Chapter One

Mazelina

I stare at myself in the mirror in wonder, “Look at us, always hiding who we truly are” Samara, my wolf has been bitter about hiding our true selves for a while now. She thinks it’s time to show our pack. But dad, our Alpha does not agree.

“Sam, stop it. You know we have to be cautious.” I chide. Not that I blame her entirely. I know we could do so much good for the pack, but I must obey our Alpha.

As far as anyone in my pack are concerned, I’m an embarrassment to our Alpha, my father because I’m unable to shift, which brings embarrassment to the wider community and other packs. I know there’s a method to his madness even if Sam doesn’t like it, he’d much rather have me ridiculed and teased than dead. I mean, what’s the use of an Alpha’s daughter if she’s unable to shift? It’s completely unheard of.

“Little do they know,” Samara mutters. If Sam had her way, she would burn everyone to the ground. “And we could do it too”

I smirk at us in the mirror. “That was an accidental discovery and not to be used lightly.” I remind her. A wolf is like having a good and evil twin. I’m good and Samara is well. Samara isn’t so bad. She just gets carried away.

“Honey, you need to hurry,” Mom calls from somewhere in the house.

God, this family irritates me. They could mind-link, but father forbids it in the house. He complained the house was too quiet after Blaze got his wolf at ten. That’s the age we all receive our wolves. Once Blaze got him, he would only mind-link.

“We should hurry” Sam’s eager to see the mateless wolves. I ignore her. I’m not in any hurry for her or anyone. She doesn’t understand the impact of what could happen if we end up with a mate, because then he or she will know the truth. Can I trust my mate??

I hate going to these stupid events. I’ve been going to them since I turned eighteen. Here I am four years later and still haven’t found my mate. You would think my parents would give up on this, but no, Mom and Dad constantly worry about me being alone. They want me to have a mate to protect me. I roll my eyes for the millionth time today; I can protect myself. With my thoughts alone, I can protect them all. I do it every day, unbeknownst to them.

I sigh. Gran used to know when I used them. She would give me a secret smile every time. Gosh, I miss her. I wonder what she would think about me going to the King’s for this shit.

“I know what she is doing,” Sam laughs.

“Oh yeah? What?”

“Rolling in her grave laughing her pretty ass off.”

I can’t help but giggle. She’s right about that. Gran hated the Moon King Pack. Few wolves like them, especially they’re holier than thou attitude.

I glance at the woman in the mirror. Lately, I resent being a wolf, and I resent these ridiculously outdated formalities. For all I know, it could be my destiny to live my days alone and hell, that’s just fine by me.

“Here, here!” Sam cheers.  

My door opens. “Come on Mazelina. I swear you are doing this on purpose,” Mom scolds, fussing around my room.

Yep, I am almost 22 years old and living with my parents. I have a part-time job at the local bar while I study for my Doctorate in Psychiatry. With my Gran’s inheritance and my weekly paycheck, Soon I’ll have enough money to afford my very own apartment and won’t have to listen to this bullshit about not having a mate on the daily.

Once I’ve completed my studies, I’m going to open my practice, not just for our packs, but for the human community as well.

Dad isn’t happy with it; he is the Alpha, therefore if any issues arise within the pack, they must go to him. Some would say narcissism, but Dad isn’t like that, nor is he power hungry. Nope, he’s a classic fixer, which makes him a great Alpha, according to my friend Daria.

I sigh. I wish Daria was still coming. She’s my only friend. Daria is gorgeous, naturally dark as night hair, cut into a pixie style, which absolutely suits her, being so petite and with those chocolate brown eyes. I smile. I miss her and Samara used to adore her until she met her mate.

“It’s all your fault”

“How can you fault me?” “I didn’t know the lone wolf was her mate.”

Daria is a hairstylist and runs a Salon in town. Naturally, she was going to meet her mate.

I can’t help but feel jealous. Jealous of my friend who finds it so easy just to be herself, beautiful, fun, and intelligent. She has nothing to hide. She can make friends so easily and now she has her mate. Daria deserves every ounce of happiness coming her way. I do wish all of that for her, and yet I’m jealous. Completely jealous of her and why, I don’t understand why my father is making me go to the Moon King ritual tonight. How am I supposed to protect the truth from my mate and his family? It was hard enough to keep it from Daria.

Lately, I’ve been contemplating going out on my own, becoming a lone wolf, a rogue. It’s a tough choice. It’s unnatural for a wolf to be alone.

But under the circumstances, I’m wondering if I’ll be better off. I refuse to join a new pack. I won’t have the protection I have here. People tease me and give me a wide berth, but being the Alpha’s daughter has its privileges. Being on my own is the only option if I decide to go it alone at all.

Let me give you a rundown on how the territories work.

There are many Shifter packs of all kinds of animals, all over the world including in our country, however, the wolves have always been large in numbers and status, and other shifter animals are always small, with the exception of the rats. Don’t ever underestimate the Rats. We intermingle our territories and businesses and have many friends, however, it’s exceedingly rare to mate outside your animal. I know what you’re thinking…. Rat and Wolf… oh honey, it doesn’t have to work that way. Just shift to human screw,  well like bunnies. Anyway, back-to-back territories.

In our country, the wolf Packs run in the hierarchy in accordance with the size of your territory. Some territories have from One to five packs, while others have more. We have Eight packs and thousands of wolves; our territory is the largest.

Each territory has a similar hierarchy across the nation:

1. The Moon King Pack or The King’s, as we all call them. These men and women are all Pure Bloods. Born pure. It’s not as incestuous as it sounds. There are other hierarchies around the world that also have Top Tier Pure Blood Packs. To avoid inbreeding, they travel to each Pure Blood Pack to find their mates.

2. The Sentinel Pack. My pack below the king’s we’re also somewhat considered royalty. However, unlike the Purebloods, we mingle with all of the packs. It’s in our name ‘Sentinels’ to keep watch over everyone.

3. The Bloodmoon Pack, these men and women, consist of warriors. The King’s will call on them for battle, hunts, or to track shifters or humans. But as we haven’t been to war for many moons, they predominantly work security. Let me just say business is booming for the Bloodmoon.

4. The Moon River Pack and,

5. Dawn Moon Pack: they’re mostly made up of farmers and healers. The Bloodmoon Pack provides protection from rogues and other shifters from trying to steal our supplies and products.

6. The Lonecrest Pack and,

7. NightStar Pack is our workers. They provide for all the packs. However, most of the funds go straight to the top. Even though some men and women in all packs work to provide for themselves and fund our packs when needed. These two packs provide for extracurricular activities. For example, so we can have this lame-ass outdated ritual.

8. The Ironmaw Pack, these guys comprise mostly of half-humans. They cannot do a complete shift, but they still have our strength. It’s where the werewolf stories come from, half man, half beast. There are a few half-bloods in the Pack that can do a complete shift, ones that were rejected from other packs or rogues who still want to be part of a pack.