ALPHA GREY The fact that the knife was sharp made it a blessing. I cut through the two young men with ease and without peace.There was a heavy, turbulent feeling within my chest as I worked, and I knew it was the beginning of my torment. Killing a fellow werewolf and without good reason came with a price-the tearing of your soul apart. I thought it was a funny bargain... losing my soul for some skin.My hands worked through the night, covering my arms in blood. And when I was finished, I rolled the skins up, looking at the bare musculature of the two young men. Then, I started to do as I promised, to bury them. I dug a grave so deep that it would take even more effort to dig up again, and put the young men in. With exhaustion, I started to cover the young men back, and just before sunrise, I had fully buried them.The whole time, I listened for the rest of their siblings, surprised that they were still hiding in the house and not making any efforts to run from me. The heavy feeling
ALPHA GREY She went silent. Then she asked again. "Who were they?""Swynford boys. Descended from me. I should be their great-great grandfather or so... I don't know. But I killed three out of their family's six children. The girl even wore my mother's necklace."At first, she was mute. Then she replied. "Everyone dies."I looked at her, at the nonsense she was saying, and she suddenly did not seem so good a witch to me. "Everyone dies. But I killed them.""For their skins. They would be honoured to know that they did so much for their ancestor."I thought of it, of the first boy with the broken arm that surrendered himself so I would set his siblings free. Brave as he was, the boy did not want to die. He only died because somebody needed to in the face of their threat. "No. They will never forgive me in the Land of the Dead. They will-"My utterance was cut up by the sound of her laughter, and I turned an ugly glare at her."On the positive side of things, you won't be going there.
One Year AgoI finally did it...I shifted...As the weakest omega in Willow Tree Pack, I have always been bullied. I had no parents, my wolf was practically useless and I was just a weakling overall.But then when I found out that Alpha Brook was my mate, everything changed. I became determined- I could not afford to be weak. Since the mating ritual, I vowed to myself to get stronger. Now, I'm standing in the middle of the pack fields, claws drawn.I shifted...Even though it is just a bit. Progress!My heart skips with joy and my mind flutters to my mate at this moment. Brook would be so happy. He was such a supportive partner. Even when the elders outrightly rejected me to be Luna of the pack, he stood by me. He believed in me.Something is tickling me from the inside so I laugh. This is what it felt to be happy?I can feel the weak presence of my wolf for the first time in years. "I have to tell Brook!" I turn on my heels and sprint through the tall grass field. Some pack war
Present DayThe man standing next to me stinks.I have to wiggle my nose every minute to somehow get rid of the stench. It doesn't work though; it's only a reflex.The only reason I have to stand next to this horribly smelling rogue is because we've been summoned by the Akari League Rogue Leaders. A year ago when I ran from the Willow Tree Pack, I had nowhere to go. I slept in caves, crying and mourning my horrible fate. There were days I went without food or water, completely frozen in grief.Until I was discovered by a rogue she-wolf. She had been harsh; laughing at my predicament."You trusted a pack wolf, an alpha at that? All they care about is their bloody hierarchy. Who told you someone like him would truly accept you?"Her words had been like thousands of needles piercing through my skin. I cried then, feeling the brutal force of rejection hit me again.The lady, Lalia, had said nothing. She just watched me cry in that dark cave. She watched me cry until I had no tears left.
The journey to the capital made me want to vomit.As the days flew by, the girls started getting familiar. The all couldn't stop talking about how wonderful this was. Who wouldn't want the protection from the most powerful man in Suro Kingdom?Being in his harem was everything omega girls like them could wish for.It's horrible listening to all this. Why did they feel like they couldn't be anything without some stupid Alpha's protection?I wanted to slap them in their faces. Look at me, I had an alpha for a mate. Where did that lead me?I ended up becoming a killer to stay alive. I pity them all; they're just too innocent to understand. The most part of the journey is sickening because of all the chatter. I zone out many times to save myself from the horror of listening to them.It takes five days to reach the capital. The capital of Suro is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.Unlike the forests where I grew up in Willo Tree, this was just magnificent.Strangely shaped buildi
The very word I detest most. Mate.Why is the goddess playing silly games? As if my first mate wasn't shitty enough...I'm standing outside the king's chambers now, in the middle of the night, clenching my hands in distaste. Mate.This entire thing just became a lot more complicated than it should have. Could my wolf bear the brunt of his death- or worse, my betrayal?Did it matter? Of course not.I think back to the day I was presented to the king. A week ago. Not long after our eyes locked, he recovered from the momentary shock. I didn't know what I expected him to do but it had made me feel bitter.He had crouched to the ground where I was knelt and leaned close to my ear. Close enough that I felt his abnormally cool breath on my skin."You shall not speak a word of this."He didn't say more. He didn't say less.That was all he had told me and then retreated to his throne. I had been baffled; stung a little.This was not rejection but it definitely felt like one.It brought back
Before I get the chance to understand his words, Alpha Grey violently draws me off the bed."Get out," he says coldly. I'm looking at him in disbelief. My skin still feels tingly from his touch. I stand there in confusion and he moves closer to me."You are an omega right?" I know where this is going and I don't like it. Memories of my best friend's laughter and Alpha Brook's betrayal taunt me.Grey doesn't wait for an answer. He laughs; letting his pearly whites gleam in the soft light."Of course you are. Your movements are too loud, heartbeats too obvious and your scent...your scent..." He leans into me and inhales.I just stand there, unsure whether to be afraid or not."Someone as weak as you can never stand by my side as queen. Sure, your place as concubine seems-""Stop it..." my voice has gone sour. All my courage, all the motivation I had coming here- everything was gone.At this moment, my eyes burn from forming tears. My voice is shaking as I step back away from him."D-d
The serene scene has become a haven of chaos.Yet, I have my thoughts on one thing. To gain the king's trust. I know I've failed woefully with him once, but I cannot afford to fail again. Not this time. Not with a chance as good as now. Everything is so confusing. It looks as though everybody is fighting everybody, and I find it hard to even know who is a friend and who is the foe. I take one step forward with my Omega, half-formed paw, step back because I'm still so confused, and try to look for a target. Looking for one allows me to find him, the king, commanding so much power without even trying to. He is still in his human form with a mighty sword in his hand, swinging it at any rogue that dares to rush towards him with graceful, lithe movements. There is blood on his sword and red on his dark, matte robe, but he doesn't seem to notice it as his sword drops rogue after rogue to the floor, leaving them lifeless in a pile around his feet.That doesn't deter them from attacking h
ALPHA GREY She went silent. Then she asked again. "Who were they?""Swynford boys. Descended from me. I should be their great-great grandfather or so... I don't know. But I killed three out of their family's six children. The girl even wore my mother's necklace."At first, she was mute. Then she replied. "Everyone dies."I looked at her, at the nonsense she was saying, and she suddenly did not seem so good a witch to me. "Everyone dies. But I killed them.""For their skins. They would be honoured to know that they did so much for their ancestor."I thought of it, of the first boy with the broken arm that surrendered himself so I would set his siblings free. Brave as he was, the boy did not want to die. He only died because somebody needed to in the face of their threat. "No. They will never forgive me in the Land of the Dead. They will-"My utterance was cut up by the sound of her laughter, and I turned an ugly glare at her."On the positive side of things, you won't be going there.
ALPHA GREY The fact that the knife was sharp made it a blessing. I cut through the two young men with ease and without peace.There was a heavy, turbulent feeling within my chest as I worked, and I knew it was the beginning of my torment. Killing a fellow werewolf and without good reason came with a price-the tearing of your soul apart. I thought it was a funny bargain... losing my soul for some skin.My hands worked through the night, covering my arms in blood. And when I was finished, I rolled the skins up, looking at the bare musculature of the two young men. Then, I started to do as I promised, to bury them. I dug a grave so deep that it would take even more effort to dig up again, and put the young men in. With exhaustion, I started to cover the young men back, and just before sunrise, I had fully buried them.The whole time, I listened for the rest of their siblings, surprised that they were still hiding in the house and not making any efforts to run from me. The heavy feeling
ALPHA GREY "But you watched them kill me for something I knew nothing about. Your sister testified against me, and all because it began with a lie where I was made to come save someone from rape.""We only wanted to rob you and get a purse from you. Our parents are dead, and we struggle to find work. So we tried to rob you and let you go, but you killed our brother and left us with no choice but to find a way to avenge him.""I did not kill your brother with intent. I did not plan to, nor did I know when I did it."Already, I was starting to think of leaving them alone. But I needed a new skin. "I will only spare one of you. The rest will pay with their lives for my death. The only thing I will do as an act of mercy is make sure that your deaths are quick and not painful, unlike what I suffered yesterday. You will forget it as soon as it happens, like people in a dream."They looked around at each other, feeling like people in a dream, but aware that the threat I was was real and imp
ALPHA GREY By the evening of the following day I went out of the tree again.My feet were sure footed and determined on where exactly to go, and I was soon in the very alley where they had me arrested. This time, I had a different sort of hood on, and restricted my presence to the darkest shadows, waiting for my chance. People passed by me, but few of them actually paid any attention as long as I wasn't bothering them. Soon, I saw what I was waiting for.I had every face from the previous day etched into my memory, and there was no mistaking this one pulling the prostitute into the darkness, the both of them too caught up in their drunken laughter to notice anything else. I watched them from where I stood, and smiled in amusement as the lad pulled up his breeches and pushed himself into her."Enjoy, lad. This will be the last time you will ever be with a woman."I watched him pull back and forth while she moaned, and smiled when he slowed, pulling at her hair before completely takin
ALPHA GREY The sky was turning dark when they started to carry out their sentence.A gallows was quickly raised up for me, and I watched them all from where I stood on the platform, at all the people watching and waiting for me to die. For the first time in my life, I felt real hatred in my heart for other werewolves. They did not care for the truth. They only cared for whatever would make them happier and take them out of the miseries that had become a part of their daily life-even if it meant that entertainment was the unjust judgement and unnecessary death of one who was truly innocent.Not a word was even permitted for me to speak in my defence.I continued to hear comments and jibes about how ugly I was as they tightened the rope's noose about my neck. Then, I stood still as men who knew how to use arrows gathered and stood in position, ready to shoot at me. I swallowed as I thought of the young woman that brought me back and if she knew what was happening. She had told me that
ALPHA GREYWe ran down the stone pavement before turning down a lonely, dark alley.Almost immediately, the screams of a woman reached my ears and I ran even faster towards the five men I saw gathered around a spot. Without hesitation, I threw the first man I could get my hands on off to save the woman on the floor when wild bouts of laughter rose around me. The woman on the floor joined in the laughter and stood up before I saw that she was not a woman but a man yelling as one to draw attention. The five laughing men pulled backwards and stood in a circle while pulling out weapons."Give us all you own, and we'll let you go."I looked at them, and at the girl I followed, who had now burst into laughter herself while stepping back to let them deal with me. I looked them all over, noting how different their clothes looked from what I was used to before shaking my head as a no. I had nothing to give them."A stubborn one?" They laughed, before one of them with an axe moved and cut into
ALPHA GREY I looked up at her and at the smile on her face."What do you mean when you say I cannot die?""My spells have made you a higher kind of werewolf. Your type is already rare enough for you to be the only man generations of secret witches in my family can raise from death in two hundred years. Consider yourself a god, now, and conquer all.""I don't want to be a god." I answered, my voice weak.She looked at me with the same rage as when I asked her about my family. "You cannot help it. You are already one, and can do nothing but sit back and enjoy.""I am not one." I insisted."But you could breathe underwater and didn't seem to have a problem with it."I remember exactly what she's talking about-the way I floated within the glass. "That was water?""That is the least thing that matters to the both of us. There are other things, but chief among them is that you have enough power to become a god before my eyes and those of all who will set their eyes on you from now on. With
ALPHA GREYI had stared at this other man for a long time. He did not look anything like I was supposed to be. His hair was not the black that had belonged to Jack, but a white color that rode from the roots, leaving no space for any other colors. His skin was not smooth, but a rough mass of scar that felt thick and burdensome. His face was ghostly in its appearance with how it looked like that living face of a skull. He looked to be a different man from who I was altogether. Yet, he was the container that housed my awakened soul. His hands moved when I moved mine, and his fingers snapped when I snapped mine. His head nodded when I did mine, and when I spun around to see even more of the scars that plagued his back like barnacles on a ship, he did the same. That was when I was convinced that he-this man in the mirror was me. I could not deny it anymore.This realization brought me down to my knees in front of the mirror as it faded away, leaving me alone with the witch and her secre
ALPHA GREYI remember falling asleep with everything fading away from me.It was like falling asleep, and still yet the most painful sleep I had ever fallen into, so that I prayed to die and felt relief come over me when everything started to hurt less-when I felt everything lessening. My vision blurred, my skin felt less of the burning, and even the smell of my own burning flesh that sickened my gut stopped getting to my nostrils.All that remained was darkness, and all that was in the darkness were moving, lively images that flashed through my head of times long gone. There was the one of a younger version of my mother telling me she loved me and looking at me with eyes I knew told no lies. Of my father dying and leaving us... so this was what he felt when he was dying-this darkness and haze. Of my little brother dying shortly after... he too must have felt like this when he died. An image of the first time I earned money to feed myself and my mother from working on a farm. Of the f