Aries

Chapter 1

Laughter rang around me as I made my way through the packhouse to reach the alpha's office. The hallways were cleaned, paintings dusted and the vases changed. As much as everyone maintained to keep the packhouse neat and tidy, today we took extra care. After all, it was not every day the next alpha returned home with his newly mated Alpha female.

Cheryl and Catherine, the twins of the pack frowned at me. I sighed. I knew what a sight I was. Livvia had asked me to give a hand at painting and we ended up covering our jeans and tank tops with a splay of colours. I grimaced at them and Cheryl opened her mouth to say something.

"Lyra!" Rhaze, my sister shouted behind the twins as she dashed towards me. "Where were you? The alpha called you an hour ago!" Pausing, she gave me a horrified look. "In which hell did you fall in?"

At this, the twins' suppressed a laugh and left before Rhaze could tell them anything.

My eyes widened as I wiped a sweat trickling down my head. "An hour? Mike told me just now!"

"Well," she said, dragging me past the crowd. "We need to go! Alpha Violet needs you after you meet Alpha Charles. Then-"

She spoke too fast to be coherent and her voice was lost to the crowd of females who were hoarded on the kitchen and the proof of their work was the tantalising aroma of the food that saturated the entire pack house. Males were out, cleaning the grounds, painting the walls and the gates. As for the pups, they did what they did every day just with more vigour. But seeing the pups were a rare blessing among our kind, they were given complete liberty to do whatever mischief they wanted. Even if it meant sneaking on the Alpha for the alpha command would not work on shifters until they hit puberty.

Racing two floors up, we stood before the alpha's office. From the conversation within, I knew Alpha Charles, his mate, Alpha Violet, my parents and the gamma pair were in a conversation.

Knocking, my sister waited for the Alpha pair to give us permission to enter.

The buzz inside the room died before a feeble 'come in' was heard.

Opening the door, Rhaze walked in before me and bowed to the Alpha pair. "I brought Lyra."

I glanced at the leaders of the pack. They usually wore a smile upon seeing us. But now, even I could sniff the lie in that smile.

The Alpha was a handsome male. Even though he appeared around thirty in human years of the other six continents with his blue eyes and silver hair, he was two hundred years old. Same went for Alpha Violet with her hair as dark as ink and eyes brown enough to fill anyone with warmth just by gazing into it. Yet, she was a vicious beast wearing the skin of beauty; no female warrior could ever beat her. In the time of wars, she always stood on the first line of defence right next to Alpha Charles.

Rolling my eyes at my sister, I bowed to the two people who were like second parents to me. "I was already on my way here, Rhaze."

Alpha Violet gave me a blank look when she assessed me. She shook her head. "You know what? I am not going to comment on that." I glanced at the dress adorned in the paint. I had no one to blame but myself and Raoul who started the paint fight. Then she continued, "It's good that everyone's here. We have news."

"What news, Violet?" mom asked.

Rhaze went and sat next to mom and I took my seat next to Gamma Lyanne.

"Wait!" Gamma Branwell said. "The future Beta, Cain is not here and so is my daughter."

Gamma Lyanne, Branwell's mate snorted, "We agreed that Livvia will not be the next Gamma. She went to the science sector. If I could, I would disown her for not listening to me."