Chapter 1

Emma POV

She is alpha by blood. And not just any Alpha, but a Highborn Alpha. Which means she was born to two alpha parents, and a long line of them at that. Highborn alphas were bigger and more powerful, pure Highborn alphas even more so, they also live longer than regular werewolves. A pure Highborn Alpha line is rare, only two lines of them remain, hers and another pack's Alpha. Every child born in a pure Highborn Alpha line has been born to two Alpha parents throughout the entire line. But as packs started disappearing, moving, or just being completely wiped out, Highborn Alphas were rare to be born. A lot of alphas found their mates that have a lower rank. Most alphas now are born to an alpha parent and a beta parent, or even a gamma parent. Her pack and the Silver Stone pack’s alpha were the last line of pure Highborn Alphas. Although there were two other packs that had Highborn Alphas, their line didn’t have all Highborns, so they weren’t pure.

She was supposed to take over as alpha of their pack. She was born five minutes before her twin brother. But their father refused to let her take over, but wanted her brother to instead. So, she was locked away. The fourth floor of their house was technically their attic, but her parents had most of it converted to her bedroom and a bathroom. She was not allowed off the fourth floor. Emma’s mother rarely came to see her, her father even less. But her brother was always coming to visit. Other than her brother, the only visitors she had were staff who brought her food, fresh linens, or fresh clothes. They were always polite, but didn’t say much, and never a conversation.

There was a party tonight for all the alphas and the betas. She desperately wished she could go. She knew she couldn’t though. Every time there was a party or a function of any kind, her father posted guards on each of the floors, insuring she couldn’t sneak her way down. She could hear the music coming from downstairs, the party in full swing. She made her way out of her room, no guard on her floor this time. She was allowed to go down to the third floor, only because her bathroom was messed up so she had to use the one on the third floor. She didn’t see the guard that was supposed to be on the third floor. She shrugged it off and went into the bathroom. As she made her way out of the bathroom, the guard that was supposed to be on the third floor came rushing down the stairs, eyes wide in panic.

“What are you doing?” he screamed at her. “You know you aren’t allowed on this floor!” He grabs her upper arm and she tries to jerk her arm away and he just holds on tighter.

“You are hurting me!” she exclaims, but the guard doesn’t care, he just tightens his grip.

“You aren’t going to get me in trouble by sneaking down to that party.” he throws her down onto the steps, pain shooting in her side as her ribs collide with the steps.

“But I wasn’t-” before she could finish her sentence, she felt his hand collide to the side of her face.

“Shut it!” he yelled at her.

She touched her fingers to the corner of her mouth when she felt something warm. Bringing her fingers down, she seen the blood. She looked at the guard and he was mumbling something into his phone. A few minutes later her father came up the stairs. He looked at the cut on her lip, bruised and swollen, and the bruises on her arm where the guard had ahold of her. His eyes wide he turned on the guard.

“What is the meaning of this?” he screamed, his face red with anger.

“She tried to sneak downstairs to the party Alpha.” the guard replied.

“I don’t care what the hell she did or what she was trying to do, YOU DO NOT HARM MY DAUGHTER! You have no right putting your hands on her! You are supposed to protect her not hurt her! If I can’t trust you to protect her, you will not be on her security detail. You are dismissed until I can figure out an appropriate punishment for you.” He was screaming at the guard, apparently not caring if anyone overheard him or not. She had never seen her father this angry over her, but then again, she rarely seen her father anyway. The guard nodded at her father and the disappeared down the stairs. Her father went over to her and looked at her face, a bruise had already formed on her cheek.

He brushed his fingers along the bruise. “Emma, are you ok?” My father asked.

She nodded her head, “I’m ok.”

“Well then, now you can explain to me why you were trying to sneak downstairs. You know you aren’t allowed!” His face starting to get red again.

“But I wasn’t, I promise! I was just using the bathroom!” She told him.

“Why were you coming down here to use the bathroom, you have one of your own.” He replied not believing what she was saying.

“Father, my bathroom still hasn’t been fixed!” Emma replied.

“Hmm, they were supposed to had that fixed a week ago. In the morning I will find out why it hasn’t been and make sure they get out here. It will be fixed by tomorrow.” He thrusts his chin toward her floor, “Go back up to your room, I will have another guard sent up and I will make sure he knows that you are allowed on the third floor only to use the bathroom.”

“Yes, Father.” Emma turned to go back upstairs. Her stomach rumbled and she realized she hasn’t eaten yet. She turned around and ran to the top of the third-floor stairs and called down to her father before he could disappear.

“Father, could I get something to eat?”

He turned to face her another flash of anger going across his face. “Nobody has brought you your dinner yet?”

“No sir. I know the staff is busy and I don’t want to trouble them. If they could just bring me a sandwich and something to drink.”

He nodded his head. “I will have someone bring you up something soon. Now go to your room.” He turned around and disappeared down the stairs.

She headed back to her room. She picked the book that she had been reading up off her bed. She put the bookmark in between the pages and closed the book and put it back on the shelf. Emma turned on the tv as she settled on the bed. Scrolling through the movies and tv shows, trying to find something to watch, she finally settled on a movie. A few minutes later came a knock on her door, the door opens and one of the staff comes in with a tray full of food and something to drink.

“Apologies for being so late miss.” she said.

“It’s ok, I know you all are busy attending to the party.” Emma told her.

“No miss, it is not ok. You aren’t allowed downstairs to get your own food. I should have been paying more attention to the time.”

“Steph, really, it’s ok. I understand.” and with that she handed Emma the tray and walked out, closing the door behind her.

Emma looked at her tray, there wasn’t a sandwich, but instead it was full of food that was made for the party. It all smelled so good. She picked up the fork and started eating, her mouth watering at the taste. Before she knew it, she had eaten almost everything on the tray. Her stomach bursting from how much she ate. She got up and walked out of her room and down the stairs handing the guard her almost empty tray. Without a word the guard took the tray and watched her walk back up the stairs to her room. She peered around the corner and watched the guard head downstairs with the tray. Once he was gone, she ran back down and sunk down to the floor and went between the curtains that closed off the balcony. She peered through the spindles of the railing. She watched as everyone laughed and danced, wishing even more that she could go down.

The smell filled her nostrils, it was such a sweet smell, like strawberries and vanilla. She forgot that she wasn’t supposed to be seen as she stood up and looked over the crowd, trying to figure out where that smell was coming from. There was a man, tall and handsome, he had dark hair and silver eyes that had a blue tint to them. He had just enough stubble on his chin to make him look rugged. Mate! Her whole body was quivering. He moved through the crowd towards the stairs.

Oh shit, she thought to herself. She turned around and ran back up the stairs to her room. She knew her father was going to be pissed that she was on that balcony and that she was seen. She closed her bedroom door and paced back in forth in front of her bed. She didn’t know what she was going to do or how she was going to explain this to her father. There was a knock on her door and it opened before she could say come in. That smell filled her nostrils, her mouth watered, she turned around to see him standing in her doorway. Mate!