Chapter 1

PREPARATION DAY

The camp is in turmoil. The wolves have ordered us to make a feast, clean the rooms, and I quote "build an enormous bonfire or larger" because it can't be smaller than the one we had just two days ago. D*** ing entitled brats. Of course, I don't curse outwards, just in my mind, I don't want to be dragged to the edge of the compound just to be ripped to shreds. But seriously though how often can these people mate? Don't they ever get tired of rutting?! They're like little animals. It's a wonder they don't have a litter of children like their wild counterparts.

I dump the stack of sticks at the feet of the mounting pile, for the others to build with. Thank goodness that wasn't on my to-do list today, because it was a real pain in the ass. My back is sore from all the bending, but who can I complain to? I've got an entire day of chores to complete before retiring to the safety of my cot and thank their moon, they don't want us around during their sacrilegious mating ceremony.

The sound of shouting grabs my attention as I hurry back to the kitchen, a crowd of wolves and slaves grabbing my attention. Curious, I pause at the door, lifting my eyes to see what the commotion was about.

A werewolf stands spuing venom at a cowering human while the others just stand affronted, unable to do much about her situation. Others from the kitchen join me at the door as well, the she-wolf's voice mounting higher and higher drawing more attention towards herself.

"You're a little thief!"

"But I didn't....." The humans words are paused in their place, as she nurses her cheek from the she wolf's slap.

"And what makes it worst, you show no respect you little vermin. Do you not know who I am?"

The others behind me mumble about her, but still no one moves to defend the slave. I can't either. We have no status here, and attempting to do so would only worsen your chances of survival.

Werewolves were fickle creatures. At times they were human, though lacking the same compassion for their pack members towards us. Then at other times they were more animalistic. Especially in their mating season.

"Do you not?!" She screams at her once more before taking a fist full of her hair and pushed her into the ground.

I can't hear what the poor girl is saying, but if the huddled masses of weeping humans and the cheers of she wolves were anything to go by, it wasn't good.

"I'm going to be the Gamma's official mate. You hear that!"

I move away unable to take much more when her friends begin to kick her all over her body. Things like this happened almost everyday. With no one to defend us, wolves took advantage of us. Some were beaten within an inch of death, others sold, raped. It was horrible living in a werewolf colony and only the fittest of the fit survive.

A rush of feet and all the other girls scrambled back to their assigned chores, pretneding as if they'd been busy the entire time. I placed the last pot down, stooping to gather the mops and bucket to clean the Alpha's house when a male wolf walks in.

"Line up! "

A chill creeps down my spine at his voice. It was Beta Channing and everyone despised the little whore he was. Human or wolf, he f***ed everything that wore a skirt and was substantially abusive too.

He walks around us, eyes roaming, perverted in his gaze, yet intimidating in his office. Next to the Apha, he was most feared, since whatever he said automatically became law in his absence.

"Grayson isn't much for fanfares" A dark voice booms before a head full of locks and dark eyes penetrate the room, followed by the tall lean body of the Alpha. Everyone trembled around me, knowing that some destruction followed his presence and neither of us was prepared to die.

"No. But the missy is, " Beta Channing answers stopping before a redhead whose legs give out pooling her to the floor. "I shouldn't invite you out anymore, you always make the little minxs terrified. "

Alpha Blaze scrubs his heavily stumbled chin glancing around the kitchen, lifting pots, and inspecting the interior of plates for only heaven knows what. The kitchen inspector would have our heads if her reflection didn't glow as bright as the moon in everything. Not to mention how she threatens us every day of embarrassing her before the Alpha or any other wolf for that matter.

"Like I said. I shouldn't even be here, " he turns towards us, terrified and pliant to him even to our deaths, a bored expression on his face. "Tonight is the mating ceremony for a loyal wolf of mine. I expect nothing besides your blood and sweat. Your best will not be good enough. If anyone complains about anything tonight I'll kill you all myself. "

He turns away without a backward glance heading for the door.

"Leave the girl and come Channing. You made her piss herself, it's disgusting. "

When the door shuts leaving us with peace and his threat looming above our heads, cries break out in the same wave as murmurs.

"That bitch. Surely someone will die tonight. "

"Yes, did you see what she did to Jessica? Poor girl. "

"Didn't she use to help her in the house?"

"Yes. Just goes to show, wolves can't be trusted. That Beta had her thrown into the dungeon. No one will believe that she didn't steal anything. "

"And she's one to talk about being the Gamma's female. Half the wolves in the colony has laid with her. "

"We better stop before someone hears us. "

"We're never going to have everything completed on time and get the bonfire started. "

"Have you seen her ridiculous requests? Fur for all the quests. "

"Moonshine from Jack's barrels. "

"Roasted beef, rotisserie chicken and lamb chops. "

Black smoke springs from the oven filling the kitchen and I watch as two girls grabbed mittens, opening the large door and saturating the overcrowded interior with smoke.

Everyone coughs, my eyes and throat burning as we clamored for clean air to fill our lungs. Then finally someone pries open a window, diffusing the smoke out.

"We're f***ed!" One of the girl's cry dropping herself to the ground.

"How long was it in there?" Another asks.

"Does it really matter? She shouldn't have left it unattended. "

"Anyone could've timed it as well. We're all working here. " The girl cries still weeping.

"If you have time to complain, you're not doing enough work. " A woman chastises from behind us suddenly.

If she sees the burnt meat she doesn't comment, her face set in that permanent scowl of hers as she glares at each of us.

"Who's on cleaning duty today?"

"That would be me, " I speak up.

"The Alpha wants you to clean his office asap. Get moving! " She snaps when I don't move immediately.

The bucket clanks against my feet as I hurry towards the large black house, ignoring the upturned noses of she wolves and their teasing about being smelly and dirty. I've been in the woods all morning and toiling in the sun. How clean did they expect me to smell?

"Hello?" I call before heading inside.

The house was bathed in shadows, a few wall lamps lit here and there but that was it. I got to work, deciding to clean from the entry way then to his office, and lastly everywhere else.

Night had already descended by the time I was finished dusting and wiping the floor. The pepper lights that's strung outside leading towards the large bonfire blinking beautifully in the night. For a brief moment, I treasure the sound of crickets and the hooting of howl, and not a moment too late when they were replaced by the beating of drums. The mating ceremony had begun, an open invitation to all unmated males and she-wolves to join the celebration that would then last for two whole nights and day.

All that meant for us was more work. They are like mutts, rutted like rabbits and during that time no one was safe. A minor offense made you a participant of their drag hunt during the day. The pumping of testosterone and estrogen or heat as they called it seemed to force every unmated wolf in an urge to just f*** the night away. Most times it ends in orgys, with females who find themselves pregnant over the next few months clueless as to the father.

The door to Alpha Blaze's office swings open without much resistance and I find it odd, since I always had to use the key whenever I cleaned. The room is dark and I squint doing my best to decipher anything out of place. Contented, I move back to grab the bucket and mop pulling them inside.

"Mhm"

I pause glancing around, now confused as to the sound when it comes again.

"Mhm, oh....ohhhhh"

My eyes widen in shock, pursing my lips as it dawns on me about what I've walked in on.

"Blaze, oh Blaze, please" she groans.

I take a step back, then another stumbling into the bucket and I grapple in the dark for the knob to the door to escape in the night.

"Who's there?" Alpha Blaze calls but I don't answer, pulling the door open, stumbling into the hall way and hurry away.

That bitch!

It didn't take night vision to know it was that same ignorant she wolf from this afternoon that was holed up with the Alpha.

And f**king at that.

My timid steps spins me down a stair and smack right into the concrete making of flesh and bone.

Goodness it was another of those wolves again.

"What are you doing here?"

My body immediately went immobile, stomach falling to the floor.

I knew that voice. Okay, not know it, like I do my way back to the barracks but I've heard it before. The husky baritone that belongs to a male that has already experienced puberty, yet held the command of a rank that could make you piss your pants- or whatever.

"Did you not hear my question?!" There's a hint of annoyance there, blended with impatience and I find myself smiling like an idiot.

Backpedalling from his frame I placed distance between us. Both for my rationality and the fact that the last thing I needed was a rumor about me and a highclass wolf.

"I.. I"

"Why are you wet?"

"Um...the bucket. I tripped. "

He folds his hands that's ripped with veins across the broad expanse of chest that seems to go on for ages, looking unimpressed with my answer.

If I wasn't mistaken, this was Gamma Grayson. The long unkempt midnight black hair, atop his head wet from either perspiration or a recent bath. Grayson stares at me for a prolonged period of time in silence. One that eats away at my sanity because I can't just excuse myself from his presence. I busy myself with staring at his wrinkled shirt and stained pants, wondering why he's not dressed for the occasion.

"Have you seen Blaze or a shewolf around?"

Divine guidance.

Of all the things to query.

"Um, no. "

"You haven't seen either of them?"

His voice accuses me that he knows of my fib, but if I admit to it, then he'll ask where they are, maybe what I've seen, know. I couldn't risk it.

"No, " my eyes stay buried into the ground afraid he'll see right through me.

I've heard tales of his uncanny ways of being able to figure out a lie by his enemies, facing him head-on feels like a suicide mission.

"I don't believe you. "

"What?!"

Silver eyes crash against mine, dropping me into a glacier. His gaze hard, cold and calculating. I've been around wolves everyday for the last ten years, but none had made me feel as terrified as he did within this moment.

"I said, I don't believe you, " Grayso takes a step forward followed by my retreat. "And you will tell me what you know. "

"I don't know. "

"What don't you know little human?"

Another forward, another backward until he's got me backed against a wall, the giant towering above me. A tsunami to a boat that was about to go splinter.

"What you're talking about?" I say hesitantly.

"You don't look at me. "

I bristled beneath him. "I don't like you. "

Something akin to laughter falls from his mouth taking both of us by surprise. His silver eyes dialate yet contract so quickly I could almost chalk it up to my imagination, if I hadn't been this close. Yet his expression regains that stony anger that lives there, his aura darkening further.

"Oh my goodness what the hell is that smell?!"

Thank the goddess!

"Grayson! Love what are you doing here?" The cheating she wolf wraps her claws around his arm, pulling him away from me.

"Your perfume is heavy. "

I swear nothing misses this man but peew, her perfume was annoyingly high. A vain attempt to cover up her evidence.

"Oh, it was a gift from one of the girls, " she leans in, giving him a peck on the cheek that sends bile to the back of my throat, imaging what she could've done with that mouth just moments prior. "Don't you like it?"

"It's fine. "

No he doesn't.

She shoots me a venomous look before turning up her nose.

"Eww. You're the nasty smell that suffocating the room?! You are aware this is the Pack house right?"

I roll my eyes.

"What did you want with a filthy thing like that?" His mate asks still clinging to him like a frog to a tree.

"I'm trying to find Blaze, have you seen him?"

"Oh, " the she wolf goes quiet then. "He was going to his office last I saw him. We should go to the bonfire. Everyone's waiting for us. "

Grayson releases her grip on his hands stepping around her.

"Go, enjoy yourself. I need to see Blaze. "

He moves towards the office where my bucket sits, contents spilled and mop askew from my tumble, his eyes moving back to me as if confirming my words.

"Wait" his mate meanders around him, actions sloppy as she slips but he catches her in time much to my disappointment. "It's our announcement night. You're really leaving me on my own, for Blaze no less?!"

"I'll only be a minute. "

She gives him a stupid pout. What's with the freaking pouting? But he barely cast's her a second glance moving towards the office while my fingers tremble at my side.

"Grayson!"

Maybe I should stop him. Then again that bitch deserved to be discovered for her cheating ass.

"Darling"

"Why are you so nervous?"

Cause she's a cheating, lying bastard, but I keep my opinion to myself.

The door next to us swings open suddenly, the bulky brooding figure of our Alpha revealing himself.

Grayson's eyes land on me once more,

"Thought you said neither of them were here. "