Chapter Two

Guinevere

Tha-dump. Tha-dump. Tha-dump.

As soon as I entered the packhorse, my heartbeat accelerated, beating loud enough for every nearby wolf to hear it, alerting them of my anxiety, of the fact that I didn’t belong. The fact that there was a traitor in their midst. Well, not a traitor exactly, but the daughter of one.

That title is the exact reason I’m here, though. I’m here to plead my case with the new Alpha. I’m here to request that he sever my ties with the pack and allow me to join a different pack or any other pack. A place where I’ll actually belong. A place where my parents’ history won’t tarnish my reputation. A place where I can be me, Guinevere McKay. Not me, Guinevere McKay, daughter of Gregory McKay, Pack Traitor.

In a different reality, my life would’ve meant something here in this pack. I would’ve been the daughter of the Pack Beta, a highly revered member of the pack. I would’ve grown up right here in the pack house, alongside the Alpha’s son, but the Moon Goddess had other ideas up her sleeve. For some maddening reason, she gave my mother two mates, not two ordinary wolf mates, but two powerful mates. A Beta Wolf and an Alpha Wolf, my father, and Alpha Sam.

Upon learning that my mother was both of their fated mates, Alpha Sam asked my father to step aside. The pack would never acknowledge a group pairing, and Sam couldn’t reject my mother without his wolf losing strength. It was the only logical explanation, except my father wasn’t willing to reject my mother. He’d had a crush on her since childhood. She was the daughter of the neighboring pack gamma, and he’d seen her multiple times throughout their childhood at pack gatherings. From the first time he spotted her, he knew he couldn’t live without her and had secretly hoped she’d be his mate. When he found out she was his, that was it for him. The Goddess had answered all of his prayers.

When his best friend asked him to reject his mate, my father lost control of his wolf, Raphael. Male wolves are known to be extremely possessive of their mates, their female counterpart’s scent alone sets them on edge, and when Sam requested that my father give up my mother, his wolf saw it as an insult and, in turn, challenged the Alpha.

Alpha Sam’s wolf, Robert, was much larger than Raphael. Raphael stood no chance against an Alpha wolf, yet he fought for hours, unwilling to give up on the one he loved most. By the time the fight ended, the sun had started to break through the night sky, and Raphael was mere seconds away from losing his life. Robert should’ve gone in for the kill, ending the traitor's life, but Sam and my father had been best friends, and he couldn’t bring himself to end his friend’s life.

My mom witnessed the ending of the fight, and when she heard the gathers talking about the reasoning behind it, that the Alpha had demanded his friend reject his mate, she knew that Alpha Sam wasn’t the man for her. He tried to take her choice from her. He saw her as a possession he could keep, and she refused to live that way. As my father was being carted away to the pack hospital, my mom made her way to the Alpha and rejected him in front of the entire pack.

The Alpha refused to acknowledge my mother’s rejection; he claimed she was angered by the fight and wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Every night, for an entire month, my mother voiced her rejection to the Alpha while my father was recovering in the intensive care unit. It wasn’t until the last day of my father’s stay that he finally accepted her rejection. Upon my father’s release from the hospital, the Alpha named him a Traitor, stripping him of his title and properties and banishing him to the outskirts of the pack. That night, while my father and mother were moving into their hovel…er humble abode on the edge of the first, the Alpha held a party for his new Luna, the daughter of an Alpha, from a small pack off the eastern shores. A few months later, Luna Maria announced her pregnancy, giving the pack a new reason to celebrate. While some members were still hesitant about the leadership capabilities of the new Alpha, they were happy that the pack’s future was secure.

With each passing year, the Alpha proved himself to be an excellent leader, and the pack began to accept him, but they never forgave my father, his label sticking with him and eventually attaching itself to his daughter, me, as well, which is why I needed this fresh start. There was too much history in this pack.

The further into the pack house I journeyed, the more restless my wolf, Sabrina, became. The most intoxicating scent seemed to coat the halls of the mansion, a smell similar to a damp forest after a warm summer rain. I felt this incessant need to cloak myself in the scent and figured it was because Guinevere was begging to go for her first run.

‘Soon.’ I linked my wolf, silently promising her a chance to try out her new legs, ‘Dad promised he’d help us with our first shift during the full moon this weekend. He said the properties of the full moon would help ease the transition.’

I was nervous about my first shift, as I’d read that it could be painful, but I was also excited to see Sabrina outside my mind. From her voice alone, I knew she would be mesmerizing.

‘Can’t way.’ Sabrina hummed as I took out my phone and looked at the text I’d received from Beta Alex last night.

“The Alpha will meet with you at noon in the pack house. The meeting will take place in his office on the second floor of the pack house. It’s the fifth room to the left. Don’t be late.”

Inhaling deeply, I head upstairs, quickening my pace, noting from the time on my phone that I only had a few minutes to spare.

“Today’s the day my life changes,” I whisper quietly to myself, “Today is the day that I’ll no longer be referred to as the traitor’s daughter.”

“Oh, hello there.” A sweet voice calls out, pulling me from my calming mantra, “You must be Guinevere Mckay.”

Looking up, I take in the appearance of the sweet secretary. Her smile doesn’t quite meet her eyes, but that doesn’t surprise me. I’m used to it. It’s how everyone looks at me.

“Yep, that’s me,” I reply, offering a genuine smile in return.

“Great, you’ll meet with the Alpha just through those doors” She nods, pointing to the closed doors just down the hall, ”He should be here shortly with his council. Feel free to take a seat at the end of the table.”

“Thanks,” I mumble, walking toward the closed door, and noting that the woodsy scent from earlier has intensified, making me wonder if there’s a window open somewhere on this floor.

With each step toward the Alpha’s office, my heartbeat quickens its pace, and I feel my stomach churning; I want to blame it on nerves, but deep down, I know it’s something else, something life-changing.

The what doesn’t occur to me, until Sabrina shouts a word I was hoping never to hear.

‘MATE!’