Alpha Scarlett

Lost in Thought

Scarlett's POV

I'm sitting in my office with my feet propped up on my desk, breathing in the rich scent of my chair's dark brown leather upholstery and tapping my pen on my teeth in my slightly open mouth when I hear my Beta practically yelling at me.

"Alpha Scarlett"! Cayden nearly shouted, snapping my focus back to him. Cayden Fenn and I have known each other our entire lives. His father was my father Beta and now Cayden is mine. That's how I know I must have allowed my mind to start wandering a while ago; when it's just the two of us, we're very casual with each other, so the fact that he's using my title with my name grabs my attention. The look on his face, with one eyebrow raised while the other is furrowed and the slight scowl on his face tells me that he's both annoyed and concerned by my zoning out.

"Sorry! Sorry, Cayden. I don't know where my mind is today, I apologize. What were you saying." I say, giving him an apologetic smile, while also pushing the sincerity of my apology through our mind link.

"I bet I know what's on your mind." He says, this time raising both eyebrows at me and giving me a look that clearly says, "Don't make me pull it out of you, you stubborn Alpha wolf."

I sigh. "Did you get the invitation to Alpha Merrick's wedding?" I ask, already knowing the answer but using it as a way to open the door to this conversation that I don't really want to have with my best friend but will before he starts to become a pest about it. Weddings aren't common practice in the werewolf community, but Alpha Merrick is mated to a human (also not common practice in the werewolf community) and he wants to give her a wedding to honor her human traditions.

"We did." The "we" referring to him and his mate Zella. "I'm assuming you did, too?"

I nod, slowly.

"Are you planning on going? I don't think he'd be offended if you didn't, but it would be strange for you to not be there since you're both Alphas and we have an alliance with the Blood Moon pack."

"Yeah, of course I'm going." I say, sounding almost bored by it. I'm not bored by it, though. After all, why wouldn't an unmated female Alpha wolf not want to go to a wedding and see all the other happily mated couples with their offspring? "Are you Zella going?" I ask in part because I'll feel better having Cayden and Zella there as a buffer but also because if we're both going, I'll need to make sure our Gamma and Delta will be around to run things while we're away.

"I was going to talk to you about it. That was actually one of the reasons I came in here. I was going to tell you that we're planning on going and see if you wanted to come with us after we were done talking about the strange scents that our patrols picked up last night. But then you started daydreaming and not listening to a damn thing I was saying." He says with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, that would be great. Makes more sense to all go in one car. We'll just need to make sure that Bree and Jacob are all set." Naming our pack's Gamma and Delta, respectively.

"You know, you don't have to be mated to have a pup. It would still be your heir." Cayden says gently, giving me a lopsided smile with his mouth, while his eyes, "just talk to me about what's really going on."

"What? Where'd that come from?" I exclaim, trying to laugh it off. But I already know where it came from. I'm one of the only female Alphas in the country, I'm unmated and I don't have an heir. As my Beta, Cayden is of course aware of this, but as my lifelong best friend, he knows what I don't talk about with other people: that being a female Alpha is lonely. And, despite living in a large pack, I'm often lonely. At 28 years of age, I still haven't met my mate and at this rate, I'm not sure I ever will. I still have several more pup-bearing years ahead of me, so I have time to give the pack an heir, one way or another, but as we all know, the older you get, the greater the risks. So, here I am, one of the most powerful women in the country and I don't have anyone to share it with or anyone to pass it down to. I know my parents aren't concerned – if I never have pups, then one of my brothers' mates can produce an heir. But it's not just that. I may be a tough, badass Alpha bitch, but I also have a lot of love to give. I want a partner, not only in the pack, but in life. And I want our love to give us a family that only allows the love to grow.

Chapter 2

As far as the pack is concerned, I always have Cayden, Bree and Jacob to turn to, and while I love all three of them, it's not the same as having your fated mate. That person who is the other half of your soul. Someone who supports you, challenges you, encourages you and loves you. Yes, I get all of that from Cayden, Bree, Jacob and any number of our pack members, but I'm also having hot, marathon-like sex with any of them, which is another draw of being with your fated mate. Which isn't to say that I don't get laid. I'm still a woman after all and I have needs. There used to be a couple of warriors in the pack that could scratch that itch as it were, but after my dad decided to retire and I became the Alpha, I knew those booty calls couldn't continue. Eventually, someone would have found out and that's the type of thing that breeds resentment within a pack.

That's when Alpha Raul Farkus entered my orbit. Also unmated, Raul leads the Dark Sun Pack. We met at my Alpha ceremony. (Knowing that I'd be one of only a few female Alphas, my parents made a point of inviting pack leadership from ALL the packs, all over the country. Not all of them came of course, but a lot more did than I had originally expected. And Raul was one of them. We knew right away that we weren't fated mates (neither one of us felt the pull of the mate bond) but we still spent the entire evening talking and dancing, discovering that we have a lot in common, from the movies we like to our beliefs on leading a strong, prosperous pack. We had completely lost track of time until we noticed the reds, oranges and yellows of the sun rising over my pack lands. That's when we acknowledged that while we're not fated mates, there's a definite attraction and we acted on it. And, boy, oh, boy did we ever act on it! He may not be my fated mate, but that guy knows how to make my body sing. From his mouth to his fingers to his damn-near magical cock, he ever leaves me lacking. Since then, we've maintained a supportive yet casual dynamic. We're not in a relationship but I think many people know that we have sex, (we are wolves after all. Something like that is hard to kind amongst a bunch of shifters with enhanced senses of smell and hearing), our packs are in an alliance, and we genuinely do like each other. The Dark Sun Pack is about a 4-hour drive from the Crimson Snow Pack so it's far enough away that our "situationship" will never be anything more than what it is but also close enough that it's not completely unreasonable to make the trip when the need arises. And while Raul and I have some kind of connection that includes fantastic sex, he's not my fated mate. That knowledge, when we part ways after one of our trysts, sometimes leaves me feeling even lonelier. There's a sad irony in knowing that Raul feels the same way. And Cayden is the only person I've told this to.

Look, I really do love being an Alpha and being one of the only women in the country to hold such a rank. I feel like trailblazer, like I'm helping to shape a future where all she-wolves can be in leadership positions without question. And it just makes me feel like a badass, which at only 5'2", I don't necessarily look like one, so I appreciate the contrast of my small frame and my big rank. I love my parents for taking a stand and basically saying, "fuck the patriarchy" when I was born, by naming me my father's heir since I'm the oldest, despite being a she-wolf. Fortunately, there wasn't anything in our laws that prohibited them from naming me the heir. Rather it was a societal thing-generations of older wolves clutching their pearls and saying, "but that's just not how it's done"-so my parents were able to drag the other packs kicking and screaming into the 21st century without causing any wars. Had they not done that, it would be my brother Ronan sitting in this office.

Ronan would have been a great Alpha had our parents stuck with tradition, but luckily, he always knew that I'd be the Alpha of the Crimson Snow Pack and never harbored any resentment towards me about it. Quite the opposite in fact – he's proud of his big sister, boasting about me whenever he can, to anyone who will listen. I had originally thought that I'd make him my Beta and name our youngest brother Dax as the Gamma. But as time went on, Ronan realized that he wasn't interested in a pack leadership role. No, he had his eyes set on something bigger – being involved in wolfpack politics at the national level. He started out serving as our pack's alternate male delegate to the Congress of Werewolves and Shifters (COWS), to being the male delegate to now being a COWS representative, representing all the packs of the Northeastern District. So, yeah, he's also a badass, it just looks different than my form of badassery.

Our youngest brother Dax is currently the pack's Lead Warrior, which means he works closely with Gamma Bree in running trainings and sparring sessions, and with me when it comes to battle strategy. Thanks to my parents' leadership, leadership which I at least hope I'm carrying on, there's been little reason for the latter, but I like knowing that I have one of my brothers, someone whom I trust implicitly, in that role. And, my parents, while retired, still live on pack lands while they enjoy their retirement. So, I'm really very lucky. But it's still not the same as what I see Cayden has with Zella or Bree has with her mate Asher.

I hate to admit it out loud, because I like being this tough, Alpha badass bitch and I don't want to give the men reasons to doubt me by falling into female cliches-the woman who can't wait to get married and have a family-or showing weakness. So, I don't admit it out loud, I keep my loneliness to myself. Except for times like now when Cayden decides to be a pain in my ass.

"Scar", Cayden says simply, looking me right in the eye.

I sigh again. "I know you want me to talk about how I'm feeling and maybe it would make me feel better about Merrick's upcoming wedding, but I think we have bigger things to deal with right now. Like those scents that our patrols picked up. I know you were telling me about them when I zoned out, so catch me up.

Cayden narrows his eyes at me for a moment and says, "Okay, but we're nowhere near done talking about this, Scarlett." Oh, goodie, I think to myself. Want to bring Zella, too? How about your parents and siblings? Let everyone in on my private life. "Anyway, our patrols haven't been able to identify the scents. They aren't rogue wolves. They aren't wolves at all. Some trackers went out to see if they could follow the scent – they'll let us know what they find."

"Hmmm." I say. Not wolves? Well, it's certainly not uncommon for humans who are camping or hiking to wander onto pack lands. But that can't be it because my warriors would know the scent of humans. "Are there any other animal shifters coming into the area?", knowing that in this country we at least have bear, fox and cougar shifters.

Cayden just shakes his head. "It didn't smell like any shifter we'd find in this country. And it wasn't a purely animal smell and. It definitely wasn't human."

I narrow my eyes slightly and tilt my head, looking at Cayden. "Not a shifter. Not an animal and not a human? What the hell else is there?"

Chapter 2 coming soon