Chapter 1

Everly POV

My head spun as I looked around at my surroundings, my head was pounding, and I instantly regretted drinking so much; panic courses through me when I don’t recognize my surroundings. I am in a room; the light coming in through the window was blinding as I tried to figure out where the heck I was. The last thing I remember is the annual Alpha meet-up, a costume party I attended with my family. My sister and I snuck off to meet with the other future Alphas after my father insisted I needed to get in good with, seeing as I will be the next in line and am to have the pack handed over to me at the end of the year when I turn eighteen. Yet, I have no memory of coming to this room. 

I groan, rubbing my eyes, praying I am seeing shit, and the alcohol burning in my system is still making me confused, except when I go to move, I become aware of the heavy arm draped over my waist. My head whips to the side, praying. It was my sister, and we had both passed out somewhere. My worst fears are realized, and I have to contain my scream of horror when I find a naked man lying beside me. He wasn’t just any man but Alpha Valen of the Dark Blood Pack. This man owned half the City and is from a rival pack. My father has was going to murder me. 

“Fuck!” I whisper under my breath before looking down to find myself also naked. The slight discomfort between my legs made me very aware that I tossed my virginity away and have absolutely no memory of it, so much for that supposed to be a magical moment. I don’t even remember it. He must be a shit lay; I chuckle to myself. Of all people, it had to be the notorious Alpha and my father’s biggest rival. 

My phone vibrating on the floor beside the bed has me almost diving off it to retrieve it; my sister’s face pops up on the screen. I quickly answer it, mindful to keep my voice low, whispering into the phone. “Hello” 

“Where are you? Dad is going to lose it, I told him you’re with me, but he has asked me to come home,” She shrieks through the phone. I look around before looking out the window, trying to figure out my location. Shit, I was still at the hotel where the Alpha meet was held. 

“Still at the bank’s Hotel,” I whisper, and she pauses, going quiet for a few moments. 

“Oh my god, please tell me you didn’t fuck Alpha dickwad” She whispers, knowing dad would kill me, probably dishone me if he ever found out. Alpha Valen’s reputation was scandalous and terrifying. I look over at the Greek god lying in bed beside me, ultimately passed out and unaware of me standing and gawking at him. I would love to see the horror on his face when he woke up, but he just might kill me along with my father, shit they may even conspire together to make my death exceptionally horrific. 

“No, of course not. I just fell asleep in one of the rooms here, completely alone,” I lie, hoping Ava believes me. I won’t get her caught up in my minor issue if dad asks her; she sucks a lying. She doesn’t know she can’t get in trouble because of me. 

“Stuff it, Dad asks. Tell him you stayed with Amber and me. I will have Amber pick you up on the way, be there in five,” She says, hanging up. I quickly look around, scooping my clothes up off the floor and squeezing into the tight bodycon dress. I toss the stupid-ass fairy wings in the trashcan in the bathroom. 

Looking in the mirror, I try to fix my makeup. My face is still covered in ridiculous amounts of glitter, and the eye mask that was painted on my face by my sister still concealed half my face. I chuckle to myself, knowing the Alpha will probably wake up just as confused as me and wonder why he is covered in glitter. 

I vaguely remember talking to him, finding myself drawn to him for some unknown reason, but he was paralytic, which left me wondering who took advantage of who. I give him one last glance, scoop up my heels and grab my clutch before rushing to the hotel door and swinging it open, only to crash straight into Alpha Valen’s Beta.

 I recognize him from last night’s introductions, though thankfully, he had no idea who I was as I was at the back of the room when he was introduced. I smack into his chest, and he stumbles back, staring at me. And I am thankful for the paint on my face because he may have recognized me as my father’s daughter, and that is the last thing I needed. 

He smirks at me, clearly finding it funny that I am running from the Alpha’s hotel room. 

“My Alpha in there?” he asks. I drop my head hoping he doesn’t recognize me, and quickly nod. Stepping past him, trying not to touch him. 

“Are you alright, or do you need a lift home?” He says, making me stop. 

“What, do you give all your Alpha’s one-night stands a lift home?” I chuckle at him, and he smiles. 

“Only the pretty ones,” He says, and I roll my eyes, waving him off before taking off to meet my sister. We needed to hurry home before my dad sent out a search party to run through Mountain view city to retrieve his daughters.

***********

Three weeks later

One night that is all it took to throw away everything I had ever known. I felt a little under the weather, and being a werewolf, we rarely got sick. My father was the Alpha of Shadow Moon Pack, and after spending the last week sick, he had finally brought me to see the pack doctor.

We lived in a City of werewolves, Mountainview City. The entire population was werewolves, comprising of the four packs. My father’s pack was the second-largest pack, and only having two daughters and me being the eldest, I was next in line for the Alpha position. Well, until the Doctor came back and turned that dream upside down. The look of disappointment on my father’s face made my heart clench. One night, one man, the biggest mistake of my life.  

“She is pregnant,” Doc Darnel tells my father and me as I sit on the green chair in the Doctor’s office. Doc’s words horrified me; I couldn’t be pregnant. I only had sex once, and I don’t even remember because I was trashed. How the hell could this be happening? My father looked at me from where he sat before returning his gaze back to our pack doctor. 

“It’s wrong; rerun the test. She hasn’t found her mate. She can’t be pregnant,” My father says. I shrink back in my chair. I was only seventeen, nearly eighteen, and the number one rule all she-wolves have drummed in our heads is to save ourselves for our mates. This was a huge deal, especially to my father. This would bring shame to our family, that I would break the one sacred rule for she-wolves. Sure the men fool around, it was a little biased, yet we do, especially someone like me in a position of power, that would be frowned upon. I would be a disgrace to the family. 

“Alpha, I have tested the urine sample twice,” Doc tells him, but my father shakes his head, not believing his words or not wanting to. 

“No, test it again; it is wrong. My daughter is not a rogue whore,” I cringe at his words. That’s what women are called who fall pregnant to someone that is not their mate, it is the worst thing to be labeled besides a traitor, yet both were treated the same.

 Rogue whores are forbidden on pack territories and are only allowed on neutral territory, which is the main drag of the City and the two streets behind it on either side. Our City was pretty lucky; most she-wolves in other cities that fall pregnant, are banished making them forsaken wolves. They turn feral without any pack contact and are forced to live outside the Cities sending them crazed and mad like they do with those that betray or commit treason amongst the packs. No one wants to leave the City and be on their own out there. It wasn’t safe and definitely not how anyone wanted to live. 

Our City is different. We didn’t kick women out of the City and banish them. We just made them rogues, free to go about their lives without pack help. I used to look down on those women I would see trying to make ends meet for their poor choices. Maybe this is my karma; I was soon going to be one of them.

“Yes, Alpha, I will test it again,” Doc says before rushing out of the room and away from my father’s deadly glare. My father starts pacing, and I feel my heart rate quicken when he stops turning to face me and staring at me. 

“He has to be wrong; you are not like that. You wouldn’t shame me this way,” He says, looking for confirmation. I shrink back in my chair. The Doc came back in again, stopping him from saying more. 

“The results are the same, Alpha,” Doc says before looking at me with pity. I swallowed, staring wide-eyed at the Pack doctor, hoping he could save me from my father’s wrath, but even I knew the elderly, greying man was no match for my father. Neither was I since I still hadn’t shifted. We shift on our 18th birthdays, then we can find our mates, but being pregnant would now delay that process. Our bodies won’t allow us to shift while pregnant; it is a safety mechanism to protect the unborn pup. 

My father growls, turning on his heel and glaring at me, his fists clenched by his sides as he fights the urge to shift. I had never seen him so angry at me before, his eyes flickering black in his anger. My father has always been so proud of my sister and me, always showing us off and telling everyone about what great daughters we are and what a great Alpha I would be when I took over the pack. I looked like him, and he raised me in his image, preparing me to take over. His dark hair, bluish-grey eyes, I got those traits from him, but right now, he looked on the verge of killing me as my face was mirrored in his black orbs.

“How far along is she?” My father says the venom in his words makes my blood run cold. 

“We can have a scan done next week to confirm gestation,” Doc tells him, and I look at my hands. 

“No, do it now so we can take care of it before it gets out. I won’t have a rogue whore for a daughter. This is not to get out do you understand, Doc?” The Doc nods his head nervously while I am too busy staring gobsmacked at what my father just said. It was going against the moon goddess to abort a were-baby.

“Wait!” I say, finally finding my voice. My father turns to look at me, and the Doc actually moves away from him when he feels my father’s Aura rush out of him. 

“Wait for what? You aren’t keeping this monstrosity, we can sweep it under the rug, no one has to know, and you can still take the Alpha position, we just need to take care of this poor choice, then things can go back to normal,” My father says, he made it sound so simple like this wasn’t sin against the Moon Goddess.

“No, I won’t, I can’t do that, father, please, just let me speak to mum. We can work this out,” I pleaded with him. 

“No, you will terminate the pregnancy, then we go home. Doc, get whatever it is you need. I am not leaving this office until this is taken care of,” My father says. I feel tears brimming at his words, sure I didn’t want to be pregnant, but I was not a murderer; aborting a pregnancy was worse than having a child to someone who is not your mate. Directly shunning the Moon Goddess.

“Alpha, I am afraid if your daughter isn’t willing, I can’t perform such a thing unless there is a medical reason.”

“She is willing, isn’t that right, Everly,” My father says, trying to force me to agree, but I met his gaze head-on. My mind was made up; I won’t go through with it.

 “No!” I tell him, not expecting his following reaction. My father had never hit me in all of my life, he had never raised a hand to me, and the shock of his action was more painful than the blow itself as his hand connected with the side of my face. I could feel the outline of his fingers etched into my cheek as a burning sensation spread across it from his palm. 

“Then you are no longer my daughter,” He says.