Chapter 4 | The Former Alpha

~Kiki~

A wave of anxiety swept through me when I heard those words. Where was I supposed to go?

I only knew what my actual parents looked like in my dreams. I had no idea who they really were or where they lived. Were they even alive, and would they want me back after finding out I had no wolf?

"Are my actual parents werewolves?"

Crying didn't sit well with Alpha Dimitri in the past, so I wasted no time tearing up and begging him to keep me. He seemed like he had already made up his mind to kick me out. Alpha Kayden will have to give the words, and I will be banished once the bond with the pack is broken.

Alpha Kayden... my toes curled at the mere mention of his name in my thoughts.

"Didn't you hear me? Alpha Wyatt's your dad. He was one of the strongest alphas to have ever existed. He would have made a great Alpha King if not for your scheming mother, who got him killed and handed everything over to an asshole alpha from the Storm Moon Pack."

Storm Moon Pack, huh. No clue where this pack was or who their alpha was. "Is my mom a werewolf too?"

"Your mom is a cunning bitch, not a werewolf. Wyatt was my best friend, and I know darn well he wasn't easy to defeat. An alpha from a nameless pack grew to power and took Wyatt down, they say. I call it bullshit. I put my life and my pack at Wyatt's disposal. The Thunder Bay Pack fought alongside him until he died, and that cost me my mate's life. All because of your mom. And you are just like her. No wonder there's no wolf inside you."

One thing was clear. This man kept me away from my parents by refusing to return me when I arrived at Palm Beach. Was he just holding me here to make my mom suffer? What did he mean by having high hopes that I would be unstoppable and all?

"Did you train me for a purpose?" 

"Of course! My son resented me when his mom died, and I put all my hopes in you when he left me. I expected you to be the powerful warrior who avenged Alpha Wyatt's death. It's supposed to be in your blood to be invincible. All those stories Zeta Archer told you when you were little were about the war we fought alongside Alpha Wyatt seventeen years ago. Archer gave up on you because you turned out to be so weak and useless."

I am unaffected by such derogatory words these days. There was a time when I cried for days after someone called me a freak or a burden to the pack. You can't compare an elephant and an ant. Both have their own skill set, and even though an elephant can squish an ant in a split second, it can't go places that only the ant can enter.

If Alpha Dimitri had told me to kill that handsome man with green eyes, I would never do it, even if I had become a strong Eta by now and he's gotten old. When I see him in my dreams showing me fatherly love so many times, it means he accepted me as his daughter even though I am his enemy's child. What Alpha Dimitri would have wanted me to do was to earn that kind man's trust and then betray him.

Thanks to my wolf who didn't care about anything and stayed hidden. It saves me a lot of inner conflict because this pack would have definitely asked me to pay my debt for raising and training me to become who I might have become with my inner beast's help.

Just like I did, part of Alpha Dimitri also believed that I wasn't wolfless, but simply a late bloomer. He also knew that there were hardly any cases where someone's wolf appeared at eighteen if it hadn't already. Sixteen was the age when almost all werewolves shifted, especially if they were late bloomers.

"You have one month left here. Once you turn eighteen and if you continue this way until the full moon, Kayden will banish you that night. Clear?"

I nodded hesitantly, wondering if I could ask about Alpha Wyatt's murderer's location. He shouldn't have any problem returning me on the next full moon, a weak human, to his enemy.

"So where is Storm Moon Pack located?"

"We're done talking, Kiki. Now scram."

He scoffed at me when I took longer than two seconds to reach the exit. Maybe Benji knew. I was late for my first class, so I skipped it and stopped by the library instead. I grabbed the latest edition of Packs and Territories and looked for Storm Moon Pack. It was nowhere on the continent!

I found the Red Crescent Pack right away. It used to occupy the Golden Dells once upon a time, which wasn't too far from here. The area was under the territory of Storm Moon Pack, but they lived somewhere else. Where?

"There you are! What happened?" Benji elbowed me so hard, almost breaking a rib, just to say hi. He was about 6'4" tall, was built dauntingly strong, and sometimes even a light jab from him was quite painful if I wasn't prepared. 

"Had a meeting with Alpha Dimitri. My exit meeting," I replied, looking into the concern in his honey brown eyes.

"Are you serious? You have been working your ass off to earn the food and accommodation you got. How does keeping you around hurt him in any way?"

"He's probably afraid of the Storm Moon Pack's alpha. Is this alpha the Alpha King? I remember grandma telling me that the Alpha King and Queen searched for their daughter for months. Where can I find them on this map?"

Right here, all the way to the west in the Western Cascades region. They visit Golden Dells and spend some time in the palace, but they mostly prefer to stay in their own territory.

"Wow! So I'm the Alpha King's stepdaughter? Is my mother still alive?"

"I don't really know, Kiki. These are all your speculations, and you might be completely wrong. What exactly did Alpha Dimitri say?"

"He wants me to be out of the pack on the full moon after my birthday next month. But he doesn't want to tell me how to find my mom or the alpha she married." 

Maybe you should contact them and find out. If you're their daughter, they would obviously still be looking for you. I hate to see you leave from here. You better warn that sleepy wolf of yours to wake up instead of leaving, because I'll be really upset if my Pinky leaves me.

"Screw off! Kiki is bad enough." It was no secret when I was little that I loved everything pink. I still do, but not as much. That didn't mean my best friend could give me such an atrocious nickname.

"There's nothing wrong with Pinky or Kiki. They sound adorable and really suit you." 

"Shut up!" I grabbed my backpack from the chair, trying not to think about my upcoming birthday or the full moon afterward.

Days were passing a little too quickly since my meeting with the former alpha. I kept wandering around the training grounds every morning, drooling over my secret crush.

He never spoke to me after that motorcycle incident, as if he was avoiding me. I haven't seen him for almost twenty days now, which is pretty unusual since I work in the packhouse and he's there quite often.

It wasn't enough to just look from afar. I craved my regular dose of his deep voice and masculine scent and couldn't resist this natural urge. I had gone too long without him this time.

I came back from my morning shift with no plans to attend the dull Spanish class or cook anything special. I looked for Alpha Kayden, call it looking for trouble, after making lunch for my family. He wasn't anywhere to be found in the packhouse, the training grounds, his office, or his room.

Feeling disheartened, I finally caught a glimpse of him as I was walking back. He was heading to the common shower rooms near the training grounds. I kept a good distance as he reached his locker and tossed off his sweaty T-shirt and trainers.

Such a delicious sight!

Growing up with the werewolves who occasionally shed their clothes, I was quite used to seeing naked people, but this was different. This was the super hot Alpha Kayden on the other side of the wall, with the warm spray of water hitting his enticing body. If only I could see him right now.

Heat crawled up my face as I imagined stroking his wet body and rubbing mine against it. Gosh, I needed to stop, but I was too turned on to think straight. 

Reaching into his locker, I pulled out his sweaty black T-shirt and inhaled his intoxicating scent. Holy cow! This was better than anything I had ever smelled. Moistness pooled between my thighs as I clenched them while gripping the fabric tighter.

Not sure when my hand slipped down to my panties. I was rubbing the hard nub with one hand, imagining his tongue right there. His hands would stroke my inner thighs before gripping them tightly and pushing them apart.

"Mmm..." I let out several moans as I increased the speed of my fingers. I would beg him not to stop while squeezing his head between my legs---

"Kiki, what are you doing?"