The Runt and the Alpha

Prologue

Prologue- Leah

I was curled up in bed dreaming of being a wolf running through the forest with the wind blowing through my fur. I would stop to howl at the moon and then roll through a patch of daisies, disrupting everything in my path. I couldn't wait until I was older so that I could change into a proper wolf and then I could go on these kind of adventures that I dreamt about rather than only experiencing them when I slept or when I climb onto the back of one of my brother's backs.

My peaceful dream was abruptly cut short by a rough shake, courtesy of Jake, one of my elder brothers.

"Leah, Leah! Wake up, quick! There are a group of really bad men outside, very bad men who want to kill us. You have to escape Leah, do you understand me?" Jake informed me in a hurried tone.

I stumbled out of my bed whilst clutching my favourite teddy named Mr. Fred. Jake grabbed my tiny hand in his huge one and hurriedly ran down the stairs close with me close behind him going as fast as my little legs could go. We sprinted out of the house and made it as far as the oak tree, positioned on the edge of the forest which surrounded the house before a man wielding a gun ambushed us. Jake automatically pulled me behind himself protectively, trying to be a human shield to protect me from these evil men. "Leah listen to me, you have to run and don't stop until you reach Aunty Beth's house, do you think you could do that for me? On the count of three," whispered Jake, I nodded. "One...Two...Three!" as soon as Jake said three I was past the trees and through the forest like a whippet and I never turned around, I kept running with Jake's words ringing in my head "run and don't stop" so that's exactly what I did. That was six years ago, I was 10 years old and that was the last time I ever saw my parents and brothers and it still haunts me to this day. That was the day that my parents and two older brothers died, they were murdered by a group of wolf hunters and that was the day that I promised that one day I would get revenge.

 Jared

 "Daddy, what happened to Mummy?" I innocently asked my father at the age of 5.

"Love made her weak and she died because of it," answered my father harshly. This is what my father had told me 13 years ago. I didn't quite understand what that meant at the time. I was jealous to see my friends and pack mates happily playing with their mothers and at one point I even asked my best friend's mum to also be mine and I even told her that I wouldn't mind if she adopted me. She responded that she would happily be a mother figure for me but she would never replace my mother, nobody would ever be able to do that.

My father would always tense and get angry at me whenever I would innocently ask about my mother and the reason for her death. He would deflect the many questions that were bubbling away in my brain and would reply as vaguely as possible and talk about how love was the real reason behind my mother's death. I was beginning to give up even attempting to ask him about it, it would get me nowhere.

However things changed when I turned 12, I think my father started to realise that he couldn't shield me from the truth forever. He started to explain how he and she were mates; which apparently meant that they shared some sort of unbreakable bond strengthened by love, it sounded like a whole lot of rubbish to me.

He continued to tell me how a wolf hunter had suddenly attacked the pack and wanted to kill the alpha immediately, as without an alpha to lead the pack then the pack would turn into turmoil and we would be considerably weaker without him. Therefore, naturally when my mother heard about this she was distraught. My parents were soul mates and were destined to be together forever; nobody can love another as much as somebody loves their mate.

This was the reason when the wolf hunter came for my father she helped fight and defend the pack against the wishes of my father, all she wanted to do was protect her mate and she couldn't do that within the safety of their house. However, soon the wolf hunter realised that my parents were mated and decided that if he wasn't able to kill my father he could still crush his heart and kill part of him instead. My mother did put up a good fight but the wolf hunter was unlike any other human she had ever come across and fought, he was designed and trained to kill wolves, it was his job. My mother died because of a silver blade through her neck in the hands of a wolf hunter. It was after my father explained to me about my mother's death that I realised that my father was right, if my mother didn't love my father then she wouldn't have felt the need to protect him and take on a wolf hunter then she wouldn't have died a horrible, slow and painful death at the hands of such an evil man

. It was after this realisation that I vowed that I never wanted to meet my mate and if I ever met her then I would ignore her until those feelings went away. It would be simple, my cousin Sam had already found his mate, Megan and he had already told me all about how finding your mate makes you feel. Apparently all you want to do is protect your mate and love and care for her. He also explained that you find out who your mate is when you touch her and when that happens you get a tingly feeling and you may even get slightly lightheaded. It was after I was told this that I vowed that I would never touch anybody of the female sex unless they were related to me.

It was soon after hearing about the attack and reason for my mother's death that I promised myself that one day I would get revenge on the wolf hunter who murdered my mother.