Alpha Aria

Chapter 1 The Past Always Catches Up

***Content Warning: Violence and Sexual Assault***

ARIA

“Daddy, I’m scared!” I cried, tears forming in the corners of my eyes. My father stood protectively in front of me, blocking the view of my mother and the attackers, but I could hear the fighting. The sound of fangs shredding flesh, yelping and squelching, growling and snarling were flooding my ears and the terror in my chest was constricting my breath.

“I know you’re scared, but you can do it. Your mommy and I love you so much. Just run, darling!”

I shook my head, tears now streaming down my face. “I can’t!”

“Yes, you can, Aria!” His hands moved in a circling pattern, fingers pointed, and he mumbled something quietly that I couldn’t make out above the cacophony of battle. A ball of green light formed between his hands and his eyes glowed, matching the crackling energy he wielded. He pushed his hands toward me and it flew at me, absorbing into me painlessly. I had no idea what spell he just cast on me, but I knew it was meant to protect me.

“Now go!” he shouted at me, turning around to face the fighting. “Whatever you do, don’t look back. Run, Aria! RUN!”

The urgency in his voice connected somewhere deep inside of me, and I was compelled to obey. I turned and fled, trampling the chanterelles scattered on the forest floor with my feet. We had spent all morning gathering them before the rogues ambushed us. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted my basket of found treasures that I had collected, and I leaned over to grasp the handle, but I didn’t see the tree root sticking out of the ground. My small body tumbled forward and I landed in a crevice of the roots, my ankle bursting with intense pain. I looked up and I could see my parents in the small clearing ahead.

My mother had shifted partially into her large black wolfish human form. She stood on two legs, her muscled body covered with fur, her claws sharp and long. Her snout extended partially from her face, two wolfish ears protruding from her head. This was the strongest fighting form for a werewolf, and only possible on the full moon, unless you are an alpha. This was the classic werewolf form from legends that humans thought were myth.

My father was next to her, facing two partially shifted rogues. For any other person, facing shifters as a human would be fatal, but my father was no human. He was a powerful warlock. Green flames shot from his hands and landed on them. They screeched in agony as the magic enveloped their bodies and they burned, and a moment later they fell, their bodies charcoaled. The spell must have taken a lot of gnostic energy, for he fell to his knees, exhausted.

I could see three dead rogues sprawled on the ground around my mother. When an Alpha fights, they fight fast and ferociously. There were two left fighting her, slashing at her with long claws extending from their fingers. She jumped and tore out the throat on one of them, while the other slashed at her shoulder. She turned to him, blood dripping from her fangs and snarled at him. They lunged at each other and my mother seized his neck and disposed of him quickly. I breathed a sigh of relief, which didn’t last long.

A tall and wiry rogue with one eye and greasy black hair dropped from the trees behind her, and for some reason, she didn’t hear him. He moved so fast I couldn’t keep up; he raked her from behind, so deeply I could see her ribs. Blood instantly came gushing out and she turned to him to attack, but she didn't even get one hit in before he had jabbed his hand into her front. He pulled away, holding something in his hands. I couldn’t see it clearly enough to know what it was but then I saw the hole in her chest. She stared ahead, her eyes dazed, and she collapsed, her body crashing to the ground. She transformed back to her human form, naked and unconscious. I could see a blackness spreading through her veins as she rapidly turned gray. My father cried out in anguish. "Victoria!" He threw himself onto her body as a sob wracked his body.