Chapter 1

<<Mora>>

“You can’t be serious?” I stare at my father like he’s speaking some forgotten language. I came into his stuffy office expecting a verbal beatdown but instead he’s sitting calmly behind his desk with his aged fingers steepled under his fat chin and he’s holding my gaze with those deep green eyes that I share with him. I’m used to him yelling, I’m used to him going so red in the face it looks like he’s about to explode and I’m even used to the odd ornament being thrown in my direction but this calm facade he has going on is a little unnerving. I’m usually full of confidence but I’m struggling to keep my head up while he stares at me with those cold eyes; instead, I’m letting my fiery red hair fall in front of my face as if it can shield me from whatever is coming my way. 

“You broke my rules again." My father's voice is cold and calculated as he weighs every word carefully. “I warned you that if you did not pull yourself together, I would send you away to learn from a harsher Alpha.” He’s right; he did warn me but he’s been warning me since the day I first learned to walk. My father is strict but when it comes to the Blackthorn Pack, he’s damn right, tryanical. The rules he has for the Pack and the rules he has for me are two different things. I didn’t even do anything that bad but my father sees it as breaking his rules and when I break his rules he thinks I’m challenging him. This is all because I had the dumb luck to be born the only female Alpha in the country. I bet if I were born a male, I could fool around with whoever I wanted. If I were a male, my father wouldn’t be threatening to ship me off for kissing my long-term boyfriend. I was fully clothed and everything, but father is acting like he caught us with Ethan’s cock halfway in me.

“Ethan is my boyfriend; we were just kissing, you can’t ship me off to the all-male War Academy because you don’t like me kissing my boyfriend.” I hiss at my father; it's taking everything I have not to let my wolf out. I know what will happen if fur comes out to play right now. I’ve never shifted in front of my father; I’m Alpha enough to admit that I’m terrified of the man and I have no intentions of ever crossing him in wolf form. I almost jump out of my skin when he slams both of his fat hands down on his cluttered desk so hard several papers and a pen fly onto the floor. I look up just in time to see him panting as he pushes himself out of his chair so he can tower over my five-foot height. 

“It's only all male because females don’t deserve to be Alphas. Those males will teach you how to run a Pack because right now you’re acting like a slut-Omega, who will let anyone into her bed.” I cringe at my father's outdated views; he’s so stuck in the past that he can’t even acknowledge that Omegas have rights and protection under the Alpha Kings' laws. Goddess forbid he actually entertain the idea that I’m an Alpha with tits which means I might be a little different to every other Alpha out there. 

“Ethan is my boyfriend, not some random male I plucked off the street!” I yell right back at him. “And we were on top of the bed, not in it!” I know that's not the point but I really need him to understand that what he’s saying just isn’t right. I refuse to be shipped off to the War Academy, where my heats will be used against me, where my size will be made fun of and where I will have to shower and live with a bunch of stinking, cum-spewing Alpha heirs. I’m not a prude and I don’t hate males; I just prefer my own space and I’m female enough to know that an Academy full of males is not somewhere I should be.

“Is he your fated mate?” My father snarls at me; he pulls this question out everytime the topic of Ethan comes up. My father has rules in his Pack; females of the Blackthorn Pack shall not be intimate with anyone but their fated mate. The rest of the world moves on under the protection of the Alpha King and the Blackthorn Pack is stuck in the past under the rule of my father, the tyrannical Alpha Dean.

"That's not the point!” I roar right back. I might not be ready to let my wolf out in front of my father but I won’t back down from him when he’s acting so unreasonable. 

“Is he your fated mate?” My father snarls again. My hands curl into fists at my side and I stare him right in the eyes before letting out a heavy sigh and throwing up my hands. 

“No, he’s not my fated mate and that's okay. It's not some big crime like you make us believe and you can’t ship me off to the War Academy just because you want us to live by some backward-ass rules that make no sense.” My father is practically foaming at the mouth as I yell at him. I’m tempted to stamp my foot but just as I raise it up, the office door slams open. 

Beta Cole is out of breath, his bald head shining with sweat and his face is flush thanks to how fast he’s run; he barely glances at my father and his wide eyes land on me. He’s worried and not for the first time, all my life. Beta Cole has tried to keep me safe from my father's rule, but there's only so much he’s been able to do. I know he would have argued over this whole War Academy thing but my father will have literally beaten him down until he got what he wanted.

“They’re here.” Cole hisses as he finally turns his eyes from me to land on my father; he’s glaring at his Alpha like he would like nothing more than to rip my father apart but instead he just stands in the doorway with his hands clenched. He’s not weak; my father is just stronger and he believes in getting his own way so Cole is more just a figure piece than an actual Beta. If it wasn’t for their Alpha and Beta bond, I think Cole would have left the Blackthorn Pack years ago.