The Wolf

        James and Lydia Bradshaw were happy together but forbidden. He was a wolf and she was a witch. When Lydia’s coven agreed to work with vampires to trap dragons, Lydia ran. When she fled to his town while on the run from her coven, the mate-bond was immediate. The witches never imagined Lydia would stay with wolves, and so they passed her by. Lydia married James not long after and lived happily since the wolves accepted her into the pack as their healer. Things just seemed to get better when she found out she was expecting. Word got out that a wolf and a witch had produced an offspring. Lydia and James had a baby girl with perfect brown curls and deep brown eyes. They called her Nicole.

Unfortunately, wolf news of this kind traveled far and wide and reached her coven. Nicole was six when the Jade Witches heard that Lydia had not only stayed with the wolves but found her mate there as well. They were furious.

It was unsure if Nicole would be like her mother or her father or both. She was a happy child that had many friends and she wanted for nothing. The alfa of Shadow Moon Pack was getting sick and he was dying. Lydia was the only one who knew how bad it truly was. The day Daniel knew Lydia wouldn’t be able to save his life, he decided to put things in order. He confessed his illness to the pack and that Lydia has helped him keep it a secret. An alfa ceremony was held to make James the new alfa of Shadow Moon. The pack agreed with this and ushered in their alfa. Once things were said and done, Daniel asked Lydia to lay him to rest and Shadow Moon said goodbye to their former alfa.

Nicole now grew up as the alfa’s daughter. She had gained some new friends as well as keeping the ones she grew up with. One of her new friends was the beta’s son, Deavon. As the alfa’s daughter and beta’s son, they spent a lot of time together in the pack house. Over the years, they grew so close that there wasn’t a thing they didn’t know about each other. Watching them, the pack swore they were mates. Even her mother thought it would happen when they came of age. In high school, Deavon and Nicole made it official once she turned twelve. Nicole’s two best friends, Abby and Liz, did everything with the pack’s newest power couple.

As they grew older, Deavon began training with his father. If he was going to beta or alfa one day, he needed to straighten up and heighten his skills. One afternoon, while Deavon was patrolling the border with his father, James mind-linked Craig and warned him of an intruder. Deavon was sent immediately to Nicole and Lydia. When Craig and James met up and got there, it was too late. Deavon was unconscious on the ground. The witches had Lydia and Nicole surrounded. While Nicole was terrified and hoped Deavon was alright, Lydia remained firm and strong. The witches wanted her to come back and help them.

“I will not go back. You sided with them. I want no part in it.”

“You will come back or die, Lydia.”

“Then kill me, Scarlet.”

“No, that would be too easy.”

Suddenly, Scarlet grabbed Nicole and put a dagger to her throat. The entire pack held their breath and Lydia knew she had no choice. She had to save her daughter’s life.

“Let her go. I’ll go with you. Just leave my daughter out of this.”

“That’s more like it.”

Scarlet let Nicole go and she ran right into her mother’s arms and cried.

“You can’t go. They’ll kill you anyway.”

“I’d rather be the one to go then you, my little wolf.”

“Please don’t go, mother.”

“I have to go now. But I have every confidence that you will find me again one day.”

“When?”

“When you’re ready. Besides, you’ve got someone to look after.”

Nicole turned and went to Deavon. As they walked away, Nicole was shattered.

James was beside himself and swore to get her back. Scarlet reminded him that a pack as small as Shadow Moon would never be able to take on a witch coven. As they disappeared, James knew he would stop at nothing to get her back. Lydia mind-linked him and reminded him that he needed to take care of Nicole. He looked at his daughter and saw her a mess on the now conscious Deavon. She needed him and he would make sure no harm ever came to her.

Over the next few years, tensions ran high. It was getting close to time to tell if Nicole would have her mother’s gifts or father’s. James prepared her and taught her everything she needed to know in case she shifted. Meanwhile, Deavon worked harder with his father. He never wanted to be blindsided like that again.

A week before her fifteenth birthday, it happened. Nicole woke up in a cold sweat screaming for her father as she felt every bone breaking and snapping into a new place. Her father and the town elder tried to coach her though it and told her to let the pain happen. Her skin felt like it was on fire and she swore there would be no end to the pain. Finally, she let all the pain in and screamed through the night. By morning, the entire pack was waiting. Nicole stepped out on four paws. The pack gasped as they expected her to be a brown color as her hair and eyes. Instead, she had a fur coat as white as freshly fallen snow and eyes the color of an icy crystal blue. James stood behind her as a proud father and prideful alfa. He only wished Lydia could see her.

Things only seemed to get easier when Deavon shifted as well. He had a solid black coat to match his hair and deep blue eyes. Anyone that saw their wolves run together knew they were seeing something as they ran side by side. Everyone thought for sure that they were a mated pair.

So sure, of this, James decided to leave. He mind-linked Nicole, Deavon, and Craig and told them to come to his office.

“As you all know, in three months’ time, the challenge will begin for the right to be the Immortal Alfa. Every alfa will be fighting for the same thing and I intended to be no different this year.”

“Father, are you sure you are ready?”

“Yes. As the Immortal Alfa, I may have what I need to get your mother back.”

“James, I know why you are doing this, but you still must be careful.”

“I know. It’s why I leave you as acting alfa while I’m gone, Craig.”

By her sixteenth birthday, Nicole’s father had left. She prayed he would succeed. The most surprising thing that happened after James left was that there was no mate-bond between Nicole and Deavon. They hated that but remained a couple until one of them did find their mate.

One afternoon, one of the border patrols came rushing in saying that they were being invaded. Aaron from the Black Fang Pack invaded with the intention of making sure James had nothing to come back to after besting his father in the challenge. Nicole smiled to herself; her father was still alive and advancing.

Black Fang was a military pack and easily bested Shadow Moon. Aaron wanted Nicole and Deavon protected her as long as he could. Aaron was more determined, though, and shot Deavon right in front of Nicole. When he fell, she was right at his side. They weren’t mates, but she felt his loss as strongly as if they were. Aaron took Nicole prisoner and beat her every day. She was a prisoner in her own home and refused to come out of her room until Aaron kicked in the door. Aaron had beaten her so bad that she could no longer hear or feel her wolf inside. Shadow Moon knew the hell she was going through but could nothing to stop him and save her.

She lived as his personal punching bag for three months until word got around that John had been beaten. Aaron laughed, thinking James couldn’t beat him. Nicole considered taking her own life to end her hell. She had lost her wolf, her best friend, and now her thought she lost her father. She thought she had nothing left.

James came home to his pack in ruin. John walked through with him and supported his friend, thinking the same as he did; Nicole was gone. As they walked through, pack members began to emerge seeing James and John. One of the omegas, Patty, told James everything. James stormed the house and confronted Aaron. Aaron panicked when he saw it was James who had him against the wall and by the throat. John stood behind him and was furious.

Nicole heard the commotion as she was prepared to take a long step off of her balcony and stopped and slowly walked downstairs. When she saw her father, she ran right up to him, tears stinging her eyes as she realized she had almost made a huge mistake. Seeing the cuts, bruises, and other marks on her body made James see red and he snapped Aaron’s neck in one quick motion.

After everything was cleaned up, the transition of alfas was done. John would take over Shadow Moon. Abby and Liz got to go and be a part of the Immortal Pack with Nicole.

As they all transitioned into their new lives, the Gathering of Packs was coming up. It was an event for all the packs to meet the new Immortal Alfa. More and more packs flooded in to the wolf capitol as it was discovered that the new Immortal Alfa had an unmated daughter.

For two years, Nicole had met every wolf that there was to meet, and she formed no mate-bond with any of them. This made her depressed, thinking she had no mate, but worst of all was that some of the young male wolves stuck around in the hope she would choose them if she really had no mate. They continued to get so bad, that Nicole was afraid to leave the house. Liz and Abby now met her indoors. Nicole never minded it since she still couldn’t feel her wolf. It was still silent, and she knew it would probably take finding her mate to find her wolf again, which is why she was so depressed about the possibility of not having a mate.

James watched his daughter get worse and worse and decided she needed to be away from wolves, even for a night. James called her into his office one morning to inform her of his decision.

“My dear, I have noticed your mood getting bluer and bluer. Still nothing from your wolf?”

“Not since that day, father. Now, I face the possibility of never running again, but also that I may not have a mate.”

“I know all these bother you and you have many questions. Do you remember me talking about a man that came here named Raymond?”

“Yes. You said he was your best friend and told me to make sure no one knew he was here.”

“Do you know why?”

“No.”

“He is King Raymond. King of all shifter kinds. Do you know why I am telling you this?”

“I didn’t know he was the king.”

“Yes, and he has invited us to the Gathering of Leaders. I’m taking you with me.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. I think you should get away, even if it’s for the night. A seamstress will be coming by to make a dress for the event.”

“Father, I don’t even know what to say. This is wonderful.”

James loved seeing her light up again and was happy he could still see a spark of her old self.

Nicole was excited and nervous. She would be introduced officially to the King and Queen. The queen knew the answers to Nicole’s questions, and she had a lot of them. Little did she know that she wouldn’t need the queen to have her questions answered because in six months, her life would change forever. Her wolf would remerge to be with the most handsome yet most dangerous one of them all, a dragon alfa.