Forest
I was born with Alpha blood, yet I spent my entire childhood drifting from pack to pack.
At the pack orphanage, the woman in charge always said I was slow and couldn't pick up on anything unless it was said outright.
At the charity school, the boy at the desk next to mine shoved the phone he'd secretly brought to school into my backpack.
"Hide this for me. The teacher's coming."
I raised my hand.
"Sir, he just put his phone in my backpack.
"He forgot his own backpack today."
When I grew up, I joined the Thornwood pack without any trouble and started working as a warrior trainer.
The Alpha was handing out assignments.
The pack's Gamma nudged me with his foot and lowered his voice. "Tell him you can take on more warriors. You're new, so you should be doing more of the work."
I nodded, stood up, and looked at our new leader.
"Alpha, the Gamma wants an easier load.
"He says new people should be doing more of the work.
"You just became this pack's Alpha, didn't you? That makes you new too. So shouldn't you be doing more than any of us?"
After that, nobody in the Thornwood pack ever confided in me again.
Then my birth parents brought me back to the pack I was born into.
Four years later, they finally held the homecoming dinner they owed me.
Their adopted Omega daughter, Elena, walked right past me and sat down between my parents.
She hooked her arm through my mother's and smiled at me.
"Aurora, this has been my seat for twenty-three years. You don't mind, do you?"
Everybody sat there waiting for me to be gracious and step aside.
I asked her directly, "You think I might mind? Is that because it's the daughter's seat?"
She gave a small laugh. "Well, isn't it?"
I unleashed the full force of my Female Alpha aura and went on. "If it's their daughter's seat.
"Then you've had it long enough. Give it back to me now."