The Alpha's Cinderella

The Attack

“Mom! Dad!”

A teenage girl coughed as she waved the smoke away, her eyes watering.

She tried to block out the screaming and growling around her as she continues her search.

“Nathan! Mom! Dad!” The girl continues to shout out. But what she doesn’t know is that all her shouting was attracting unwanted attention.

A Rogue snarled lowly as it trailed after the girl. When the girl tripped over, it pounced. The girl turned and screamed but before the wolf could sink its teeth into her, another one jumped over her head and bit the previous one on the neck.

The girl’s eyes widen when she recognized the wolf that saved her.

“DAD!”

She heard someone running towards her direction from behind and tried to crawl away but stopped when she heard a familiar voice.

“Eliza!”

The girl, Eliza, turned around and she almost cried in relief when she saw the face of the person running towards her.

“Mom!”

Eliza’s mom knelt in front of her. She was carrying something in her right hand but she reached out her free and caressed Eliza’s cheek.

“Eliza! My baby girl, oh my god.” Eliza’s mom said tearfully as she pulled Eliza closed to her chest.

When they pulled away, Eliza’s mom’s eyes hardened as she looked into Eliza’s eyes.

“Listen to Eliza, you need to run. Run far away from here.”

“Mom what-” Eliza was cut off when her mom pushed the thing she was carrying into her arms.

Eliza looked down and saw her baby brother, Nathan, face covered in soot but was uninjured. Nathan was currently sleeping peacefully, unknown of the war of the outside world.

“Nathan what- mom!” Eliza asked as tears fell.

Eliza’s mom wiped the tears away and she leaned in to kiss both Eliza and Nathan’s head.

“There’s not much time. More and more Rogues are coming and our forces are growing smaller and smaller. You and Nathan have to leave now.”

Eliza shook her head. “I’m not leaving mom! Head Alpha can save us, he-.”

Eliza stopped when she saw tears leaving her mom’s eyes. “He cannot save us anymore, he was gravely injured and…” Eliza’s mom trailed off as she covered her mouth to stop the whimpers from leaving.

Eliza’s tear was flowing not stop now. Her kind but strong Head Alpha is dead. The head alpha that always played with her and Nathan is dead. The Head Alpha who treated his pack with warm but was fierce when any of his pack mates are provoked. Her Head Alpha is dead.

She came back to her senses when she felt someone pulled her up from the ground.

“Go, Eliza. Go!” Eliza’s mom urged her.

Eliza shook her head, “No mom,”

“GO!” Eliza’s mom growled and pushed her toward the direction of the woods.

Eliza sobbed. “I love you!” With that, Eliza took off towards the woods, her baby brother in her arms securely.

Eliza’s mom smiled and whispered, “I love you too, both of you.”

Eliza’s mom turned and snarled as she shifted into a wolf and charged into the fight.

~

Eliza has no idea how long she had been running but it was long enough that Nathan had woken up.

“Eliza?”

Eliza stopped as she looked down at Nathan.

“Yes, Nathan?” Eliza asked, a little breathless.

“Where are mom and dad?”

Eliza looked at Nathan, speechless. How is she going to tell her baby brother that they won’t be seeing their parents anymore?

“Mom and dad…mom and dad have to leave for a while.”

Nathan squirmed with his brows furrowed. “When will they come back?”

Eliza sighed. “Nathan, they’re…they’re not coming back.”

Eliza immediately regretted her words as the horrified look on Nathan’s face will forever swim in her memories.

“They…they abandoned us?” Nathan asked, eyes filled with unshed tears.

“No! Baby no.” Eliza said as she placed Nathan back on his feet and knelt in front of him.

“Nathan, mom and dad didn’t abandon us.” Eliza started as she swept Nathan’s hair out of his face. “Mom and dad had to leave to ensure our safety. They have no other choice.”

Nathan pondered for a while. “Did they went to where granny is?”

Eliza’s eyes widened. Their granny passed away a year ago. Nathan was only two years old then, not knowing the concept of death so Nathan had cried very hard then, trying to search for his granny that’ll never come back again. Their mom had cradled Nathan in her arms and explained to him carefully that granny had gone to a place we cannot follow until we are as old as granny. A paradise where the Moon Goddess resides in.

Eliza smiled as her eyes shone with unshed tears. “Yeah. They went to live with granny.”

Nathan pouted as he reached out with his small pudgy hand to wipe a stray tear from Eliza’s face.

“Don’t cry Eliza, the Moon Goddess will take care of them,” Nathan said and smiled.

Eliza let out a small amused huff. “Yeah, she definitely will.”

Just then, they heard a low growled not far from where they stood.

Eliza quickly gathered Nathan in her arms and pushed him up onto a tree branch.

“Quick, Nathan, climb as high as you can and stay there.”

“What about you Eliza?” Nathan asked frantically as he reached out to her.

“I’ll keep it away from you.”

“There are still more branches! Come on! Climb up!”

Eliza shook her head and said, “If both of us are up there, nothing is protecting us from below.”

The growl was getting louder and louder by the second.

“Climb Nathan. The further up the better.”

“Eliza-”

They heard the growl again and there’s no mistaking that the person growling is closer than ever. Just then, a bush behind Eliza shook and a menacing beast stalked towards her, foaming at the mouth.

Eliza growled at the wolf stalking towards her and prepared for the worst. She slowing squatted down, her eyes not leaving the red eyes of the wolf in front of her. Eliza felt around the ground around her, trying to find anything that could help her in her situation right now.

The back of her hand hit something hard and Eliza waited for the right moment. When the wolf was close enough, she quickly looked away and grabbed onto the thing her hand hit, which was a branch. At the same time, the wolf pounced on her when it saw her moving her attention from it. Unfortunately for the wolf, Eliza had already planned it out. She tightens her grasp on the branch and swings it as hard as she could towards the wolf.

Eliza felt satisfied when she heard a loud c***k and the sound of the wolf’s body landing harshly on the ground.

She looked down at the branch in her hand and notice that the branch had broken in half. The other half was in splinters on the forest ground.

But it was far from over. It wasn’t long before the wolf stood up again. The wolf shook its head and growled at Eliza, way angrier than before. This time, the wolf had stopped its teasing and had straight away pounced on Eliza.

Having no time to find anything to protect herself, she quickly protect herself with her arm.

The wolf’s jaw latched onto one of her arm and Eliza screamed in pain.

“Eliza!” Nathan shouted from above her.

The wolf’s jaw loosens a bit, distracted by Nathan’s voice. But that’s all Eliza need.

Eliza raised her legs and kicked at the wolf’s body, hard.

The wolf was flung away by the force of the kick and tumbled away. But the kick didn’t cause any damage to the wolf. The wolf was quickly on its feet again and snarled at Eliza. Its gaze glared into Eliza’s as it licked her blood of its snout.

Eliza clutched onto the injured arm, not caring about the rapidly flowing blood trickling down from her arm. She back up slowly when the wolf took more and more steps towards her. It wasn’t long before her back hit the tree Nathan was on and the took this chance to pounce.

Eliza closed her eyes and raised her arm again and waited for the bite.

But it never came.

Instead, another growl was heard and the harsh sound of bodies slamming together flow into her ear.

Eliza opened her eyes and saw another wolf, a blonde one, fighting with the previous one. At first, Eliza thought they were fighting over who gets to eat her but looking closer, the newcomer was way cleaner compare to the dirty, mud cover previous one.

Eliza watched with barely hidden awe at how the newcomer was easily overpowering the previous one. The fight ended when the newcomer managed to latch its teeth onto the previous one’s throat and pulled a chunk of meat out.

The previous wolf whimpered pitifully before letting out its last breath.

When the newcomer made sure the previous one stayed dead, it turned towards her.

Fear clutched onto Eliza’s heard again as she back up more into the tree.

The wolf seemed to widen its eyes before the sound of bone breaking can be heard. Eliza watched as the wolf slowly turned into a man. The man was maybe in his late twenties with shaggy blonde hair and warm brown eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” The man said.

“W-who are you?” Eliza whispered. Eliza was fighting to stay awake as she looked up at the man with bleary eyes.

“My name is Keith, I’m from the neighbor pack. You are part of the Howling Mountain Pack right?”

Eliza nodded.

“Head Alpha Octavian send a wolf to our pack to inform of the attack on his and asked for help,” Keith said. He looked down and saw the state of her arm and winced.

“Let’s get you out of here and get your arm treated.”

Keith moved to carry her but Eliza grabbed onto his arm with her uninjured arm.

“My brother.,” Eliza whispered. She was tired, so so tired.

“Where is your brother?”

Eliza didn’t reply to him but looked up. Keith followed her gaze and saw a tear stricken face of Nathan above them, clutching onto a tree branch tighten.

Eliza watched as Keith stood up and raised his arms towards Nathan. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here to help. Let’s get you and your sister out of here and your sister needs immediate treatment.”

Nathan looked at Keith wordlessly but nodded. He slowly climbed down and when he was closed enough, Keith went closer and carried him down.

Eliza felt Nathan landed beside her and felt his cold hand clutching onto her shoulders.

“Eliza, Eliza!” Nathan cried when Eliza didn’t reply to him.

Keith who heard Nathan’s cries quickly squatted down to check on Eliza’s state.

Eliza was breathing shallowly, her face slowly losing its color.

“Hey, Eliza was it? You have to stay with me. Stay with me okay.” Keith said as he gently shook Eliza awake.

“I’m so tired…” Eliza whispered.

“I know but you have to stay awake until we get you treated. Can you do that for me?” Keith said as he out something and wrapped it tightly around her injured arm. Eliza didn’t even felt the pain, she was just numb.

Eliza nodded wordlessly.

“Keith?” A voice shouted from a distant.

Keith looked away and shouted back. “Over here! I found someone!”

Eliza tried to stay awake but it was getting harder and harder, eventually, her eyes closed.

“Eliza!” Eliza heard someone cried.

Was it Nathan? She not so sure anymore as her ears were shutting out too.

“Eliza! Wake up, Eliza!” Eliza heard Keith cried out and someone was shaking her.

“Keith!” The same voice from before exclaimed but it was closer, way closer than before.

“We have to get her back now. She had lost a lot of blood and is quickly running out.” Keith said.

“Yes, sir.”

Then there was someone shaking her again.

“Come on Eliza, wake up!”

“Eliza!”