Familial Bond Short Stories & Alpha Face Slapping Novels

I'm Alpha Bruce Smith's most docile and understanding daughter. In fact, I'm the type who obeys literally anyone's orders. When my parents pick me up at the Rogues' den and take me back to the pack, my adopted younger sister, Andrea Smith, begins making fun of me. "I thought the Rogues killed you for sure! I never thought you'd be able to return to the pack, safe and sound! You really are lucky! Why can't you just die already?" With hollow eyes, I just nod quietly. Then, I extend a claw and move to stab myself in the neck without hesitation. My parents are terrified out of their wits. They quickly stop me from hurting myself. But my older brother, Tobias Smith, remains impassive about my condition. "You really love attention that much, huh? What makes you think you can still remain my sister, anyway? You might as well drink some wolfsbane and die!" That night, I grab a bottle of poison and down it immediately. Tobias discovers me afterward. He whisks me to the hospital anxiously. When the doctor tells him that I'd die if he were two minutes later in discovering me, Tobias' complexion turns pale. Some time after that, when Andrea snatches my necklace from me, she loses her balance and falls down the stairs. Her fiance points at me while exclaiming, "It's just a necklace! If anything were to happen to Andrea, you'd better pay the price with your life!" Pay the price with my life, huh? I don't hesitate to draw the silver sword out of its hilt on the wall. Then, I slash my throat with it. My parents happen to witness it. Shell-shocked, they scream at the top of their lungs. "Call an ambulance! Hurry!" Tobias tries to stem the blood flow with trembling hands. He's completely stunned by the ordeal. What everyone doesn't know is that they've been calling me a lowlife during my five-year stay in the Rogues' den. Even if I could live 100 times over, those lives are nothing compared to Andrea. Even if I gave my life, it would never be enough—because to them, my life was never worth anything in the first place.

The Westmere pack had one rule about the Alpha's seat: only the Alpha's biological children could inherit it. I was my parents' only child. For as long as I could remember, I'd known I would become the first female Alpha in our pack's history. The trouble was that I hated being tied down. My father spoiled me, so he took in my cousin Evan Hale to take care of pack business for me. Evan had to pass an annual review on New Year's Day to keep his job as my assistant. But in 13 years, I never once took those reviews seriously. I passed Evan every single time. Over time, every wolf in the pack came to see me as the Alpha heir in name only. They believed Evan was the one my father really wanted to take over. Then Evan decided to marry Winona Crane, the daughter of Victor Crane, the Emberwind Alpha. Victor had heard all about Evan's achievements, and he agreed to the marriage without a second thought. To celebrate, I went out and conquered three new territories as a gift for Evan. I also gave Winona a villa to welcome her to Westmere. But on their first day as mates, she sold the villa. On the second day, she revoked my fingerprint access to every restricted area in the pack. Then she sent me a bill. "Lorelei Hale, I had no idea you'd spent 85 million dollars of Evan's money over the years." "You're a grown woman now, You can't keep dragging Evan down, can you?" "I want you to swear on the Moon Goddess that you'll pay back every cent within a month." I pointed at myself, wondering if I'd heard her right. "Me? Pay you back? Is this what Evan wants too?" Winona frowned. "What, are you trying to weasel out of paying?" I actually laughed. Sure, Evan had handled pack business for me for 13 years. But Westmere had never belonged to him. The only reason he'd kept his job as my assistant was that I'd waved him through his review year after year. And as it happened, the new year was only three days away. There was still time to revise Evan's review.

The day my twin sister was found, my parents decided that, to make up for everything she had missed, I had to sell all the love I had received over the past eighteen years to a memory bank and deposit the coins into an account set up exclusively for her. My mother's hugs were worth 800,000 coins. My brother's protection was worth 900,000. My fated mate's marriage proposal was worth one million... Every memory had a price. If I refused to sell even one, I would be branded selfish and deemed unworthy of remaining in the family. My Alpha father pushed the bill toward me. “Ten million. All this love should have belonged to your sister in the first place.” “She suffered out there for eighteen years, while you enjoyed eighteen years of love in her place.” I thought they just wanted to teach me a lesson. Until I discovered that once a transaction was completed, the memories sold to the bank could never be recovered. After I sold the memory of my mother singing me to sleep, I could no longer recognize her voice. After I sold the memory of my brother helping me through my first wolf-shifting, even seeing him injured stirred nothing in me but a sense of unfamiliarity. And when I sold the memory of my fated mate proposing to me, he finally panicked. Grabbing my hand with red-rimmed eyes, he asked why I couldn't even remember him. I didn't answer. Because I had already forgotten who he was. For the final transaction, I sold the last memory I had left. It was the night I was six, when my parents had shielded me with their own bodies at the risk of their lives and promised they would never abandon me. I looked at the remaining balance on the bill and sold that promise, too. Once the transaction was complete, my parents sent a message in the family group chat. “Lydia, the test is over.” “We were only afraid you'd become spoiled and refuse to accept your sister, so we wanted to see if you were willing to make sacrifices for her.” I stared blankly at the messages. I didn't recognize a single one of them.

On the seventh anniversary of the day I mated with Alpha Rowan, I discovered I was pregnant again. I rushed to tell him the good news, only to find him and my adopted sister, Isolde, locked in the heat of passion in his car, deep within the Forbidden Forest. "In another month, we will have no more use for Willow." "I used the blood of her first three unborn pups to heal you, and now you carry my child. This is a true blessing from the Moon Goddess." Hearing that familiar voice, I bit my lip so hard it bled just to keep myself from screaming. My three children were not lost to natural miscarriage. They were murdered, sacrificed by their own father for another woman. Even when my birth parents, the pack's Head Elder and his mate, brought me back home at twelve, I knew they did not love me. But I never imagined that in our seven years as mates, Rowan had never loved me either. He had even killed the one person in this world who ever truly loved me. With nothing left to lose, I used my Elder bloodline as leverage and sought out Rowan's greatest rival. The man on the other end of the line sounded intrigued. "I can help you. But when this is over, I want you as my Luna." I swore I would make them pay in blood. Without hesitation, I replied, "Deal."

My twin Alpha brothers believed that I have deliberately hidden the vast inheritance left by our Alpha parents so that our adoptive sister Sophia couldn’t by the medical equipment to treat her silver poisoning. For the sake of our adoptive sister, my twin Alpha brothers dragged me before the Council's tribunal. They accused me of stealing pack assets and deliberately harming pack members. If the charges stuck, the Alpha Council would strip away my Alpha power to treat Sophia. My brothers had no idea that years ago, I'd nearly died protecting them. If I lost my Alpha bloodline strength, I would die. In my own brothers' eyes, I was already a criminal beyond redemption. But when the Council used ancient magic to extract my memories for judgment, everyone wept for me. And when my brothers learned the truth, they fell to their knees, begging my forgiveness.

Three days after Theodore marked me, I took the three million his mother offered. Then I aborted our pup and forced our mate bond apart. Outside the operating room, he howled until he spat blood, begging me not to be so cruel. He said he would hate me for the rest of his life. Seven years later, we met again at an auction. A beautiful, docile she-wolf was sitting beside him. I'd come to the auction for the moonlight grass. But Theodore kept raising his paddle, snatching up the very lot I was bidding on. He took the moonlight grass, dropped it in front of me, and crushed it into the dirt with his heel. He said, "Anything you want, I'll destroy." He didn't know. The moonlight grass could save my pup's life. His pup, too.

My older brother, Ethan Earnhart, was the Alpha of the Shadow Pack. Right now, he was slicing my chest open with a silver surgical blade. Beside him, my adopted sister, Sara, had tear-filled eyes. "Elina went as far as faking her own death just to escape the loan sharks. She even used the body of a disfigured rogue." Ethan's gaze was filled with disgust. He pointed at the bruises covering my body, marks left when I was alive, and explained calmly to the young healer beside him. "Look. This is what happens to a traitor who betrays the pack and sleeps with filthy rogues. Elina, being the liar she's always been, even found a stand-in for her little performance." My wolf soul hovered beside the operating table and watched in despair as he handled my body the way one would process prey. 'Ethan, that really is me. I was trying to retrieve something you lost. That was why they–' "Check the stomach contents," Ethan said flatly as he cut open my stomach. Unexpectedly, there was no food residue. Instead, there was a single ring. It was corroded black by stomach acid, but the emblem engraved on it was unmistakable. It was the Alpha heirloom Ethan had lost five years ago. I had swallowed it just before I died. I had to protect that secret even if I were dead. Ethan's hand trembled violently while holding the forceps. He tore into my facial flesh like a madman. "Elina?"

  I was born with a weak inner wolf. My parents, the Alpha and Luna, along with my older brother Caleb, treated me like glass growing up, terrified that something would happen to me. But everything changed after my adopted sister, Jessica, was diagnosed with the exact same illness. Their concern gradually shifted entirely to her. They even demanded that I give up the only healing serum capable of curing our condition so Jessica could have it. I refused. I got into a massive fight with my parents, demanding to know why they were so biased. Because of that, everyone decided I was cold-blooded, vicious, and had absolutely no sympathy for Jessica. The day before the injection was to be confirmed, Caleb strode into my hospital room. His handsome face was full of impatience and irritation. He glared down at me. "Jessica is only twenty. She has a gorgeous future ahead of her. Your wolf has been weak since birth. Even if you get the serum, how long can this broken body of yours actually hold on?" Just then, Jessica rushed into the room wearing a thin nightgown. She threw herself into Caleb’s arms, crying and asking if I was still refusing to give her the serum. Caleb gently stroked her blonde hair, murmuring, "Don't be scared. No one can take what I promised you." I gazed at him, my mind drifting back to the first time my illness flared up when we were pups. I was dying, and he was the one who carried me through a blizzard to get to the healers. Back then, he held my hand, eyes red, and swore that even if he had to tear his own wolf in half, he would keep me alive. Looking at his cold face now, I suddenly felt incredibly exhausted. I didn't want to fight anymore. I leaned back calmly against my pillows, looked right at him, and said, "I don't want the serum anymore."

I was the best healer in the world. The Alphas of every pack fought over me day and night. To escape that exhausting life for good, I faked my own death. Then I put on a pair of dark glasses and pretended to be completely blind. When the Silver Moon pack found me and brought me home, I thought I was in for the usual family drama: the biological daughter and the adopted one fighting over their parents' love. But my older adopted sister, Evelyn Howard, turned out to be sweet and kind. She learned Braille for me right away. My father, the Alpha, and my mother, Eleanor, were consumed by guilt and heartache over me. My seven older brothers, the backbone of the pack's defenses, guarded me as if I were the most precious thing in the world. I didn't have to save anyone. All I had to do was sit there quietly , play the part of a proper little blind girl, and do nothing. That all changed when eight packs joined forces to crush our family. William Carter, an Alpha and the Cedar pack's heir apparent, kicked in our front door with his wolf guards. "All Silver Moon territory is under our control. If your whole family isn't off this land by morning, I'll slaughter every last one of you. "As for the older sister and the little blind girl ... they stay. I'll lock them in my private cage as pets." I looked at my seven brothers. They had been beaten until they coughed up blood, yet they still shielded me with their bodies. Then I looked at my adopted sister, sobbing as she offered her life to save us all. I twirled my cane between my fingers and let out a slow sigh. Without the pack to protect me, how was I supposed to keep doing nothing? As my family watched in despair, I rose from the shadows and calmly took off my dark glasses. "William, go ask the Chief Elder something for me. "Three years ago in the Alps, I repaired his heart myself and injected a life-saving serum into it. How's it working out for him? "Tell him his three years are up today.And now I'm cutting him off."

I brought my three-month-old pup, Nico, to my mate's pack for the Moon Gathering. The Blackwood pack lived deep in the northern pines, hidden from human eyes. Margaret Bailey was the Luna of the Blackwood pack, mated to the aging Alpha who rarely left his den. Her word was law in the longhouse. While my pup was sleeping, my niece, Raven Blackwood, and her friends carried him to the second floor of the longhouse and threw him out the window. My baby died right in front of me. I lost my mind. I shifted and tried to carry him to the pack healer, but it was already too late. He was gone before we ever made it there. Because my niece was still a minor under pack law, she barely faced any consequences. The Council ordered her family to pay eight hundred thousand dollars in blood money, but my sister-in-law, Seraphine Stone, howled and screamed, accusing me of trying to destroy their bloodline. I cried until I felt like my heart had been clawed out. All I wanted was justice. But my mate, Damien Blackwood, and the Luna, Margaret Bailey, only snarled at me. "Raven is just a pup too! Are you really going to destroy her future just because your son died?" I never got my revenge. In the end, grief and hatred hollowed me out. That winter, I died of a broken heart. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the Moon Gathering. This time, I immediately called my birth pack and asked them to take my son away. But even then, my niece still threw a baby from the upstairs window.

On my eighteenth birthday, my three adoptive brothers gave me a present—a stray she-wolf. My eldest brother, Caine, said her obedience might finally tame my vicious temper. Rhael said her delicate nature would make my rough strength stand out even more. Lucian said her beauty might distract everyone from how plain I was. But that she-wolf had only one ambition: to become a Luna. When a blind Alpha from a distant pack came seeking a bride, she volunteered to marry him in my place. She never made it. Worn down by the grueling journey, she died along the way. My brothers were consumed by grief. When an enemy pack attacked, they threw me into the enemy ranks with their own hands. I stared at them in disbelief. Caine accused me, “You knew Sophia might die. That’s why you let her take your place without a second thought!” Rhael glared at me with hatred. “You love throwing your status around and bullying others, don’t you? Today, you’ll learn what it feels like to be completely at someone else’s mercy!” Lucian turned to the wolves around us and ordered, “No one helps her. I want her to know what it feels like to be abandoned by everyone!” When I died, there wasn’t enough left of my body to piece together. Then I opened my eyes—and found myself back on the day Sophia volunteered to marry in my place. Remembering how my three brothers had shielded her behind them in my previous life, I smiled. “Father, I’ll marry him.” Father frowned. “Knox is blind and brutal. Are you sure?” “I’m sure.” Since my brothers couldn’t bear to part with Sophia, they could stay with her forever.

The day the pack strength assessment results dropped, everyone was cheering for my twin sister, Lyra, who scored an A-rank. My childhood friend Kaelen, the future Alpha of our Stone Pack, affectionately threw his arm around Lyra’s shoulders. "Why not just stay here? I'll make sure you're well taken care of, Lyra." My older brother Liam quickly chimed in. "Don't listen to him. You're coming with me to the Silvermoon Pack, obviously." Our parents smiled and agreed. "With you two looking out for Lyra, we can rest easy." It took them a long time to finally remember me. "Carrie, your rank is garbage. Just pick some minor pack around Silvermoon," Liam muttered without even looking up. "Right. That way, we'll all be in the same territory, which will make things easier." Kaelen scolded me out of habit. "There's only half an hour before the confirmation terminals close. Don't dawdle." I gazed at the S-rank result displayed on my phone screen and said absolutely nothing. Growing up, Lyra had always been the princess everyone doted on. Liam and Kaelen were her loyal knights. And I was forever just her backdrop. Even when I became the only S-rank wolf, no one cared. Since that was the case, without hesitation, I chose the Bloodmoon Pack—the farthest and most powerful pack from home.

After I found out my Alpha mate, Bruce, couldn't let go of his ex-mate, Fiona, and her pup, I started teaching our son to call him "Alpha Bruce." When our son had a fever, Fiona called my mate away in the middle of the night. I touched my son’s burning forehead and had him say, "Goodbye, Alpha." When he bailed on the birthday party he’d promised our son because Fiona called, crying that her own son didn't have a father, I didn't even look up. I just had our son explain to the guests, "The Alpha has something important to do." Our son always hesitated for a long time. Until Bruce finally realized how much he’d failed us. He suggested we take a family portrait. But at the studio, Fiona called again, sobbing. “Bruce, can you please come and pretend to be Tony’s dad? The kids at daycare are making fun of him for not having one…” A flicker of guilt crossed Bruce’s face. He was about to kneel and explain it to our son. But this time, our son didn't need my cue. He just waved. “It’s okay, Alpha Bruce. Go be with your other pup. Mom and I are enough for the family photo.”

A woman showed up at my cabin door, claiming to be a Beta's mate. She said she wanted to rent my herb field for three hundred dollars a month, to grow medicine for her injured mate. Three hundred? Seriously? That land is the only one in the entire pack—blessed ground that drinks in the Moon Goddess's power. Herbs grown there could pull a dying wolf back from the dead. I turned her down. But she wouldn't let it go. So Sun, my dog, barked and chased her off. Figured that'd be the end of it. Wrong. The next day she came back with two Gammas, busting right through my door. They screamed at me, called me a worthless human who had no business touching pack land. Then they tied me up and made me watch as they burned my herb books, beat Sun, and tore out every single plant I'd grown. What they didn't know? I'm human, yeah. But I'm the adopted human daughter of the Bloodmoon Alpha and Luna. That herb field? Their gift to me on my eighteenth birthday. And those herbs they burned? The only cure for her mate's dying breath.

The day a blizzard sealed the mountain roads, the entire pack lost power. My academy and my sister's were on opposite sides of the pack's territory. My father, Alpha Gerald Vale, set out with his warriors. My mother, Moira Vale, called me. "We're going to get your sister first. She hasn't awakened her wolf yet, so she won't survive this storm. Stay at the academy gate and wait for us." I stood outside in the freezing wind, waiting until nightfall. The school sirens eventually began to wail. Snow rose past my knees, and then an avalanche thundered down the mountain. Only then did my mother finally call. "The avalanche blocked the roads. Find your own way home." I clutched my coat tight and trudged through the blizzard for five hours. The avalanche buried me beneath the snow. My fingers were numb with cold, and I felt like the blood in my veins had turned to ice. When I finally crawled home, the manor lights glowed, warm and peaceful. My mother slid the last bowl of meat stew toward my younger sister, Susie Vale. My brother, Damon Vale, took one look at me, covered in snow, and snapped, "Why didn't you shake it off before coming in? You've ruined Susie's favorite rug." I stood in the doorway, saying nothing. Susie smiled and grumbled playfully, "I thought you'd found something good to eat out there and forgotten all about coming home." Outside, the blizzard had brought down whole slopes. Several rogues had frozen to death in it. And somehow, that was still what they believed. Not one of them seemed surprised that I'd made it back alive. Suddenly, none of it seemed to matter anymore. I finally realized it wasn't the blizzard keeping me from home. It was them.

At the Alpha Summit, my younger brother Felix accused me in front of everyone. "I grew up crushed under my older sister's thumb. If I so much as ate a piece of candy, she'd pry my mouth open and dig it out." I swirled the red wine in my glass and gave a cold laugh. "That wasn't candy. It was a pill made from wolfsbane. If I hadn't saved you, you wouldn't even have the chance to stand here talking to me." Felix's face froze. Refusing to give up, he said, "When our cousin Toby came to stay with us, you gave him every single moonstone I'd worked so hard to find. I'm your own brother, and you played favorites with someone else?" I sighed. "Your cousin had it rough. A big fire burned his family's house to the ground." "What does that have to do with me? Just because he had it rough, I'm supposed to give in to him every time?" "You set that fire." The room went dead silent. The reporters hammered their shutter buttons, capturing Felix looking as if he'd swallowed something foul. "Well, didn't I find him a job afterward? I went out of my way to help him, but the second you found out, you beat me up. Do you have any idea how badly that scarred my fragile young heart?" His eyes reddened as he spoke, while the memory made my blood boil all over again. "You shipped your cousin off to work in a mine in the Wastelands. How is that any different from exile? "You locked him into a five-year contract when you sent him there, so he's still serving hard labor in the Wastelands. You're telling me you didn't deserve that beating?" The viewers watching the livestream didn't know whether to laugh or cry. [Poor Toby. He still hasn't escaped that family?] [See, no beating is ever wasted.] [Just get a new brother. This one's a lost cause.]

The night of my first shift at eighteen, my two older sisters brought home a fifteen-year-old orphaned boy. My Alpha sister seized the rare healing herbs I'd spent all my savings on — herbs meant to ease my first shift — and gave them to him instead. "You're strong enough," she growled. "You don't need such precious herbs." My Beta sister snarled with fury, pointing toward the door. "Get out! Don't come back!" I said nothing more, just grabbed my packed bag and left. They assumed I was merely throwing a tantrum, that I'd return in a few days. My sisters, finally free of my presence, took the orphan boy on an international vacation to the Caribbean islands I'd always dreamed of visiting. Many days later, when they returned to the pack, they were shocked to discover I'd accepted an offer from the neighboring pack's Head Healer. The position required fifteen years of isolated herbal research. I could never return home. That night, they fell apart.

A rival pack invaded, plunging our pack into the worst crisis we had ever faced. The witch, Morgana Vale, said that only a blood sacrifice could save the entire pack. So despite my anemia, I was dragged onto the altar. Morgana slit my wrist, and the moment my blood dripped onto the totem, the ritual began. When the bleeding got to be more than I could take, I tried to call it off, but my mother stopped me cold. "Sweetheart, hold on a little longer. You're the Alpha's daughter. Making a small sacrifice for the pack is only right. It's just a little blood. It won't kill you." I gritted my teeth and held on, my heart pounding like it would burst. The ritual lasted from morning until dusk, and my blood never stopped flowing. "Mom, I really can't take it anymore." My face was ghost-white, and my vision was starting to blur. But she just gave my bloodless face a cold glance. "Sacrificing for the pack is an honor. Being the Alpha's daughter doesn't mean you get to shirk your duty. I did not raise you to be selfish." By midnight, everything went black, and I collapsed on the altar. I'm sorry. I failed to do my duty. I'm sorry, Mother. I let you down.

Word had it that the roses my mother-in-law Nancy and I planted on the back hill were in full bloom, so we decided on a whim to go see them. We never expected to be stopped at the entrance by a she-wolf caked in heavy makeup. "Do you even know where you are? This is no place for two low-ranking Omegas." "Look at you two — dressed like beggars. That's probably exactly what you are." Our good mood evaporated instantly. I shot her a look. "As far as I know, the back hill is public territory. Every member of the Silver Moon Pack is welcome here." "You have no right to block us." The she-wolf's eyes turned bloodshot with rage. "You pathetic little Omega — how dare you disrespect me!" "This mountain belongs to the Silver Moon Pack, and the Silver Moon Pack belongs to my mate." "If you know what's good for you, get on your knees and apologize. Then crawl out of my sight before I lose my patience." I glanced at Nancy. Her eyes burned with the same fury I felt. As the one and only Luna of the Silver Moon Pack's Alpha, I had no idea there was supposedly another Luna running around.

It was a full moon, and my mate, Alpha Ethan, bailed on our son's coming-of-age ceremony rehearsal. All because his Omega mistress, Scarlett, was in heat. Then, during the actual ceremony, our son Caleb was ambushed by a rival pack. By the time I heard the news, Caleb had been shot. He was dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. I knelt beside him, completely breaking down, when Ethan's voice, faking an apology, came through the mind link: "Sorry, Scarlett needs me. I'm sure Caleb can handle things. Just make sure Caleb gets some rest early, don't let him run around and mess up tomorrow's celebration." I looked at my son's broken body, my voice trembling, "He won't be running anywhere anymore." "Good," Ethan said, sounding pleased. "Scarlett's bloodline is purer. She's better suited to give the Stone Pack strong heirs. You should understand." I cut the link. After I committed my son's body to the flames, I found the secret ritual to break a mate bond and contacted a wolf I hadn't spoken to in a long, long time: "The protection wards on Stone Pack territory are down. You can make your move."