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Chapter 20
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2024-10-11 22:54:26Related chapters
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 21
Johnathan’s StoryThe boy ran through the forest, his footing sure and strong. At eight, he was already stronger and faster than most human adults, and almost the size of a grown man.He knew these woods better than he knew his own body, and he knew exactly where to step, where to jump, and where to duck.His lanky legs pumped like two pistons as he streaked through the forest, heading for his newest hiding place. He was sure Eli wouldn’t be able to find this one. And even if he did, the boy knew his big brother would never fit. They gave him just enough food to survive, but not so much that he could grow strong and big enough to fight. Johnathan’s mother very carefully monitored how much he ate, but sometimes he managed to sneak a little extra food.The kept him weak on purpose. They didn't want the pack to know how strong Johnathan was. The boy knew, but there was nothing he could do about it.“Johnny,” Eli called out in a sarcastic voice. “Come here little pup. You need to be corre
Last Updated : 2024-10-13In Service of the Alpha Chapter 22
MaraAt some point, we both sat down, and Johnathan pulled his legs up to his chest as if he was trying to protect himself against the onslaught of memories from his past.“I dragged Valerie into the woods and buried her under her favourite tree. Eli watched me the whole time and wouldn't allow anyone to help me. I remember thinking how heavy she was."Johnathan loudly clears his throat and digs his nails so hard into his palms that he cuts his skin open. It's as if the memory isn't enough. He wants to feel the physical pain of it."By the time I was done digging her grave, she had gone cold and stiff…” Johnathan’s voice cracks, and he keeps digging, keeps drawing blood. "I had to roll her into the grave. I was too small and..." he gags and goes silent.He wanted to say weak, but the word alone is enough to make him physically sick.Johnathan goes very quiet. The silence between us grows thick and heavy. It's as if nature itself is waiting, holding onto his breath until he's ready to
Last Updated : 2024-10-14In Service of the Alpha Chapter 23
MaraDespite sleeping most of the day and half the night away, I have no trouble falling asleep. I only wake when a bell rings through the house. I found out yesterday that there are two different bells - one to wake the house, and one to summon everyone for breakfast.The waking bell is loud, shrieking like a fire alarm, and it's impossible to miss. I grunt and rub my hands over my face. My eyes feel swollen and my head fuzzy. I glance at the clock on my nightstand. It’s six. I vaguely hope that Johnathan relaxes the early waking hour over weekends. I can't imagine waking this early every single day.I stumble to the bathroom and go through my usual morning routine. Twenty minutes later, I am standing in front of my wardrobe, surveying the clothes I bought. Most of the items have long sleeves, but I did buy a few sundresses - mostly to please Rhoda, but now I’m glad that I listened to her.The light green dress brings out the colour of my eyes and only shows the vivd bruises on my a
Last Updated : 2024-10-15In Service of the Alpha Chapter 24
Johnathan The car ride into town is quiet. The air between us thick and heavy. Gregory is sulking in the back seat, his bottom lip quivering, but he’s trying his best to be brave. Mara’s quiet presence helps. She’s good with him, and he takes the things she says to heart. I’ve never seen him pay that much attention to anyone. I don’t know how Mara does it, but she’s not doing it on purpose, she just seems to have a way about her that makes Gregory stop and think. I’d get jealous of her ability to have an impact on my son, but right now I am just quietly grateful that someone managed to get through to him. She stays with Gregory while I talk to Joshua, the school master. I watch them through the window that overlooks the long hallway. She's sitting on the bench with Greg on her lap, whispering something to my son. He looks just like me when he gets anxious. His little jaw is set and his lips pulled in a grimace. “Don’t worry, Alpha,” Joshua says when I’m done explaining the si
Last Updated : 2024-10-16In Service of the Alpha Chapter 25
JohnathanThe rest of the week passes smoothly. I can’t bring myself to tell Mara about that night I fled my pack, and she doesn’t ask any questions about it. I can't put it off forever, but I keep finding excuses not to do it.Within days, Mara settled into my routines, and upon my request joins me for meetings and discussions with the town's leaders. Despite Joshua’s job offer, I still want her to learn pack business and politics. When the time is right, she can decide for herself where she wants to be. Here with me, running the pack, or at the school, wrestling with the pups.Most of the day, she aimlessly wanders around the house, or I can find her in the garden, puttering around in the dirt. She found a little patch of land and asked me if she could plant some seeds.I agreed, although I have no idea what she planted. She’s happy out there by herself, and growing more confident by the day. She doesn’t care who sees her bruises anymore, although they have now faded to the point w
Last Updated : 2024-10-17In Service of the Alpha Chapter 26
Johnathan“Douglas,” I start, then realise I don’t know what to say next. It’s not as if he can exert any influence over his Alpha. There is one thing I want to know though. It's been nagging me for a few days now. “Why are you still at Red Ridge?”"Kyson only agreed to dissolve Mara's marriage if I promised to stay here," Douglas says."So that's why you won't leave?""Not exactly, no."“Are you looking for a new pack?” I ask on a whim. "A way out? I can help you."“You don’t seem to understand,” Douglas says. “If I leave... they are coming for me. They will kill my daughter. She’s all I have. She’s the only thing in this world that I love.”“You have a funny way of showing it. Marrying her off to that rabid maniac.”“Kyson made the match. I didn’t know that Lucas…he seemed like a good kid. I did what I thought was best for Mara.”“Good job,” I say dryly.“Yes. By the time I realised I made a mistake, it was too late.”I actually feel sorry for Douglas. I don't want to, but I understa
Last Updated : 2024-10-18In Service of the Alpha Chapter 27
MaraAs I shower and get ready for supper, I realise that this will be my first weekend at Haven’s Crest. I’ve been here since Monday afternoon, and the week flew by in a blink and blur of activity.It amazes me how quickly I settled in and how comfortable I am. So much so that I plan to ask Johnathan if I can go into town tomorrow. I want to treat Rhoda to lunch. I haven’t seen her since they brought me here, and I want to thank her for all her help.There’s still a little money left on the card Johnathan gave me, and while I'm in town, I want to buy a swimsuit. The Alpha was right, I regretted not having one. I watched the father and son sliding down the smooth rocks, splashing into the deep, cold pools below, and I wished I could join them. Johnathan already saw my scars, and I think Gregory will just accept them the same way he accepted my bruises.I think I'll be okay if it's just the three of us.I saw a different side of Johnathan today. A playful, fun side. I saw a man who kn
Last Updated : 2024-10-19In Service of the Alpha Chapter 28
MaraI sit on the edge of the pool, dangling my legs in the cool water. It's another warm night, and the urge to simply slide into the water is powerful.The wind is blowing from the direction of the town, carrying with it the sound of laughing humans and a cacophony of different kinds of music. The air smells like barbeque fires, alcohol, and suntan lotion.The town is alive tonight.It sounds, smells, and feels like the summers at Red Ridge when I was a little girl. Before life came around with a series of blows that almost robbed me of the will to live.“Oh God, what a day,” Johnathan says from the patio doors and walks out onto the deck. “Did you tell Preston he had to beat Ally?”I nearly dislocate my neck when I whip my head around to look at Johnathan. “What?” I ask, alarmed by his question. “No! I would never do something like that.”“According to Ally, you did.”“I told her that I was spoiled too, until Lucas beat it out of me.” I pull my legs out of the pool and shake the wa
Last Updated : 2024-10-20
Latest chapter
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 106
MaraWe step into the cool, dark church. I’ve been in human churches before, and always found them comforting and peaceful. There’s something about the candles and quiet that soothes me."Patrick!" Johnathan calls out."I don't think he's here," I say, smiling as my voice echoes in the empty church."He's here. He's always here. He lives here with his wife.""He has a wife?" I ask, surprised."Yes, he-"My mate stops talking when the priests steps through a door in the back of the church, and comes straight for us. “Johnathan,” he says when he reaches us, and gives my mate a big smile. “To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure? Did you come to give your life to the Lord?”I’ve never heard anyone call my mate by his first name. It’s strange. But Johnathan is completely unperturbed. He just chuckles at the priest’s remark. “Patrick,” he says. “I need to use your church to shelter some of the incoming wolves.”The priest’s eyes flick over to me. His bright grey eyes are lively and pier
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 105
JohnathanThe town is crawling with people. There are a lot more people than I expected to find, and I have no idea how the hell we’re supposed to sort them all out. There are so many that their auras blend together, and I can’t tell who is Omega and who is Alpha.It is absolute pandemonium.My Lycans and Alphas try their best to control the crowd, but the sheer number of wolves makes it impossible.I walk up to a Gamma, Jeremy, the one I met in the woods of Red Ridge. “Could you do a headcount?” I ask.The Gamma shakes his head. He’s covered in sweat, and exhausted. The poor man is seconds away from losing his shit completely. “Rhoda is trying to take down names.”Mara’s hand slips from mine and she disappears into the crowd. I stop myself before I can call out to her. The wolves need to respect her as their queen, as much as they respect me. It ultimately doesn't matter. She's not far, and I can feel her anyway - her quiet resignation - as she heads in Rhoda’s direction.I put my th
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 104
JohnathanUpon seeing my reaction, Mara quickly starts to raise her defences again. I grab her wrist to get her attention. “Don’t.”“I told you-”“I’m fine. It was just very sudden. Give me a little warning next time.”She stops what she’s doing and settles back in her seat. The pack house comes into view as we round the last corner, and I let out a little sigh of relief. I want some time with my mate before I tackle the next crisis.I know I have to go down to the town to figure out this mess with the accommodations, but I’m absolutely not leaving Mara here by herself. The state she’s in scares me - she’s bound to do something to herself - but I have to convince her to come with me.“Quick shower,” I say as Baxter pulls up to the front door. “Then we’ll go into town.”“You want me to go with you?” Mara asks.“Yes,” I say and switch over to our mind link. “More time together, remember?”“You’ll be busy. I’ll just get in the way.”“Fuck’s sake Mara, you are never in the way. Stop beati
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 103
JohnathanI did not sense Mara’s approach until she started running towards me. It was sudden. Like a balloon popping. Oberon brought her to me. She’s in a terrible state, but trying her best to put up a brave front. Things haven’t exactly been going her way lately. Or at all really. It's been one clusterfuck after the other since we mated.It’s my natural instinct to protect her. I want to fix everything for her. I want to wrap her in cotton and put her in a glass case. Safe and snug. I’ll burn this whole damn world to the ground if that’s what it takes to see her smile. But intellectually I know how stifling that kind of union can be. I've seen men with the purest intentions crush their mates under the weight of their protection.As far as I’m concerned, It’s just another form of abuse and control. I make sure that she stays well out of the way as we put up the barriers, and when we take a break to drink some water, I stand by her side, telling her about the floods we can expect.
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 102
MaraThe morning is darker than usual. The clouds are so full of rain that they are almost black. I can feel the electricity in the air, nature holding her breath as she awaits the inevitable release.Usually Kahn is somewhere around the pack house, but today he’s nowhere to be found. Day or night, unless he’s feeding, he’s here. He’ll come inside when the sun is highest, but that’s about as much as he hides from the day.I don’t think he ever sleeps. He tells me he does, but I am sure he’s lying. Vampires go into a dead state during the day - their hearts stop beating and they don’t breathe - but Kahn being half-Lycan never reaches that state.It must be awful to go through life like that. Never sleeping, watching time pass by, the people you love moving on without you. A part of nothing, fitting nowhere. All alone for all eternity.“Kahn?” I ask for the tenth time, feeling tears well up in my eyes. "Where are you?"He doesn’t answer me.I try to mind link with him, but can’t. It’s l
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 101
JohnathanThe morning comes too soon. It feels as if I barely closed my eyes before the morning alarm woke me.I really need to switch those fucking things off. They're not doing their job anymore, and they are more annoying that comforting now.I’m dreading this day. Not only do I have to sit back and watch as my exhausted mate go to Oberon for training, I need to break the bad news about Felicity to Kahn, close the town, and see to the new blow-ins that arrived overnight.We have officially run out of space, and there’s nowhere I can put the newcomers, unless I use the empty school, our one Christian church, and the brothels. No one’s going to like any of that. Not Joseph, the brothel madams, or the human priest who made this place his home after finding out that he was fated to a werewolf. The priest told me his story in vivid detail. How he tried to ignore the pull of the mate bond because human priests aren’t allowed to take wives for some reason. In the end, he couldn’t withst
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 100
JohnathanMara falls asleep on my lap, curled up like a cat, her face buried in my chest, hand fisted around my shirt.It’s not a peaceful sleep. Kahn asked me about my first kill - and it was true that I didn’t feel guilty about that one. It was pure self-defence. If anything, I was proud of myself for overpowering a fully grown werewolf with experience.But there have been others since then. And they do haunt me from time to time. All of them deserved it to some degree, but that doesn’t make it any less painful. Ally visits me often in my dreams. I keep reliving that moment just before she died. That split-second when she was sane and simply asked, “Why?”I didn’t have a chance to answer her question. I hope she knows that I didn’t want to do it, that I regret it almost every day of my life.I get up, holding Mara close to me, and go upstairs. I lay her on the bed and open the windows to let the cool, rainy breeze in.My mate moans softly in her sleep and flops over on her stomach.
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 99
MaraOberon whispers some words I don’t understand in my ear, and I start to feel a little lighter. The crushing fear dissipates and the exhaustion that's keeping me on my knees lifts. “What was that?” I ask the fae king when he’s done.“A little fae magic.” He squeezes my shoulder, gets to his feet and turns to Kahn. “You plan to perform the spell on the next full moon?”“What spell?” I ask and shakily stand up. My legs feel like jelly and my head still buzzes. I glance at the ashes again. The wind is starting to pick it up, carrying the Lunae away on the breeze. It’s almost surreal. I can’t believe that I’m capable of wielding magic that destructive.I can't quite get my head around it, and when I think about it, it feels as if someone else did it, and I just stood back, looking on. Like it was a movie.“I am done being a vampire,” Kahn says, ripping me from my thoughts. “I would like to turn back on the next full moon. That is if you are still willing to do it.”I nod. “Why wouldn
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 98
Mara I run through the woods, my feet slapping hard against the forest floor as I go straight for the town’s border. I’m aware that Kahn is following me, but I pay very little attention to him. There are several places where the wolves cross the border into our expanding territory. Sometimes, we’ll see the ones looking for the entrance, witness the outright fear on their faces when they can’t get in, and every time I want to go help them. Every time, one of the others stops me. And now I know why. No matter how scared those lost wolves are at that moment, they are the ones who’ll eventually turn on us and tear our pack, my family, to shreds. Just look at what Theresa did - and she’s not even in the town. Oberon materialises, as he always does, out of thin air, and right in my path. I can’t stop myself in time and run full-force into him. The fae doesn’t budge, but I stagger back. I trip over my own feet and start to fall, but Kahn catches me just before I hit the ground. I jump ou
