Prologue
DORTHORY
TWO YEARS EARLIER...
Why did I have to be here?
This was supposed to be the best summer of my life before I started my final year at school. It’s not every year you get to finish a year early in school and be one of the youngest to do it, which in my case would make me sixteen. My grades are perfect, and I love learning, even if it means me being called a nerd.
Saying that, I’m not a nerd when my father and brother are gammas to the alphas of our pack—The Forest Moon Pack. No one messes with the gamma family, it was always a rule made from years back, which I am grateful for since I don’t exactly have any friends.
As for my brother Henry, who is four years older than me and is best friend and gamma to the soon to be alpha of our pack, Griffin. And then there is Sam, the other friend who is his beta. All three have grown up together since they were three. Friends for life, that’s they moto.
This summer I was supposed to be having fun, especially hitting the beach but my dad wanted to go travelling for the six weeks to visit some packs and thought dragging me along with him would be fun, which I wasn’t too fond of. Like I said, I had my own plans, which was mainly to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I may have been a gamma’s daughter, but nothing was handed to me on a silver platter. I had to work hard for it.
Ever since I was six, I would often attend training with my brother and father, while watching from the sidelines but soon, I started to join which I now already know how to fight like a warrior, I just needed to know if I wanted to go that way in life, which would mean more work and no time for fun, even though I never did like that word. Parties weren’t my thing, books and studying instead were my jam.
Dad has always been my supporter and so has my brother, my mother was more for me to be more girlie, which would be fine, but I wasn’t into frilly dresses or makeup. I never needed it. I wasn’t like the ones in my pack, who would wear those types of things, whereas you would find me on the training field with the boys. I have more male friends than female ones, which hasn’t exactly gone down well with the other girls my own age.
Shaking my head, I stared at the lake where my father had left me a while ago while he was talking to the gamma from the pack. They headed back to the pack grounds to talk to the alpha about something. I had no clue what but it needed to be done.
We were on our final pack before heading home–The blood moon pack. They are one of the biggest packs near us, with one with the best fighting programs in the country, which is amazing, but there weren’t any females on the team which I found sexist.
Damn it, the men all stared at me while I stood to the side to watch them train. I could overhear some of the conversations about me, which led them to believe I was a princess, but I ignored them. Even sniggered at one of them, who was openly staring. It was like I had something stuck in my teeth, or something.
The gamma told my father to show me around after the training since it was a nice place, which is what my father did until he had to leave me alone since he needed to talk to the alpha. Dad never told me what, but I knew what this was about, I overheard the same conversation he had with the other five pack alphas since my father is not the one who likes to use his indoor voice around people. That would mainly be because of the shouting he does at training, which is at least three times a day at the pack members.
Trying to get my head from my butt, I decided to pick up a few stones near the water edge, then I started to throw them in one by one till I heard a branch snap behind me, which only made me roll my eyes. I could sense whoever it was since I was here but was wondering when they were going to show themselves.
Turning around, I was met with the same brown eyes that were openly staring at me earlier–handsome but he seemed to like himself too much with the way he kept running his hand through his hair and with his eyes trailing over my body. A shiver rippled through me at that, but I pretended not to notice.
Why did men to that all the time? Running their hand through their hair like that, it wasn’t sexy or anything. Well, not to me it wasn’t.
“Hey, you’re the gamma’s daughter, why are here?” he asked, keeping his eyes on mine.
Hearing his voice, brought Della my wolf closer, which was weird since she wasn’t even bothered being here. She stayed quiet.
Knowing I needed to answer him, I sighed and looked over my shoulder at the lake when I spoke. “My father is talking to the alpha and left me alone.”
I heard his footsteps come closer which made me look back, only to see he had come too close. Not wanting to be that close to him, I moved slightly but nearly lost my footing and nearly went backwards into the water.
Whoever this handsome person was, he quickly grabbed me and held me in place.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, not liking I was so clumsy. I have never been like this before, so I took it as a one off.
“No problem,” he said, his eyes looking at where he was holding me. There was an odd expression, which made me frown. What the hell was he looking at?
“You can let me go now,” I said, moving my arm out of his grip while my hand fell to the side. He let go of me and then spoke again. “My name’s Hunter.”
I looked at him while he smiled back.
What was his deal? No one this handsome was nice to me. Did I have something on me?
All I could do was check all around me and then told him my name. “Dorothy.” But looked back at him with a glare when he said something that made me want to punch this jerk in the face.
“So, you’re off to see the wizard, huh?” he said with a smirk.
Jerk.
Would it be ladylike of me to punch him in his royally handsome face?
“Do it!” Della said, liking the idea but there was something in the way her voice that I couldn’t place but I was too angry to even ask her or be nice.
“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling my cheeks burn. This is not the first time someone had said something like this to me when they learn my name.
The handsome jerk grinned. “Well, you look like you do. All you are missing is a dog, a scarecrow, tinman and lion then you are all set.”
“Ahh!” I screeched, throwing my arms up and stormed away from him.
You cannot punch him, my inner voice echoed, or it could have been Della but that was a fat chance since I could hear her giggle in the back of my head. I know I couldn’t act on violence since I am not even in my pack so that meant I had to be on my best behaviour which was hard right now.
Storming off, his next words that came out of that handsome mouth of his made me storm off even angrier than I should have even though part of me liked it, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Or I could start calling you dory instead,” he said with a laugh. “You can then look for Nemo.”
The fact he knew Disney reference made me wonder if he was kid.
I let out a huff and walked away, while he laughed which seemed to make my stomach flip. Now that was weird since all I wanted to do was punch him or better yet hit him where it will hurt the most.
Hopefully my father wasn’t going to be too long, or we will be banned from here if I had to listen to that jerk again.
