Alpha's Destined Mate

“I, Alpha Thallus, reject you as my mate. I shall not allow a low-blood like you to become Luna over 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 in anger as she stormed off furiously. Some people were following her, people intent on causing her harm so she shifted to her wolf form to be faster.

Her hind and fore legs were burning from the chase. One of the wolves chasing her caught up with her, and the wolf 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 to 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 that anyone could ever imagine. Had the moon goddess turned her back on her and 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 heartbroken, too heartbroken to leave the house. He moped around the house for days, and at the tender age of fourteen, she had to take care of her younger sister, who had been newly born. There had been no wet nurse to look after the child but she had done her best to nurture the child.

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 in the daytime, and at night, he patrolled their settlement to get paid by the government. There was a particular man at the market that hated her father. He often sabotaged his business. Once he had set his stall on fire and burnt all the leather stored in there.

Just after the death of the Alpha and his son Thallus was crowned the new Alpha, the man was found brutally murdered at night, just 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 and 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, who was ranked the third most powerful man in the Dark Moon pack, had spoken, and his word had the weight of the law.

No one carried out any investigations anymore, and the new Alpha had immediately ordered her father executed. The people of the Dark Moon pack, who loved violence, immediately agreed to it and cheered as he was tortured before his head was cut off.

Since then, Raya has become an outcast in the pack. She had continued her father’s business, selling leather, and had continued to take 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 to her sister, but most of the time, the bigger wolves scared off prey, so most times, she was left with nothing to eat. She gave the little she could 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 the beheading of her father as a mate. To make matters worse, it had to happen at their annual pack celebration, and he rejected her in front of people.

She scoffed; if anyone should be doing any rejection, it should have been her; the Alpha had killed her father without proper investigation, yet again, he was making another heart-tending decision.

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

She wiped her tears and journeyed home to her sister, who would have been awaiting her return. She felt sad that she had no food to give to her sister so she looked about the bushes for berries and nuts and perhaps a rodent she could kill.

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 the squirrel. It 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 she had just ended its left. She was a rodent in the paws of the Alpha and Lord Christopher.

Just a few miles from the small cottage by the outskirts where she lived, she could feel an immense heat, and as she drew nearer, she sighted a bright orange light, which, as she drew closer, were tongues of flames lashing out on a large expanse of land. When she was close enough, she witnessed hundreds of her pack members celebrating the destruction of the only home she had known all her life.

Raya rushed through the crowd; her sister was supposed to be inside. She had told the little girl to remain indoors regardless of whatever happened, but she had never fathomed this.

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