Ember
She had resigned herself to packing as much as she could when she left the Luna’s office. She knew the woman didn’t like her, but these were extreme consequences for something she hadn’t even done.
Good thing she had started making a point of recording all their interactions after that one time when she was twelve and she had slapped her for no reason. She had been hesitating to use all the evidence she had had, since Alpha Anson still showed her respect despite them not living like a married couple.
But now, she thought it was time to make sure Alpha Anson knew exactly who his Luna was. But first, she needed to pack her things; since she had no doubt that Luna Bernadette would get rid of every single thing she left behind. The evidence would keep until she had found her feet, but she was about to blow up quite a few things in this pack.
Not that Ember had all that much; she had always been conscious of the fact that she was an intruder in this pack. Some of the pack members treated her with kindness, but she knew that a lot of them did not like a human living in their pack when not mated to one of their own. She had always been somewhat of an outsider.
So she had kept her requests of Alpha Anson to the minimum when he had asked her what she wanted as gifts. She had quite a few high quality and high priced items, but that was mostly because he insisted on buying top of the range items when she had asked for anything; especially when it was technology.
She was halfway done packing her computer setup, when there was a hesitant knock on the door. Glancing up, she saw a contrite-looking Ilene standing in the doorway. Ember couldn’t help feeling enraged with her supposed friend’s betrayal and she walked to the door and closed it in her face, locking it for good measure.
She had thought she was her friend, but she had gone directly to blaming her for what had happened, never considering that the Luna had always hated her. Everyone knew that and she still threw her under the bus without hesitation.
“I’m sorry, Ember. I panicked and thought that she wouldn’t punish you as badly because you’re the Alpha’s favorite…I didn’t know she would kick you out of the pack! Can we still be friends?”
Ember ignored her; feeling betrayed by the only she-wolf she had thought was her friend. She had done nothing wrong and now she was homeless. And no one in the pack would dare go against the Luna’s decision.
She was alone; maybe she always had been and she had been fooling herself, thinking that they would care about her at all.
“Please, Ember! I made a mistake; can’t you forgive me?” Ilene was still whining through the door. “Could we at least have dinner together…and breakfast, before you go? Please?”
Ember ignored her and finished packing her technology. Then she started on her personal effects. Thankfully Alpha Anson had given her all her personal paperwork when she had turned sixteen, so she didn’t have to worry about that. Bernadette was just petty enough to destroy them so she would have nothing.
She would go to the academy. It received high praise, since alphas and future Lunas had gone there for generations. Of course, Calum was not there, since he was in college already, working on becoming the future alpha of River Ash Pack in an accelerated program meant for future alphas.
Ilene’s whining had died down after a while and she hoped she had left. If Ilene could betray her so easily, she clearly wasn’t her friend at all. And she wasn’t going to keep in touch with someone she couldn’t trust.
Ember felt alone again, like she had when she had found herself in that hospital after her father’s death. Maybe she always had been alone. That night when she lay in her packed up room, she finally allowed the tears to flow. She had gone from anger at the betrayal to feeling utterly small and alone. She was an orphan, going on a scholarship to a prestigious school, but she had also heard the rumors that the academy was like a cage for the wolves.
Caged wolves had strict hierarchies defined by strength, power and cunning. In the great scheme of things, she would be outranked by everyone there. She just hoped that meant that they wouldn’t take their anger out on her.
But she also knew wolves, and though she had hidden quite a lot from Alpha Anson, she also knew that she was likely to be a favorite target, just like she was here. She was a human in a world of wolves; they would make sure she understood that.
She finally cried herself to sleep. The next morning, she took great care in treating her irritated eyes from her crying the previous night. She would leave, showing no weakness, with her head held high. And she would arrive at the school with the same. She would not show weakness to the wolves, because that was as good as placing a neon target on her back.
She would do anything and everything in her power to keep herself from being the target of wolves that thought they had to make a point. She was smart enough to protect herself when no one else would.
The moment she stepped out of her room, she found the head omega, Mrs. Thomas smiling sadly at her. “I heard what happened, little one. Bernard will be here, soon to help you carry your things down and I’ve made you a hearty breakfast, because you can’t leave on an empty stomach.”
Ember gave a faint smile and handed over the egg timer, which was the last thing she had fixed for the kitchen. “I fixed this for you, Mrs. Thomas. I hope you find someone else that could fix the broken tools in your kitchen.”
Mrs. Thomas scoffed kind heartedly. “Don’t you worry your head over us, little one. You make a success of that school they’re sending you to and maybe you’ll even find your match there.” She answered with barely contained tears.
Mrs. Thomas was fond of her, since she had grown up with her taking her under her wing as a female parental figure. Ember was close to tears as well, but she refused to show weakness. “Humans don’t have mates, Mrs. Thomas.” She answered with a forced light giggle.
“Just you wait…” Mrs. Thomas answered as if she knew something no one else did. “Come along, we should have you full before they come to bring you to the academy. I also packed you some snacks to bide your time. I will be sending a treat to you every so often, young lady.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Thomas.” She smiled faintly and followed the older she-wolf down the hallway, after she had closed her door.
She studiously ignored Ilene who was waving her arm off where she sat in the dining room and went into the kitchen. The staff was shooed away by a stern Mrs. Thomas who insisted she eat breakfast first, before they all say their goodbyes.
Ember was moved by their care and quickly ate her meal. Mrs. Thomas placed a large box of treats on the kitchen counter next to her, making sure she understood that it was meant for her. The car arrived just after she pushed her empty plate away and Bernard told her that all her things were loaded.
She was engulfed in so many hugs from the kitchen staff before she left with her box of treats. The smartly dressed male standing next to the back door of the Bentley was also a wolf. Without a word, he opened the door for her and she got in without a backward glance. Once she sat inside the car with the tinted windows, she glanced one last time at the pack house.
In the upstairs window, stood Luna Bernadette with a smirk and on the front porch of the pack house stood Ilene with a tear-stained face. The omegas, who had come to see her off, had been herded back into the house and just like that, her life in the pack ended.
She was no longer part of the River Ash Pack.
EmberThe three hour drive in the car, she spent reading through the package that had been on the back seat of the car with her name on. It had the school rules, expectations and her classes all included. She was expected to wear a uniform and she would also get extra credits for handing work in early.When the car finally came to a stop in front of what appeared to be a large apartment building on campus, she glanced at the name of the apartment building and realized this would be her home while she was here.Taking out the key from the welcoming package, the driver quietly assisted her with carrying all her belongings up to the third floor. And once she unlocked the door, he abandoned his load just inside the door and disappeared without a word.Ember stared at the place around her. It was set up almost like a small studio apartment. She had a small kitchenette with a fridge and a small countertop stove and oven and a
Alpha AnsonHe had spent the better part of his three week trip following up on leads for the murder of Ember’s father. That was not to say that he did not do business for the pack as well. But the case had gone cold and dead in the eyes of the authorities and he was not about to let Tyler’s death go unpunished.Whoever had killed him had stolen childhood memories from Ember and a lifetime of happiness and experiences. Tyler deserved justice and Ember deserved answers. He was exhausted, but he had found a few more leads to work with.From what he could find, it seemed that his death was either a struggle for power within the Hunters, or it was because Tyler had protected his baby girl. From the pictures of the crime scene, he was leaning towards a combination of them both. There would be no point in killing Tyler for the title if his heiress was alive and could easily take over leading the hunters.But what
EmberAfter a week with everyone giving her a wide berth since she sprayed Paisley with the silver solution, she was all but ignored. No one wanted to anger her enough to get sprayed as well. In fact, nothing came of the matter, since Paisley had no foot to stand on.She could walk through the corridors and hear the gossip from the other wolves. Something about the Bane Pack members coming back from their latest suspension. From what she understood, they would regularly be suspended for one thing or the other. She hoped she wouldn’t draw their attention as well; the last thing she wanted was to get into another altercation.She had started bringing her laptop to school now that it would be safe, so she could type notes in class and even used it during her lunch period. She had had some of the wolves hesitantly approaching her for the typed notes from a class they missed or didn’t do well in and she made a tiny inco
BernadetteShe was angry…no, she wasn’t angry, she was enraged.That bastard had actually taken her Luna title, exiled her from the pack and divorced her in one go. Then he had the audacity to tell her that he had promised her father that he would care for her and he would keep his word.She was sitting in his supposed care, after tiring herself out from screaming her anger to the world. His care was a sensible car, a stupidly small and sensibly furnished two bedroom apartment filled with groceries in a secure building and one suitcase with her clothes and shoes.What was she supposed to do with that?She didn’t even know how to cook! He had told her that her salary as a Luna had been untouched because she had been spending the pack’s money, so he would not give her a monthly allowance as well. He said something about smart investments would give her a tidy sum to live off. Yes, the apartment a
Ashton BaneHe was annoyed with how things had worked out. He had been sure that they had had enough evidence to get that teacher blacklisted with the information they had gleaned from the she-wolves male gym teacher the previous semester. They wanted him out of the school, but his father insisted that they needed as much as they could if they wanted to completely blacklist and prosecute him. If they did it right, he could be put to death for his crimes.Their pack had a bad reputation, but no one knew that they had been contracted by the werewolf king to work as an undercover agency to protect the werewolf realm as a whole. They were widely known as a dangerous and delinquent pack for the simple reason that the king hid their true purpose for a reason.The king had created their connection after his little sister had disappeared from the kingdom without a trace. She was still missing and no one could find any information on what ha
EmberShe felt nervous and unsettled working on this with them hanging around her place like they were. She was not used to anyone being in her personal space while she was working; she’d always sort of been left to her own devices, until Alpha Anson had finished his work and could spend time with her and Calum.She felt crowded with them there. It also felt like someone was playing high tension music in the background while the third guy was scratching around in her kitchen. She had a particular order her things had to be in before she could focus on what she was doing and he was just scratching around like he was the lord of chaos!She now knew the guy that had threatened her was Ash, but she still didn’t know the other two. She made a point of leaving her camera and sound recording while they were there, but she’d help them find out if the teacher was involved in a kidnapping ring. She was just going to cover he
Alpha AnsonThe more he went through the Luna’s files the angrier he got. Bernadette had tried to bleed the pack dry, no wonder she had never used her Luna salary. She’d cut the budget for household, kitchen and the gardens. Then he found out that she had used thirty percent of that money to pay the salary of the omega she had doing her work for her. The rest, it seemed, was spent on spa days, shopping, day trips and generally living the high life.He was livid, realizing what he had put his pack through by keeping her there for the sake of some stability. He had corrected the budget cuts, so the broken items could be replaced. It was then that he realized that Ember’s tinkering had kept things running smoothly.If he hadn’t stripped her title the moment he realized what Bernadette had done, her underhanded dealings would have come out eventually, but probably much later and with so much more damage to
EmberShe woke on her bed with her alarm, but she didn’t remember going to bed. In fact she remembered leaning her forehead on her folded arms while she waited for the last of the code to run through Mr. Waylon’s entire system.It took her longer than usual to shut off her alarm, since she had been wrapped up in her bedding like a burrito. She had to roll a few times to unwrap herself and ended on the floor with a thud and a groan.Clearly she had not put herself to bed; someone had managed to put her in bed without her waking. Managing to scramble to her knees, she turned off her alarm, noticing that they had even plugged her phone in to charge.Shaking her head to herself, she rushed to her computer, almost tripping over her bedding and checked on the status. Ember grinned when she saw that it had run through successfully and she now would know everything he did on his computer.She closed the windows she had l