The Alpha Girl and Her Rogue Mate

Daydreams

Though I felt almost hypervigilant the next few days, I didn’t feel anything else. No tremors, no burning in my chest, no intrusive thoughts. I didn’t tell anyone about what I felt except my best friend, Rosa. Rosa’s father had been a Beta in the pack she was born to, the Agua de Luna Pack, somewhere in Mexico. Unfortunately, Rosa’s father did the same thing Blaise did to my father. Like my Aunt Tara, Rosa’s mother Gabi didn’t know. Her father protected Rosa and her family by not telling anyone.

Unfortunately, Betas attacking their Alpha isn’t totally uncommon. It isn’t something that happens every day, but most packs have experienced it at least a few times. Sometimes, the Beta is successful. Sometimes not. And sometimes, it’s a draw, which usually means the Beta leaves, forming their own pack and taking any pack members and rogues they can with them. Usually, the Wolf Council helps divide up new territories in those cases, but sometimes the Beta creates a rogue pack that travels from territory to territory, growing where they meet other disgruntled members of other packs and other rogues who may want to join them. When that happens they usually come back to challenge the Alpha again, when they’re stronger. 

That’s the rarest scenario, and I’ve only heard of it happening a small handful of times, mostly in small states where there is less land. Rhode Island only has one pack, and that situation can get volatile. That’s part of why the Oregon Federation was formed, because the five packs of Oregon wanted to create a peace. If anyone attacks any pack in the Federation, we all help. That includes Betas.

But where Rosa grew up didn’t have any such alliance. And when her father attacked her old Alpha, it was a draw. Her father fled, not wanting to involve the Wolf Council of the country. But his attempts to protect Rosa’s family didn’t work out. Her old Alpha didn’t believe that her mother, or her two older brothers, or even herself at the age of 6 didn’t know. He ordered them all held as soon as the fighting died down and, a day later, ordered their deaths. But Gabi’s childhood friend “left the lock undone” that night. They ran until they hit Texas, but when they got there, they heard about the Oregon Federation. They wanted to live somewhere where they’d never have to worry about the kind of thing they went through again, so they came to us. Rosa and I were both 10. Blaise was fresh on my father’s mind. But my father is incredibly compassionate, especially for an Alpha. He brought them into our pack and found Gabi a role as the head baker at the Packhouse Bakery, a local shop in the human part of the territory owned by an elder wolf who retired before I was born. The prior baker was killed in the mutiny. 

I don’t know if my father knows this, but Rosa told me once that a pack Alpha in Texas told her mom that our pack, The Blue Falls Pack, was the only one likely to take them in as full pack members. The Green Pine Pack was a close second, but they were worried about what had happened here. Everyone was worried. But my father’s reputation for kindness protected with an iron will and extreme physical strength preceded him. 

I realize all of a sudden that my attention has wandered, and class has ended. Everyone is packing their bags up. I start to put away my things as well, hurrying along to avoid getting called out for my inattention. 

But then everyone starts laughing. I freeze with my arm midway to my bag, looking around. My classmates are too busy laughing to notice my confusion, so I glance up at my teacher Ms. Willis. She’s giggling too, but behind her on the whiteboard, I see the joke. Her tidy handwriting letters the board with: “SKYLAR ISN’T PAYING ATTENTION; EVERYONE PRETEND TO PACK UP!”

I start laughing too. Ms. Willis is my favorite teacher, even though she is human. Most of the teachers are, actually. In a fairly small town of around 6,000 residents, our Pack is only about 250 wolves. That’s large for a single pack, but it leaves a lot more of the humans than there are of us. We are in the middle of a national forest, we have tons of space away from them though. 

Ms. Willis composes herself and says, “glad to see you back with us Skylar.” 

I laugh and say, “sorry, the surface of my desk was more interesting than Hamlet.” Ms. Willis laughs, because she lets us talk back a little. She says it's part of our creative maturation. If we can make good points, or be funny, she will let it slide as long as we don’t disrespect her. 

“Well, that little prank took up the rest of our time, so you might want to continue packing,” she says, with a little smirk at the book that had flopped halfheartedly out of my hand and onto the floor when I realized what was happening.

I finish packing, as does everyone around me. And just as I am finishing up, the bell rings. I realize I am starving, and thank the Goddess it’s lunch time. But on my way out, Ms. Willis stops me.

“Are you all right, Skylar?” She looks a little concerned. “You don’t usually have trouble paying attention in class.” She is right. I’m very academic. A lot of wolves don’t enjoy school, and they plan to take up jobs in town or with the pack. Our pack is fortunate, because there hasn’t been a successful challenge to our Alpha bloodline for almost 200 years. That means our pack has a lot of money. My ancestor in about 1803 made some very wise investments and purchases for the pack, and if there had been a successful challenge, the money would have followed my bloodline, not the new Alpha. When a new Alpha takes over a pack, or a new pack is established, sometimes they have a lot of trouble starting out. For my pack, luckily, there are options. We send any wolves who want to go to university to school. Warriors make a salary for that work, since they need to train for hours a day. The Alpha and the Beta both make a stipend, because running the pack is a full time job. Other wolves just work, often among the humans. A few wolves even commute to nearby towns and cities, although that’s unusual. Wolves are very territorial and we don’t like to be outside our Pack territory limits unless we have to. 

I’ve always liked school though. Maybe because I’ve always been half convinced I am human.

“Yeah, of course. I’m fine. I’ve been feeling a little off the last few days, but nothing major.”

“Okay great. Do you need an extension on your paper?” I hold in a sigh. I forgot I have a paper due at the end of the week.

“No, no. Of course not. Thank you though.”

“Well, if you still feel under the weather this week and change your mind, let me know, okay?” I nod. 

“Thank you, Ms. Willis.”

“Of course, Skylar. Have a good rest of your Monday. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I wave on my way out the door. My locker is nearby, thankfully. Rosa’s locker is in the B building, where the science labs and the gym is. The two buildings are connected, but they weren’t originally, and getting from one to the other is still a walk. Depending on how many kids are cramming in certain hallways, it can easily be a three to five minute walk. Which is why I am shocked to see Rosa leaning against my locker when I get to it. She always meets me in the cafeteria because our lockers are so far apart. She’s smiling and staring at her phone.

The hallways are somewhat cleared, as most kids have headed to lunch, so Rosa hears me coming and looks up.

“Check your phone once in a while!” she exclaims, waving her iPhone in my face. I roll my eyes a little. She is always texting in class. Rosa is the stereotypical wolf. She wants to be a Warrior and has no interest in school. Even her smile always looks a little wolf-ish, mischievous. 

I shove her lightly off the door to my locker and spin the combination lock. “Why? What groundbreaking gossip did you have for me? Is it Tomas? Did he break up with that human, finally?”

“No, of course not, they’re still delusional. He keeps saying he’s going to marry her. You can’t marry a human, what are you going to do? ‘Sorry, babe, when I get annoyed I turn into a wolf. Also I have an impulse and irresistible attraction to another wolf, but don’t worry about it.’ I mean, I just hope he finds his mate before he marries her. That’ll knock some sense into him.” Her brother is 18, and he had his first shift a few months ago. He hasn’t found his mate yet, but if a wolf doesn’t find their mate in their own pack, they often travel around to visit friends or family in other packs. The Wolf Council holds the wolf equivalent of prom twice a year, too, except instead of getting drunk and being separated from our crushes by teachers who don’t want us getting too close, the purpose is to meet your mate, so closeness is kind of encouraged.

“Wolves and humans have had relationships before. He could reject his mate.”

“Yeah, rogues mostly. But it’s not like she can live on the pack side, and he can’t live in the human side, so… not a lot of options.”

“Okay, so if that isn’t it, what’s the big news?”

“I felt it.”

I stop pushing my backpack fruitlessly into my tiny locker and turn to her. I can feel that my mouth is slightly open.

“The heat?”

“Yeah. Just now. In class.”

“Not in your Home Ec class?”

“Yes. Where, as you know--”

“--you’re the only wolf,” I finish her sentence in a low voice, barely above a whisper. “That’s convenient. What did you tell everyone?”

“Seizures. Thanks for that handy excuse. It’s not what you felt last week and not what I felt just now, but it sounds good doesn’t it?”

“You can pay me royalties on that idea.” I say with a small snort of laughter.

“I can’t believe it,” she says, her eyes glowing with excitement. “I felt the heat. It was so weird! I didn’t believe you when you said it was weird.”

I scoff, but I’m distracted momentarily by finally finding an angle to ease my bag into my locker. My locker and my bag are shoved full of books, some for class and some for recreation. But by maneuvering the books in my bag slightly, I can finesse the bag into my locker in a diagonal, and I’ll probably even be able to shut the door. 

Once the bag is in place, I test the door. It works, kind of, but the bottom of the door doesn’t catch.

“Here,” says Rosa, who stoops down to reach the bottom of the door. I swing the door back open and she counts out “one, two, three” and we swing the door shut in unison. The added pressure of her help does the trick and the door makes a little click noise as it closes.

“I can’t believe I felt the heat today!” Rosa is still guilty.

“I’m excited you felt it too, maybe we will shift to the same moon.” Wolves can shift at will, except the first time. The first time, it’s always a full moon.

“Ooohhhh,” she gives this little squeal of joy. “That would be amazing! Maybe we would find our mates at the same time!” 

“That would be cool,” I agree.

She skips ahead of me, clearly excited. “Come on, slowpoke! I’ll race you to lunch!” 

I giggle. I nod, but she’s always been faster than me.

“If you lose,” she calls over her shoulder, “you owe me lunch!”

But as I start to run, it happens. The feeling is more intense, more painful than anything I’ve felt before. It’s five times worse than the first time I felt the heat. Suddenly, I collapse.