The Alpha’s Daughter They Mistook for a Dog

As the youngest daughter of the Silver Moon Alpha, I'd been practicing my howl since I was little. But even at 22, when every other werewolf could shift freely between human and wolf form, I was a round, fluffy white pup. My wolf spirit was still asleep, and my voice had never grown into a real howl. Every time I tried, I sounded like a hurt little puppy.

My dad, Leon, took it all in stride.

"If you can't shift yet, there's no rush." He pulled a blanket over me. "There's plenty of room for you in Silver Moon Valley."

My sister, Sierra, wasn't nearly as gentle. Whenever she came back from patrolling the mountains, she'd watch me chase the fat rabbit that kept stealing my berries. The rabbit would clear a rock with ease while I went headfirst into the grass. Then she'd lean against a tree and laugh at me. "Mia, are you trying to catch that rabbit, or are you putting on a tumbling show for it?"

I bared my teeth at her. She scooped me up with one hand, brushed the dirt off my muzzle, and told me, dead serious, that there'd been strange tire tracks outside lately. I wasn't allowed to leave the valley.

My brother, Ethan, was away helping with a wildfire rescue. Before he left, he taught me the rhythm of the three howls for help. When I was little and fell into a snow pit, he heard those howls and dug me out of the waist-deep snow.

"If something really happens, call your family." He held a rope up to my neck to measure it, then smiled and tapped the tip of my nose. "My little princess."

Back then, I thought he worried too much.

Later I understood my brother was right. If something went wrong, call your family. Assuming the bad guys didn't gag you first.

That afternoon, the fat rabbit snuck over to eat my berries again. I chased it across the stream, and suddenly engines rumbled down the mountain road. Three SUVs knocked the territory marker crooked and drove straight onto Silver Moon land. The Black Pine pack's crest was painted on each hood.

I quickly ducked behind the bushes. The door of the first car opened, and a blond girl in tall leather boots stepped out, her neck draped in glittering jewelry. The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up.

"Nolan! Look at that! Is that a snow fox?"

Two men followed behind her. The older one glanced at the wooden sign that said "Silver Moon Territory, No Hunting" and frowned.

"Violet, we're just passing through. This isn't Black Pine land."

"I'm not here to catch wolves." The girl waved her hand carelessly. "Look how pretty that white fur is. Catch it alive for me. I'll keep it a few days to play with, and when winter comes, I'll make it into a scarf."

The other man, Dylan, already had his phone up. "When have we ever denied you anything? Let me get this on video so everyone can see our little princess's new pet."

Every hair on my body stood on end, and I bared my sharp fangs at her.

"Oh my God, it's smiling at me!" Violet clapped her hands, thrilled. "Nolan, do you think it likes me?"

I was so furious I nearly bit through the branch at my feet.

A few bodyguards closed in to grab me, and I dove into the low bushes next to the rabbit hole. I might not have been good at much else, but chasing that fat rabbit had taught me every gap between the rocks I could squeeze through. The first bodyguard slipped into the stream. The second tripped over a dead log, and I could hear Dylan behind them laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight.

"You can't even catch a dog?" Violet's voice suddenly went shrill. "Nolan, didn't you bring the net?"

A net?

I whipped my head around. A big dark gray net was already flying toward me. The knots looked strangely familiar, almost exactly like the ones on the nets my brother used to secure injured people on mountain rescues. Before I could react, a few thin, bright silver threads flashed in the net.

The moment the net fell over me, pain ripped through my whole body. The silver burned all four of my legs. I slammed onto a rock, and when a bodyguard reached for me, I opened my mouth and bit down hard. He screamed and flung me off, sending me crashing into a boulder.

My vision kept going black. Before I could even struggle to my feet, a boot came down on my tail.

"So you're biting people now?" Violet crouched down and forced my face toward the camera. "You've got quite a temper, little thing."

I wanted to bite her again. She ground her foot down hard, and the pain made my whole body curl up.

"Keep it for now," she ordered. "Once I'm done playing with it, I'll have someone skin it in one piece. I don't want a single cut in fur this white."

Dylan held the phone even closer. "Smile, Snowball. You're today's biggest prize."

My name wasn't Snowball. My name was Mia.

I was the daughter of Leon, the Silver Moon Alpha. I was the little sister Sierra complained about but protected every chance she got, and the little wolf Ethan had promised he'd always bring home.

But the silver threads kept tightening, and I didn't even have the strength to lift a paw. The bodyguards dragged me toward the helicopter on the hill. I gave the first howl toward the forest with everything I had, then the second.

The third had barely left my throat when the helicopter's rotors roared to life.

The noise swallowed my cry for help. Violet laughed and rubbed my head. "A dog that thinks it can howl like a wolf. How cute."

Locked in a crate, I watched Silver Moon Valley shrink into a little patch of green below me. For the first time, I regretted not paying more attention when my sister tried to teach me to fight.

I found out later that my dad got to the stream that same day. He heard my third howl, smelled the blood left on the rocks, and picked up a scrap of silver thread the tires had torn loose. He didn't say anything for a long time.

He had Sierra seal off the mouth of the valley and called my brother's satellite phone at the wildfire rescue site.

"Ethan." My dad's voice was terribly hoarse. "Your sister's been taken."