Page 1 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

Chapter One

Ayden

“Adyen,youcan’tjustup and leave like this. The pack still needs you. The coven needs you. Atlas told you not to go on this wild goose chase. It’s been twenty years, whatever happened to his magic, it’s gone, and he has accepted that fate. Please, just come home.”

I sighed as I listened to my mother’s voicemail before shutting the phone down and tossing it into the nearest trash bin. The rain was overflowing the bin, immediately soaking the phone as it landed in a discarded cup filled with the cool summer rain. They might still be able to track me to this point, but that was as far as they would find any trace of me.

You’d think she would understand. He is her twin brother, after all. She has to sense how empty he feels without his magic. She has to know that it’s a facade he puts on when he claims he accepted his life without magic. He can’t have her fooled. He certainly doesn’t fool me.

I walk towards the alleyway that the humans seem to subconsciously avoid, unaware as to why they might be drawn away from the dimly lit path or that it even exists after all as they rush by in a sudden hurry to get wherever it is they are going.

I knew what was there though, and if the tip I received was worth its price, I would find exactly who I was looking for and be that much closer to getting back Atlas’s stolen magic.

“Rory, this way.”

I turned to the sound of the all to familiar voice, my blood running cold at the sound, even as my heart quickened as the scent of pomegranates and honey enveloped my lungs and washed away the scent of the rain and must of the alley. I turned to see the flash of lightning illuminating the silhouette of the very woman I knew it would be. Her golden-brown hair was darker in color from the rain falling over her head.

Her blue eyes widened as she faced me as well, the word on both of our lips before either of us knew what we were saying, and both of us immediately wishing to take the word back.

“Mate.”

“What did you just say, Sasha?” a second familiar female voice gasped from behind Sasha.

I managed to pull my eyes from the equally shocked woman in front of me to see her cousin Aurora Rigel-Chios standing behind her, her fiery red hair dry as the large man beside her held his coat protectively over her.

I scoffed as I recognized him and rolled my eyes. “I always had a feeling you two would end up together. Baer always did follow you around like a damned lost puppy, Aurora.”

Baer growled as Aurora stepped closer to Sasha, ignoring me. “Sasha, what did you just say?”

I looked back at my mate, my eyes narrowing at her as she glared back at me. “The Fates are playing a joke. There is no fucking way that I’ll accept you as my mate, Ayden Fairchild.”

“You think this is my idea of a great match, Rigel?” I snorted. “Go back home, I won’t be following you.”

I turned to head back down the alley, sensing the presence of dark magic, its stench thick in the air of the alley.

“Oh no you don’t! We are here on pack business. You get lost!” Sasha snapped. She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back to face her again.

I locked eyes with her, the pull of this damned bond pounding against the shields I instinctively put up. I could feel my wolf longing to pull her into my arms and claim what the fates had given to us. The gift of true love. At least, that was how my wolf saw it.

I knew better.

“I highly doubt the Rigel Pack has any business here at all,” I said as I pulled my eyes free of her blue eyes and locked with the other pair of eyes in their group. “But the Crete Witches, that would have been a far more believable lie.”

Baer stepped between me and Aurora, his deep growl holding a challenge that my wolf was more than happy to rise to if not for the more pressing matter at hand.

‘That’s enough,’I said to my wolf.‘The witch could get away, and Uncle Atlas may never get another chance to be whole again.’

‘Mate,’he growled at me.

‘Destined enemy,’I retorted, reminding him of why it was impossible for her and me to ever be true mates. That this was surely a mistake on The Fate’s end.

I pulled free of Sasha’s grip and turned back towards the dark alley as she sputtered for some command to stop me. She never had liked that I never fell for her false sense of authority just because her family founded the school that taught and housed so many witches and shifters, me included.

Everyone had always treated her like a princess, all except for me, my little cousin, and anyone else who came from our pack and coven. Even Baer fell into treating the Rigel pack’s daughter like some false royal amongst hybrids, though I was sure it was simply to keep Aurora happy and out of the crossfires between himself and Sasha. They were both alphas, after all.

A sudden dark scent swept through the alley, the darkness unmistakable and silencing us all in our place. Instinctively, I grabbed Sasha and threw her back against the nearest wall, my body shielding her from the dark magic that scorched through the alleyway. I glanced with a hiss over my shoulder to see Baer in the same position with Aurora as the darkness faded back.

“Sasha!” Aurora called out from against her mate’s chest. “It’s her! That’s Minerva! The one our parents have been searching for! She’s getting away!”

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