Alpha's Second Chance Nymph

Don’t be noticed, don’t engage and don’t tell anyone who you are. That's what I was told on my tenth birthday. When my mother handed me a dark cape with a hood so big it covered my whole face. I was made to be a loner. Perfect example of obedience. A ghost that only lingered around. All because of who I was born to be.

But time moved and I wasn't a little kid anymore. My heart started to long for something more. Freedom and truth, a soul that could be out in the world.

I sat there, in my dark wooden room, staring at the reflection that was so rarely seen outside. A young woman, forced to hide and bite her tongue.

I tried to pin my hair up in a braid but my mother noticed my struggles from the half open door crack. She took the pin from my hold and looked at my reflection in the mirror, her easy smile that warmed me like the evening sun in the heatwave. She undid my braid and let it fall to my shoulders.

“If it's not working, it's not meant to,” she said and kissed the top of my head, her eyes closed, she stayed there for a moment. Washed in melancholy, she was like that recently, or maybe I noticed only now. “Happy eighteenth Adelie,” she told me.

Her arms hugged me from behind and she stared ahead of us in the mirror. And there she was with her eyes holding back tears. “Mom!” I whined out and turned towards her. “It's not a big deal,” I told her. “It’s just a silly birthday. I’ll have more,” I added lightheartedly. It was strange, irritating that she was this emotional lately. I didn’t mention it but I knew something was bothering her. I knew my father noticed too.

She was beautiful, strong, and loved so deeply by my father and me. If I could take her worries away, I would in a heartbeat because despite my mothers strong voice and rules she set for me, I knew she was offering me the world she could, the best she could and all her love.

Her eyes froze in our reflections. “But I might not be there,” she mumbled.

I pulled my smile into thin line, I figured her worry was only because I was growing up. “Don’t say that,” I told her.

She just casually rolled her eyes at me. “You might find your mate today,” she said and I heard footsteps walking through the house. Father was home, I knew he wouldn’t miss my birthday.

Knowing how my mother didn’t get a mate, and that my wolf part was so small, I didn’t hold high hopes for myself. “I might not. I am only partly a werewolf. And maybe my nymph part won’t let me have a mate. Or maybe Death part of me won’t let me have a mate bond just like he didn’t let you.” I said but there was slight playfulness in my tone. Because I knew he was here.

My mom put the back of her hand on her forehead, scrunching her face up in hurt expression. “Oh, yes! Mercilessly kidnaped by Death. Maybe someday we can escape this tower we are locked in.”

“What ungrateful family I have,” father announced, walking in the room. He kissed mother on the cheek but she squinted her face up and playfully pushed him away.

I could see a few wrinkles on my mom’s face. Gray hairs. But that never bothered my father. He was immortal. He was Death. Forever roaming the earth and afterlife collecting deceased souls. I didn’t see him much. Mom didn’t either. But they still loved each other. I wanted a love like that someday. Even if they were apart most of the time, they loved like they never left each other's side.

“Did you bring her gift?” Mother asked Death.

I quickly got up, excited for what they thought of this year. Father pulled out a little blue ribboned box from his coat pocket. “What's my present?” I asked with a full smile. He pulled the box away from me, putting it on the tallest shelf.

“Not until later,” he said.

I rolled my eyes at him. He knew the content of that box would eat me up all day, he knew how to get under my skin. But there wasn’t anything in there that I wanted, because all I wanted was something you couldn’t put in a box, and I was frightened even thinking of asking about it.

I took in a shaky breath, afraid to ask what I so carefully rehearsed. “Mother, father,” I spoke up and their faces slowly eased into seriousness. “I have been thinking,” and I noticed how they exchanged looks, suspecting what I might ask. “Since I am not a child anymore, and most of the pack members here have seen how I look, from wind blowing off my cover or at school when they made fun of my cape, they know, it's not like it's such a secret…”

Father let his arm go from my mother to his pockets. “Adelie, no!” His voice came out scratchy and rough. And all my rehearsed speeches went unnoticed. I didn’t even ask. “It has never been about them seeing your face but rather them staring long enough to piece it all together and figure out who you are. Right now you are a werewolf, weak werewolf, that is all they need to know.” He walked up, taking my hands in his and softening his eyes. “You have gifts. Gifts that most could dream of having and gifts that most will do a lot to abuse.”

They said they were gifts, but what gift was it if I needed to hide it, hide myself from everything. It wasn’t a gift, it was a curse, making my life a tragedy. I knew that it wasn’t their preferred way for me, and I also knew right now it was the only option for me, to be a secret. “Will I need to hide all my life?” I asked, picking up my hooded dark coat and standing in front of the mirror.

Father walked up to me and took it from me helping me put it on. “I don’t know,” he said. He didn’t look sad or sorry. He was just honest. He was Death and even he didn’t have an answer for me.

I heard a knock coming from the door but didn’t scurry to see who it was. Mother was the one who usually did it. But this time was different. Father was holding her by the hand. Like communicating with their stares he told her to stay. Why? I knew enough that even Death had rules and even if he knew a lot, he couldn’t let us, mortals know everything. Then he looked at me. “You should go,” he told me, his face washed with a warm smile.

I suspiciously squinted my eyes but still proceeded to put on my hood and walked up to the door. But the closer I got something estranged washed over me. A strange rush of emotions, like an eruption in my heart. Excitement and worry, that urged me to go closer and look. To see why Death wanted me to go.

My hand reached out for the handle, shaking like a leaf in a storm, my ears muffling the sound all around. I couldn’t stall any longer, or I might fall with a heart attack. I opened the front door and was met with my heart stopping, my eyes lifting up to meet the cause of my euphoric feeling. Our freshly titled Alpha Hans.

And from now on… my mate.