The Alpha's Shadow

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Howl

Detective Luna Marquez stepped carefully around the crimson puddle, taking in the gruesome scene. The victim lay face down, throat ripped out savagely. Luna clenched her jaw as she snapped on a pair of latex gloves and crouched down for a closer look.

Werewolf kill. Had to be. She'd bet her badge on it.

As a human detective who specialized in supernatural cases for the Avaloria Police Department, Luna had seen enough fang and claw marks to recognize a werewolf's handiwork. Not that she would dare breathe that conclusion here. Tensions were high enough already between the humans and werewolves who uneasily shared Avaloria. One wrong move could ignite the powder keg their city had become.

Luna traced the jagged wounds tentatively. She had to be certain. If news got out that a werewolf was behind this, riots would surely follow. The wolf packs already walked a razors edge keeping their unruly members in line.

As she examined the vicious laceration, Luna's thoughts drifted back to her childhood. She had grown up in the outskirts of Avaloria in a largely human neighborhood, but vividly remembered the day a werewolf family moved in down the block. Luna had been playing with her friend Lily in the front yard when the moving truck pulled up.

The two girls watched curiously as the family stepped out—a mother, father, and a young boy who looked about Luna's age. The father wore a worn flannel shirt and cracked a joke that made his wife laugh. The boy's eyes grew wide with excitement as he took in the big oak tree on their new lawn, likely imagining the play forts he could build amongst its branches. They looked so normal, so similar to Luna's own loving parents. Except for one striking difference—the pointed ears and flashing golden eyes that marked the family as werewolves.

Luna barely had time to process this new sight before Lily's own parents came storming out of their house, faces mottled purple with rage. They shouted obscenities at the werewolf family, telling them to go back where they came from. Werewolves didn't belong in a decent neighborhood, they spat.

Luna watched, stunned, as the kind-eyed werewolf father simply held up his hands calmly, speaking in a gentle tone. "We don't want any trouble, we just need a place to live, same as anyone," he tried to explain, but Lily's parents were hearing none of it. The angry tirade continued until the werewolf family had no choice but to get back in their truck and drive away in search of a more welcoming home.

Looking back now, Luna felt ashamed at just standing there, a silent witness. She should have spoken up, defended the right of that werewolf family to live there if they chose. But the raw hatred in Lily's parents' voices had paralyzed her. After the family left, Lily's parents treated it like a victory, as if they had vanquished some enemy instead of fellow people just trying to find a home.

Luna never forgot the crestfallen look on the werewolf boy's face as his newfound home slipped away. It was her first glimpse into the prejudice that festered beneath Avaloria's surface—on both sides of the species divide. Perhaps that was why she had felt drawn to law enforcement, to somehow make a difference. But here she was, ten years later, still confronting that same prejudice.

Her haunted reverie was shattered by footsteps approaching. She looked up to see her partner, Detective Marco Santini, frowning at the bloodied scene. His forehead creased as he took in the victim.

"Another one," he murmured gravely. Though Marco tried to hide it, Luna didn't miss the suspicious glint in his eyes as he scanned the alley. She felt her shoulders tense, bracing for the inevitable conclusion Marco would draw. He had never trusted Avaloria's werewolf population, not after his sister became collateral damage in a prior wolf pack dispute.

"Looks like an animal attack," Luna offered casually, hoping to steer him away from unnecessary speculation. The last thing she needed was Marco making public accusations against the werewolves, not when she herself wasn't completely convinced of their guilt. At least, not yet.