Above the Alpha

~Aria~

I stopped, my chest heaving. 

“Don't you remember me? Two years ago—we–”

But then, what if he only gets furious after remembering our past ties?

What if the Damon I met two years ago was different from the one before me right now?

Damon's face furrowed, his eyes narrowing. “Speak,” He demanded. But his voice was cold and his eyes unwelcoming. 

I swallowed hard, the pounding in my chest increasing. It was now or never! 

“I–”

“My Alpha! Your attention is needed!” A voice interrupted just as I finally made up my mind to speak. 

With his face still heavily covered in a frown, Damon cast one unpleasant look on me before he trotted away. 

My wolf purred sadly inside me.

“There will be a next time. And this time, I promise to ask him and find out everything,” I told myself but deep within me I was grateful I didn't ask him yet. 

Goddess knows I would hate so much to ruin the precious memories of that day. 

And above all, I was scared.

I was afraid that I'd be forced to finally agree that the sweet boy I met had changed and was nothing like I had in my memory. 

“My Luna! There you are,” Beatrice dashed towards me jolting me out of my thoughts. 

I sighed as I clung onto the low purring consolation of my wolf. 

“What is it, Beatrice?” I asked quietly, turning to head back to my chambers. Sad that I'd accomplished nothing. 

“I've got good news!” She squealed with excitement. 

I raised my eyebrows because the last thing I was expecting on a day like this was good news. 

“Your wedding and coronation with Alpha Damon is in a fortnight! And right now, you are not going back to your chambers. Permit me…” She held my shoulders and turned me so I was facing the exit. 

“You are going straight to the Pack tailor to get your wedding and coronation outfits fittings and your measurements done!”

My eyes darted sideways. 

Wedding? Coronation?

Didn't Damon cancel that?

“What are you talking about? Damon vehemently refused to accept me. At least not yet. What changed?”

Beatrice exhaled sharply, eyes wide and face beaming. “You probably don't know yet but there's someone above the Alpha—Alpha’s Uncle. Well, he's not just the Alpha’s uncle but the Chief elder of the Pack. And I really think the chief elder approved of this. You know he gets the last say in the pack's affairs,” she finished with a slight shoulder raise. She was clearly excited about the whole thing. 

And I wanted to be too. 

I mean, I would finally be crowned as the Luna of Redmoon Pack and be named as the official wife of the Alpha, but instead I felt nothing. 

Was this why Damon stormed into my chambers furiously?

Because his Uncle was forcing him to accept me?

“Beatrice,” I called, an idea popping into my head. 

“Find out everything about this chief elder,” I instructed. 

“I wanna ask why but I'm too excited. I'll do as you have ordered, my Luna,” Beatrice said as she bowed courteously. 

I would have commented on it but my mind was somewhere else. 

Why did I get an eerie feeling each time Beatrice mentioned this chief elder? Like there was something about him that carried a kind of omen I couldn't tell if it was a good or bad one. 

If there really was someone up there that was above Damon, then I must know more about this person—If he would be to my advantage or someone I should totally avoid. 

Going to the tailor, I thought I'd get to ride with Damon but I was told he was still in a meeting and would ride alone. 

As the car was driving past the gate, my nose picked up a weird smell. It was a mixture of a strong wolf scent and body odor. 

But it wasn't just the usual wolf scent. 

“What is that?” I asked, my face crumpling. 

“Oh. She's back,” Beatrice muttered without staring out the window. 

“She?”

“She's a crazy beggar girl that usually camps in front of the Alpha house. At first we thought she was crazy. I mean she came here yelling and screaming that her sister is trapped.”

“And then?” I was becoming impatient. 

“Well, Alpha Damon sent troops of men to her house but it turned out she actually had no families. Her family died months back. Since then, all she does is scribble the same picture meaninglessly and stare distantly here.”

“Stop the car!” I yelled.

The car screeched to a stop and I got out ignoring Beatrice's series of questions. 

Beside the fence, was a girl. Clothed in a white torn dress that could pass for a brown one. Her eyes were sunken and her eyelids drooped as she scribbled on the ground. Her soul was covered with grief that ached my heart. 

“I was right,” I mumbled to myself. 

It wasn't just the usual wolf scent. 

It was the scent of a wolf in deep pain and despair. 

“Hello dear,” I greeted. 

But she flinched as soon as I tried to get close. 

“Hey, I won't hurt you, I promise.” I raised my hand in surrender. 

She looked at me for another couple of seconds before finally letting her guard down. Just a bit. 

“Are you alright?” I asked politely. 

She didn't reply but instead continued scribbling on the ground. 

“That's a nice picture, who did you draw?”

Immediately, she wiped the drawing off the ground. Then she glared at me with murderous eyes. 

But instead of anger, I saw panic. I saw fear and a girl screaming for help. 

This girl needed help. How could no one have seen it? 

“Was it someone special to you? The one you drew?”

She blinked. 

“I will help you. Can you tell me everything?”

“My sister is trapped…” she finally spoke after a while. 

“Can you draw what you drew again?”

In a matter of seconds, she scribbled the very same drawing. 

My heart knotted as I stared at the drawing. 

“Beatrice! Tell the driver to turn the car around!” I ordered. 

“What? But–”

“No buts.” 

“The Alpha will be so upset! You are so late!” Beatrice groaned as we rode to the girl's house. 

“How late are we?”

“Already an hour late!”

“Oh shoot. Em, how mad do you think he'd be?”

Beatrice looked at me as if to say did I really need to ask…if the last few days of staying here wasn't enough to tell me exactly how furious he'd be. 

“Um–I’m Aria. What's your name?” I tried to engage my new acquaintance. 

“Lisa,” she simply said. 

Soon we reached Lisa's house. I went into the house that had been burned down. 

Inside one of the rooms lay burnt ruins of toys and under a shaft of the broken iron door was a teddy bear. Trapped but not burnt. 

My heart broke. It was exactly as Lisa had drawn but no one understood her. 

“My sister!” Lisa cried as soon as she saw me coming out with the teddy bear. 

“Well-done,” my wolf rumbled in my mind. I could almost feel her patting my head. It added to the satisfying smile that crept up my face. 

But that didn't last as I remembered I was supposed to be at the pack tailor. 

Damnit.

“Take care of her, Beatrice. Make sure she's fed and clothed with new clothes. I'll go to the Pack tailor alone.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

“Please increase the speed.”  I begged the driver.

Once the car stopped, I half ran into the building. 

“The Alpha is inside,” a woman that looked like an attendant informed me. 

“How long has he been waiting…or never mind.”

I mumbled ‘thanks’ and dashed inside.

Which was my greatest undoing. 

With the way I charged inside, I was never expecting a chair to be in the way. 

I saw the chair late, tried to dodge it and ended up missing my footing. 

“Ouch!”

I yelped and as expected was landing face flat to the ground. 

But a hand grabbed me. 

Out of nowhere.