Chapter 6

The traditional wolf doesn’t truly have an “alpha”. The theory behind alpha wolves came from an animal behaviorist named Rudolph Schenkel who wrote a book theorizing what he had observed. He, himself, later debunked this theory through further research.

Traditional wolves don’t have alphas, they have parents. The “alpha” wolves were not more dominant by nature, but rather the patriarchs and matriarchs of family units. Wolf packs grew larger when older litters decided to remain close to their parents in places food was plentiful enough to support them.



The thing to remember is that werewolves are not traditional wolves.

Spending half of their lives in a humanoid form meant their brains were more complicated than traditional wolves and given the adaptability of humans, with twice their life expectancy, werewolves were capable of expanding the sizes of their packs far beyond that of traditional wolves. This meant entire communities could be created with wolves.

A common rule was to respect their elders, but with dozens of teenaged wolves coming of age at the same time, it became more challenging for the adults to rein in their progenies, let alone agree on the ‘right’ way to raise them. Naturally, fighting broke out a lot in these pack communities.

Over time, the fights became a way of life. Werewolves fought each other to assert dominance, the strongest becoming pack leaders. The term, “alpha” truly came to apply to these members who over generations were even able to project their power.



Mila’s gaze fell on the alpha male that had projected his commanding voice at her. She had seen many different sorts of warriors in her time, but he was truly magnificent to behold.

He had shifted from his wolfskin to a human shape. He was tall, taller than most human men should be. Thick, tanned, ropey arms were crossed over a wide chest. His hands were large as shovels, certainly intimidating to a smaller foe whom he could easily crush the life out of.

His chest gave to a healthy set of abdominal muscles which were taught from exercise and shiny from sweat. The smooth, lines led down to a slim waist and rather sizeable endowment which Mila was quite privy to as he was completely naked.

Had she been a normal human girl, Mila might have blushed. As it were, she had lived a long time. While this man was surely impressive, she had seen her fair share of human flesh. When her eyes skated over his nude form, it wasn’t to admire, it was to seek weakness.

This might have been easier had there been any weaknesses to observe. Years of training as a guard for her god had made Mila quite adept at pinpointing weakness in opponents, but no matter where she looked, he was pristine. There was no sign of a flaw on his perfect body and his composure was absolute.

He stood, looking down his straight nose at her. His full lips were a little pouty as a muscle in his jaw twitched. Mila’s instinct would have been to go for the throat, but he was well over a foot taller than her. It would be a stretch.

The next best option would be to go low. The male genitals were sensitive to attack and there were arteries in the thighs that could be cut as easily as the jugular. He would bleed out.

The question was how to get to that point. As she was strategizing, he was watching her with an easy calmness. He had no fears about taking her on and he had back-up.

He stood with perfect posture, exposing his more vulnerable points without a hint of fear or embarrassment. Not that there was anything at all to be embarrassed about.

Mila’s serrated fangs clicked together as she made her calculations. He was bigger, but now that he was in human form, she was faster.

There was no chance of escape for her. Once she took him down, the other two wolves would tear her apart. Her only hope was to give the unicorn opportunity to escape.

The unicorn, whose head was bowed to the forest floor under the weight of the alpha command. She saw it from the corner of her eye. Mentally, she willed it to flee.

“We will not harm the unicorn.” The alpha wolf’s gravelly voice ground out.

Mila scowled. He had the gall to look annoyed with her when he’d been the one to chase them first.

“Sheath your weapon, child.” He growled. “We will not attack unless you intend to force us.”

The term ‘child’ threw her for a moment. She blinked stupidly at the man for a moment. Was it possible he didn’t know what she was? She could hardly smell him over her own odor, how could it escape him?

“And just who are you to order me and call me ‘child’, little pup?” She called, speaking carefully while her teeth continued to click together menacingly.

The two wolves behind her growled.

The man did not falter. “You entered our territory and hunted our prey. You have no right to retaliate against us now.”

“Territory?” She echoed.

Was it possible? Had she really passed a marked boundary of this pack without noticing? Were her senses so dulled that she had failed to recognize the stink of werewolves?

Mila frowned, her sword dropping a little. She tried hard to breathe in deeply, to catch the scent of wolf on the air. Surely, she was surrounded by it.

When she failed to register anything, she felt real panic. Her sword fell to the ground with a heavy thump. Was this a curse from her god? Was she losing everything?

A sudden wave of vertigo hit her then. Though her fighting stance was well practiced, she suddenly felt as though her feet had lost purchase on the ground. Her whole body shook – or was it the forest?

The forest went sharply sideways then. She felt a hard coldness thwack her cheek. She gasped as her second teeth pressed into the soft flesh of her lips. She’d bitten herself.

Everything swirled for what felt like a long time before fading into black. The unicorn bleated from somewhere far away. Something very warm touched her face and throat. Then she remembered no more.