Alpha’s Second Choice

‘This aura’, Lucy quizzically guessed as she stopped in the tracks and sniffed the air. ‘It feels different and so powerful’.

‘Lucy, keep running! We don’t have time to spare’, Jo redirected her attention as she quickly apologised.

Soon after Dante was taken away to the trial, Jo had recollected herself and gathered the girls. While there was a ruckus going in the trial ground, they ran to the east side of the pack. Stopping at nothing.

The patrolling was heavily reduced to only two warriors at the post due to the ongoing trial. So, setting her plan in place, she made Lucy go and talk to the two warriors.

‘What do you want?’, one of them asked as Lucy approached.

‘Um, I am a bit lost’.

‘Lost?’, They snickered.

‘Lucy, we attended the same class in high school. You used to get full scores in everything including the forest hunts’, one of them spoke and then Lucy realised that the two warriors were her former classmates from high school. If she was not mistaken, the brown-haired guy was Mason and the maroon haired taller one was Taz. She was shocked that they knew she existed back then, let alone know that she was good with directions and hunt.

As far as her memories went, everyone ignored her and was used to feeling invisible. But ever since Alpha Jayden made a scene about her being his mate, rumours spread like wildfire in the pack. Though the treatments did not get any better, everyone avoided her gaze as if they feared her for some reason. Mates were sacred in their world after all.

‘Ugh- yes. Actually…. Alpha Jayden advised me to meet him somewhere near the east region. He told me he will be here soon after the trial finishes. Don’t tell anyone but he is planning to take me as his mate soon’, Lucy lied with a straight face, wishing the two warriors would buy the bogus story.

The two warriors whispered amongst themselves.

‘That’s not what it looked like last time. He clearly despised you and why wouldn’t he? You have always known to be cursed’, Taz passed his nasty comment to her.

She steadied her breathing, ‘Fine then, mock me more. But the day I become the Luna, remember that I tried warning you’. She coolly crossed her arms as she pretended to wait for Jayden.

The two warriors discussed again, judging by Lucy’s unusually overflowing confidence, they assumed they could take their chances and trust her on this. If she really was telling the truth, they were in for trouble and would do anything to keep away from their brutal Alpha’s wrath.

‘Fine’, they relented. ‘If you cross this post, you will reach the east region. But don’t go too far. And if you see a stream, DO NOT CROSS IT. Just hang somewhere around there and the Alpha should find you easily’, Taz added.

‘Thank you. I will speak to my mate and make sure you both are highly rewarded’, Lucy bowed like she was already their Luna.

Once Lucy had the confirmation about the east region, she gave a nod to Jo who was hiding behind a huge oak tree with the two fairies. She saw them walking forward.

Changing the plans, a little, she tried engaging with warriors again. She wanted to be sure that her friends were not seen until they had completely crossed the guarding posts at least. Just then they heard a small yelp of pain, Lucy shot her head to see that Mina had fallen. But it was too late, the guards were already alerted and looking around.

She had to think quick.

‘Oof, my horrible life’, she cried very VERY loudly, bringing the palm of her hands to her forehead dramatically.

‘What’s wrong?’, Mason asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

‘Ever since I have found out Alpha Jayden was my mate; the nights have been so long. When I try to close my eyes, I think about him. When I open my eyes, I see him’, she narrated at a slow pace while continually throwing glances at the girls crossing the post from a safe distance.

The two warriors were fully concentrated on her as she continued the charade. ‘And the day comes. It would make one think the loneliness gets getter during daytime, being busy and all. But the loneliness stays the same. Even while doing a small chore, l think about him and feel lonely’.

‘And the dark night comes again’, Taz yawned discreetly as Lucy went on and on.

‘And the night comes again’, she began again.

‘We get it. You are lonely every day and night. I think you should hurry and go to the east region. You said Alpha Jayden wanted to see you there after the trials’, Mason finally broke her vicious sad story.

Jo signalled from the other side of the post giving her the signal that they have crossed.

‘Okay then boys, you carry on guarding the posts’, she quickly stride past them as the two warriors finally got their peace back.

*

‘Don’t even say a word. Or even breath’, Lucy held her hand in the air before her giggling friends. She felt grossed out even thinking about being mated to someone like Jayden.

Jo imitated zipping her mouth with her hands and shushed the two fairies as well.

They continued waking towards the east region when the sound of stream flowing finally surrounded the serene forest area.

‘We are here!’, Daya jumped in joy.

‘Not yet, Daya. We still have to follow this stream all the way down. It could take couple of days’, Jo broke the little fairy’s spirits.

‘But we will take a few breaks in between to regain our energy reservoir. So don’t worry’.

*Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

The next day- Back in Dark Slayer Pack

The elderlies were setting up a date for Alpha Jayden’s trial. The whole pack was under investigation, Dante had already told the elderlies what he wanted done. No more annual hunts. Plain and simple.

Tradition or not, it did not matter.

‘Boss’, Caleb called. It was his nickname for Dante right from childhood.

‘Why can I sense bad news from you?’, Dante replied as he massaged his forehead. He was back in his guest room, away from all the chaos.

‘You were right. The two demons that were captured by the Crystal Lake Pack were Aamon class of demons. And they seem to have… escaped’, his friend finished.

Sh. it. That was bad.

‘They are probably heading to the no-man’s border to get back into the demon’s realm. We need to catch them before they step into their land’.

‘Yes boss’.

Within the next few moments, Dante and Caleb were already running towards the no-man’s border. Because Crystal Lake was located near the entrance of the no-man’s border, they were heading east. The two demons wouldn’t be too far off or at least they hoped.

Even though Theo was not content with what his human counterpart had done earlier, as the king Alpha, they still had to catch the culprits, so he agreed to shifting.

For a king, duty always came first, feelings second.

*

It had been a day already since they were following the stream downwards. They had taken a couple of breaks to let the fairies catch up. Lucy was the only one hardly breaking any sweat as werewolves were known to have high strength endurance. And she had beta’s blood to add on top of that.

Jo tried hard not to show her exhaustion, but it was futile, the constant walk was too much on her body. So, she started lightening the mask on her true scent. That eased off a little bit of pressure on her energy reservoir. She also hadn’t scented Lucy since yesterday since they were no longer in the Dark Slayer pack and no longer had to play pretend mates with Alpha Jayden.

A sharp cry grabbed her attention as she looked up to find a tall man with dark shadows holding Mina by her legs.

She knew those dark clouds oh so, familiarly.

‘Temptes, arca-cia’, she murmured as a protective dome formed around a stunned Lucy and Daya.

‘Impressive’, the dark man remarked dropping Mina as he fully observed Jo now. He was communicating with someone via telepath and Jo knew that, only because this was not the first time she had seen their kind doing it. She knew they were demons and not just any class. They were the infamous Aamon class of demons, the smartest class in their realm.

Soon, another dark shadow appeared as a similar tall dark man stood near the first one.

‘We can see you are hiding your scent, unmask it now’, one of them spoke as she noticed that they were trying to corner her now.

Jo quickly mumbled a few spells as a dome formed around Mina as well.

‘You want me? Come get me’, with that she ran further done the river stream hoping for them to follow her. She knew how to use lots of tricks and knew she could shake them off easily. But not around Lucy and the two fairies. It was too risky with them around.

She looked back to see that the two clouds were no where to be seen. Keeping her guards still high, she continued easing her masked scent to gain more energy reservoir. It was risky but she needed the energy to shake off the cunning demons.

Focusing too much on the chase, she did not see a huge pit hole as she jumped just in time over it, but soon lost her footing and fell down.

As she pushed her body up with her two hands, she was already surrounded by the two dark clouds again.

‘Unmask your true scent now before we kill you’, one of them warned her again.

‘Go to hell’, she spitefully said.

‘We are from hell’, they laughed.

Just then, they were stopped by a pristine clear howl advancing closer and closer to where they were.

‘We don’t have much time. Those puppies will probably wanna play ball again’, as soon as those words left one of the Aamon’s mouth, Dante appeared behind him.

‘You are right, But I want to play ball only with your head’, he whispered instantly snapping his head. Dark clouds evaporated into the air as the demon fell to the ground. He was now whiter than snow and almost looked like a blank canvas.

The other Aamon demon quickly grabbed Jo while Dante was occupied and tried teleporting with his dark clouds. But Dante grabbed the Demon’s leg with his sand lash making him fall, face first.

The demon grunted in pain as he started crawling on the ground now.

The Alpha king placed his feet on his body stopping him from crawling any further, ‘Speak. Who sent you?’. Dante summoned a dragger made of ice and levitated in the air pointing the dragger towards the demon.

The demon in question menacingly laughed. ‘Here’s a riddle for you. The darkness seeks a maiden. And a maiden shall he have’.

Before Dante could ask any further, the demon consumed his own dark clouds instantly choking. He watched as the demon suffocated slowly and died beneath his feet.

‘A riddle? Darkness? Maiden?”, so many questions raised within his mind when he caught the scent of his mate again. It was growing stronger and stronger, driving Theo insane. There was no denying that Jolene really was his true, fated mate.

He turned around and found Jo looking at him straight in the eye. Her vibrant red hair being blown away from her face by the wind.

‘I accept your rejection’ was all she said, and his world had never turned so dark.