Chapter 1 - Sasha
“Sasha…” I felt myself being jostled a bit, but being in the middle of a rather delicious and naughty dream, I furrowed my brow and burrowed deeper into the hard warmth under me. I grumbled something incoherent under my breath.
“Sasha, wake up!” Groaning, I shook my head and tried to snuggle deeper, only to feel myself being lifted and shoved. Landing on the hardwood floor next to my bed had the desired effect, and I was wide awake. Staring up at my bed with wide eyes, I tried to piece together what exactly happened, causing me to end up in a disgraced heap on the floor.
“I tried waking you gently, but you seemed to be enjoying your dream a little too much.” Legend, my best friend since middle school, smirked at me from his lofty perch.
“You could have tried harder instead of tossing me on the floor like yesterday’s underwear!” I grumbled with irritation.
“Could have, but not as fun!” Legend and his twisted sense of humor. “Anyway, now that you are awake, we have to get a move on, or we will both be late for work.”
My head whipped around to look at my alarm clock, which I forgot to set. I yelped in a panic and scrambled from the floor. Legend and I both work for Wolf Warrior, Inc, a multi-billion-dollar corporation founded by Legend’s dad, Sebastian Warrior.
As I mentioned earlier, Legend and I have been best friends since middle school, when he transferred to my school during the middle of the school year. The bullies immediately targeted him; he was a scrawny thing with braces back then, and when they cornered him after school, I happened to stick my nose exactly where it did not belong.
That earned me a scraped knee, a black eye, and a bloody nose, but my friendship with Legend was cemented, and we became inseparable. We cried on each other’s shoulders about family dramas, cheating lovers – his, not mine- and disappointing grades.
I only met Legend’s parents two times during our school days, once by accident when I excitedly raced to his parents’ mansion and burst through the doors without knocking, searching for my dear friend after he was manhandled by four hulking high school boys.
That was a day I would never forget. As I raced into the flawless museum of a home, I ran into an immovable marble statue with the most intense and god-like stormy blue eyes I had ever seen in my short twelve years of existence. Bouncing off the breathing statue and landing on my ass with a yelp of pain, I stared up, open-mouthed, and completely forgot anything and everything I had ever been taught, including how to speak.
“Didn’t your father teach you not to run uninvited into someone’s home yelling like a heathen?” The statue was less-than-impressed with my mute display of shock.
Stammering out a quick apology, I tried to scramble to my feet, but my legs were not quite in tune with my brain’s command. After tumbling back on my rear end two more times, I finally managed to stand on legs more wobbly than Bambi’s.
“Stop scaring the poor girl, Seb!” a musical, hypnotic voice sang out from a room just off the foyer. Craning my neck, I saw a true vision in bubble gum pink float toward me, platinum hair in a stylish up-do, baby blue eyes, an angelic face, and long legs that would make any model seething with jealousy. My chubby, dirt-stained self looked like a street urchin next to such a goddess.
Reaching out to grab my hand, the goddess pulled me into a hug and crouched down from her 5′10” frame to ask why I was in such a hurry and who I was looking for. Being absolutely horrified that my dirt-covered shorts and t-shirt came in contact with this gorgeous creature, I could only stutter out, “I-I-I’m looking f-f-for L-L-Legend.”
“You must be Sasha!” the beautiful goddess exclaimed. I just nodded and glanced at the unmoving statue that was staring at me as if I had fleas. The nerve of the jerk!
Sebastian and Cora Warrior, parents to Legend Warrior, were the most gorgeous couple I had ever laid eyes on, and that was coming from someone whose own parents were nothing to sneeze at. I wondered how these beautiful beings produced someone as awkward and lanky as Legend.
But then again, my parents produced me, a chubby, short, unimpressive specimen that could not hold a candle to my twin brother or older sister.
After the remarkable first impression I made on Legend’s parents, I set out to completely avoid them at all costs. Which, surprisingly enough, was not that difficult. Legend preferred coming to my home to hang out, or we met in neutral territory.
The only other time I met his parents was at our high school graduation. His mom handed me a white rose and gave me a hug; his dad just stared at me like I still had fleas. His intense gaze was narrowing on the steel bar of my visible piercing, as if he wanted to forcibly rip that offending object right out of my eyebrow!
However, the night of our high school graduation changed everything and set things into motion that nobody could have imagined. On the drive home from graduation, Legend’s parents were ambushed. His mom was killed, and his dad was rushed into emergency surgery.
Legend and I were celebrating our freedom from the educational institution with our other friend Annalise when the frantic call came in. Seeing the panic and fear in Legend’s face, we raced to the hospital, where we were met with utter chaos. Alpha Sebastian was fighting for his life in the operating room, and Luna Cora was already pronounced dead.
People were running back and forth, a bored voice kept booming codes over the intercom, and there we sat, three unimpressive teens trying our best to hold everything in and keep Legend from falling completely apart. The three rejects, holding hands and shifting uncomfortably in the hard plastic chairs. It was an elite hospital; you would think they could spring for nicer chairs or at least cushions.
We sat there for hours, and when we were allowed to see Alpha Sebastian, Legend fell apart. He was terrified to touch his dad. Seeing the big, strong alpha unconscious and hooked up to machines, I felt something shift inside me. Pulling up a chair, I sat and held his hand.
When my fingers brushed his skin, I felt tingles running up my arm. What the hell? As I sat trying to keep Legend calm and offer what comfort I could to Alpha Sebastian, I felt my wolf stir and sigh deeply.
“He is our destiny, our home.”
I admonished Winnie, my wolf. Alpha Sebastian was Legend’s father and twice my age. There was no way he was our destiny. He would take one look at my fat ass and fall over laughing. His luna had been elegant, thin, and breathtaking. I was fat, ordinary, and clumsy. But I couldn’t get Winnie’s words out of my head as I sat holding Alpha Sebastian’s hand.
