CHAPTER 3

HAZEL

"I demand an explanation!" Alpha Declan shouted.

I shiver, my focus instantly going to the male I have revered all my life. But he's not looking at me. He is looking at my father. 

And my father… has a dark look and is glowering at my cowering mother. 

“I…I…” she stuttered, her skin as pale as a snow “I didn't know… I…” she kept stammering.

"What the hell, Russell?" My father roared, his voice a thunderclap of anger I'd never heard before. "How could you not know she's...well, a goddamn Mongrel. You should have known!" His finger jabbed towards me, a muscle twitching in his jaw.

“I thought she was yours from the start,” my mother softly whispered. “I… you have to believe me. It… he found me… I tried to fight him… but I.. “

Her statements are all jumbled up. Maybe because I can't hear behind the pounding in my ears. Maybe because she can't seem to explain herself. 

“I swear, I had no idea,” my father says, his words for Alpha Declan. “I will take whatever punishment you rule. This is not a reflection on our pack, it's a reflection on me and a whore as a wife.”

“He violated me!” My mother screamed. “I tried to fight him. I… I thought… I prayed and hoped that she was always yours, Rico. I…”

"They're infamous for their ruthless tactics," Cosmo grumbles. "It's a real possibility."

Alpha Arturo scoffed. "You're green, kid. Naive and inexperienced. You have a long way to go."

Cosmo narrowed his eyes. "I'm thirty-three, Father. I've faced those beasts in battle. I'm not a kid anymore."

“That doesn't give a good explanation to why she didn't report it.” Alpha Arturo utters the words with full authority and a hint of disgust. “We wanted your best female, and this is what you give us? A Mongrel of unknown origin?” Alpha Arturo spits on the ground near Alpha Declan's feet. “I have never been more insulted than I am right now.”

Alpha Declan says nothing, his eyes wandering to me before settling on my trembling mother. “What will fix this?” he asks. “I can offer them as slaves, if that would do?” 

My heart stutters. What?

“You can kill them,” my father adds. “You can do whatever you desire. I reject them both.”

“Ricotta—”

My father's hand resembles a whip on the wind, slamming across my mother's cheek and sending her to the cold ground. “Hey, woman. You will never speak my name again, you fucking whore.” he follows it up with a hard kick to her stomach, then another to her head, knocking her out cold on the field.

My wolf instantly reacted with a fierce snarl, furious at his treatment of his mate. 

Mates are meant to be revered, loved, cherished and protected. 

His eyes find mine, the features in those dark orbs are unlike any I have ever seen. He takes a step toward me, but Alpha Declan holds him back with a palm to his chest. “This isn't your punishment to give, Ric.”

“No, it belongs to my son right here. He’s the one who is most insulted here tonight. He is the one you all have duped with an unqualified mate. He will choose their fates.” Alpha Arturo looks at Cosmo. “The final decision is yours.” 

I try to stand, but my legs are awkward and refuse to hold my weight.

This… this has to be a worst nightmare.

How could I have a black fur?

My mother was violated by who?

By… by a shadow moon wolf?

My heart is pounding so hard in my chest that I don't hear Cosmo's approach. But I smell him, the scent of grass and man calling to my wolf on a base level. 

‘Mate’ she whispers to me, purring in approval.

But the feeling is not reciprocated.

I can see the hatred in his eyes, the fury at having this whole arrangement ruined by my black coat.

Except, I'm still me.

I’m still the wolf my parents raised me to be. 

I… I just have black fur. 

Not white. 

Maybe he will demand I never shift again and take me back?

A laughable suggestion. Because our children will still be tainted by my mixed heritage.

He crouches before me, his striking blue eyes glittering beneath the moonlight. I try to bow my head, but my wolf refuses. She wants to challenge him; to challenge them all.

She refuses to accept whatever fate he chooses for her. She's too strong to bow to him. 

Yet she can't even stand.

I scream at her to lower her eyes. 

She doesn't.

And Cosmo starts to glare. “You dare challenge me, you little wolf?”

No! I want to scream, but I can't. I can't speak. I can't even move. My wolf is in control now. I have denied her for so many years that she's absolutely refusing to let me run the show now.

He growls.

And to my absolute horror, my wolf growls back. 

“You're just proving to me and all my men that you can't be tamed,” he tells me, his voice almost sad as he shakes his head. “A shame. I could have added you to my harem.” He stands fully, his shoulders squaring in a way that makes my wolf snarl. 

She wants to rip him apart. 

Because she's rejecting him.

The realisation hits me square in the chest, shocking me to silence. 

And allowing my wolf to gain that much control. 

I’m on my paws now, and my legs are stretching as she takes in the field of aggressive males. They smell wrong. Feral. Unacceptable.

She wants to shred them all into tiny pieces. 

Especially the one I have called father all my fucking life. 

She's furious at him for hurting our mother. Seeing her dark hair sprawled across her face on the ground, her eyes closed, her lips bleeding from my father's intense slap, has my wolf taking a bold step forward.

Cosmo growls, this time menacingly. “Do not move, Brute.” He tells my wolf, his voice holding a power similar to his father. 

My animal snarls in response, not bending to his will. 

“This” —Alpha Arturo points at me— “this is exactly why we fight the Shadow Moon pack. They do not understand hierarchy because their wolves are feral creatures without rules. They fuck and kill, and do not obey.”

My wolf snorts as though she can understand his words. 

She disagrees wholeheartedly, her disrespect having nothing to do with a lack of understanding and everything to do with her refusal to bow to him as her Alpha. 

And I knew that her disagreement was rooted in defiance, not confusion. She totally refused to acknowledge his authority as

her leader.

I don't understand the inclination or where it comes from, but I can't deny the sensation of tightness thrumming through my veins. 

I don't belong here, I realise. I never have.