by Violet Ray
Contents
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
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Desired by the Alpha
Wolf Destiny 1
by Violet Ray
Copyright © 2014 by Violet Ray
Published by Chocolate Erotic Press
Book and cover design by Fine Line Design
All rights reserved.
Desired by the Alpha is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people (living or dead), events or locations is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.
Also by Violet Ray:
Loved by the Alpha: Wolf Destiny 2
Prologue
Ten Years Earlier
Blaize bounded rapidly through the trees, his paws crunching over the patches of new-fallen snow, blood pounding through his veins. He couldn’t wait to start patrolling the perimeter of the forest. It was his first time to be allowed to go out by himself.
Officially, that is. There might have been a time or two when he had snuck out on his own, late at night, unseen and unheard by his family.
But this. This was the real thing. Few wolves were ever given this much responsibility at his age. But he has proven himself in so many tests, the elders couldn’t deny him even though he was only sixteen.
Of course he shouldn’t be making so much noise, and he was more than able to be super-stealthy when he wanted to. In fact, Blaize was the best tracker of his pack. But his enthusiasm was so great, he couldn’t possibly hold himself back now.
Before he left, his father had taken him aside for a final talk.
“Remember, Blaize. Don’t take on any fights you don’t think you can win. If you’re outnumbered, if they have weapons—”
“I know, Father. You’ve been training me for ages. I know everything,” Blaize said, hardly able to sit still. He was dying to shift out of human form and bolt out of their cave, but if he tried to take off before his father was done his mini-speech, the old man would only block him and take even longer to finish.
“I don’t think you know everything,” his father said, his eyebrow arching upwards. “But you know what you need to know. For now. Protecting our forest is important work, Blaize. It’s not a time to play around.”
“I know,” Blaize said, practically bouncing with impatience.
“Go on,” his father said. “And be careful.”
“I will!” Blaize called, already making a run for it, shedding his clothes as he went. The moment he shifted into wolf form, well before he was anywhere near the entrance to their home cave, he went into high gear, racing at top speed, heading outside to freedom.
Upon reaching the clearing close to the edge of the forest, he stopped abruptly. He sniffed his way around the edge of the circular area, where all the underbrush had been trodden down after centuries of the wolves of his pack gathering together. All good.
Blaize walked right to the edge of the forest, so close that any creature on the other side with sharp eyes could have spotted him. It was forbidden for any wolf to make themselves visible to the human world that existed outside of their forest, but nothing could stop him from taking a look.
At first he had been annoyed that he was assigned this part of the forest for his very first solo patrol. It was full of sparse patches of thin, narrow trees. That meant there was lots of legwork to do. Blaize would have preferred to stay hidden and jump out at the last moment, terrifying any human that entered their territory before he attacked. This area provided very few hiding spots good enough for that tactic.
Then he learned this was the point at which the humans were most likely to dare to show themselves. In their whole uneasy history of wolves and humans living so close to each other, this was where they would take their lives in their hands and venture in.
It was only recently that his pack leaders had discovered why this was so. Some time ago, the humans had gotten bolder and began to build their dwellings closer to the forest than ever before. There was even one so close that he could see it clearly from where he stood among the trees.
Somehow the humans thought that moving themselves closer to the forest made it safer for them to come inside.
They were wrong.
Blaize gazed at the house and its surroundings, watching the lights inside go out one by one, tracking a faint shadowy figure moving around in the only part that was still lit up.
Blaize had never been outside of the forest, had never wanted to go beyond its edges, but now a spark of curiosity ran through him.
But that would be an adventure for another time. Turning back, head held high, he began his first night of working alone, marking his first rite of passage into adulthood.
*********
“Goodnight, Olivia.” The sound of her mother’s voice booming through her bedroom door almost made Olivia jump out of her skin. Diving into bed, she reached out and flicked the switch on her desk lamp.
“Night, Mom,” she called back, trying to will her to go away. Even though she was fourteen, her mother still insisted on checked in on her every so often as if she was still a child.
And somehow Mom always managed to catch her doing something other than sleeping.
When Olivia heard her mother continue down the hallway, she released the breath she had been holding tight. Even so, she made herself wait until the whole house fell quiet and dark.
Unable to hold out any longer, Olivia pushed the covers back, sliding her feet down to the cold floor. She just had to read one of her emails over again, even though she had it pretty much memorized already.
Standing up carefully so the old floor wouldn’t betray her by creaking loudly enough that her parents would hear, Olivia crept over to her small desk, opening up her laptop.
The message was right there waiting for her, just as it had been since it came in at 3:57pm.
You have been accepted into the Hewthorn Youth Summer Intensive Dance Program.
Hundreds of kids applied every year, and Olivia had beaten them out for one of only thirty very coveted spots. She had barely squeaked in under the age limit, her birthday falling only days after she sent in her application.
And now, she was in. The words were right in front of her face but she still wanted to pinch herself. This was what Olivia had been dreaming about for most of her life.
Best of all, getting into Hewthorn put her on the right track to be accepted to a big-name dance school when the time came. That meant she had a shot at becoming a real dancer. Her dreams really could come true. Dancing was all Olivia had wanted to do for as long as she could remember.
It all started when her mother took her to her first dance class. She had loved every second of it. It was a class for three years olds, and it was the most fun she had ever had moving around to music. Olivia was put with Tiffany as her partner, and she was just as excited to be a dancer as Olivia was.
They had been best friends ever since, dancing around when they played together as children to routines that Olivia would make up for them.
Growing up, they would take dance classes and practice together, counting down the years and then the months before they could try out to get into a real dance school.
But when the time finally came around, Tiffany wouldn’t go through with it. A few months ago she had stopped coming to after-school clas
ses with Olivia.
She had starting dating a new boy. Her parents thought she was too young and wouldn’t allow it, so getting to see him anyway involved a lot of sneaking around.
“Cover for me, will ya?” Tiffany would say to Olivia after one of their mothers dropped them off at their dance classes.
“Why don’t you just see him at school?” Olivia said. “I miss having you in class. There’s no-one fun to talk to during cross-floors.”
Tiffany grinned widely as the all too-familiar truck pulled up into the lot. “There’s not enough time at school. We don’t have any classes together. How’s my lip gloss look?” She scrunched her lips together, as if she was going to kiss her friend on the lips.
“Great,” Olivia said, glad Tiffany’s eyes were closed so she couldn’t see her cringe.
See ya,” Tiffany said, running off before Olivia could say any more, leaving her to head inside by herself once again.
Olivia had called her the minute she got the news of her acceptance, but Tiffany hadn’t called back yet. After reading the precious message over several more times to make sure it was all still real, she glanced over at the window.
There was no chance she could sleep now. She had been ultra-wired since she got the news, dancing around the living room until even her easy-going mother sent her upstairs to do her homework.
Pulling on her heaviest sweater, Olivia opened the window and leaned out to grab hold of the closest branch of the nearby tree. Swinging herself onto its solid strength, she climbed down to the frozen ground in a few seconds.
With a furtive glance back at the dark house, Olivia took off for the woods.
The bright moon lit her way, but she would have been fine without its guidance. It wasn’t the first time Olivia had snuck into the forest, in spite of the dire warnings of her parents and pretty much every other adult in their small town.
“Be careful,” Tiffany’s mother always warned when Olivia was about to leave their place. “Your house is so close to the woods. Stay on the main road, I don’t care if it is shorter to cut along behind.”
As a young child, she hadn’t dared go in. No-one did, even though some of the older boys bragged that they would. Somehow there was always an excuse not to, when it came down to actually going through with it.
A few months ago, Olivia’s curiosity had finally gotten the better of her. And when she couldn’t convince Tiffany to go with her, she went by herself.
“But you could die,” Tiffany breathed, eyes widening in fear whenever Olivia so much as talked about the possibility. “Remember when we were kids?”
Two men from out of town had shown up, having decided this forest would be a good place to hunt. Despite many warnings from the locals, they went in.
They were both killed, their bodies mauled and torn apart by wolves. Something stronger than a wolf, Tiffany’s father had said. Something determined to do more than just end their lives. He had been one of the ones to get them out, so he was considered an authority now.
Olivia and Tiffany were only eight at the time, but the story had been repeated so often that everyone believed it was true.
When she actually did it, Olivia hadn’t really been planning on going alone. One day she was on her way back from Tiffany’s. It was summer, early evening and still light out.
She was almost home when, without even thinking about it, she detoured down towards the forest, stopping right at the edge of the first thin line of trees. It looked pretty tame to her.
What was the big deal? She wouldn’t go very far in. Just far enough to have a very quick look around
Forgetting to breathe, Olivia took a single step forward. And then another. Glancing around, she confirmed what she already knew. She was completely alone. And nothing bad had happened. Olivia went in deeper, but not so far that she couldn’t see out.
Disappointed she hadn’t come across a secret witch’s coven or something, she was about to turn back when she glimpsed a clearing just up ahead, right in the middle of a dense area of trees.
It didn’t look natural. Even the bushes seemed cut away into a circle. What was that about?
A twig snapped with a sharp crack. She nearly jumped a mile straight into the air.
She took off, running as fast as she could, not stopping until she got home. Flinging the back door open, Olivia whipped her head back, checking behind her. Nothing had followed her out.
Heart pounding, she raced up the stairs to her room, diving onto her bed. Already thinking about doing it again when her phone rang, startling her into jumping back up to find it. It was Tiffany.
“Hey,” Olivia said, trying to sound normal.
“What’s with you? You sound weird,” Tiffany said.
“Nothing.” Olivia took a deep, shaky breath. “What’s up?”
Tiffany started asking her about their homework, and Olivia decided right then not to tell her what she had just done. She had always trusted her best friend with all of her secrets, but not this one. Tiffany would be worried enough to tell her father, and there would be hell to pay then.
Besides, Olivia was thrilled to have a secret that was just her own. As soon as she had applied to Hewthorn, she decided that if she got accepted, she would go back at night.
Ever since then, Olivia had ventured just that far, going up to the roughly-circular clearing but never beyond. Each time she went inside, she was less nervous. But something told her she wouldn’t be safe if she went in too deep.
She couldn’t explain how, but Olivia had learned to trust her instincts young. And while they had gotten her into trouble, they had always kept her out of real danger.
Creeping in quietly, she shivered, more from the adrenaline racing through her veins than the cold. Olivia hadn’t expected the forest to be so was completely transformed at night. It was so beautiful she stopped to take a good look around.
It was like being in another world. Moonbeams reached down through the trees, shining on the patches of new snow dotting the ground everywhere.
The trees were luminous from the light reflecting off the snow, so brightly that it almost felt like it was still daylight. Even the silence was different, more alive than in the daytime.
Striding forward in spite of her pounding heart, Olivia didn’t stop until she was at the edge of what she called The circle. Pausing only briefly to gather her confidence, she sprang into the centre.
This was her stage. Dancing with wild abandon, Olivia performed the same piece that she used for her Hewthorn audition, the one that she used to win her place and secure her future.
Now that she didn’t have an audience, she took the piece further, making it wilder, a lot more free and abstract but still recognizable. For the first time in a long time, she was dancing just for herself, her imaginary audience loving every move.
Olivia spun around in her final pirouette, stopping at the perfect point to transition into her final great leap. She ended up on the far side of the circle, just managing to hold her final pose before sweeping her arms down to bow for the trees.
Swinging her arms up high before swooping her body down, Olivia froze. She wasn’t alone.
A pair of dark eyes stared directly into hers. For a moment it seemed as if they could see right inside of her, all the way through to her soul.
Olivia was rooted to the spot. It was a wolf, standing not five feet away from her. But it was something more than just a wolf.
Bigger, stronger, his fur was so dark it was close to black. A werewolf. All of her senses were screaming at her to run away, but she didn’t want to give him a reason to chase her.
Oh, god. Why was he staring at her? Did he want her to panic before he ate her? Because he was so close, he wouldn’t even have to make much effort to jump, knock her to the ground and tear into her body.
Was this it? Was her life actually going to be over when it hadn’t even begun yet? The wolf didn’t move, he just kept staring into her eyes.
Agonizingly slowly, she began t
o lower her aching arms. She didn’t want to startle him, and since he hadn’t attacked her yet, she didn’t want to give him any ideas.
Olivia still hadn’t looked away. The wolf’s gaze was mesmerizing.
Thoughts bounced around her mind as she dug through her memory. What were you supposed to do if you encountered a werewolf? She had asked Tiffany’s father that when they had found out what had happened to the foolish out-of-towners.
“You don’t go into the woods, and then you won’t be faced with one. They don’t come out of there, ever. Stay clear and you’ll be safe,” he had said, his voice stern.
Great. That was a real big help right now. Racking her brain, she tried to think of anything else she might have heard. Even a legend would be something.
But she came up empty. Didn’t anyone think it might be a good idea to study werewolves, since they lived so close by? Or at least come up with a plan for a time like this?
He didn’t take his eyes off her, but he didn’t seem to be in an attack posture of any kind. All of a sudden, the wolf turned his back on Olivia, breaking out into a run, disappearing into the darkness.
Turning her head around to make sure there were no other wolves around, Olivia turned around, walking back the way she had come from.
Every muscle in her body ached to run away, fast, but she didn’t want to attract attention and make herself look like even more like prey.
Walking as fast as she could while still trying to stay quiet, heart thumping so loudly she was afraid it could be heard, Olivia forced herself to go slowly.
When the edge the woods finally came into sight, Olivia took off like a shot. Climbing back up the tree in record time, she pulled the window shut behind her, jamming the lock into place.
Shucking her clothes, she dove into bed, still shaking with fear. It took awhile before she calmed down enough to fall asleep. Just before she drifted off, a smile crossed her face. She was safe, and now she had finally seen for herself what lived in out the woods. No risk, no reward.