Alpha's Second Chance Nymph
What's Lost And Found
Adelie
The impact of the knife and my body never came, something stopped it, I heard it, landing in something soft.
I slowly opened my eyes to see how it was possible that I didn’t get killed by his skilled throw. But then I wished it was me when I saw my mother falling down to the ground right in front of me, knife resting deep in her chest. My whole body shut down and I saw Death in front of me, with his little jar, he once told me he collects the souls in. “No!” I kept shaking my head and screaming. That meant that she’s gone. “Don’t take her!” I pleaded with him like he could do anything.
Father looked at me “Run!” He screamed, making the ground shake. No one else saw him but me and my mother, he had never screamed at me in my whole life. I jumped back in fright and more smoke emerged from me. I didn’t think of doing that, it just happened, I didn't know how to make it stop.
Someone lunged at me. I didn’t see through the smoke. But my hands were swinging to shield myself and I somehow knocked them away. I heard them howling in pain.
The air around me was dense and I could barely hear my father loudly shouting, telling me to run. Covered in black smoke I ran ahead. I didn’t see anything, barely dodging the trees in front of me. I ran till my feet gave up and I was sure I left the pack’s ground. I ran away like a coward. My mom protected me but I just left her to die, not even saying goodbye, not even sparing her a last glance. I couldn’t think straight, it was like my mind had stayed at that pack. Not a single straight thought in my mind except that I knew she was gone.
I kept wandering around for a couple of days, lost and confused in everything that had shaken my ordinary life. Until I walked upon a wolf land. My clothes were dirty. I was hungry and tear stained. I hadn’t even taken the time to think. I just kept walking. As if all that's happened was a fever dream.
Once I noticed the pack's center, houses and people in the distance, I picked up my pace. I could be walking to my death. Unannounced alone in a strangers pack. What choices did I have? I didn’t know where I was going. I had no one to ask. Father didn’t come to find me either. I was all alone and my bones started to ache for a place to sleep, that was not under some tree branch. Despite all that happened I decided to trust the decency these people had.
One man walked up to me once he noticed me. My hood was still on my head, scared to hurt anyone else by the chaos I could bring. A big built man in front of me with kind eyes and worried look in his eyes. “Can I help you?” He asked, offering me a hand to take for support.
Alpha Archibald, the kindest man I've met. He took me in his pack without asking much. He gave me home. A life. A place to be… only now I was alone.
Kairos
I sat in my study. The room so big the furthest corners were pitch black with the only light coming from the rusty table lamp beside me. Glass of rum in my hand. How I sometimes wished werewolves were lightweights. This was the kind of night that made me want to fall into a different dimension where I didn’t feel. Didn’t see. Didn’t exist. Instead I just stared in the abyss, damning the gods and goddesses of the way I was, as if it wasn’t my hand that made me the way I was. That was my version of a good night. Pretending I was not at fault, for a moment blaming the universe for the tragedy I lived.
But my sulking was disturbed when Rapahel marched in wearing something golden black with a confused look on his face. His eyes roamed my surroundings for a moment. Judging in his mind but not yet saying it out loud. “It's time,” he announced, stopping by the other side of the table.
I drowned the contents of my glass down my throat and after a pause too long slammed it back on the hardwood surface. “For what?” I boredly asked.
My theatrical reaction didn’t seem to faze him at all. “Mating ceremony,” he said.
Raphael knew how to ruin a perfectly good evening for me. I put on a full smile at him. “Have fun!” I managed to force out at him as cheerfully as I was able to. Thanks to the alcohol in my system it was easier than when I was sober.
That also didn’t surprise him. He simply pulled his lips together and nodded, as if already expecting my answer. “Kairos… you said you'll go.”
I leaned back in my chair as unbothered as I could be. “Only to get you off my back. Really shame on your part. You as my Beta should know me a tad bit better. Now you can go and find yourself a mate,” I said to him. I really couldn’t care less.
His jaw tightened. “I am not going there to find a mate. But I am going to find someone as unfortunate as me. Someone who would want to spend their life with me. Keep me company or I will remain mateless and alone. Unlike you, I actually try to stay positive and hope that maybe in all of this there might be something good!”
I crossed my arms in front of me, watching him. I gave him time, in case there was something else he wanted to add. Something else that he thought could change my mind. But even if he tried he knew I was not so easily influenced. Once I figured he wouldn't be saying anything else I slowly got up. “Go Raphael!” I ordered him, not yet shouting. But loud and clear.
He forced out a laugh with his lips pulled up in disgust. “You have a lot of nerve sitting here and mocking me!”
“I don’t mock you,” I cut at him. I had no problem with him going and trying to see the good. I had no problem that he was so optimistic while in reality it was much more forced that he himself realised.
His fists clenched by his sides. “You are an Alpha, Kairos. Young Alfa who got burned by his mate,” he slowly neared me, which was an awful choice accompanied with his choice of words. “You have a responsibility to give your pack a Luna. A worthy one. I am so sorry you lost your mate. But so did I, and so did many others that night. You have completely cut out any social life, not just for yourself but for the whole pack. This pack needs a Luna and you need someone to rule it with!”
I banged my fist on the table and my face colored red in anger. “You are my Beta! Know your place!” I shouted at him. Raphael backed away and nodded, understanding that this conversation will not have a continuation. “I will never tie anyone to me! There will be no one who will rule alongside me! Ever!”
Adelie
One year later
Tonight was a full moon. It was already dark and I made sure that my roommates were sleeping. A few young adult women who had no family like me. Despite us sharing the same lack of people in our lives it didn’t bond us. Perhaps I was not meant to fit in, I learned quickly when I first came here that not fitting in was better than being hated, so I kept my hood and my words to myself.
I made some potions from plants around the forest and discreetly put it in my roommates drinks to make them sleep tighter, they would wonder why I sneak out at full moon and I would not put anyone else in danger for who I was born. But I still needed my nature with me, to feel the full moon touching the treetops. A nymph without her natures element was like a bird without wings.
I walked out of the pack house in my long black cape with hood and ankle length white dress. Nobody dresses like I did. There wasn’t a single day where I wasn’t in some dress of light material and my hair neatly fixed in braids or curls. I wore a hood anyway, it wasn’t for them to see, but as my late mother taught me that I should dress the way my heart felt. And Perhaps it was only a nymph trait, to be kind, mindful and always put together, but I needed to at least look like myself, to not go mad in this world the goddess had put me in to wander.
The same precautions I have been taking to make sure I was not seen or heard. Walking the long way around the pack, where the least nosy people lived and taking slow and careful steps with my eyes shooting around myself. Disappearing into the thick woods like a shadow, even the sharpest nocturnal eye couldn’t spot me.
I walked deep in the forest to my usual ritual spot, a lake in the middle of the woods, completely still in the nighttime, crickets singing around, under the stars that peeked through the treetops.
I could finally be free and took off my cape, let my hair down and looked above to feel the moon glistening on my skin. With eyes closed I walked around. Not a single misstep in my way. I made sure of that. Talking with the trees and looking after the forest, making it most beautiful and healthy.
I was a forest nymph. Born to serve nature.
I thanked for the gifts that Mother Nature had blessed this pack with. I made sure to listen to the trees. What they have seen and what they felt. Entwined my soul with them to heal and nurture them.
As I said my last ‘thank you' my body started filling with energy from the roots. I felt like I was born new again. Full moons were the reason I still smiled, still had a purpose.
I wandered back to my mate Hans. Each morning I woke I had dreamt of him. Scenarios that would never happen. I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Because even if he didn’t want me, he was still my mate. The one my soul was tied with.
Even if the only thing left from my mate was pain, I still wanted it. Even if I felt the unbearable pain of him marking and mating some she wolf. The pain reminded me of something I almost had.
I walked around, twirling between the trees. Free from my cape, free from hiding, the only time I could be myself, not afraid to cry or to laugh, to feel stupid of the lost love I was holding on to. I breathed in the fresh air with my head held high. I danced around and let the wind flow through me.
When it was finally time to leave I picked up my heavy cape but as I did it I heard footsteps coming towards me. Afraid that for the first time I might have been caught I looked up to see the person walking.
It was a man, big in size, standing there strong and confident. His hair was darkest brown, curly and long enough just to almost be in his eyes but swept to the right side. His eyes were perfect hazel, I even forgot about my cape.
I turned around and put it on with a hood covering my face. I knew that he saw enough of me because we made direct eye contact.
Something was off with him, something was different about him, strange but attracting, his presence seemed calming, yet so weird.
I heard him step closer and it was that smell. The feeling that smell gave me. It made my heart clench. My mind dizzy and skin shake.
It was a gentle pine needle mixed with bergamot and a little hint of peppermint. I had never smelled it before but only one smell had made me feel like that. And that is when I let my wolf talk to me.
Mate!
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