Prologue: Hybrid

Hope

It's always exciting when a new Alpha takes over a pack. Nearly a year ago one of our allies, Alpha Richard, took over Shadow Falls pack from Alpha Liam. In a few months, Alpha Emerson will take over this pack, Safe Haven, from Alpha Eli and Guardian Grace. Then, about six months later, Alpha Cohen, another ally, will take over his pack, Canyon Ridge, from his father, Alpha Rik.

Alpha Eli and Guardian Grace have been wonderful as our leaders, but I know that Alpha Emerson is ready to take over his position as Alpha of the pack. He is a stoic Alpha, always ready to take on the responsibilities that the pack requires as their Alpha. He doesn’t laugh as much as Alpha Richard or Alpha Cohen, but I know that he will be an incredible Alpha to our pack and continue the legacy that his parents started.

Our three packs are not only connected by borders, but we’re also connected by the Guardians who live in each of the packs. Luna Cara was the first Guardian to be born of two Guardians. Luna Angel and Luna Grace are Guardians who have wolves that were blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.

The Guardian line flows through the female line. Guardians are the strongest, most powerful wolves in any pack. They make their mates stronger, which is why they were forced into mate bonds with their Alphas for centuries. The generation before me was the first generation where Guardians found their fated mates and in creating true mate bonds, the Guardian line has begun to pass from the mothers to their daughters.

Alpha Eli and Luna Grace have three children, Emlyn, Emerson, and Riley. Both Emlyn and Riley are Guardians, and I’d be surprised if they weren’t mated to the Alphas in our allied packs. While the male children of the Guardians don’t have the strength and gifts of their mothers and sisters, they are stronger than most Alphas. Even though they aren’t stronger than the Guardians, it makes sense that a strong woman would need a strong man as her mate.

I know all about being a strong woman. Before I was conceived, my mother was captured by hunters and scientists who wanted to find ways to destroy the werewolf population. My mother was experimented on, impregnated through in vitro fertilization with an unknown male's sperm. Then, they experimented on her while she was pregnant with me. The result is that I’m a true hybrid. Unlike other hybrid shifters who have a dominant gene and develop into only one type of hybrid, I am both. We didn’t know what I was until I turned ten and had my first shift. It was then that we realized that I am part wolf and part bear. I am unique, which is to say, I am a freak. There is no one like me in the world because people like me aren’t created in nature, we’re only created in laboratories.

When my mother escaped from the scientists' laboratory, she found my step-father, a wolfless Alpha named Carlos who was the Beta of Safe Haven pack. He immediately recognized my mother as his mate. When she accepted him, he took me in as his own. He didn’t care that I wasn't his biological child or that I was created in a laboratory.

When I shifted for the first time and began training, everyone realized very quickly that I was stronger than most wolves. Most of the pack members shied away from me, not comfortable with how different I am from other wolves. At school, I was frequently bullied, but never in front of the Guardians. They do not tolerate bullying of me or anyone. If anyone in our packs is caught bullying, they are disciplined or ejected from the pack. However, that didn’t stop other packs’ members from bullying me.

My step-father, the only father I’ve ever known, may not have a wolf, but he’s one of the strongest warriors in our pack, which is why Alpha Eli made him his Beta. He trained with me from an early age, helping me to learn restraint in fighting so I didn’t accidentally kill my opponent. He taught me how to effectively throw a punch if I actually DID want to kill my opponent. By the time I was in my teens, the only people who could or would spar with me were the ranked members in the packs, the Alphas, the Guardians, and my only true friend, Levi.

Levi is Guardian Grace’s half-brother. When Grace didn’t get her wolf as a child, her father banished her. Unwilling to let her young daughter leave the pack alone, Grace’s mother left with her, protecting her. However, her father ended up taking another mate, even though he never ended the mate bond with Grace’s mother. That relationship resulted in two things: Levi, and Grace’s mother’s death.

Levi was meant to be the Alpha of his father’s pack, until the day that Grace arrived and challenged their father, defeating him in a battle of strength. She gave the pack the option of joining her pack with Alpha Eli or going rogue. Thankfully, Levi’s mother had asked to join their pack.

He and I have grown up together, both of us misfits in our own way. He’s a strong Alpha, strong enough to be able to fight against me. He’s also kind and understanding enough that when I’m bullied, he not only stands up for me, but he’s there for me. He’s held me when I’ve cried and wiped the tears that no one else has seen.

I’ve been in love with Levi since I was a little girl. He’s the only one, other than my family and the children of the Guardians who truly accepts me for who I am.

However, I know that Levi isn’t for me. Even if the Moon Goddess were to put us together as two misfits, I could never chain him to someone like me. He’s an Alpha. He deserves to live his life and to have pups, pups that aren’t mutant children like the ones that I’m sure I would breed. No one knows what would happen if I were to have pups with a wolf, or children with a human, but I know I don’t want to find out. I don’t want my children to suffer the way I’ve suffered in my life, being bullied for being different.

And so, even though my birthday is coming up, even though Levi has already told me that he would love nothing more than to find out that I’m his mate, I already know that I can’t accept him.

He deserves so much more than someone like me.