Alpha's Wolfless Mate

Maya's POV

I woke up in a body that wasn't mine. It was a traitor that bound me up in sheets drenched with my own sweat. The heat cycle had returned, as it always had. It was a monthly reminder that I was wolfless.

I was the first daughter of Alpha Theron of the Grimridge Pack, and I was an embarrassment to his legacy.

I doubled over, my palms against my closed lids, attempting to shut out the empty, thumping want that sliced through my veins. "Goddamn you," I murmured to no one, "Goddamn your body, goddamn your life."

But the ache didn't listen. It never did.

The mirror in my cramped room reflected a stranger. I looked fragile. The pack saw me as less. I was unwanted, unworthy of being in the pack.

I forced myself to move. It was a gauntlet getting to the academy. Mist from Vareth Ridge prickled my skin. My boots crunched on gravel.

I had been alone, always alone, after Finn disappeared. My best friend. He's been gone since my first heat years ago. I never learned why he leapt. Maybe ran away or was exiled. No one told the wolfless anything. But the hole he'd carved still bled.

The stone walls of the academy seemed prisonlike. I made it through the entrance, head bowed, clutching my books like a shield in front of me. My skin prickled. The heat in my blood burned under their scrutiny. Whisperers followed me, but I didn't stop down the hall.

"Smell that?" Stacy's voice cracked through the air like a whip. She positioned herself in my way, taking up the whole hallway with her lanky body.

She was the golden girl of the pack. She was everything I wasn't...

"Wolfless Maya, stinking up the joint with her desperation."

I tried to sidestep her. "Let me pass," I muttered.

"Let you pass?" Stacy's laugh was sharp. She kicked my locker door closed with a sound that echoed in my ears. "You think you get to slink off and I let you pass, freak? You're a disgrace to Grimridge."

Before I had a chance to react, she grabbed the water bottle of a sneering wolf standing nearby and poured it over my head. Icy water slapped me like a punch, sucking my breath from me, soaking my clothes and flattening them against my skin.

The laughter engulfed me where I stood. My copper-red hair plastered itself to my face, stinging wet, and the heat in my veins grew hotter. And yet, though it was freezing, my pheromones spiked.

They all could smell it...my shame.

"Look at her! Dripping wet, and still smelling like a bitch in heat." Stacy crowed, closing the distance. "You're pathetic, Maya."

She snatched my books from my shaking hands and tossed them to the floor. The crowd howled, several wolves stomping to the ground, and some others comically pretending to be me with overly exaggerated sniffs and crude motions.

I staggered back. "Stop," I whispered, but my voice caught.

The heat was a traitor, flaring through me, shivering along my body with a yearning I couldn't mask. I wanted to run away, but my legs wanted to collapse.

"Stop it?" Stacy taunted, stalking me like I was her prey, "Why should I? You're nothing, Maya. A nobody without a wolf, who can't even change. You think you're Grimridge? You're not even a wolf."

She was in my face, I felt her hot breath, "Nobody wants you in here. Not your pack, not your family. Even Finn did not stay, did he? Ran off the second you turned into this... mess."

"Shut up," I choked.

Stacy giggled again, taking a clump of my wet, numb hair and tugging my head back. "Oh, look, she's crying!" she sneered as she turned to the wolves. "Poor little Maya never stops whining. Perhaps if you weren't such a disappointment, your daddy might not hate you."

She pushed me, and I fell into the lockers. The crowd roared, some in the audience chanting "Wolfless! Wolfless!" as Stacy towered over me.

"You should just vanish," she spat, kicking my books off the ground. "Crawl into a hole and don't let us smell you. Or better yet, throw yourself into the Varn River. Perhaps it will wash your shame away."

From a wolf beside her, she yanked a marker and, before I could do a thing, scribbled "FREAK" big and bold across my dripping sweater in thick black letters.

I slumped to the floor, leaning against the lockers. My body was shaking with cold and heat... and shame.

Stacy squatted down in front of me, "You're not even worth the dirt on my boots," she spat.

"Enough!" a voice boomed down the corridor.

Alpha Theron loomed in the entrance. The wolves dissolved every which way like leaves in a tempest...even Stacy. My heart leapt. Thought my father was here to protect me. Maybe, just this once...

"Maya," he snarled, "You stand here dripping, reeking, shaming my bloodline? A shame you are on my name."

The hope turned to dust; there was nothing left but pain. "I never asked for this," I choked, the water falling from my hair, mingling with the tears that I squelched. "I'm trying..."

"Trying?" He moved closer so he was towering above me, "Your sister's too young for that, so you will take her place."

He took a black envelope from his coat. My stomach twisted.

"The Werewolf Pairing Gala. You've been invited. You will attend."

"No," I cried, panic closing around my throat.

The Gala was a circus, a pack of unclaimed wolves, where Alphas decided who would be their mate beneath the full moon. I couldn't go...not without my wolf, not in heat...not as me.

"Father, please, I can't..."

"You will," he growled, flinging the card at my feet. It landed with a soft thud.

"This is from the Lycan Leader himself. Decline, and you will shame Grimridge. Do you understand? We leave at dawn." He stared his eyes into mine before he turned away.

I stared at the envelope. Father's words echoed in my brain: a shame on my name.

I wanted to shout, to run, but there was nowhere to flee.

Alarmed, I immediately ran back home. It was a shattered room where I could allow my thoughts to roam.

"What am I supposed to do? If I walk into a room of Alphas, smelling like this..." I muttered to myself, "They'll tear me apart."

I collapsed to the ground and hugged my knees.

A sharp knock startled me. I jumped back as the door creaked open, "Well, well," Veyra...stepmother purred, "What a pathetic sight you make, Maya.

I swallowed, "I...what do you want?"

Veyra chuckled, leaning in closer, "You were born a curse, girl. Lucky for your mother to die the moment you entered this world. Saved her the humiliation of... of looking at... this."

"Please..." I choked.

Veyra sneered, "Your mum would have wept to see you, but thank the stars for the fact that she's dead. Imagine what her spirit feels seeing her daughter as the pack's laughingstock."

Tears burned my eyes.

"Can you ask Father not to send..."

"It is finally time for you to serve this family," she interrupted, "The Lycan Leader himself sent the invitation. You refuse, and I will have you dragged to the Ashskull Wastes myself."

She smirked cruelly and whispered, meeting my face, "You know what happens to creatures like you there, don't you? Sold to slavers, hunted for sport, thrown to beasts...or worse. They'd tear you apart, and no one would care. Is that what you want?"

I looked back at her. "Father would never allow it..." My voice trailed off.

She laughed too low for me to hear, "You have no idea of the things your father would allow. If you are here now, breathing, it's because I've been keeping you safe."

"Veyra, the wolves..."

"Mother!" She held my hair tight in her hand and made me face her, "Where are your manners gone?"

She released me, causing my head to hit the wall.

"You will attend the Gala," she straightened herself, "Or the Wastes will be your new home."

She spun, her dress ruffled against the floor, and halted at the door. "Go clean yourself up, Maya. I don't want any mistakes."