Aries
Chapter 1

Laughter rang around me as I made my way through the packhouse to reach the alpha’s office. The hallways were cleaned, paintings dusted and the vases changed. As much as everyone maintained to keep the packhouse neat and tidy, today we took extra care. After all, it was not every day the next alpha returned home with his newly mated Alpha female.

Cheryl and Catherine, the twins of the pack frowned at me. I sighed. I knew what a sight I was. Livvia had asked me to give a hand at painting and we ended up covering our jeans and tank tops with a splay of colours. I grimaced at them and Cheryl opened her mouth to say something.

“Lyra!” Rhaze, my sister shouted behind the twins as she dashed towards me. “Where were you? The alpha called you an hour ago!” Pausing, she gave me a horrified look. “In which hell did you fall in?”

At this, the twins’ suppressed a laugh and left before Rhaze could tell them anything.

My eyes widened as I wiped a sweat trickling down my head. “An hour? Mike told me just now!”

“Well,” she said, dragging me past the crowd. “We need to go! Alpha Violet needs you after you meet Alpha Charles. Then-”

She spoke too fast to be coherent and her voice was lost to the crowd of females who were hoarded on the kitchen and the proof of their work was the tantalising aroma of the food that saturated the entire pack house. Males were out, cleaning the grounds, painting the walls and the gates. As for the pups, they did what they did every day just with more vigour. But seeing the pups were a rare blessing among our kind, they were given complete liberty to do whatever mischief they wanted. Even if it meant sneaking on the Alpha for the alpha command would not work on shifters until they hit puberty.

Racing two floors up, we stood before the alpha’s office. From the conversation within, I knew Alpha Charles, his mate, Alpha Violet, my parents and the gamma pair were in a conversation.

Knocking, my sister waited for the Alpha pair to give us permission to enter.

The buzz inside the room died before a feeble ‘come in’ was heard.

Opening the door, Rhaze walked in before me and bowed to the Alpha pair. “I brought Lyra.”

I glanced at the leaders of the pack. They usually wore a smile upon seeing us. But now, even I could sniff the lie in that smile.

The Alpha was a handsome male. Even though he appeared around thirty in human years of the other six continents with his blue eyes and silver hair, he was two hundred years old. Same went for Alpha Violet with her hair as dark as ink and eyes brown enough to fill anyone with warmth just by gazing into it. Yet, she was a vicious beast wearing the skin of beauty; no female warrior could ever beat her. In the time of wars, she always stood on the first line of defence right next to Alpha Charles.

Rolling my eyes at my sister, I bowed to the two people who were like second parents to me. “I was already on my way here, Rhaze.”

Alpha Violet gave me a blank look when she assessed me. She shook her head. “You know what? I am not going to comment on that.” I glanced at the dress adorned in the paint. I had no one to blame but myself and Raoul who started the paint fight. Then she continued, “It’s good that everyone’s here. We have news.”

“What news, Violet?” mom asked.

Rhaze went and sat next to mom and I took my seat next to Gamma Lyanne.

“Wait!” Gamma Branwell said. “The future Beta, Cain is not here and so is my daughter.”

Gamma Lyanne, Branwell’s mate snorted, “We agreed that Livvia will not be the next Gamma. She went to the science sector. If I could, I would disown her for not listening to me.”

While Gamma Lyanne could talk about what she wanted about others, she dared not touch the people under me.

“What do you mean, if you could, you would disown, Liv?” I asked, keeping my voice sharp.

Gamma Lyanne closed her eyes. “I don’t think it is a matter of your concern, Lyra.”

“Is it not?” I asked, folding my arms. “Livvia is second in command in the science sector. And outside that, she is my best friend after Rhaze and Aurelia. Do you still think it is not my concern?”

Before Gamma Lyanne could talk, Alpha Charles intervened. “I think it would be wise to talk about it later.”

Just because I chose silence, for now, did not mean I gave up. I knew Gamma Lyanna was not very loving towards her daughter, I never knew how deep her hatred ran. I saw my mother who eyed Lyanne with a contempt. I smirked internally. If there was one female I would always look up to no matter what, it would be my mother. I loved that female to no ends.

“What news, Violet?” mom asked again.

Coughing, Alpha Violet said fiddling with the chain she always wore. The very chain I had played with when I was a kid. “A very important news. News that could change the fate of this pack.”

Why was I here? As much as an entire division was under my control, I was a human in this pack. And that was all I ever would be. Everyone shifted between the ages of fourteen and fifteen. Here I was without shifting at the age of twenty.

Elders said that the Moon did not wish me with the gift of second skin and I was cursed for a mistake of my past life. They almost convinced Alpha Charles to throw me out of the pack, which Alpha Violet stopped.

I bet me being the current Beta’s daughter, the next Beta’s sister and current Delta’s sister made me sit here. Or it could have been Evelyn, my mother who could have threatened Alpha Violet to make me sit here. That female was capable of anything. Especially when it came to her children.

She sighed and looked away. “I always hoped that Lyra would be his mate.”

That word. Mate. It was rare for our kind to replace our mate. Soulmate with whom you would spend the rest of your life loving and cherishing. With whom you would see your grandchildren grow and with whom you would take your last breath. Someone I was sure I was not blessed with. I never had a beast within me, to begin with. How could I be naive to wish for one?

As much as I said I would never have a gifted mate nor take a chosen one, my parents and friends believed otherwise. They believed that there was one poor soul made for me.

“Violet!” mom admonished. “How can you wish something like that? We can’t decide what Luna gives us!”

The alpha glanced at his mate before clearing his throat. Alpha Violet looked away and sniffled.

“That’s why we called you all here,” Alpha Charles said quietly. “We received a call from Ethan this morning. He said to us... what he did.”

Silence fell over us. It was never good if the Alpha used that voice.

“What did he do?” dad asked with equal seriousness.

“The female he mated, Harper, is not his true mate,” he whispered. “He mated her because he was growing old. That’s the reason he gave us.”

The quietness of his voice made me realise that he was not just disappointed with Ethan. His voice held icy anger that could fester for days. Anger that Ethan could not withstand.

“But he is only thirty-five!” Gamma Lyanne protested. “And a chosen mate bond is only strong when both have lost their true mate! This bond is going to last only until Ethan replaces his true mate. What will happen of Harper then?”

I nearly scoffed at Gamma Lyanne. She of all people to point this out. Gamma was a cruel rank. In order to maintain peace, they often made their child mate with someone of other pack or coven or tribe, dismissing the mate bond.

Alpha Violet clenched her jaws. “He plans on... rejecting his true mate when he meets her.”

I blinked at the idea. Rejecting? Was that even possible? The bond between the two mates was strong. Strong enough to kill the pair who rejected the bond between them. But there were survivors who lived to tell the pain that woke while living without their other half.

That had been the case, a few hundred years ago or so Aurelia told me. In the survey, she conducted two years ago, she did replace that rejections were becoming common. Yet, Ethan would be the first Alpha to reject his mate.

“What?” Rhaze shrieked her eyes turning silver, a sign that her wolf would take over anytime. “Does he not know how many are actually waiting to meet our mate? What happened to him?”

“I wish I knew,” Alpha Violet said bitterly. “Harper... I am not sure whether she is cut out for being the Alpha female. From what Ethan says, she does not have the basic quality of empathy.”

“What are you going to do about it, Violet?” mom asked in a softer tone.

“I can’t do anything,” she replied in a broken voice. “He gave her the mark of his equal. He marked her as his Alpha female. Nothing can reverse it unless he decides to mark his true mate.”

Rhaze got up and left, slamming the door behind her. I saw the poor door and then at our Alpha female. “Can she do that?”

“She has all rights to be angry at Ethan, Lyra,” she said. “She has been searching for her mate for twenty years. When we found you like a baby on the pack borders, that was when she paused looking for her mate. She wanted to look after you. She is fifty years, Lyra. And she is still waiting. Ethan is just thirty-five and he chose a mate. You can understand where she is coming from.”

It was true that I did have a crush on Ethan, I knew how that crush would end. He would replace his mate, while I would be left alone. I came to terms with it a long time ago. I was not angry with Ethan as everyone in that room was. I was just disappointed. He could have just waited a few more years. But then again, who was to say he would meet his mate in a few days?

“Lyra?” Alpha Charles called.

“Yes, Alpha?”

“I don’t trust this Harper much,” he said. “That project you are doing? Better put a hold on it or increase the security. I don’t want this getting out. This is a delicate issue.”

Nodding, I excused myself, typing furiously to Cheryl and Livvia.

************

Throwing the phone on the sofa in my office, I shouted, “Lia! Lia!”

Before I could sit on my chair, the female came in. Her hair was short and spiked as though she was going through a rebellious phase. Chewing a gum, she sat opposite to me. The timing was perfect. Livvia and Cheryl came in.

“Why did you call?” Livvia asked, sitting next to Aurelia.

Cheryl plopped on the sofa and swung her legs on it.

“Alpha Charles does not trust Ethan’s mate, Harper,” I said, omitting the part that Harper was his chosen mate. “So, he asked me to increase the security on the project we are doing and momentarily stop it.”

Cheryl nodded. “I will work on it.”

With that, the tech wiz of the pack got up and left. I had seen people play the piano brilliantly, but Cheryl had the power to create a piece of music just by typing the damned keys on the keyboard of the computer.

“Putting this genetic project on hold?” Livvia asked.

I nodded.

“You spent thirty million nyota!” Aurelia cried. “You spent thirty million on this. You want to put it hold when we got positive response from Corvus and Pyxis?”

“Well,” I said, opening my computer. “I don’t want to get screwed. Do you know how it is to get news saying that I have to put my project on hold?”

This project was literally playing with genetics. It was to see what genes were expressed in werewolves and what was hidden. To be honest, we discovered a lot of things. For example, when subjected to chronic heat, it was not the normal enzymes it produced. The cluster of cells produced enzymes that could withstand heat. And to come extent, it did surprisingly showed the expression of a few characteristics of a camel.

This did shock us all. Only after that result, we began to invest in this and devoted ourselves to it. So, when we were asked to put this on hold, it was painful.

“But still...” Aurelia muttered.

“If this new Alpha female knows science and decides to play master, we would be dead. You know what we are dealing with. We just got approval from Fia Rhine, former leader of scientist association. I don’t want to mess it up.”

**********

After our meeting, we left the building in an hour. While Livvia went to get her son, Raoul ready, Aurelia grumbled how she had to buy a new pair of shoes for tonight. I would swear that the girl’s obsession for shoes would ruin her. On the other hand, I went in search of my dear sister.

Shaking my head, I strode towards the training grounds. Just as expected, Rhaze was there pinning Mike to the ground. She held him by his neck and kept tightening her grip. The fact that she was the delta, the one who trained the everybody and Mike the leader of the patrol unit did not help.

“Rhaze,” I called. “You will end up killing him.”

Growling, she pushed him away and got up. “I... just can’t.”

Mike coughed and sat up. “Thank the Moon you did not kill me. Or else I would have missed your funeral, Rhaze.”

She frowned at him in confusion, momentarily forgetting her anger. “My funeral?”

“Reece would have killed you for killing me. As much as she acts as she hates me, she is my mate. She would avenge me.”

Closing her eyes, Rhaze walked off again. Answering Mike’s frown with my glare, I ran up to catch with my sister.

I wished Cain was here. My brother knew what to do to calm her down. Seeing as he was going to be the next beta, he was in the neighbouring pack as a part of his training.

“Rhaze!” I shouted. “Wait.”

She kept on walking until she reached the borders of the forest. Stopping there, she stumbled against a tree and crumbled down.

That was when I saw the tears running down her face.

“Rhaze?” I called softly and sat next to her. “I know it is wrong of Ethan to mark another female without waiting-”

“It’s not that, Lyra,” she whispered and if it was not for the stillness, I would not have heard her voice. “I... I am not angry that he did not wait. I am furious that he decided to reject his true mate.”

“Rhaze?”

“I met my mate, Lyra,” she sobbed as she hugged me. “I saw him in a theme park, four miles from our pack. He was a human, Ly. Already in his forties. He was married and had three children with his wife.”

I had no words to tell her. I just stared at my sister. Why did she tell she never met her mate then? How did she even survive after seeing him with his family? I just hugged her as fiercely as she did.

“He too felt the bond,” she continued whimpering. “I thought he would be human and would not feel it, but he did. With the same intensity as a wolf would have. But he refused to give up his wife. He said he loved her too much and asked me to move on. Asked me to forget him. He... rejected me for another. I know what it feels to be rejected, Lyra. I don’t wish that upon Ethan’s true mate, whoever she is.”

I licked my lips and asked, “When? When did you meet him?”

“Twenty-one years ago,” she mumbled. “I saw you in our borders one year after. I was still bitter then. When I saw you, you smiled at me with like there was nothing wrong. You gave me hope, Ly. That’s when I stopped wandering and decided to stay home to take care of the girl who taught me how to smile again.”

I had no words to offer her. Did our parents even know about her mate? Did anyone from our pack? Rhaze was an expert at hiding away her pain behind her hazel eyes. Her lips wore smiles like the reflection of the moon over the lake. It was seen, yet not truly there.

I held her as the sky peeled of its skin from clear azure to the swirls of gold, orange and soft pink. The birds were flying south, to their homes after escaping winter in houses of their northern relatives. Sometimes the music they sang was synchronized and other times they sang as though they were the most coordinated orchestra.

Despite winter being over, a chillness settled in, which the grass brought with utmost caution. It closed its dinky flowers and hid them away.

“I wonder who the poor female would be,” Rhaze said after she wiped away her tears.

I let her go. “I pity her too. I mean, she got Ethan as her mate! But she has to go through Harper. If Alpha Violet herself says Harper is not fit to be our Alpha female, I highly doubt she would prove us otherwise.”

My sister gave me a pointed look. “Harper is already the Alpha female of our pack. She bears Ethan’s mark. Transferring the title from Alpha Violet to her is just a formality. Just as the ceremony with Ethan. He had proved himself in the Halls. The four Nobles deemed him to be the next alpha.”

“Still,” I pressed. “It’s not fair. What if Harper meets her true mate?”

Rhaze did not reply. She just looked at me once; her gaze settling on my eyes, my face, my fidgeting legs and clammy hands.

“Do you still like him?” Not a test. Not a challenge. Just a curious question.

“I don’t know,” I replied, hugged my knees. “I did not see him for the past two years.”

She hummed. “Our alpha and his female are playing a dangerous game with Moon. Let’s see where this ends.”

“Where what ends?” A familiar voice asked.

I looked up to see Cain walking towards us. Was he not supposed to be in the neighbouring pack? What was he doing here?

But the second his blue eyes met my brown ones, I smiled at him. His eyes still held the shine I so rarely saw in anybody. The spark of will, of knowledge. Cain was a wolf any alpha would want on his side not because he was an expert fighter or a great advisor, but because he had the ability to smile even while walking through hell.

His red hair much like his biological sister who sat next to me waved to the winds of his home.

“Nothing, brother,” Rhaze said. “We heard a few things about Ethan.”

The vibrancy on his face dimmed a little. It was no secret to the outside world how much thick friends Ethan and he were. Before loyalty to the pack, Cain’s would remain with Ethan.

“Like?” he tested.

Rhaze held his stare and snorted. “You will see tonight.”

“Sister...” he warned.

“Yes?” She smiled sweetly at him.

He clenched his jaws, yet he took calculated steps towards us. “What is that you hide from me?”

Rhaze smirked and said, “Can’t you guess? After all-”

“Harper is not Ethan’s true mate,” I blurted out.

Cain relaxed and sighed. “I know.”

Rhaze shot up. “What do you mean you know?”

“What reason do you think I am here for?” Cain asked, giving her a levelled look. “I know Ethan is returning. And we both know what would happen if the truth about Harper not being his true mate leaked.”

Then I saw the gleam in their eyes. Cain did not speak to her the way a brother would have. He was the beta and she the delta.

“You knew,” she breathed. “You knew.”

“Our wolves recognise each other as kin,” he replied nonchalantly.

“You would allow him to mate with someone, not his mate?”

“He loves Harper,” Cain said, his eyes flashing. “More than he loves the pack. I met her. Harper I mean. She is an iron lady. A perfect Alpha female, I would be happy to serve.”

“She is not destined for him!”

“And who is?” Cain barked at her. “A mate who never appeared?”

I stared at the brother I so highly thought of. He was a man of words, someone who held onto culture. Someone who would give his life to Moon. But now, his loyalty to Ethan was getting wild. He would follow Ethan to hell, just the way a beta would. But I knew from that defensive look that he would condemn the pack doing so.

There were two kinds of friendship. The one where the friend would warn them what is wrong and still follow them. The other where one would warn the friend and made sure their friend would not do the mistake. I hoped the one between my brother and Ethan did not claim Cain.

Rhaze bristled. “Moon gives us, shows our mate only when we are ready. Perhaps Ethan was not ready yet. Perhaps his mate could be from our pack itself.”

Cain snorted and shook his head. “Stop with the bullshit, Rhaze.”

“Bullshit for you cause you never met yours, Cain.” She shook her head. “When you meet her, then come and tell me how much this bond is bullshit.”

He folded his arms. “So you met yours?”

“I don’t say to traitors of the Luna,” she said and walked away.

Cain looked at me and then at her. I was not going to help him out in this. He was an asshole to our sister and I was not going to play the peacemaker between them. If he wanted Rhaze to talk to him, he should apologise to her.

I shrugged and looked up. Starlight winked at me pulling out the stars like unwilling children. They appeared slowly and lazily, speaking in a languid language among themselves. After a few minutes, I was able to trace the constellation I was named after.

“You’re not going to help me, are you?” he asked.

“She had a bad day today.” Was all I replied.

“Who?” he asked, walking towards me, his skin held a tan. “Who was her mate?”

His voice held an underlying threat.

“Why?”

Cain snarled lowly. “Whoever he or she is had fucked with my sister. They left her from what I perceive. Left her in pieces. I am going to hunt the mate who rejected her.”

I laughed sardonically. “What a hypocrite you are!”

He sat next to me. “What do you mean by that?”

I took in a deep breath. “You are willing to hunt your sister’s mate, just because he rejected her. What about Ethan’s true mate, our true Alpha female? What if she is your sister? Would you defend her or abandon her? She is a female too.”

Cain stiffened. “You don’t know anything about Ethan to speak like this. And I have only two sisters. One who met her mate and another who does not have a mate. Why should I bother?”

If he had slapped me, it would have ached less. I almost snarled at him. “Here I thought you had your own mind.”

“Ethan’s true mate-” he started and then his eyes glazed gold. Blinking, he smiled grimly at me. “Our alpha and his female are here. Ethan and Harper are here.”

This is the first chapter. I am so nervous and excited as this is the first book I am writing in this genre.

Do leave your thoughts about this chapter.

And the next update would be on 10/11/2018. Hopefully, I will update one chapter per week.

~Quill