. I was a lesbian. It could be no other way for me. Natasha was bisexual, so for her, it was a toss-up. She was also our new Alpha and the first female to lead a pack, the first to buck tradition. It was also tradition that there be a male and a female at each level of power. The Alpha and The Luna. The Beta Male and Female. The Gamma Male and Female. Surely the Moon Goddess didn’t intend to change that, too. After closing the door behind us, Seth turned and hugged me. “I hope for both of your sakes that you end up being mates, so you don’t have to say goodbye,” he said, then gave a brief tight squeeze and released me. “Thanks, I hope so, too, but I’m not holding my breath,” I said and started down the tunnel toward the bunkers. Outside the door to the bunker common area, Seth and I took a collective deep breath. After keying in his code, he pulled open the door and we stepped inside. An instant later, Natasha was in my arms and her mouth was devouring mine. My heart ached. Her birthday was in a little less than a month and our time together was slipping away. I knew I should break the kiss. Seth needed to tell her about her father, but I needed just a few more minutes to reign in my own grief before I could help her with hers. As the fear drained from her, Natasha’s body went lax against mine and her kiss became less frantic. She slowly drew her lips away and rested her brow against mine. “I’ve been trying to contact you for hours,” she said, bringing her hand up to rest against my cheek. “I’m sorry, baby. It’s been a crazy few hours, I had to give priority to my warriors,” I said and covered her hand with mine. “We need to talk.” Natasha lifted her head and looked into my eyes, then stepped back. I watched the change come over her. The woman before me was no longer the love of my life, she was my Luna. All the emotion that had poured out of her was gone, stamped down, leaving only the stoic demeanor that was expected of someone in her station. “He’s gone, isn’t he?” she asked, calmly. “Yes, Luna. Both Alpha Raymond and Gamma Keller perished in battle. I’m sorry,” Seth told her. “How many others?” “One hundred fifty-three dead. Seventy-six wounded. I’ve had the wounded transported to the hospital and the dead are being prepared for their departing,” Seth stuck his hand into the pocket of his running suit jacket and pulled out a spiral-bound notebook. “I made a list of the casualties, since the families are down here, I thought you might prefer to notify them yourself. If not, I’ll do it.” “No. Thank you, Seth, but this is my responsibility as Luna,” she said and held out her hand for the notebook. Seth and I sat in the corner of the common room while Natasha stood in the center and addressed the pack. I was in awe of her, as a woman and as the pack’s Luna. Despite the late hour, the lack of sleep, and her own grief, she stood strong. Her beauty shining through the dark circles, messy hair, and rumpled pajamas. This beauty came from her heart and shined brighter than her physical attributes. At that moment, she was a beacon of hope, of love, and light. She was what her pack needed her to be. A leader. It took several hours, but Natasha wouldn’t rest until she’d offered comfort to all of those who had lost husbands, wives, mates, or children and had the families of the wounded transported to the hospital. She refused to take a break to eat the meal that was served until all who had been displaced due to the destruction of their homes were set up in the bunk rooms, grouped by family for privacy. When she was satisfied the needs of her pack had been met, she joined us at the table and rested her head on my shoulder. “I’ll be staying down here with them,” she said quietly. “You don’t have to do that, Nat. You can stay with me,” I offered. I didn’t want her to be alone. She had yet to grieve for her father and she wouldn’t allow herself that luxury while surrounded by pack members. “I’m their Luna. They need me.” “Then, I’m staying with you.”