VERA

two

"Father," Vera searched his face and then the papers on the desk for any indication of why she was summoned. "I've been well."

The alpha nodded. "Good, good. I've called you in here on an important matter. I have some good news."

Vera perked up at that, but then deflated a little once she remembered that her father was a complex man and what he thought was good news could be bad for literally everyone else, and he wouldn't care.

"Okay, what's the news?"

The alpha stood and placed his hands on the desk. "Well, as you know, I've been in and out of meetings with the Council. That's why I've been traveling so much lately. If you haven't heard already, there have been a high number of females who are unwilling to mate or reproduce. Luckily our pack doesn't have that problem, but there are those modernized packs whose female wolf numbers are dwindling. They sometimes leave the pack to reproduce with a human, and due to the lack of female wolves, the male ones move to the human world as well, resulting in smaller, weaker packs."

Vera didn't know this, but it made sense. At times, the average male wolf is a pain in the ass to deal with. They're crazy about you until you're mated to them and you're carrying your pups and life is a living hell solely because they believe they are unable to put tradition and "instinct" aside and act like they have common sense and decency. If Vera had a choice, she would probably run off to find a human boy too.

"I was not aware, but okay."

"Due to this phenomenon, the Council has decided that packs that are well off such as ours are to volunteer a few of our unmated girls for a mating event."

Vera was not liking where this was going. "A mating event?"

Her father nodded. "An event which hasn't taken place in over a hundred years. The females are released into a large wooded arena and given a head start to run. The males give chase shortly after. The Council wants to do this as a trial run this time, but they are intending to bring this back as a mandatory practice for all packs."

Vera gasped. "Father, that's horrible! There was a reason that practice is old and unused. It's barbaric!"

The man smoothed down his silver hair and shook his head. "It's not barbaric, it's traditional!"

Vera stood. "With all due respect, you're wrong. This practice will force hundreds and hundreds of female wolves to be chased down and forcefully taken by any male wolf who wants them. And if the males start fighting over one female, she could get killed in the crossfire. She's not just an unmated statistic! She's someone's daughter and friend. Please, please, please tell me you weren't for this, father."

The alpha got quiet and stared down the young girl with the same intense green eyes she had. "I voted yes, Vera." He sat back down in his chair. "And I gave you up as the first volunteer."

Vera froze and her eyes widened. She shook her head in disbelief. "No."

"You don't have a choice, I'm afraid. Don't worry. You'll find a nice alpha out there, I'm sure of it. Better than some lowly beta-in-training."

Vera wanted to cry, but she felt a burning anger course through her veins. She looked down at the desk and then back at her father, a fire in her eyes.

"Go to hell."

The alpha shot out of his chair, slamming his palms against the desk. "Vera!"

"You knew about Carter and I and you did this to separate us! I love him, father!"

"Watch your tone, little girl. You are an alpha's daughter and I cannot have you frolicking around with some lowly, bastard stable boy turned beta. What would everyone think?"

She balled her hands into fists and squeezed so tightly, she thought she would bleed. "A true alpha doesn't care about what people think. You do because you're a coward of a man. You won't even claim your own daughter in public and you treat my mother like she's indebted to you. What about what you owe us? You couldn't keep it in your pants and now we have to suffer-?"

"Shut up, Vera."

"Your Luna and your other children get 100 percent of you. What do I get? Your free time? You claim to love me, but you treat me like I'm some second class citizen in your pack. You won't let me train with the other girls because you're ashamed of me, but you don't want to admit it."

"Vera-"

"And that 'lowly, bastard stable boy' is a boy you took in! You showed mercy on him and raised him and taught him all you know. He's been nothing but good and loyal to you and kind to me, but you treat him like dirt. He may have nothing and he may be an orphan, but despite all he's been through, he has a heart of gold and that's more than anyone in this pack can say about you, because you're a piece of-"

Before Vera saw it coming, the alpha stood and whacked her hard across her cheek with the back of his hand, sending her onto the floor. "Enough!"

The pain was almost unbearable. Vera curled up on the floor and gingerly held her hand to her cheek, her ears ringing and vision blurry. She squeezed her eyes shut, but even that reignited the fire pulsing through the side of her face.

The man sat back down in his chair and cleared his throat, readjusting the ring on his finger as it had gone askew when he struck the girl.

Vera felt tears of anger run down her cheeks. Her face was numb at the moment, but she knew it would be bruised and from the way the ring on his hand made contact with her cheek, she knew it was bleeding.

"Get up. I expect you to show me some goddamn respect. I'm your father and your alpha, for godsake."

Vera slowly got off of the floor, her tears stinging the cut on her face. She wiped the blood on her hand off on her shorts and walked back to the chair, sitting down and scowling at her father.

Alpha Warden took a deep breath and righted himself in his seat. "You will participate in this mating event. It will take place in a few days time. You will not talk to or see that Carter boy ever again, and you will tell him that tonight as he walks you home for the last time, am I understood?"

Vera searched her father's eyes for a hint of sympathy or regret for back-handing her or basically handing her over to be a sex slave and maid to some alpha from a foreign pack.

She found nothing.

She must have taken too long to answer because her father slammed his fist down on the table, making her jump in her seat. "Am I fucking understood?"

"Yes, father."

"Get out of my sight."