The Alpha of Alphas

Chapter 1

She was very beautiful. I dream about her every night. At first the dreams were short and fuzzy. I didn't understand them well. But for the past month, every night has been the same, and my dream is now crystal clear.

I dream about her flowing caramel hair, about her arms wrapped around me, about how much she loved me. But my dream turns into a nightmare when I'm snatched from her arms by an invisible force.

She doesn't want to let go, but she does, with regret and sorrow pooling in her eyes. She gives me one last kiss, one last caress of my hair, and runs without looking back.

The world fades into a blur of color and the last thing I hear is the sad howling of a wolf.

***

"Hayden! Get your butt out of bed!"

I attempted to block out Tamara's cries and fall into a nice sleep, a place where I could be away from her.

Let's get one thing straight, she's my foster mother. If I had a real mother who cared about me, I'll call her mom. She's not a real mother and doesn't try to act like one.

"NOW!" she screeched. I dragged myself out of bed and started to get ready for school. The one place that was worse than living in this house.

"Listen to your mother," her husband, Peter, added. There's no way I'll call him father or dad. I hate him so much I enjoy hating him. It's like a passion. In case you haven't picked it up, I have a fiery attitude and short temper. That doesn't mean I'm rude, self centered, or evil. I can be a very generous person. I'd tell you to ask my friends, but, I don't have any. Yay for me. Less drama.

"She's not my mother," I mumbled under my breath. I trudged to the bathroom and let my hands rest on the edge of the sink. I looked up into the mirror to see a girl with puffy red eyes, crazy bed head, and wearing an overly large shirt staring back at me.

With graduation coming up in the next three months and this being my senior year, my life revolved around studying. We had a pre-test in at least one of our classes every day to prepare us for finals on the week of graduation. It didn't matter if they were pre-tests or not, we still got graded on them. What I would give for a carefree day.

I turned the water on in the shower and waited for it to turn warm before hopping in and freshening up.

The hot water had relaxed me the slightest bit but I tensed up again immediately when I came out of the bathroom to see the sight in my room.

All my undergarments were thrown out all over the room and I only had ten minutes left to clean up, change, and eat before leaving for school. I knew who the culprit was even if the snickering from behind the door wasn't obvious enough.

"JASON!" I yelled as I opened the door to see him laughing while clutching one of my bras. Have you guessed it yet? This idiot is supposed to be my 'brother'.

"I've seen twelve year olds with bigger ones than you!" he said keeping my bra out of reach while I jumped for it. Mind you all I'm still only wrapped in a towel. Jason's also the same age as me and usually is the one who starts rumors about me at school. I finally managed to grab my bra and kick him out of my room. I took a quick glance at the clock.

"Dang, only five minutes left. Guess there's no breakfast for me today," I said grouchily.

I was able to clean up pretty fast and threw on some jeans and a purple v-neck t-shirt with a silver heart drawn on it. I looked in the mirror again and studied my simple features. Green eyes, brown hair, tan skin... I had always tanned easily and had darker skin than most. But of course, people make fun of that too and await the day that I will die of cancer because of my visits to the tanning salon. Their words exactly.