Phoenix

Chapter 1

“I’d never want you as my Luna, you’re fat, ugly and a bit too dark for me.”

His words cut me deep. My wolf Freya howled in my head. I’d just discovered he was my mate. I was always a nice person. I thought everyone liked me. I was adopted at two by the Greeley’s, the Beta family. When my parents disappeared, they treated me as their daughter. My brother Lance was the future beta, and my stupid mate was none other than Gael Ryker, the future alpha and he was what every alpha is, tall, muscular and extremely good looking. Gael had long golden-brown hair with eyes so gray, they shone like two diamonds, when the light hit him just right. He had dimples and a perfect set of white teeth. He had a full sleeve tatted on his right arm and tatts on his neck and across his back.  The problem was he was an asshole, at least to me.

Oh me? I’m Phoenix Greeley, at least I think I am. I just turned 18 and have been a member of the Silver Moon pack forever. I never knew my parents or my last name, so I have my adopted parents name. I was loved and sheltered. My brother, Lance, also tried to include me in every event or outing he was involved in. Here’s the thing, My adopted family is white, yep blonde haired, blue eyed and me well I’m not white, I’m black mixed with some native American so I’m literally the fly in the buttermilk. My skin is the color of mocha or milk chocolate. I love my color, it’s rich and smooth, but some don’t appreciate it. I have light brown eyes; full lips and I’m built a little differently than other she-wolves. I’m 5’ 9”, have full breasts and hips; right now, I’m a 42DD with a slight pudge and a round bottom. I’m a little bigger than most she wolves and my hair is right at my shoulders with coily curls that I must manage or else I’ll have a full-blown afro, but I love my hair.

Back to the present, we’re at the back of the packhouse having a mating ball. That’s when unmated wolves can find their mates, if they are of age. We currently have five other packs here, as sometimes your mate won’t be in your pack, but perhaps a different one. So here we are, Gael and I and some of his friends and he’s speaking to me like this.

“Gael, baby here you are, I couldn’t find you anywhere.” Of course, to add insult to injury, Gael’s girlfriend for the past two years, Amy Walters saunters up grabbing his arm, and handing him a drink, he took a big swig of it. She’s another one who’s never had anything nice to say to me.

“Phoenix thinks she’s my mate, but of course I can’t get with that.” A few of his buddies laughed at that. I turned to walk away.

“Hold it bitch!” Amy grabbed my hair. “Baby, don’t you have something to say to her? You’re my mate.”

“With pleasure. I, Gael Ryker reject, you Phoenix Greeley as my mate and Luna. Accept it now!” He said that with his Alpha voice, but it had no effect on me.

He’s so stupid I could see the rejection had an impact on him. I jerked my hair back from Amy and held my head high, “I, Phoenix Greeley accept your rejection Gael Ryker, with pleasure.” I don’t know how I walked away from him when he was on the ground holding on to Amy watching me walk away.

I ran all the way home and I just wanted to get away, I had a great life here in the Silver Moon pack, it was all I’d ever known, but now for some reason I felt energized, and this little spot of the world wasn’t enough. I had an idea and I’d wait for my parents to come home to get their take on my next steps. I fell asleep when I heard my mom come in.

“Phee, you up?”

“Yes mama.”

“What happened tonight?”

“I found my mate and was rejected.” A small smile on my face, that morphed into tears. She gasped.

“Who? Who is the bastard that dared to reject my baby?”

“Don’t worry about that part, but I wanted to talk to you and daddy though.”

“About?”

I sighed, “Get dad mama, please.”

Later in my room, my parents sat on my bed with an utter look of horror on their faces.

“Absolutely not!” They both practically shouted at the same time.

My shoulders fell. “I need this. My life here will be hell. I need this.”

“Who the hell is it baby, I’m the Beta, nobody does that to my little girl, who is it?”

“Daddy, daddy please listen to me, I won’t say. I just really need this.”

I wanted to leave and join the Elite Werewolf Academy. I wanted to fight, I wanted to take out all my hatred and frustrations on anyone that would let me. There was nothing else left for me here, no friends, no mate, just my bestie, Sonya, who was like my sister, my brother and parents, but I needed to find Phoenix and I wouldn’t stop until I did.

“Dad sign me up so I can go.” The tears really fell now. I hated feeling so weak, but I knew what I needed, and this was it.

“Sweet pea you know the elite academy kills people. They root out the weak ones and they either run away into the phantom woods or commit suicide. I can’t let you go in good conscious.”

“Do you mean that I’m too weak to go, and would either kill myself, or run away and die? Thanks dad.”

“No honey, but you’ve never experienced anything like this before and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“If I stay, I’ll die.” I got up from my bed and walked into my bathroom, ending the conversation.” You could hear my mom talking with my dad.

“Bill she’s hurting, and we haven’t a clue as to why, but I know we’re going to lose her either way. Let her get out and experience something in the world. We know she’ll be okay.  She’s built for this.”

“Built for this?” What the hell did that mean?

After some tears and threats of violence to the mate that rejected me, they finally relented and decided to let me go. I was so excited.  I called my best friend, my only friend, Sonya.

“Hey girl why didn’t you wait for me at the ball? There were some of the hottest wolves there. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet my mate, but boy did I get my fill of eye candy. I even made out with this one dude and whew if I weren’t saving myself for my mate, he’d have been the one. Oh shit, what’s up with you?”

“Sonya, I found my mate.”

“Girl stop, yeah?  Okay, well who is it?” she was huffing in anticipation.

“Before I tell you, you have to, one, never speak of this to anyone; and two, he rejected me and you can never let on that you know, okay?”

“That’s a lot to ask, but okay.”

“It’s Gael and I’m leaving in two days to the Elite Werewolf Academy.” I thought the line went dead as she hadn’t said a word.

“Sonya?

“Why?” she sobbed, she was heartbroken. She made tears burn again in my eyes. “It’s okay really. He’s been a thorn in my side for years. He humiliated me and Amy was being herself, a real bitch. My stomach hurt some last night and believe it’s only going to get worse.”

“Oh shit.” She said. You’re going to feel the mating pains.” I heard her start to sob again.

“Please Sonya don’t cry, I’m holding on by a thread here. Thank you for being my ace, my bestie, the reason I’m strong enough to do this.”

“I’m going to miss you something awful, what am I going to do without you?”

I’ll be back, don’t know when, but I feel like this is something I must do. I’ve got to get out of here; and right now.”

“What’s Lance going to say? He’s not going to be happy, and he may squeeze the truth out about who your mate, ex mate is.”

That cut me hearing her refer to Gael as my ex-mate, but that’s exactly what he was. I was not looking forward to speaking to my brother. Beside Sonya, I’d miss Lance the most. Two hours later I was finally with Sonya and looking through my closet at what I was going to take with me. The only way one could get into the academy is with a recommendation from an Alpha or a Beta, or if you were a criminal, and this was your last chance before being sent to the silver mines and that was a fate worse than death. I didn’t care, I wanted and needed this freedom to become whoever I was. I’d just turned 18 a week ago and I was ready to get some questions answered, like why didn’t I shift? Why didn’t I totally break when I was rejected? And also, why did the betrayal pains not hospitalize me like it did other wolves? When a mate has been recognized, the bond begins to form. So even after a rejection the bond doesn’t completely break. That contingency plan was put in place by the Moon Goddess so that if mates came back later and wanted each other after an intimate act of kissing or sex, the bond would snap back into place. As I shook that thought out of my mind, my brother barged into my room.

“What the hell is this I hear about you leaving?” He was pissed. I always told him everything, but I couldn’t tell him this.

“Sorry LaLa,” that was the nickname I had for him since I was a little girl.

“Phee.” He sat on the bed and took a deep breath. “Tell me what happened, please.”

“I can’t, I don’t want to ruin your life here. Please for me LaLa, let it go.” He stood up abruptly.

“Fuck no I won’t let it go! You’re my sister and if something or someone has done or said something to hurt you, you’ve got to tell me. NOW! Phee!” I jumped at his outburst.

“See? I can only image what you’d do if you knew. I won’t tell, just know I’m ok and I love you more than anything. I need you to be the best Beta to the pack and I’ll be back sooner than you think and then I’ll tell you everything. Promise.”

His face dropped and I hated to see him so deflated, so I ran up and hugged him tightly. “I love you bubba and you couldn’t get rid of me, even if you wanted to.” I heard him take a shuddering breath and hold me even tighter. He sniffled and I knew he had tears falling. I didn’t move, just let us have this moment, and I found my tears mingled with his.

I spent the next two days with my parents, Sonya and Lance, while my paperwork was accepted. On the third day, I was packed and ready to go. No one else knew I was going, not even the alpha and especially not his son. I wanted a clean break and didn’t want to answer any questions. The taxi came and my parents, Lance and Sonya hugged me with tears streaming down their faces. Daddy gave me some money and mama gave me some things to remember everyone by. I didn’t cry, I couldn’t. I waved goodbye and blew them kisses and got in the taxi. I turned to watch them out the back window and then  turned around and collapsed in the seat, bawling my eyes out. My stomach had been cramping the whole time and I was definitely glad I was leaving that.