Alpha’s Second Choice

‘Caleb? That silver haired royal general?’, Jo asked in disbelief, wiping down the blanket with a cloth from the bed stand. She knew the tea stain was not going to go away easily. Sh. it ‘Yes, him. We just found out we were mates following an unfortunate incident last night. He accepted the bond and proposed to me. But I have decided to reject it’, Lucy said, giving Jo some time to absorb the news. ‘Lucy, mate bonds are so sacred for you, werewolves. I mean for ‘us’ werewolves’, Jo nervously corrected herself. ‘Why are you so intent on rejecting the bond?’. ‘I know it is sacred for us Jo. But given my past accusations and everything, I don’t think I am on par with someone like Caleb’, Lucy replied, half-heartedly not revealing her full intention. She was doing this mainly to protect Jo from Jayden and his wrath. If she accepted Caleb and the truth came out, Jo was going to suffer the most and Lucy couldn’t have that. ‘Also, I have never explored the world beyond this small pack. I want my freedom. Just like you have promised me Jo, I want to escape this pack soon with you!’, Lucy added. ‘I see. If that’s what you want Lucy, I think you have made the right choice’, Jo weakly smiled at her. ‘Moreover, you are doing it too! You decided not accept the mate bond with Jayden and mask your true scent. Jo’, Lucy chirped finding encouragement in being in the same boat together. Jo hesitated at her words; she did not want to reveal the true reasons of her having to hide her true scent. It was not just the simple Alpha-Omega rank title difference. It was much more than that, but Jo did not know if Lucy was ready to know the truth yet. ‘I guess so, Lucy. Do you think the general will take the rejection well and let you off so easily?’, Jo asked curiously. Lucy nodded her head up and down, ‘He told me it is my choice and that he will not force me in to anything. But I don’t know about Alpha Jayden, he is growing more and more…..’, Lucy tried to find the right words, ‘confronting’. ‘Did Jayden do anything to you?’, Jo asked as she placed her hands on Lucy’s. ‘Well, he did try to touch me weirdly last night, but nothing happened after my wolf surfaced. Her name is Emery, and I was so overwhelmed when I finally heard her voice, Jo!’. ‘No wonder, you are glowing today, Lucy!”, Jo laughed and gave a small pat on her friend’s back. ‘But I don’t want to risk you in to getting more inappropriate and dangerous advances from Jayden. I think we might need to leave this pack sooner than we initially discussed’. ‘What do you mean!?’, Lucy’s big blue eyes intensified trying to decipher what was coming next from Jo. ‘Lucy, first things first, you need to reject Caleb if you really think that’s your final decision. And once that’s done, we need plan on leaving the same day the royals are. Because I am sure there will be a farewell party and the border patrol will be reduced during that period. We need to take our chances and escape’, Jo packed all the plan in one go as Lucy nodded at each sentence. ‘I am ready for this, Jo’. Jo looked at Lucy’s saddened face and felt bad about what Lucy was going to do next, rejecting the mate bond was never easy. She still remembered the first time she discovered Jayden being her mate and how she was excited to reveal to him that they were mates. But after that one incident, everything changed, and she never looked at mate bond the same way ever again. *Flash back- Five years ago* ‘Hey red head, which pack are you from?’, the tall guard lowered himself to match Jo’s eyes. ‘I.. am a rogue. I seek refuge in your pack and to pledge my oath to your Alpha’, 18-year-old Jo stuttered as she tried to remember what she practised before. She had been on the run for months and hiding her scent was very tiring, especially since it took a great amount of her energy reservoir. Jo nervously looked at the guard who was studying her carefully. She prayed he would believe her because she needed a cover. Her enemies were on her hot trails, and she could not afford making a single mistake. ‘Hey Pete, check this chick out. Claims to be rogue and needs refuge’, the tall man narrated to his friend who was now also looking at Jo. ‘Oh god’, she thought to herself as she started garnering more attention from the guards. Pete, a similar tall and muscular looking guard studied Jo and started his own interrogations. ‘Any previous pack?’. ‘No sir! I want to be in a pack, it’s been my lifelong dream please’, Jo pleaded as she got down on her knees. ‘Do you kneel and bent in other places too?’, one of the other guards guarding a different post hollered at her making everyone crackle. Jo could feel her face flushing as blood rushed instantly to her cheeks. The two guards before her were whispering between themselves as Pete finally gave Jo the green signal. ‘Alright. What’s your name?’. ‘Jolene, Sir’. ‘Don’t call me sir again, we don’t do that here soon. And you are aware you need to swear an oath to our Alpha and this pack?’. ‘I am’. *Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

After Jo was let into the pack, she spent several weeks training in the pack as an Omega. And in the second month, Jo was called along with the other refugees to a large ground where the Alpha would decide whether he wanted to finalise the oath and allegiance. The refugees were a mix of young, old werewolves and even abandoned pups. Alpha Warren called each of the refugee on to the small podium one by one. He started accepting some refugees making them swear allegiance while the rejected ones were made to leave the pack straightaway. After the Alpha screened nearly 13 refugees, he stopped and asked his son to take over. A young Alpha Jayden stepped forward proudly as he stood next to his dad. ‘Son, as a future Alpha of this pack. I want to you do the rest of the screening’, Alpha Warren warmly told his son who looked eager to do as asked. As Alpha Jayden started screening the refugees, Jo realised he was even harsher and stricter than his father. He seemed to only accept young girls and pups while instantly rejecting elderly werewolves. Jo started quivering with fear as her turn came. She did not want to go back in the no man’s border again and fend for herself. She wanted to rest for a while and restore her energy reservoir. ‘Jolene’, Alpha Jayden called her name. As Jo reached the podium and bowed before the Alpha, she sniffed the scent of peach and pinewood in the air. ‘Rise and let me look at you’, Jayden ordered her. Jo did as she was told. Her heart start racing, and she knew what was happening. The damn mate thing she had been hearing about werewolves was happening to her. Mates between different species were not impossible or unheard of. She could sense right from the start that Alpha Jayden was her mate. But of course, he did not even seem to have the slightest clue about it because Jo’s true scent was masked heavily. ‘I will accept you into my pack as an omega. Swear your allegiance now’, Jayden smirked at Jo as she quickly vocalised her oath and her joining was made official. The next few things she did was in a daze as her mind kept wondering back to Jayden’s emerald eyes. She hated to admit it, but she was already attracted to him in a way she did not like. Few months after the allegiance, Jo saw Jayden a few times here and there. She sometimes saw him in the dining area, sometimes in the training ground and she kept wanting more. She hated the fact that he was becoming her weakness and having a weakness was the last thing on her mind. On Jo’s 19th birthday, she even contemplated removing her mask and letting her true scent out. Jayden would be able to sense that she was his mate if she did that, he was already 21 by then. She really was going crazy even thinking that! Because if she let her true scent out, her enemies would easily be able to track her down and she was not even sure Jayden would be willing to accept the bond. Taking all the courage in the world, she decided to finally confront Jayden. But as she made her way to the training ground, she witnessed one of the most horrific things. Alpha Jayden along with his beta Leo and Mason were forcing themselves on a pregnant she-wolf. As they passed the terrified and desperate, she-wolf between themselves, Jo did not know what to do. The cries got louder and forgetting everything, she nearly went into the ground before she was stopped by a pair of shaky hands. ‘You can’t stop them. You are only going to get killed if you interrupt them’, a young voice came. ‘I am Polly, an omega like you. And trust me, this is not the first time, they have done something like this’. As Polly kept holding Jo, they watched as the predators played with their prey some bore and finally got bored. ‘I am done’, Jo heard Jayden’s voice say. ‘What do we do with her, boss’, his accomplice asked. Within a blink of an eye, Jayden ripped the pregnant she-wolf’s belly apart as he threw the foetus on the dusty ground floor. ‘Less waste on the earth’, Jayden commented making his subordinates laugh as Jo’s whole world started collapsing. The tiniest hope she had in her mate was now long gone. ‘So, this is Jayden’s true colour? I should have known’, Jo thought to herself as she cried uncontrollably. Moreover, as years went by, she saw more of Jayden’s brutality as he mercilessly killed countless slaves in the annual hunt and continued bedding, she-wolves none stop. After that incident, Jo decided she never wanted to reveal herself as Jayden’s mate, so, she carefully hid her true scent in all her clothes. But then Lucy happened and now Jo feared something horrible might happen to her poor friend. And all this because of her scent. She was not taking any more risk now. They needed to leave and fast.