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Chapter 2: The Arrogant Alpha

10 years later

I woke up to a pounding on the door of my room.

“Lily! I need you to help me get the Beta’s breakfast together this morning and do some other chores around the house. Trina didn’t show up and she’s not in her room. The Alpha is here too, having a meeting with him so get downstairs quickly, we don’t want to keep him waiting.” I hear the housekeeper, Mary, say loudly through the door.

“Coming!”

My heart starts racing and I instantly bolt out of bed at the thought of seeing the Alpha up close and personal. I have only caught glimpses of him through the years during the days I had time to venture into town to the library, soaking up every bit of information I could about battle strategies and fighting techniques, my true mission always in the back of my mind. I feel a passing worry about my only friend in the pack, Trina. She can be very flaky but she never misses her chores. I will find her later when I get a chance.

I race around my sparsely decorated room and dress in jeans and a soft blue t-shirt, brush my waist-length auburn hair into a ponytail and check my face in the mirror, pinching my cheeks for some color and giving my ice blue eyes a good hard stare. My father always said I had my mother’s eyes. I feel a faint twinge of sadness and then bury it down deep under my new persona, Lily.

When I woke up in the swamp so many years ago, I had a splitting headache but I was generally unharmed. It was morning, and I walked a little further and suddenly was in a beautiful courtyard. Mary found me, staring at some lilacs and breathing in their smell, just happy to be alive.

“What are you doing here, girl?” she asked suspiciously. I could smell the wolf on her. I found a new pack.

I had to think fast. I remembered my grandmother's words. You can’t ever let them find you.

“Please, I need help. My parents were lone wolves and we were living in a cabin in the woods nearby. They both fell ill and before they died they told me to find a pack to take me in. I have no other family I can go to.”

I looked at her with pleading eyes.

“We don’t take well to strangers here, girl.”

“Please.” My eyes filled with tears, genuine from the loss of my family and the terrifying night I just had. A flash of empathy went through her eyes, then they hardened and she regarded me coldly.

“Come to think of it, I could use another girl to help me with the household chores. You afraid of hard work, girl?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well then, if you can work hard and keep your head down, we will get along just fine. We don’t need to bother the Beta about this, he has more important things to worry about. You understand me, girl?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She called me girl for the first three months I worked in the big house. Obviously the Beta of the pack was wealthy, living in a traditional and grand plantation home that was renovated to its former glory. I was given a room in a converted barn on the property where I lived with Mary and two other girls who helped her with the housework, Trina and Sammy. The two girls barely spoke to me until the day she asked me my name.

“What’s your name, girl?”

“Lily.” After my grandmother’s warning, I didn’t even want to give my real name, but I was worried I would hesitate to answer her if it was too different from my original name.

From then on, Trina and I started a friendship but Sammy still ignored me most of the time. In fact, everyone that I encountered in the pack paid little attention to my presence, no matter how much time had passed. I was just a maid, an insignificant girl in the background of more important members. I found out from Trina later on that at least I was getting paid the same as her, so I discovered Mary was tough, but fair. I was happy to stay out of the spotlight, happy to hide in plain sight. I could trust no one, not even Trina completely, not with my grandmother’s warnings and my end goal to avenge my family.

Shaking my head to get rid of the memories, I raced across to the back door of the big house and through to the kitchen, grabbing an apron and tying it on. Mary looked up at me with stern eyes.

“The Alpha likes his eggs over easy, so help Sammy get everything else set up in the warmers on the sideboard now so I don’t serve them overcooked.”

I was usually on cleaning duty and Sammy and Trina helped in the kitchen, so I was praying I wouldn’t make a mistake.

The first thing I heard when I walked into the dining room was a deep voice, much deeper than the Beta’s, his I have heard before, yelling at Mary about one thing or another. There was something about him that didn’t sit right with me.

“The business is doing well, but our pack could be stronger. I know tradition is not to trust outsiders but neighboring packs could see our small numbers as a weakness. I don’t like the idea of appearing weak.”

I snuck a sideways glance at him but I could only see the back of his head, he was facing the Beta at the other end of the table. The Beta looks annoyed at this discussion, but hides it under a fake smile.

“Tradition is important. It keeps the bloodline pure and keeps out untrustworthy wolves.”

“Raphael, that’s the old school way of thinking. This is the twenty-first century, we need to change with the times and strengthen our numbers, welcome new wolves in and show the other packs we are open to alliances. Those rules were set in place when our grandfathers were dealing with rogue wolf attacks regularly and trying to put those silly prophecy rumors to rest. There hasn’t been a rogue attack in at least 30 years.”

I liked his idea of welcoming in new wolves, but I was dying to correct him about the rogue attacks. He has no idea how very real the threat still is, but I wasn’t about to give up my identity to prove him wrong. But what prophecy is he talking about?

I sneak another glance and notice that Raphael is getting more agitated with the conversation.

“All the same, Derek, it is a tradition for good reason, we don’t need outsiders messing with the purity of our pack.” Raphael’s tone is bordering disrespectful, and I see the Alpha’s shoulders stiffen at the mention of “our pack”.

“Well since I am the Alpha, and it is my pack, my decision is final and I will be announcing it at the pack meeting tonight.”

Mary walks through the side door with the eggs and at the same moment the Alpha stands up and turns around to get his breakfast.

My stomach does a flip as I look up at him. He is towering over me, well over six feet, dark hair with flecks of gray and dark brown eyes. His muscles bulge through his tight shirt and my fingers itch to run all over them. He looks into my eyes and his whole body seems to jolt for a moment.

“What is that incredible smell,” he says, never taking his eyes off me.

“I made the eggs just the way you like them sir,” Mary replies, thinking he is talking to her, almost swooning over his compliment.

“No, not the eggs.” He stalks towards me like a predator that has found its prey. I swallow nervously as he stands in front of me, but meet his eyes to let him know I can stand up to him.

“What’s your name?”

“That’s just one of my house girls, Lily.” Mary seems put off that he wasn’t talking about her breakfast.

“I was talking to her.”

It's no wonder he is the Alpha, I thought, he is arrogant and dominant.

As I was about to answer, another pack member bursts through the door and he looks upset.

“Alpha, sir, I need you to come with me immediately.” Derek doesn’t break his stare with me. Instead he sniffs the air around me and stares even more intensely.

“What is it?”

“Sir, we found a body at the edge of the property. We believe her to be a pack member. It’s a young girl.”

I drop the ladle in my hand and it crashes loudly to the floor.

Oh no, Trina.

The Alpha bends to pick it up and hands it to me, our fingers brush against each other, sending a shiver down my spine. He holds my gaze with a question in his eyes.

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