Alpha Jasper | ✔️(Published)

Chapter One

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Word Count: 1509

~Thea

I swing the dog's leash back and forth as I walk, watching the fake leather gleam in the dull light. Above my head, vicious clouds swoop in, looming over me with threatening shadows in it's wake. It makes me sigh irritably.

The Devotion Pack is situated centrally within the Pack Quarter. It can get warm here, but the weather remains typically gloomy and dull. It doesn't put you in the best mood when you look up and see a darkening cloud overhead that never results to anything.

I've decided to return June's stupid dog today. Might as well do it today and walk home in the daylight. After last night, June made me walk home with the small dog she thinks is protective. I decided to take the long work through the town, rather than delve into that forest. I nearly lost Squiggles...or whatever she calls it.

The village is pretty small. There are other townships within the Pack, but they are all miles away and desolate like our own. It's so tightknit, no one leaves, and no one comes in. At least, not since people started believing in Phantom's again.

Too scared to step foot out of the village, most people have accepted a simple life away from any other civilisation. Many people, including myself have also accepted the idea of never finding our mates. It sucks, but in some people's eyes, it is safer to stay away from where Phantom Wolves are said to lurk.

I just won't leave because my dad won't. And as a nineteen year old living with her father, who works part time at the local diner, I don't see myself doing anything else anyway...

The little Jack Russell June calls her guard dog skips ahead on its little legs. I'm not sure if dogs are allowed on streets this close to stores, but no one is really around to question it. It's a Monday, so the little amount of children in the area are at school, and everyone else is working.

"Maybe it will actually rain one day," I muse, not sure if the dog really listened to my mindless words. It cocked an ear, but that was it. I just listened to its claws click against the concrete, wishing my life was as simple as his.

Maybe it is as simple. I don't go anywhere. My boyfriend will probably have to mark me on the grounds that neither of us are likely to find our own mates. My dad works most days. My friend is a crazy lunatic sometimes. And I don't have enough money to move out...Okay maybe it isn't that simple.

I stare into the store windows as I pass by, wishing I could afford some of the nice clothing and what not. Instead, I am left looking at my own hazel eyes, and frumpy clothes.

I need a miracle...

Suddenly, my eyes catch on something taped to the store window of a second hand clothing shop. It has my sneakered feet finding a stop, my eyebrows raising past the line of mussed brown hair that swoops over my forehead.

A piece of paper, newly printed with bold text, with a photo vibrant that's surprisingly eye catching. But not as eye catching as the title it is.

"Missing Person"

My heart rises in my throat, as I assess the name under the familiar photo. "Jessica Holmes."

I went to school with her. She was the epitome of an introvert-kept to herself, always drawing in her notepad or reading some high fantasy novel. I think she was better friends with the town librarian than anyone in our year.