Zora once thought she was just an ordinary human orphan. That is, until her biological mother, Victoria, suddenly appeared on her eighteenth birthday and revealed the shocking truth: she was a princess, a werewolf. Victoria, the Queen of the Werewolves,...
Chapter 1 Alpha Academy
My mother abandoned me for eighteen long years. After taking me back from the orphanage I grew up in, she was in a rush to marry me off. Why you ask? Victoria wasn’t only my mother. She was the Queen of the Luna Pack—the reigning werewolf pack.
It didn’t take me long to realize, the only reason I was brought back was to serve as a replacement in a political marriage. My adopted sister was supposed to be the next Queen, but she was quite the talk of the town with her promiscuous ways. Somehow, that was an even bigger disgrace than my own problems.
I was wolfless. I was the ripe age of eighteen and had yet to see my wolf. To Victoria, that was an additional humiliation. I figured it was why she abandoned me all those years ago. Then, she got a new daughter, the perfect She-wolf. She was more of a future queen than I’d ever be.
I stared at the list in front of me. The names looked familiar. Wolfham. Lunerly. Moonraiser. The photos next to the name were of some of the most handsome men I’d ever seen. Each with striking features and shiny gold eyes.
Alphas.
I scoffed before shoving the list across the table. I slumped back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. I raised one eyebrow.
“So I’m supposed to pick one like a cut of meat?”
The woman standing in front of me, my mother, sighed. “Zora,” she sounded exhausted. “They’re all lovely men. Each the heir to their namesake. Excellent alphas. They could teach you a lot.”
I felt a scowl form across my face. My tone turned bitter. “Why don’t you let Amara chose and I’ll take her scraps,” I said. I shoved the paper in front of me further towards my mother. “I doubt any of the men will want a wolfless wife anyways.”
My mother’s face fell. The familiar guilt I’d seen made its way to her eyes. “You are first born,” She said softly. “You have the right to choose. Wolf or not.”
“First born yet you abandoned me for eighteen years,” I snapped. “Clearly, I’m not the one you care about. Your adopted daughter is. So why don’t you let her choose.”
My mother’s mouth twitched as if she were about to cry. I sharply stood up from my chair and stomped towards the door to the room. I wrenched it open and left Victoria in her office.
I felt like we’d had that same conversation a hundred times in the last six months I’d been living with Victoria and Amara. Queen Victoria. Of the Luna pack. One of the strongest and most feared werewolf packs in the world.
But I didn’t grow up knowing that. I grew up bouncing from orphanage to foster home to orphanage, thinking I was just a human girl who no one loved. The latter was true, but the former was that I was heir to the Luna throne. I only learned that the day I turned eighteen.
I stood on the street with my things in a bag, nowhere to go after being told I was too old to stay in the orphanage. As the tears began to stream down my face, she appeared.
Something told me the woman with fiery red hair and golden honey eyes had to be related to me. Her nose as the same shape as the one I saw in the mirror. When she smiled at me, the same dimple I’d come to hate mirrored itself on her face.
I dropped my bag immediately. Then she told me her name was Queen Victoria Luna. And she was my mother.
I had a million questions running through my head but the only one that escaped from my throat was a “Why?”
It’s a question Victoria has never answered. That gave me all the information I needed to know. My mother never loved me. Never wanted me. I tossed aside like old clothes. The only reason she returned to get me was to validate her lineage and to secure the place on the Luna throne.
I was a political pawn.
That and I was a political pawn without a wolf.
Victoria’s lack of love was further proved as she asked me questions about my childhood. Irritability at the full moon? No. A longing to run? No. An itchy, scratchy feeling in my bones? What the hell was she on about?
Then she told me I was supposed to be a werewolf. A being who could transform into a wolf on the flip of a dime. With super strength and hearing and all the cool occult abilities I’d read about in books. But I had none of it. I was exceptionally ordinary.
Another reason for Victoria to hate me. But that was when I learned her signature guilty look. The sadness that crept over her and melted itself onto her face.
It was burned into my skull as I left the room where Victoria threw the marriage candidates at me. I blinked a bunch of try and get it out of my head. It had slowly faded when I heard my name called and whipped around to see it again.
“Zora, please,” my mother pleaded. “You are the heir to the Luna throne. You need a mate. I’m trying to help you.”
“Help me?” I scoffed. “If you truly wanted to help me then you wouldn’t have abandoned me. You don’t want to help me. You don’t even want me here.”
“Of course I want you here,” Victoria replied, shoulders sagged. “I love you more than anyone, Zora. You are my first born.”
“If you love me then why did you leave me!” I snapped.
Victoria stood, silently. She ran her hands over her face before dropping them in a shrug.
“I was trying to protect you,” She said “You will learn—"
“I don’t want to learn,” I threw back at her. “Tell me.”
“It’s for your safety that I don’t,” she said.
She opened her mouth to speak again but I cut her off out of spite. “Is this why you haven’t introduced me yet? Have kept me hidden in this corner of the castle for the last six months? I haven’t had a chance to explore the place where I’m supposed to be from. To ‘protect’ me? If you wanted to keep me safe you would have left me alone!”
“Zora, please,” Victoria was beginning to break. “You will learn it all in time. Just know that I love you. I am your mother!”
“You’re my nothing,” I growled. “You are some random woman who is stumbled into my life six months ago and is using me for your own gain.”
Victoria paused. The hurt in her eyes was evident. I wish I cared. She swallowed thickly.
“You’re leaving tomorrow,” she said, quietly. “You will attend Lunaton Alpha Academy. If you graduate, I will tell you everything you want to know. You are free to leave.” She lowered her voice more. “If you wish.”
“I can leave?” I tipped my chin up to meet her gaze. “So, no marriage.”
Victoria grimaced. “If you wish.”
“I do,” I snapped. “And I’ll graduate your stupid Alpha Academy and I expect answers immediately. Otherwise, I’m gone.”
With that, I turned on my heel and left her glaring into my back.
It only took a week to get me enrolled in the “Alpha Academy”, whatever the hell that was. I packed what little I had back into my bags and set off in a car away from the castle. It was the first time I’d seen my country, all fading into a blur of green as I was shipped off to my next prison.
When the car rolled to a stop in front of the admissions building, I was left slack jawed. Alpha Academy looked like any other human college. It had older architecture but everything looked the same as the University I’d grown up next to. The people walking around looked like I did. No fancy clothes, no crowns. It was if I was suddenly human again.
I breathed a sigh of relief. This was easy. I could do this. I’d excelled in high school. Graduated with a four-point-oh. Did I have any friends? No. But, honestly, I didn’t need friends. I needed to fight my way through this school and come out with enough knowledge to knock Victoria off her high horse.
I stepped out of the car as the driver helped me with my bags. No one even gave me a second glance. As far as they knew, I was just another rich girl coming to learn. I wasn’t the disgraced heir of the throne. Suddenly, a weight felt like it had been lifted off my chest. I could do this. I could make it through.
I grabbed my bags and started towards the admissions hall. Just as I reached the stairs, a mass of black fur came into my peripheral. I was knocked onto the ground in a flurry of my things.
The weight that had just been lifted came back into me like a ton of bricks. Then, I started to scream as every bone in my body felt a surge of electricity course through it like blood.
Chapter 2 Wolf Basics
I’m still twitched in pain as I saw motion in the corner of my vision. Next, I’m hauled to my feet. Whoever was touching me causes the electricity to return at a much lower intensity. It’s still enough that I gasp and dig my nails into the person to keep myself steady.
A low chuckle cooled all the heat radiating across my skin. I whipped around in the person’s arms and looked into the face of a god.
The man who was holding me is tall with shiny gold eyes. It shouldn’t have surprised me as I was standing on the foot of the admissions building for an Alpha Academy. However, they were so much different in person. They truly sparkled like a full moon.
His shoulders were broad, tan and rippling with muscle. So much so that it was pulling his skin tight. He had a scar on his upper lip that curved up to his cheek bone. Below that was a single dimple, accentuated by the smirk on his face. His hair was cropped short to his head and was a deep black.
He was nothing short of gorgeous.
“Hello, darling,” he said. He had the same accent of everyone in Victoria’s castle. The one of aristocracy. “Pardon me,” he continued. “You seemed to have gotten in the way of my morning run.”
I scoffed. “Do you usually run with your dog?” I shoved back on his chest a little, causing his arms to release me. “He barreled into me at full speed!”
The man chuckled again. “That was me, darling.”
I suddenly felt out of place. I was at a werewolf academy. There were no dogs. The people were the dogs.
So much for keeping a low cover, I thought to myself. I awkwardly chuckled and rubbed the back of my neck.
“Sorry,” I said, swallowing thickly. “It was just so small – I thought it was a dog!”
The man’s eyes turned dark. His smirk deepened. “Trust me, love,” he said, deep enough to rumble through my bones. “Nothing about me is small.”
My jaw opened and closed a few times as I tried to process the blatant innuendo. Before I could speak, the man started talking again.
“You must be new.” He said. All teasing, provocative tone was gone. He was cold and hard. “Did you not have an Alpha in your pack?”
Pack? I was immediately confused. Instead, I just shook my head silently.
The man nodded. “Makes sense,” he said. “Just know that Alphas are about two to three times the size of a normal wolf. Everyone around here could barrel you over without a second thought.”
“Thanks for the advice,” I mumbled rubbing my neck again. The man’s face was set in a hard line. I could’ve sworn his lip twitched.
“You know,” he said voice barely above a whisper. “I didn’t know that they let humans into the school.”
I stilled. He’d caught me.
“I’m not a human,” I snapped back, on the defensive.
The man hummed. “Your smell says otherwise,” he turned and began to walk away. “Stay out of my way, human.” He snarled the last word like it was a slur.
I was shocked. How had this man turned on me so quickly? I immediately got angry and stood up straight. I wasn’t about to be walked all over on my first day.
“An apology would be nice,” I said firmly.
The man stopped. He turned back around and pinned me with the anger in his gold eyes. “The weak—” another snarl. “—don’t belong at alpha academy.”
He left me slack jawed staring at his back. Quickly, the man shifted into the same black wolf that had run me over and sprinted away.
For some reason, his words shocked me. I was so out of my reach. I was at a school with a bunch of supernatural beasts. Each stronger than I’d ever been. I was alone once again. I huffed and set my shoulders back. Not that being alone had ever stopped me. I grabbed my bags and marched into the Admissions Hall.
The Director gave me my schedule, course books and the key to my dormitory. I don’t think she knew I was Victoria’s daughter, but she definitely had questions. She eyed my fiery red hair multiple times and seemed to linger on my eyes, still a hazel and not yet the Alpha gold.
I walked out of the building and across campus to my dorm building. The whole time, I was on red alert for any fuzzy masses running across the lawn. Luckily, I had no more instances as I reached my room.
I pushed the ornate gold key into the lock and twisted the handle. The old wood creaked as it flipped open. The room inside was full of the same color of wood. One side had empty furniture. The other looked like pink vomited all over it.
Every bit of it was covered in frilly, girly pink. From the bedspread to the rug to the cushion on the desk chair. It was slightly disturbing.
I dragged my bags into the room and let the door shut behind me. I stared at the emptiness of my side for a while before I heaved a sigh.
“Might as well get comfortable,” I mumbled under my breath.
I threw my suitcases open and started unpacking. One was full of the stuff I’d brought from my old life. A few old tee shirts that I’d loved, some well-worn jeans and the blanket I grew up with. The blanket was a quilt that my first foster mom had made me. It was seventy different pieces of fabric, slightly fraying at the edges but it felt like home. I put the under sheets on the bed then draped the quilt on top.
The second suitcase was full of stuff from my new life. It was the few articles of royal attire that Victoria had given me over my past six months. On top of it was a note which I knew was penned in Victoria’s hand. I gingerly opened it.
Zora,
Goodluck at Alpha Academy. I know we didn’t have much time together, but I do want to state how truly proud of you I am. You have grown into a beautiful, independent woman. It is everything I could’ve wished for you.
With love,
Queen Victoria
I scoffed and chucked the letter into the back of a drawer of my desk. “With love,” I mocked as I grabbed the rest of the royal attire and threw it in a heap in the back of the closet on my side of the room.
“With love my ass,” I hissed to no one in particular.
It took me about an hour to unpack and then I was alone again. Classes didn’t start until the following morning. I threw myself onto the bed, utterly exhausted from the travel and the day.
I slowly let my body fall asleep.
The next morning, my roommate was still missing. I sighed in exhaustion. So much for getting any sort of help getting to class. I got dressed and left the sanctuary of my roommate-less dorm room for the big, open campus.
I walked across campus to my first class, Wolf Basics. I hoped it was going to answer some of the questions I had. I swallowed with anxiety as we got to the doors of what looked like a giant gym.
A bunch of wolves were shaking out of their wolf form near me. All of them were gorgeous with shiny tan skin and shiny hair and shiny gold eyes. It made me feel like an ant among giants. My brow furrowed as I watched them enter the gym and not a classroom.
I thought this was Basics? I thought to myself
Yeah, werewolf basics, Zora, my inner voice chided me. Where they teach you to fight and run and all the good stuff they want werewolves to do.
Anxiety washed over me. Here I was thinking this was going to be a class I could study for. Not war tactics for teens. I was not prepared for this one. A super tall woman with long black hair walked by us and scoffed me.
“First day?” she drawled.
“Yeah, actually,” I said back. This was good. Making friends was good!
“Good luck,” she snarled before bumping shoulders with me and pushing into the locker room for the gym.
I followed after her, sheepishly. I accepted pair of shorts, a t-shirt and trainers from one of the coaches. I slicked my hair up on my head the best I could before walking into the gym.
It was massive. There were at least twenty sparring dummies lying around, a whole bunch of weights and a red track that looked to be a half mile around. Part of me sighed in relief. I had done track in high school as an escape. I hadn’t trained since realizing I was a wolf, but I was confident I could still bang out a mile in a killer six minutes.
I scanned the gym again. My eyes lingered on the weights. A familiar set of tanned shoulders was spotting someone on the bench press. The man doing the reps was drenched in sweat as he tried to push out one last rep. The tanned man pulled it the rest of the way with an ease that scared me.
When he turned around, I couldn’t help but gasp. It was the same black-haired man who’d nearly barreled me over yesterday. His smile turned sour as he glared at me, gold eyes beaming.
“You,” he snarled.
Chapter 3 The Luna Heir
He stomped towards me and I instinctively crumbled in on myself. I kept my gaze on the man with black hair. The guy he was spotting had just stood up and was looking towards us as well. He had black hair as well and seemed to be of Eastern Asian descent.
“Yo,” he called out to the man steaming in front of me. “This the bitch, Max?”
“Excuse me?” I bristled. “I don’t even know you!”
“He knows all he needs to know,” The taller man, Max, hissed. “That you’re a weak little wolfless girl who somehow managed to swindle her way into the Academy.”
“And I know everything I need to know about you,” I threw back at him.
“You’re a big bully,” I continued. “Who, clearly, is insecure in his own place so much so that he has to put other people down.” I curved my lips into a smirk. “And not someone I’d like to spend my time giving a shit about.”
“Oh shit,” Someone whispered behind me. I looked back at the crowd that had formed around me. All of the surrounding wolves looked scared shitless. I turned back around and looked at my bully.
“So you scare everyone here?” I stood up straight. “What are you some sort of prince?”
The Max guy glared down at me. His body seemed to dwarf mine entirely. “I’m Maximus Wolfham. The heir to the Wolfham line,” he spat.
Wolfham. Wolfham. Wolfham.
Why was that name so familiar to me?
“Oh,” I said under my breath. Add it to my tally of “oh”s. This man was one of the potential suitors my mom had picked for me. He was the heir to the next greatest wolf house.
And he was looking at me like I pissed in his cheerios.
“Oh,” he mocked me. He pushed past me, banging his shoulder against mine. I felt the same shiver of electricity surge through me as it did when he ran me over yesterday.
“I meant what I said yesterday, human,” Maximus threw over his shoulder. There was that word again. “Stay out of my fucking way.”
I followed him across the gym. He stopped in a group of people and turned around to face me. His friends were chatting besides him, but he was too busy staring daggers at me. I groaned.
So much for staying under the radar, I thought.
“Quiet, quiet, quiet!” A voice boomed across the gym. A man, clearly the coach from the way he was dressed, emerged from the office besides the gym. “That’s enough chit chat. We’re timing the run today. Give me a warmup lap then Maximus and Petyr will lead the stretches.”
Without a second command, the entire group took off down the track. I followed them, lingering towards the back of the group. Petyr must’ve been the Eastern Asian man being spotted by Maximus as the two took the lead. I struggled to keep up.
My breath was catching in my throat as I looked across the track and saw Maximus and Petyr looking back at me with stone cold gazes. Great, I thought to myself. Another enemy.
Peytr was handsome as well. But he was no Maximus. Even with how rude he was to me, I couldn’t help but find him incredibly attractive.
We rounded out the warmup lap towards the end of the group then broke into lines for stretching. I wound up being the woman with long black hair whom I’d run into earlier in the day.
She made sure to remind me that she didn’t like me by almost body checking me every time we turned around.
When stretching was done, we formed a semicircle around the coach. He stood at the front, clipboard in hand. He scribbled something in pen then sighed before tucking the clipboard under his arm.
“Right, so I’m Coach Wells,” he sighed. It was if he was completely bored. “We’re doing the run today. For you first-years. It’s twenty laps around the track in under fourty-five minutes.”
Twenty laps? Ten miles? In under fourty-five minutes???
I felt my stomach bile rise up to my throat.
I ran in high school.
I was a decent short distance runner. The mile was my bread and butter. I’d never run more than five miles let alone ten. I looked around to see if anyone else looked panicked. No one seemed phased. I turned back to Coach. He caught my eye and saw the panic on my face.
“Now, if you don’t get twenty,” he said. “Ya won’t get kicked out. But you will have to take supplementary training until you can pass. The ideal is twenty but if you can get fifteen, you won’t have to do supplementary training. Shoot for twenty. Be fine with above fifteen. Got it?”
Everyone around me nodded. Fifteen. I could do fifteen laps. That was seven and a half miles. Only two and a half more than my max. Entirely achievable.
Coach had everyone line up on the track. It was wide enough that we were in lines of three. In front of me was a woman with white-blonde hair and shiny purple eyes. In front of her was a woman I hadn’t met yet. The blonde-haired woman slowly turned around and gave me a half smile before whispering a good luck under her breath. With that, Coach’s whistle went off and we were off.
Everyone in front of me took off at breakneck pace. I stuttered to start, shocked by the fact that someone had actually been nice to me. I tried to keep up but felt my lungs straining so I returned to the same rhythm I’d learned in high school.
Right, left, right, left.
It was easy falling back into the mechanics of running. It had been my escape in high school. In track, there was no orphans or parentless kids. It was you and the red track. You were measured by how fast you could go. And I could go fast.
I was peeling around my tenth lap as coach yelled ten minutes left. I pushed my legs harder. Five laps in ten minutes. It wasn’t undoable. I felt my legs beginning to die as I went harder and harder. I hit the corner of my fourteenth lap and broke into a sprint. I had no clue how much time was left but I knew I had to prove myself.
I flew by the crowd of finished wolves, pumping my arms and legs harder. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I repeated my mantra.
Prove it. Prove it. Prove to them you are worthy of being here!
I crossed the midway point of the lap when my soul was crushed. Coach’s whistle blew across the track and burned into my ears.
“Time up!” he shouted. “Smith!” he called my human last name and I stopped, keeled over, choking on my lungs. “You’re in supplementary!”
I walked back across the track and stood next to the woman with the white-blonde hair. She gave me a small, sad smile.
“That was really impressive,” she said quietly. “Normally wolfless don’t make it past ten laps.”
“Thanks,” I choked out. “Did anyone else miss it?”
She bit her lip and it immediately answered my question. Great. I groaned and slumped down to the ground.
A foot kicked at my heel and swiped it out from under me, causing me to topple over. I glared up at my assailant. It was, of course, Maximus.
“Only one this year to not finish the run,” he taunted. “And she’s wolfless. You can’t tell me it isn’t because of that.”
I pushed myself up and stood with my chest proud. “I’m wolfless but I still was close enough to almost beat your stupid run.”
“Almost,” Maximus repeated me with a smug smirk. “As in didn’t.” He chuckled and turned away from me.
“God,” I hissed. “I hate him.”
“He certainly doesn’t like you,” The blonde girl mused.
I groaned and ran a hand over my face. “Thanks,” I said. Maybe it’s because he knows you’re the Luna heir? The tiny voice in the back of my head said.
