Ava
“Orders up!” Bill shouts as he places the plate with fries and a burger on the serving station, spinning it slightly
with a flourish.
Even though this was just a diner, Bill pr epared simple food like it was a five-star restaurant. Popular on most days,
even his burgers couldn’t pull the locals in today—not with the Gathering of the Eastern packs taking place one
town over tonight. The local human population was ke eping to their houses, fear of us not entirely gone even
though we had lived side by side for the last couple of decades.
Dropping the order off at a table on the far side, I grab the coffee pot, heading over to my best friend Nick, who is
furiously typing on his laptop.
He worked remotely as a coder for a large corporate company based in New York. Whatever that in volved. His
screen just looked like gibberish to me.
But it earned him the big bucks, so it must be important.
“Take a breather,” I say, refilling his coffee cup as he continues typing.
“I’m trying to get this project out before this thing tonight. Remind me again why we need to go?” Nick asks with
irritation as he sips on the black, sugar-free liquid.
“All wolves need to go. It’s mandatory. Even for us rogues. We are registered with the sheriff's office, so they
know we stay here. Not going can have consequences,” I mumble, while in my mind, I’m also contemplating that
going could have its own consequences.
Our old pack—the Bloodmoon Pack—would be there. I last saw them nine years ago, on my eighteenth birthday,
the day my life changed. I shudder as memories bubble up.
“Stop. Don’t even think about it. We're not eighteen anymore. We don’t have to allow them to impact us like they
did,” Nick says, reaching for my hand and squeezing it reassuringly.
“We go there tonight and show them what their pack is missing out on,” he jokes, his hand swe eping the length of
me as he laughs. I look down at the ketchup mark on my apron. Yip. Luckily, I wasn’t going looking like this.
Nick laughs again as I start rubbing at the stain, only succeeding in spreading it further.
“I hear the Alpha King is hot. I wish I could go,” Jackie whines, plopping herself down next to Nick. She was the
other waitress here, and even though she wasn’t on duty, she always seemed to be here. Nobody liked her because
of some incident between her father and the sheriff that happened years ago. Town prejudices and politics amongst
humans ran as de ep as they did in packs. I felt for her, being on the outside, for something she didn’t even do. She
didn’t even have any friends. Luckily, I had Nick. I wouldn’t have survived without him.
He was my only friend growing up. Everyone else avoided me. When my tenth birthday came around, and I failed
to shift, it was the final nail in the coffin. I was branded a runt. A defective. That’s when it really got bad.
Even my parents shunned me. For some reason, Nick stuck by me. He was also small for a wolf back then, leaving
him a prime target for bigger boys to pick on. Being outsiders connected us. We formed an unbreakable bond.
So when my mate rejected me on my eighteenth birthday, he came with me when I left the pack. Both of us chose
to become rogue rather than endure another minute in a pack that treated us worse than they did the pigs.
“Alpha King Braiden won’t be single for long. I hear he has chosen a mate. She is apparently so beautiful people
say it hurts to look at her,” Angie, Bill's wife, says as she passes by. I suppose running this diner with Bill means
she hears all the gossip in town and across the borders, especially with the number of people who pass through.
“Well, I’ve heard he is a difficult man, so good luck to whoever she is,” I say absentmindedly as I pull on my apron
strings, the clock on the wall
telling me my shift is over.
Nick and I leave, both of us quiet on the short car ride to the small house he owns and that we share in the center of
town. While most of the time we are okay with how things have panned out, we still remember what happened
back then.
After a quick shower, I pull on the dress Nick bought for me one day when he was in New York. He says he saw it
and knew it was meant for me.
Something I couldn’t argue as the satin material slides down my skin, hugging my body in all the right places. The
green matches my eyes, I think as I turn to the side, looking at myself in the mirror. Most of the scars are hidden,
and those that aren’t are faded. I leave my hair as is, just running some product through so my natural curls don’t
look frizzy. I apply minimal makeup, not wanting to cover the freckles on my face that all the kids teased me about
when I was younger.
Standing back, I look at the twenty-seven-year-old me with less critical eyes than I did when I was younger. More
influenced by the thoughts and opinions of others. It has been a long road to learning to love myself, and no one
would take that away.
“Wow, wee, you look hot, Ava,” Nick says, cat whistling as he enters my room, appearing in the mirror behind me.
“So do you. We clean up good.” I laugh as I eye the muscular Greek god standing behind me in his tailor-fitted suit.
He might have been small when he was younger, but that scrawny boy was nowhere to be seen. In his place was a
man. A handsome, kind man.
“Let’s get this over with, my lady,” he says, holding his arm out to me with exaggerated flair.
The drive is only ten minutes, shorter than I hoped. My nerves are causing strange butterflies in my stomach, a
premonition perhaps of what is to come. Nick is similarly quiet, and I can see by how he is gripping the steering
wheel that he is also fighting his own demons.
The ceremony is being held in the Silver Wood pack lands, and we know as soon as we cross the border. The scent
marking indicating where the territory starts is so pungent it makes me nauseous. It was not only there to tell others
who the land belonged to, but it was also a warning to those who may want to trespass uninvited.
We follow a couple of cars along the sand driveway and into a large parking area across from the pack hall. Nick
and I glance at each other before eyeing the intimidating building. This pack was well off compared to our old one.
It was ranked third in the world, with a pack in the North second and Alpha King Braiden’s pack in the South
taking the top spot. He apparently lived in a secluded cabin in the woods with a range of she- wolves at his beck
and call, along with the beauty soon-to-be his Queen, and Luna, that Angie mentioned. But rumors were always
going around about the King, so no one knew what to believe. Being king from the age of sixteen and now eighteen
years in meant there were already many to pick from. I never read the werewolf news, but I did have ears, and even
the human population spoke about him.
“Okay. De ep breaths. We got this. And remember to calm yourself down.
If you have an incident here, the cat will be out of the bag, and then who knows what they will do. And stay away
from the King. It’s said his senses are beyond sharp.” Nick’s last words make me laugh.
“I doubt the King and I will be in the same vicinity. Have you seen all the security here? He probably has enough
guards surrounding him that no one will even get a glimpse of the man,” I say, nervously smoothing my hand down
my dress.
I slip my arm through Nick’s, and we approach the entrance. Pack warriors stand on either side, while a beautiful
she-wolf stands at the door, ticking off names as people arrive.
“And you two are?” she asks, smiling even though she can smell we are rogues. While some acc ept that the term
rogue has changed over time, others have not. And while some rogues are dangerous, most of us are not.
“Nick Sanders and Ava Smith,” Nick introduces, the woman searching for our names on the clipboard before
ticking us off.
“You are the only two rogues in this area, and yet you don’t smell like rogues,” she says, leaning forward to give
me a better sniff. “Interesting.
Well, good luck, and I hope you enjoy it.” She smiles at us before moving on to the group behind us.
Wow, that was interesting. I knew we were the only rogues in our town, but I didn’t realize we were the only
rogues in the Eastern area. Saving that information for later, I follow Nick's lead as we walk down the long corridor
to the large hall we can see through massive double doors. The
decorations and furnishings scream wealth. No expense has been spared. In the center of the hall is a huge buffet
while waiters walk around serving entrees and champagne. Soft music fills the air, and everyone is dressed up in
ballgowns and suits.
Immediately, all eyes are on us. Noses lift in the air as they scent us— most frown in confusion or shock at our
presence, while others regard us with keen interest.
I recognize some faces from our old pack, though gauging from their expressions, they do not recognize us. No
surprise, really, as we look completely different nine years later. I wonder if I will bump into my parents. They
never contacted me once I left the pack, and even though I tried calling them, they would not answer. Eventually, I
gave up. The saddest part was that I didn't even miss them. They wrote me off long before I left, so I had a lot of
time to pr epare.
“Well, well. If it isn’t little Ava and her sidekick.” The voice I never wanted to hear again. Nick squeezes my hand
as we both turn around.
There, in all his arrogant glory, stands my ex-mate—the man who almost destroyed me—Alpha Alexander of The
Bloodmoon Pack.