THE ALPHA

VALERIE Stepping out of the water onto the shore, I am quickly engulfed in a bear hug by Evie. "Please don't do that again," she says and I notice tear streaks running down her cheeks from crying. "I won't, I promise," I say and she gives me a sweet smile. I look behind Evie and see Nathan, Oscar, Veronica and Donald standing patiently. "I'm ready to be your Alpha," I say to them. "That's if you still want me to be," I say while smiling at them all. "Of course we want you to be," Veronica says, running and engulfing me up in a hug with Evie. She is very motherly. I know for sure that I can only see her as such. I notice a smile appearing on Nathan's, Oscar's and Donald's faces. "But there is a condition," I interject and their smiles turn into frowns. "I know that some of the rogue wolves escaped yesterday and I want to know their identities. When the last one of them is dead, I'm going to hand over the Pack to Oscar, who is rightfully the Alpha of this Pack!" I conclude. They are about to protest, but they grow quiet when I hold up my left hand, signaling them to stop. They all lower their gazes and nod in understanding, even Evie. "Understood Alpha," Veronica says while nodding. My concentration is only on Evie and I bite my lower lip in worry for making her bow. She looks up at me and smiles. 'It's okay,' she says in my mind. I badly want to learn how to communicate back to her. I'll teach you,' she answers. Gosh, she heard me! "Umm... Alpha, we have some things to discuss," Oscar says, standing out of his bow and looking at me. I nod and we all start walking back towards the Pack house. Evie having escaped when the Pack was taken over by Archie didn't know the suffering the rest in the dungeon had faced. When Nathan and Ivan finishes filling me in with all the details of what had happened to everyone, all of the furniture in Archie's office lie in ruins from my anger. Looking at the broken pieces of furniture I notice a smashed photo of Archie and his group. The 'dangerous man' is standing next to Archie in the photo with a grin on his face. "Who is this?" I ask, pointing at the 'dangerous man' in the photo. "He is Mark Ambrose, a rogue. It is with his help that Archie was able to attack our Pack," Oscar answers, growling in rage. My eyes widen at the tone he has used and I feel that I really don't like him speaking to me like that. "Sorry Alpha," he says and then lowers his gaze. "I like the color of your eyes," Evie says, walking towards me, "Blood red." She smiles widely at me and studies my eyes. I'm happy she's at least smiling now. "He escaped yesterday," I say angrily. "Yes." Oscar replies. "Mark, Dominic, Jeff, Simon, Jimmy, Nolan, Gerald and Morris escaped." he says, pointing at each of the men in turn in the photo. "I want to be the one to kill Dominic!" I say sternly. Can't forget the way that bloody idiot banged me into a wall. "I want them all dead. No mercy will be given to any one of them." I say while growling. "No mercy!" they all agree. A loud crash draws all our attention. We all look behind to see Ivan and Nathan standing beside a broken locker filled to the brim with money and jewels. "Wow!" Oscar says. "The money was earned through corrupt ways," Evie mentions. "But it will be useful for the reconstruction of the Pack," Ivan suggests. He's right. The Pack needs a lot of things according to what Veronica told me earlier, and first on the list is food. "I agree. Let's start with getting food for the Pack and constructing a new moon temple," I say, and I'm surprised with my dominating tone. No wonder Shawn was proud of his Alpha tone. "The jewels?" Nathan asks. "We will keep them in the moon temple once the statue has been placed." I say to them. "There is no statue in the Moon Temple," Oscar says. "There is. It was just destroyed but the pieces of the statue are on the floor." "No Alpha, we checked it yesterday," Oscar replies. What? I saw the pieces myself. I run quickly from the room and go as fast as my legs can carry me to the Moon goddess's Temple. I look at where I had seen the pieces before and I find out that Oscar was right. There's no statue, not even the black cloth that was there. Who has taken it? The evil? Either way, a temple is going to be constructed no matter what! "We should get it done as soon as possible!" I tell them sternly. Looking out through the window, I watch the moon excelling in the sky high above. I can't stop the thought that the pieces of the statue are missing, from running around in my head. It is all I can think about. The door to the room gets opened and Veronica stands at the doorway. 'Come in,' I say to her through the mind link. Evie has already taught me how to communicate and block people through the link. "I'm sorry to be disturbing you at this time," she apologises. "It's okay," I say. "I know what you have been through in your old Pack. Evie filled me in with the details. I promise nothing like that is going to happen to you here," she says reassuringly. "You belong to our Pack and you are our Alpha now." "I don't think I will make a good Alpha." I respond, unsure. "Oh no, you will become a great Alpha. It was me who was not a good Luna. If I had known earlier that Archie would turn out to be such a monster, I would have killed him even before I gave birth to him!" she says while weeping. I really feel sad for her. Her own son has caused such a huge destruction to the Pack which yes supposed to be protecting. He even killed his own dad. Well, maybe his brother died for other reasons. "I have lost almost everything; my mate, my eldest son. But I'm not going to lose my Pack," she says confidently. "You will become one of the strongest Alpha's and we are going to train you to become one." I gulp loudly at her words. "The mistake once done will not be repeated." "And your training will start now," she says and Evie comes through the door holding a bag. Veronica opens it and shows me a beautiful light blue dress which is in it. "I got it when we went to the shops. Please wear it and come down, the Pack is waiting for you." "I can't," I say while shaking my head. "Yes you can," Evie says. She then turns to Veronica and says, "Don't worry Veronica, I will help her." The luna gives a nod and quickly leaves. Evie walks quickly to me and hands me the dress. "You have five minutes to get ready and your time starts now," she says sternly. Who is the Alpha here? When I finally make it downstairs, I gasp in shock to what I am met with. I look out at the huge crowd waiting for me. It seems to be around at least two hundred people. "You look beautiful dear," Veronica says and I blush. "You're blushing," Evie teases and I fix my eyes on her, with a mock glare. I walk to the stage and begin to climb up the stairs, and the crowd bursts into loud cheers and claps. When I am finally on the stage, it takes a whole five minutes for the crowd to cool down. Tears are already forming in my eyes and Evie holds my hands tightly to reassure me. 'Don't cry....not now. The Pack needs you to be strong!" she says firmly through the link. "Alpha we need you to say something," Oscar, who was now my Beta, calls out. I chose Oscar as my Beta and Nathan as my third-in-command because they were the strongest wolves in the Pack, and they deserve the title. I step up to the front of the stadium. I look out at all the Pack members and their happy faces and that makes me smile back at them. "Umm... Hey," I say and the crowd cheers some more. "I don't know whether I'll be a perfect Alpha to you all, but I promise that I'll try my best and for that I'm going to need your patience and support." The crowd is unstoppable now. Many of the people shift into their wolves and begin to howl up at the sky. 'See. Told ya they would like you," Evie says through the link. She has been trying to boost my confidence. I look at her and see that she is genuinely happy. Oscar, Nathan, Donald, Ivan and Veronica are all smiling proudly at me. I look back at the crowd in front of me and my gaze falls upon a woman holding a child. It's the same child that I saw in the dungeon yesterday. I step down and walk to the woman. As I get closer to her, she hands me the child and smiles. "What's his name?" I ask, looking up at her. "Patrick," she answers. I look down at Patrick in my arms, to see he's now holding my hair in his small hands and smiling sweetly. I smile back at him. He's such a cute child. I kiss his cheek and hand him back to the woman who I knew her name as Doreen, his mom. "Shift! Shift! Shift!" the crowd begins to cheer on and on. Most of them haven't seen me in my wolf form yet, and they are all curious to see a white wolf for the first time. I concentrate on my white wolf nestled deep inside me and fall to all fours on the ground. I shift quickly and look out to see everyone that is present, except the children, has shifted. I look at Oscar's, Nathan's, Ivan's and Evie's wolves, then look at the sky and howl loudly at it. My howl isn't filled with pain, like it was yesterday. Today, it's filled with joy. This is a new beginning.... All the wolves in my Pack join me in my howl at the sky. My Pack. This is my Pack, and I am The Alpha!