Alpha Familial Bond Short Stories & Novels

For six years I was locked in the pack's lightless dungeon, bled day after day to keep the Alpha alive. The day they finally dragged me out, I was barely breathing. But the Alpha just looked at me and said, "My poison was actually cured within the first six months. It's just that the moonflower in Selene's garden needs she-wolf blood to bloom — it helps her conceive. Your blood wasn't wasted." My brother Damien spoke like he was doing me a favor. "We've known all along. You bullied Selene for years. Call this a small punishment." My parents stood off to the side, looking at me with open impatience. "We were going to keep you locked up longer. But Selene miscarried because of you. She can't have children anymore. So we're letting you out — to carry an heir for her." Six years of bleeding for the Alpha had hollowed me out. I had less than a month left to live. What the Alpha would never know was why I'd been willing to bleed myself dry for him. Because I was the one the Moon Goddess had chosen as his mate.

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.

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.

After Vanessa moved into the estate, Mommy stopped fighting with Daddy. Her wolf was getting weaker. I think Mommy was going to the moon. Grandma had left me that way too. Daddy saw us in the hall, his face dark. His voice came out flat. “Fiona, you don't want Serena growing up in a broken home, do you?” Mommy didn't cry and shout at him the way she used to. She just held me, her voice soft. “Wire me a hundred million and I'll stay out of your way.” Daddy froze for a second. Then he transferred the money. After that, Daddy slept in Vanessa's room most nights, and Mommy kept asking him for more. She got so thin, and she wouldn't eat. She took my hand and brought me to a dozen different offices and made me sign papers. She said she was leaving everything to me. I buried my face in her chest. “Mommy, if you're tired, go find Grandma. I'll be good.”

The healer told me I had Soul Decay Syndrome. In three days, I'd be dead. The only thing that could save me was water from the Sacred Spring. But my Alpha mate, Vincent, gave it to my adopted sister, Fiona. So, during the final 72 hours of my life, I gave up everything. When I handed Fiona the perfume formulas I'd spent years developing, my parents smiled in satisfaction. When I gave up the couples' vacation package I'd won and let Vincent take Fiona to see the Northern Lights instead, he praised me for finally being mature. When I taught my daughter to call Fiona "Mom", she didn't hesitate. She turned to me without a second thought and called me "Aunt." To my family, all my sacrifices were only natural. "Fiona is a frail human. Her lifespan is much shorter." "We'll love you properly later. We'll make it up to you." I let out a mocking laugh. There was no later for me. I'd never live long enough to receive their love. And after I died, they lost their minds with regret.

My Alpha mother had a mark burned into my heart, a Submission Mark, all to guarantee I'd claim first place at the Ascension Trials. The mark was simple in its cruelty: whenever my heartbeat dipped below the intensity of combat training, it would scorch the flesh around my heart. No drifting off. No rest. Not even an extra breath during sparring. When I passed out from exhaustion, she'd pull out an iron whip soaked in silver solution and lash it across my hands. She called it "awakening the wolf's instincts." "You're a she-wolf. If you fail, you become the lowest thing in this pack and every male wolf will have the right to walk all over you." "Every drop of blood you shed is a stepping stone to the top." "Iron doesn't become a blade without fire. I've already begged the Moon Goddess for her blessing. Why can't you just push harder?" Today was the first round of the Ascension Trials on the pack's sacred calendar. I was the first contestant to break out of the underground arena, and instantly the pack's Record Keepers swarmed around me. My mother stood just outside the arena. Flush with pride, she triggered the Submission Mark and pushed my combat reflexes to the absolute limit of my wolf form. "Look at my daughter move, like she has Moon Goddess guidance. All thanks to my one-of-a-kind Branding Enhancement technique." But Mom... two days before the Trials started... Your mark, running at full power, burned my heart to nothing and stopped it cold. What more could you possibly want?

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 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."

For seven years in a row, the Moon Goddess chose me to serve as the Saintess of the Silver Moon Pack. And every year, my mate-to-be, Alpha Kael Ashborne, handed the title to my adopted sister, Rosalie. "Rosalie is an Omega. She needs the position if she is ever going to earn the pack's respect." "I promise, Elara. Next year, the title will be yours." My mother baked Rosalie a cake to celebrate and dressed her in a one-of-a-kind gown sewn with moonstones. My father watched me as though he expected trouble, then let out a weary sigh. "Elara, could you try being generous for once and stop making a scene?" A bitter smile tugged at my lips. They had no idea why I had fought so hard for the Saintess title for seven years. I had Wolf Soul Decay Syndrome, and only the Silver Spring water reserved for the Saintess could save me. And now, I had only one month left to live. I no longer cried or argued. I simply nodded and agreed to everything they asked. They thought I had finally grown up. They thought I had learned to put Rosalie first. What they did not know was that I would soon be gone for good.

My mother asked me to step aside and let my twin sister have Ronan, my mate-to-be. She held my hand gently, her eyes full of pleading. "Mara, your sister has given in to you for twenty years. Just this once, let her have him, all right?" She was not wrong. I had been fighting and grabbing since I was a child. Whatever my twin sister, Aurelia, had, I had to have too. Even when she took medicine, I would insist on stealing a sip. Mom always said I had been competitive before I was even born, that I had taken too much from Aurelia in the womb, and that was why she had come into the world so weak. So dad would wade through freezing river water and go deep into the forest to pick moonfruit for her. Mom learned to weave so she could make every dress Aurelia wore from childhood to adulthood with her own hands. And I had nothing. All I could do was charge forward like a little thief, snatching whatever scraps I could reach. Because I knew that if I did not fight for anything, nothing would ever be mine. This time, Aurelia fell in love with Ronan at first sight. And I, who had never given up so much as an inch, obeyed without a fight. "Fine." After all, I had been poisoned by wolfsbane while saving her and mom, and I was already living on borrowed time. After I died, regret drove them all mad.

I was the sole heiress to the Alpha King of the Northern Territory, yet I fell in love with Caine, the Alpha of the Silver Moon pack in the East. Our territories were sworn enemies, so I kept my identity hidden and stayed by his side in the shadows. For ten years, I was his secretary, his weapon, and his only woman. I helped him transform the Silver Moon pack into one of the most powerful forces in the East. I had always hoped he would propose. After all, every night in bed, he would fuck me hard, his voice rough against my ear as he whispered over and over that I belonged to him. Then one day, after we made love, he said casually,”Starting tomorrow, you'll handle the schedule for the engagement.” I lay there, still trembling in the aftershocks. “Caine.” I sat up, my voice shaking. “Are you... asking me to marry you?” He turned and looked at me like the question surprised him. Like he hadn't expected anything so naive. “Marry you?” His tone was lazy. “The engagement's for Celina.” Celina. The daughter of the River Pack Alpha, next territory over. Something closed around my heart and dropped it straight through the floor. “You're marrying her.” My mind went blank.”Then what am I?” “Sophia,” he said. “You're an Omega. For ten years I've given you the best of everything. Protection. Status. My time.” His thumb stroked along my jaw. “But you know you can never be Luna. Don't go telling yourself fairy tales.” That's when I knew he had never considered me his mate. For his ambition, for that princess, he chose to sacrifice me. So, I chose to destroy everything I had ever given him. I dialed a number I hadn't called in ten years. “Dad.” “Sophia. My little princess. You've finally come to your senses?” The second I heard his voice, my throat locked up. “You were right, Dad. I want to come home.” I forced down the catch in my voice. “Come for me in five days.”

Everyone in the Moonshadow Pack knew I was the one person my Alpha mate and my Beta brother cherished most. My brother once built me a tower so I could stand closer to the moonlight. My Alpha once bought me a one-of-a-kind moonstone ring and promised I would be the only woman he ever chose. Then my brother took in an outsider Omega. After that, he forgot our parents' dying wish for him to protect me and gave her the gown that was meant for me. I went to my Alpha in tears, and he held me gently, promising he would always stay by my side. But later, he postponed our Marking Ceremony seven times because of Lia. After losing all hope, I decided to fake my death and leave. But why did they go crazy after I was gone?

Three years after my Alpha brother banished me from Blackwood Pack, he donated one dollar to my PackAid fundraiser. His public message read: [Let me know when you actually die. I’ll pop the champagne.] Three years earlier, Serena—the orphan Adrian had brought home from the border—accused me of stealing her silver-purification protocol that had earned Blackwood’s only nomination to the Royal Healer Academy. Adrian never let me explain. He revoked my nomination, cut off my Pack sponsorship, and ordered me out of Blackwood territory before sunrise. [Admit what you did. Apologize to Serena. Then I’ll let you come home.] Then he sealed me out of the Pack mindlink. Overnight, I went from protected Alpha blood to a rogue no Pack dared accept. Three years later, Serena slept in my old room at the Alpha House, wore my mother’s jewelry, and smiled whenever Pack members called her the Alpha’s sister. I dug through trash outside the territory and scavenged scrap in an abandoned industrial district until silver dust poisoned my lungs. By then, my wolf was fading and the healer called it terminal Silver Lung. After reading Adrian’s comment, I called Moonrest Memorial Park. “Hold the cheapest grave you have.” His one-dollar donation had pushed my fundraiser to PackAid’s minimum withdrawal amount. I decided to give him exactly what he wanted.

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.

My elder sister, Alice, was a white wolf. A witch had foretold that my power would devour hers, that the moment I shifted during our coming-of-age ceremony, she would die. The only way to save her was to suppress my power, let her shift first at the ceremony, and break the curse. To save her, my parents spent eighteen years breaking me. And the night before our ceremony, they followed the witch's orders and locked me in the basement with silver-banded iron chains. "Be good, Maria. The silver will only delay your shift. Just get through tomorrow, and your sister lives. Then we can all stop suffering." The chains pressed against my chest. I could barely breathe. But something was wrong. My shift was starting, early. I slammed my fists against the door. "Mom, it's starting. I'm shifting now—" "Don't lie to me." Her voice cut through, sharp and loud. "The witch said both of you shift on ceremony day. Or are you really that eager to watch your sister die?" Footsteps faded down the hall. The pain hit, searing, ripping through every bone. I curled into the corner, feeling my wolf slip away.

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.

From birth, I was the unwanted pup. At three, Mom left me for another pack. At five, my eldest brother forced chili water down my throat and made me say it tasted good. My second brother would deliberately ditch me at the pack nursery entrance, leaving me to find my way back through the dark woods alone. My third brother would gang up with other pups to humiliate me. The worst came when both the neighbor cub and I fell sick with moon-fever. Dad didn't hesitate for a second to carry her to the hospital, but he brushed me off like I was faking it. Until—I'd shake uncontrollably and throw up whenever I saw them... That's when they finally started freaking out. Dad broke down crying and begged me: "Sweetie, can you please just call me 'Daddy' one more time?"

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.]

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.

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.