Hiding Among Alphas

~ Marina POV ~

"Get her! Don't let her get away!" Their furious voices tore through the forest, sharp and relentless, as I ran on bare feet.

My soles were torn open and bleeding, every step sending waves of fire up my legs, but I forced myself forward. Pain didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except surviving.

My heart slammed violently against my ribs, so loud I was sure they could hear it. My lungs burned, desperate for air, but I refused to stop. Branches clawed at my skin like living things, shredding my clothes, slicing into my arms and legs, yet I kept running.

"We can't let her escape! She needs to be killed!" The leader's voice thundered behind me, a feral roar that made my stomach twist in terror.

I looked behind me, the werewolf warriors were getting closer.

No... I can't let them catch me.

If they catch me, I'll end up the way my parents did... dead.

I'm a rogue werewolf who hasn’t made her first shift yet. No matter how hard I trained, no matter how much I bled and pushed myself… I still couldn't shift.

I was told I wasn't born with a wolf, and I believed it, because every werewolf my age had already found their wolves... except for me.

I am the daughter of Aurelius—the strongest rogue and the leader of our village outside the borders of the Dravenmoor werewolf pack’s territory.

My father was a strong rogue, and that should’ve made me stronger since I was his only daughter. But instead, I was nothing but a fragile girl, barely able to hunt even the smallest animal.

Other rogues—lesser rogues—could hunt. Could shift. Could defend themselves, but I couldn’t even catch a rabbit. It had driven my father to frustration, to harsh words, to endless training sessions…

Until the night the pack wolves attacked the village we lived in.

It had been an attack we never saw coming. They slaughtered our warrior rogues and broke through our defenses. And I… I ran. I barely escaped after hearing my parents whisper their final goodbye.

"Be strong and wipe out every pack wolf in Dravenmoor." My father’s dying voice echoed as I tore through the forest, lungs burning, legs trembling beneath me.

"Die!" I heard one of them say as he angrily shot his arrow toward me.

I threw myself sideways with a scream. The arrow slammed into a tree trunk with brutal force, vibrating violently.

I needed to do something. These werewolves wouldn't stop chasing me until they caught me and killed me just like they did to my parents.

For once in my life, I needed to be strong. To defend myself and not wait for other people to fight for me.

With determination and desperation burning through my veins, I turned to face the snarling werewolves charging toward me.

My hands trembled as I picked up a handful of stones, and with a desperate cry, I hurled them with all the strength I had left.

The stones flew in their direction, hitting them in their faces and eyes. As they yelped and shrieked, I used the opportunity to run, diving into a narrow hollow beneath the tangled roots of a fallen tree. Dirt filled my mouth as I pressed myself flat against the earth, forcing myself not to breathe too loudly.

"Where did she go?!" one of them snarled.

My heart thundered violently in my chest, hearing their footsteps matching the forest floor with violent force.

"Let's look over there." One of them suggested.

Their footsteps moved away.

Slowly.

Slowly.

It faded

I peeped out from the narrow hollow, my entire body shaking. I let out a little sigh of relief when I couldn't find them.

They were gone.

Crawling out of the hole, I began finding my way out of the forest. My heart was heavy with grief for the death of my parents.

They had died two days ago, and the pack wolves had done nothing but haunt me for the past two days.

As I walked with the pain under my feet, tears rolled down from my eyes. It wasn't because of my sore feet... I was mourning my parents.

My father might've been the strictest father on earth, but I understood he was only trying to make me stronger.

He died because of me.

He died all because he was trying to protect a weak wolf like me.

The memory of watching my father and mother breathe their last replayed in my mind, and I shed more tears.

The pack wolves and rogues were sworn enemies. My father would always tell me before I went to bed that pack wolves were always the ones who started the fight.

I have heard other rogues talk about Dravenmoor. It is a territory where different packs live, all governed by an Alpha they refer to as the Supreme Alpha.

I had never been near the gate of Dravenmoor, and that's because I grew up outside the walls of the territory. I lived in an abandoned village with my parents and other rogues.

I hated the pack wolves because my father would often tell me they were the enemies. And the pack wolves proved to me that they were really the enemies by killing my parents and destroying the little village I grew up in.

My father ruled the village because he was the strongest rogue, but who would've thought that a powerful wolf would be murdered by the pack wolves?

It was all my fault anyway.

I was too weak to protect myself, and he sacrificed his life for me, telling me to run for my own life.

My feet dragged me further outside the forest, my thoughts a chaotic swirl of guilt, grief, and barely contained rage… until I stumbled.

Gazing down at what I had stumbled upon, I let out a loud gasp.

A body lay in the underbrush, motionless. A young boy, perhaps my age, his pale skin marred by decay. Bugs crawled across his face, the stench of death thick in the air.

He hadn’t killed himself.

He had been murdered.

Shock made my stomach turn, but curiosity burned beneath it. I knelt, inspecting him. A wave of revulsion and recognition hit me... the smell was unmistakable. He was a werewolf.

But he wasn't a rogue.

He didn't have the same smell as me. He smelled different. Cleaner, and stronger.

What was a pack wolf doing outside the territory of Dravenmoor? It was only rogues that lived outside the territory, and that's because the pack wolves hated us.

He's a pack wolf? The words echoed in my head three times.

I scoffed angrily and kicked him hard. His kind were the ones who murdered my family and my people.

It's a good thing he's dead... and I wished they would all die one after the other for trying to overpower my kind.

"Stupid pack wolf!" I spat, kicking him again with a loud hiss.

I turned to leave, but a bag caught my eye. I picked it up, curiosity mingling with suspicion. I emptied it onto the forest floor. Inside lay a diary and an application form.

I picked up the application form and the diary, my eyes lingering on the headlines in the application form.

"Moonreign All-Boys Alpha Academy?" I muttered.

All-Boys Alpha Academy… A haven for alphas? I never knew a werewolf academy for all alphas existed.

I opened the diary, flipping through it. He had written so many things about his life. About how he didn't want to go to the academy because he was unable to shift, making him a weak wolf.

How his father had forced him to go to the academy and become a part of it. How he feared being a part of the academy because of how weak he was.

His name is Louis Crennar of the Night-Claw Pack.

The academy is supposed to be inside the territory of Dravenmoor. Why was he outside the territory? Was he trying to escape and unfortunately got killed?

Well, as long as he's a pack wolf, I don't feel sorry for him. In fact, I’m grateful to whoever killed him.

I dropped the application form and diary back on the forest floor and took a step forward to leave, but an idea struck me.

What if I pretended to be Louis and entered the academy?

The new session has just begun… and from what I read in his diary, he had been locked away by his father because of how weak he was. This means the future Alphas at the academy might not know him.

If I pretend to be Louis, I could enter the academy. I could train. I could grow strong. I could exact revenge on every pack wolves who had dared to touch my family.

And before his father finds out what happened to his son, I would have gotten my revenge.

Clenching my fists, determination settled inside me like steel in my veins. I picked up the diary and application form. My eyes burned with resolve.

I will join the academy.

I will become strong.

And I will make them all pay.

But the big question is… how will I sneak into the territory of Dravenmoor and become part of the academy?