Alpha's Destined Mate

“I, Alpha Thallus, reject you as my mate. I shall not allow a low-blood like you to become Luna of my people. The daughter of a criminal shall never rule over my people.”

The crowd hummed in agreement. Some of them jeered and mocked her. They threw stones at her, happy that someone like Raya would not become the Luna.

She wiped the tears that streamed down. Humiliation burned her blood, and her face was clouded with anger as she stormed off furiously. Some people followed her, intent on causing her harm, so she shifted to her wolf form to be faster.

Her hind and forelegs burned from the chase. One of the wolves caught up with her and struck her with her paw. Her name was Tamar, the daughter of Lord Christopher.

“Did you really think you’d become Luna?” the girl growled. “The Alpha would never stoop that low to be mated to the daughter of a criminal. He will be mine!” she snarled.

Raya said nothing but crawled away, howling at the full moon. She slinked into the shadows softly, thankful that Tamar had stopped following her. When she got to a rock by the stream, she shifted back into the form of a man and wept bitterly.

Why had the goddess been cruel to her and her family? It seemed like she had gone through the worst fate anyone could imagine. Had the moon goddess turned her back on her family? What had they done wrong? Was it an ancestral sin?

At first, her mother had been killed in an attack on the pack, and her father had been too heartbroken to leave the house. He moped around for days, and at the tender age of fourteen, she had to take care of her newborn sister. There had been no wet nurse to look after the child, but she had done her best to nurture her.

After a month, her father returned to his normal self and went about his daily business. He traded leather in the market with the other salesmen during the day, and at night, he patrolled their settlement to get paid by the government. There was a particular man at the market who hated her father. He often sabotaged his business. Once, he set his stall on fire and burned all the leather stored there.

Just after the death of the Alpha, when his son Thallus was crowned the new Alpha, the man was found brutally murdered at night, right where her father had been patrolling.

He was captured immediately as a suspect. Several people testified that the men hated each other but said her father was a calm person who would never kill even an ant.

However, Lord Christopher, who was on secret duty with his men, testified that he had seen her father kill the man with a knife and then eat his intestines. Lord Christopher, ranked the third most powerful man in the Dark Moon pack, had spoken, and his word carried the weight of the law.

No one carried out any further investigations, and the new Alpha immediately ordered her father executed. The people of the Dark Moon pack, who loved violence, readily agreed and cheered as he was tortured before being beheaded.

Since then, Raya had become an outcast in the pack. She continued her father’s business, selling leather, and took care of her younger sister. Things had been tough, and because of the stigma of murder, no one patronized her business.

At night, she hunted in the woods to bring food home, but most of the time, the bigger wolves scared off the prey. More often than not, she was left with nothing to eat. She gave the little she managed to get to her younger sister. That was how Raya had been living for years.

Now, when life could finally be better for her, the moon goddess had given her the same Alpha who had ordered her father’s beheading as her mate. To make matters worse, it happened at their annual pack celebration—and he rejected her in front of everyone.

She scoffed; if anyone should be doing any rejecting, it should have been her. The Alpha had killed her father without a proper investigation, and now he was making another heart-rending decision.

It’s all for the best, she told herself.

She wiped her tears and journeyed home to her sister, who would be waiting for her. She felt sad that she had no food to give, so she searched the bushes for berries, nuts, or perhaps a rodent she could catch.

She smiled in delight when she saw a squirrel innocently hopping about. Quietly, she shifted back into her wolf form and used her paws to grab it. The squirrel squirmed in her grip, but she killed it nonetheless, feeling sorry for it. For a brief moment, she likened her situation to that of the squirrel whose life she had just ended. She was a rodent in the paws of the Alpha and Lord Christopher.

Just a few miles from the small cottage on the outskirts where she lived, she felt immense heat. As she drew nearer, she saw a bright orange light—tongues of flame lashing across a large expanse of land. When she got closer, she witnessed hundreds of her pack members celebrating the destruction of the only home she had ever known.

Raya rushed through the crowd; her sister was supposed to be inside. She had told the little girl to remain indoors no matter what, but she had never imagined this.

Raya prayed with all her heart to the moon goddess that her sister had found shelter someplace safe.