Alpha of the Moonlight Palace

Chapter One

“Alone. I was always alone. Even when I was in this house full of my so called family ….I was still so alone.”

Green Meadow Valley was a small village surrounded by tall mountains in every direction. Small and secluded from the world just like Ember Westfield. Ember lived with her father, stepmother, and ten siblings. Ember’s biological mother had become a rogue wolf and disappeared when she was very young , leaving her father and five older siblings to manage the home in her absence. Ember’s father was a lower level pack member and worked as a blacksmith. It was an humble wage and honest living but kept him away from home most days. This left the house chores to Ember and her siblings. Ember’s father quickly found a suitable stepmother willing to raise his children in exchange for shelter and providing for her own five younger children.

Ember was always overlooked or left out in most cases. She was the middle child of now 11 children and didn’t quite fit in. She was often found reading or wandering around the village by herself daydreaming. Her stepmother made a point to exclude her from her siblings and would purposely leave her out when money was too tight for a full loaf of bread. “You’re fatter than the other children and can go a day without!”. Her siblings were much thinner and fit the criteria for normal she supposed. With her large chest and fuller curves she stood out in the worst way in her household. Her hazel eyes , long brown hair , and curves always made her feel ostracized from her family. “I look so plain and frumpy compared to my sisters…”. She was teased and ridiculed about her weight for years. Mostly by her stepmother who also encouraged her siblings to do so as well.

Ember was turning twenty this year and still had not found her mate. Usually when a young werewolf comes of age she is initiated into the pack and can find her mate. This is a very special ceremony and every villager from Green Meadow Cove finds their mate the day they come of age….except her. She spent the whole week after walking through the village and letting every not mated male sniff her for nothing. The fact that she had to let all the males in the village sniff her scent alone was embarrassing enough, but to also not find her mate was only the beginning of the ridicule she would receive.

Ember’s stepmother was the first to berate her as soon as she had returned to the cottage. “So who is the unlucky male who is stuck with you for a mate? I bet he is just as fat and ugly as you are!” She said as she laughed and sneered at Me. “I…didn’t find him” I said under my breath hoping she would ignore me and allow me to hide in my room. “You.didnt. Find. Him!?!?” She practically yelled as she stood there staring at me as though I had slapped her in the face. “No..I looked all over the village and allowed every male to…scent me…but no male claimed me as their true mate”. She seemed to shiver with delight as she yelled through the cottage for everyone to hear “so chubby plain ol’ Ember didn’t find her mate even after searching the ENTIRE village letting every male sniff her like a used up whore!?” Ember’s stepmother Bianca howled with laughter as the rest of her family joined them in the main hall. “Of course you didn’t find your mate. Who would even want you? You can’t even shift into your wolf and all you do is sit around on your fat ass reading those dumb books!” Ember was now standing there fighting back the rage and embarrassment. She was able to shift into her wolf but had never told her family or done so in the presence of others. It was the only thing she had to herself and loved. So she hide her wolf away to keep her Bianca from ruining the last thing she had to herself. Ember only turned into her wolf when she was all by herself in the forest at the edge of her village, when she knew no one would see her. “Maybe my mate isn’t from Green Meadow Valley? Maybe if you would allow me to leave the village and seek out my mate for a week I could find him and…”. “ ha! That is the most foolish thing you have ever said Ember!” My stepmother was now standing so close she was spitting on me as she yelled “you are never leaving this village! No one leaves this village and that is why every wolf here has found their mate…except YOU of course!” She sneered at my body and chuckled until the other siblings joined in laughing and making comments of their own. This life was miserable and this village was a pretty dull hell hole!