* Flashback *
'And what happened to the father bear, Mumma', eight-year-old Lucy asked her mother Wilma with her big blue eyes.
'Sweetheart, we will continue the story tomorrow. It's past your bedtime', her mother endearingly tucked little Lucy inside her unicorn blankets. Wilma gave a final kiss on Lucy's soft forehead before turning the lights out. That was the last memory she had with her mother.
The next day Lucy was woken up by total chaos outside. As she tiptoed outside, she saw a strange black man stabbing her Mumma mercilessly and multiple times.
'Mumma!', she shouted as she charged towards the scene. The strange man having finished his job exited swiftly out the back door. Lucy looked on horrified as her mum was now bleeding at several open stab wounds, as she kneeled beside her mum, she heard a few coarse and crackled breathes.
'What in the! WILMA!', her dad shouted from behind as he shoved Lucy to tend to his dead mate's body.
'YOU! I knew you were cursed ever since you were born. I should have killed you a long time ago', her father cursed as his eyes began growing darker and more furious. Within seconds, he was growling, and Lucy knew his father's wolf was surfacing now. As he took close dangerous steps towards Lucy, he pinned her to the floor and started pressing against her throat making her suffocate.
'Dad please let meeee go..it was not...'
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Lucy woke up panting from her nightmare. She has been getting these terrible recurring dreams ever since she was accused of murdering her own mother. The knife miraculously seemed to have her fingerprint and she was the only witness at the scene. Everything was pointing at her including an old prediction from a witch that she was cursed. Her father, Peter had hated her ever since. She was denounced as the beta's daughter and made to work as an omega despite having beta's blood running in her veins.
'Mumma', she whispered softly as she remembered her mother's soft feature caressing her hair. 'I miss you so much'. All she had of her mother’s memory was a locket that belonged to her. She had no other claims to anything else, but she was more than content with just the locket. It smelled of her mother and reminded her that she was loved once.
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Lucy was just scrubbing the dirty grout off the floors as usual when Gina started her usual routine of torturing and making her life miserable. She kicked the mop bucket making all the dirty water run down on the floors Lucy had just mopped.
‘I just finished cleaning!’, Lucy protested with her low voice while keeping her head down.
‘You murderer bitch, you dare talk back to me’, Gina kicked Lucy on her abdomen making her yelp in pain.
Gina was Lucy’s stepsister by default after her father remarried another, she-wolf soon after her mother’s death. But she never understood why Gina hated her so much and why no one ever bothered to question how an eight-year-old could yield a knife and kill an adult she-wolf? But common sense was lost on her years ago as she continued suffering abuse and torture at the hands of most pack members. Even few of the omegas used to hit her and yet Lucy did not do anything to stop them. She knew fighting only made more enemies and she thought it would be best to be quiet.
Gina kept hitting and cursing at Lucy when one of the omegas chimed in stopping her. At the mention of the Alpha, Gina quickly left, and the omega took Lucy to her shared room.
The omega was kind enough to give her some comfortable clothes and she changed into them after a nice relaxing shower. How come she had never seen this omega before? It would be quite hard to miss her with her dark red hair. She introduced herself as Jolene to her and she thought that it was a very pretty name.
Once Lucy was done with changing, she headed towards the kitchen. Even though Jolene had offered to help, she knew she could not just sit and watch. But as she made her way through the long white corridors, she heard a growl from behind.
She instantly shot her head back to see where it was coming from, and then she met the green, emerald eyes of the pack Alpha. Alpha Jayden was staring at her and growling menacingly. Lucy gulped hard as she tried remembering if she offended the Alpha in any way possible, not that she could think of.
‘I…am sorry..Alpha Jayden..I was just heading to the kitchen and..’, Lucy stammered but was cut off by Alpha Jayden’s growl.
‘You can’t be my mate!’, the Alpha growled again, and Lucy noticed that they were attracting a crowd now and everyone was whispering to each other. She wondered why Alpha Jayden was claiming such a big thing, she was only 19 and still did not have her wolf yet. But with or without the wolf, she should feel at least the pull and yet she felt nothing when she stared at the Alpha’s green eyes.
‘What’s going on here?’, the former Alpha Warren stepped in as he looked between her and Alpha Jayden.
‘My wolf Jase senses she is our mate’, Jayden finally broke the eye contact and answered his father who was now observing the interaction closely. ‘This simply cannot be. We can’t have a past accused murderer as the next Luna of this pack’.
‘And I don’t intent to make her one either’, Jayden spat his words at Lucy who was trying to hold herself together.
‘Someone take her away. We will discuss this first thing tomorrow morning. We have important guest coming in tonight’, the former Alpha dismissed everyone.
Jolene quickly stepped forward to take Lucy away. She needed to know why Jayden thought Lucy was his mate. As she guided Lucy’s trembling body away, Gina stepped in front of them blocking their way.
‘Wait Jo. Earlier you told me the Alpha called me right away. But he told me he never did?’, Gina raised her eyebrows with her hands folded.
‘Miss, I said the Alpha was thinking about you right that moment, I never told you he called!’, Jolene replied making some of Gina’s friends’ chuckle.
‘But’, Jolene quickly added, ‘I assumed the Alpha would always be thinking about you because I know you are going to be our next Luna! What happened right now could simply be a misunderstanding miss’.
Gina seemed pleased with the answer as she finally moved aside to let them through.
Lucy still appeared lost at words as Jolene walked her back to the shared accommodation.
As soon as they reached the accommodation, Lucy started sobbing uncontrollably.
‘Take a seat Lucy’, Jo guided Lucy on to a chair gently.
‘I don’t understand why my life is always so miserable. I only wanted to lay low until I turned 21 so that I could leave this pack’, she said through her teary face, her blue eyes looking sad and empty.
‘I think I might know why this is happening’, Jo announced making Lucy contort her face in confusion. Before she could ask how, Jo continued, ‘You want to leave this pack and I want my freedom too in a way. So, I have a proposition for you that will benefit us both....’.
'What in moon goddess' name, is this true?', Lucy asked, covering her open mouth with her hands in shock. 'Yes, well that could be the only plausible explanation', Jo replied. 'I try my best to cover my scents in all of my clothes and everything well. But when I handed you my spare clothes earlier, I forgot to hide the scent and I did not know you were going to come out so fast to the kitchen'. Jo rubbed her temples in an attempt to ease the throbbing headache. 'But if you really are Alpha Jayden's mate, why not just tell him! Even if we are all omegas, a mate bond is sacred and above all werewolf laws', Lucy chirped happily, her blue eyes shining bright for the first time Jo had ever seen. This made Jo smile weakly. 'Lucy, this is much more complicated than you think and its better if you don't know my circumstances in depth. All I am asking for right now is that you play along and pretend to be Alpha Jayden's mate now. I will give you all of my scented clothes and you can drag thi
As Lucy finally reached her basement room, she looked around at the dusty environment. There were insects crawling all over the place and sometimes they would even crawl on her body. She was terrified at first but soon got used to them. As she collected a couple of her clothes, she sat down on the edge of the bed. Her life was changing so suddenly in such a short span of time. Just a few more months and she would have the freedom she had been craving for years. She needed some savings first to break even and she quickly remembered her little pouch. She had hidden the small pouch inside the old dusty vase. As she reached her hands to fish the pouch out, she heard a couple of footsteps closing in. ''Well well, looks like the dumb b**ch is packing to go somewhere', Gina's evil voice echoed in the dark basement room as her minions laughed. Lucy was sure all of Gina's friends were sticking with her because she was the beta's daughter. Otherwise, Gina was not good at anything besides wh*ri
'What an annoying guest!', Jo thought to herself as she walked back to the kitchen. Not only does he wander off in a foreign pack alone but also insulted her cooking skills. Royal guards and generals were bursting with ego and pride as always. It's a no-brainer that she hated them with a passion. Jo finally walked back into the kitchen and saw her frustrated friend running around barking orders. 'Polly, you need to slow down a little or else you are going to make all the omegas cry with your tone', Jo calmed her friend. Polly took a deep breath as she massaged her temples with her right hand, ''I have just been told that the royal visit has been extended for a week. They were only supposed to be staying one night and now this. I have to get all the rooms ready and assign more omegas. Its total chaos. I know you wanted Lucy to rest but I really need more hands on deck'. 'Alright fine. But as long as you assign Lucy with me, we should be fine', Jo replied to her friend who was watchi
'Caleb, any updates?', Dante mindlinked his friend who he knew was probably in bed with another she-wolf.'Nah man, I was busy dealing with a rather important issue that required my attention immediately', Caleb chose his words carefully.Dante gave a huge sigh. They were only supposed to stay here for one night but ever since he had that encounter with Jolene, he extended the stay for a week. He knew they were wasting important time but now that he knew he had a mate in this pack, he wanted to at least find out who it was. His heart knew it was Jolene so why did the other girl also had the same scent? Was he mistaken perhaps?'Just make sure you speak to the witnesses by this evening' and with that Dante closed the mindlink. This was only supposed to be a regular mission but he could not stop thinking about Jolene and her gorgeous vibrant hair. He wanted to see more of her. No, he NEEDED to see her and know if she really was his mate....
''I am only joking, Miss Jo'', Dante voiced with a smirk playing on his handsome face. Jo was not convinced he was joking. He definitely knew something and could see past her tricks. She needed to go back to her room later and mask her scent more. Also, she had to give some to Lucy but still needed to cover the rest of her scent. This was getting riskier by the clock. Nothing was coming in between her future plans and her, she has been on the run forever and she was getting tired of it. Sometimes, she even had to sleep with one eye open because of the dangers that were always lurking in the dark for her. Jo would get through this as she always did. Now she even had a stronger reason to fight for, which was to get Lucy out of this hellhole. 'Ha-ha. Do all the werewolves from the royal kingdom have such an impeccable taste in humor because, if so, I would need to strike the royal kingdom off my places to visit'', Jo snickered her nasty comment to his amused face. She quickly clappe
As Jo led Dante to the hunting ground, the bustling noise of crowd gathering got louder and louder. Much to Jo’s dismay, Dark Slayer pack had annual traditions of hunting and killing of demon slaves. These slaves were usually caught wondering the no-man’s border. Jo knew some of these slaves were not just exiled demons but a mix of also wondering elves, half fairies, and more creatures. Alpha Jayden took great interest in killing them every year in this so called ‘traditional hunt’. And Jo had a doubt the royal King and Queen were not even aware of this hunt. The hunting ground was filled with various looking slaves in shackles, all looking defeated and tired, signs of abuse apparent with the bruises on their skin. Jo flinched a little at the sight but quickly maintained her posture.All the higher ranked officials were seated in a tent above the hunting ground, looking comfortable and enjoying the parade. Jo knew all this hunting was really a validation they needed for their strength
Jo looked around as all the participants were getting riled up for the hunt. Big built commanders, warriors and officials were stretching and looked at ease with their chosen maidens by their side. Caleb chose Gina's sister, Evelyn. She was a shy she-wolf with the similar signature blonde hair except she was smart unlike her air head mother and big sister. Jo had spoken to Evelyn on some occasions before and she was impressed at how well articulate and kind she was compared to her family. Gina was still clinging on to Alpha Jayden and it seemed like she was going to be his chosen maiden for this hunt which was not a surprise. Gina was always by Jayden's side no matter where it was, Jo wondered if she was that desperate to be the next Luna of the Dark Slayer pack. Dante obviously was still holding Jo's hand tightly and she was getting more annoyed at this dark haired general who had the audacity to assume she was willing to be his partner. If she was not hiding in this pack, she would
Jo looked at the tall and dark general who was watching her very closely and for some unsettling reason, he appeared happy to have spotted her instead of being angry for the trick that was pulled on him earlier. ‘General, these two slaves are my old friends and not demons. I will be in your debt if you talk to our Alpha and release them after this hunt is over’, Jo worded herself carefully so as to not rouse any suspicion. Dante gave her a small smirk and decided to play along a little. ‘Are they werewolves too then? How did they end up in this hunting ground?’.‘Umm, yes General! They are werewolves who have been wrongfully captured in the hunting ground. Merely low ranked omegas as myself, hence we cannot shift like the other strong pack members’, Jo tried to sound as pitiful as possible, as a dazed Dante continued to watch her. ‘Why was she lying?’, he questioned himself inside his mind. He still could not figure out Jo’s true scent, but he wanted to believe that the mate scent e