The Alpha's Chimera Mate

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Chapter 1

KAYLEE

All great stories are made great because they contain great characters who face great conflict. I often find myself wondering if that’s what my story is meant to be. I’ve got the conflict part down, but I don’t see myself as some heroine in some epic tale, but who knows…maybe I’m just the supporting character in someone else’s great story.

Oh heavens, where are my manners?! Hi, my name is Kaylee Oshay, and I’m the youngest child of Mickey and Lira Oshay.

Now, my family comes from a long line of betas, and as such, we’re known to be strong, loyal, and proud, but that’s not me, not entirely.

I mean, I’m loyal to my pack and my family, but I’m much smaller than most in our pack in human form, and my wolf is…different, so most question my strength, and while I’m proud of my wolf, it’s a quiet pride, the kind that doesn’t require boasting or bragging.

I’ve been looked down on by the other members of our pack for the entire seventeen years of my life, practically shunned for the many things that make me different—but they never seemed to mind letting me be useful as long as they didn’t have to acknowledge it.

But tomorrow is a new day, the day I turn eighteen.

Trust me, every unmated male wolf in the pack is terrified of me coming of age because not a damn one wants to be stuck with the beta’s runt daughter as their mate, not a single one wanting to risk that I might pass on whatever defect they think my DNA holds to their offspring.

I’ll let you in on a little secret… I don’t want to be mated to any of them either.

The only reason that tomorrow holds such great significance to me is because tomorrow is when I graduate from my fighter training, something all the other trainees thought would never happen.

I have to admit, training with wolves who think you’re beneath them, and then later on aiding in training those wolves because you excelled where they struggled…

It certainly didn’t make them any more eager to see me as one of them.

Sure, I may be small, nearly six inches smaller than the average she-wolves in our pack, but I’m fast, my senses seem to be more heightened than the other wolves here, and my tracking skills are unmatched by anyone in our pack, aside from my father; not even our alpha can match me when it comes to tracking.

Oh yes, a little more about my wolf who fits in here about as well as I do. She came to me early, as in four years early. In the shifter world, most wolves shift for the first time at eighteen unless they’re of alpha blood, then they’ll generally shift at sixteen unless forced to shift sooner, which only happens when the current alpha dies.

My wolf, Kira, began connecting with me at the age of ten, though my family thought I simply had an imaginary friend, and then we shifted for the first time at fourteen. With this being something completely unheard of for our kind, my parents decided it was best to keep it under wraps.

If her early arrival wasn’t enough to make her different, well, her appearance surely would be. The wolves from our pack are all a rusty red and brown, but not Kira. My special girl is what my dad said is a chimera.

The entire left side of her body is solid black with her left eye being a pale blue, and the entire right side is the same fiery red as my hair in human form with her right eye being a silverish gray.

Usually a wolf’s eyes are golden, but with Kira, our eyes are the same in human and wolf form, but rather than my wolf’s eye color bleeding into mine when she’s close to the surface, my eyes simply emit a soft glow.

While my dad says the other pack members may not react well to how different she is, I think she’s perfect. I guess it helps that the pack doesn’t really react well to how different I am either, so I’m used to not fitting in.

So, a few basics about me: I’m only five foot five, my body is curvier than most of the she-wolves here, my hair is a fiery red instead of the rusty auburn and strawberry-blonde shades of my packmates, my eyes, the two-tone eyes that aren’t green or hazel like my packmates, actually match Kira’s, which, as you guessed it, isn’t “normal.”

Something far more important than my looks are my plans for after I graduate from fighter training. I truly am hoping I don’t find my mate tomorrow because what I really want to do is travel to my aunt’s pack in the United States, far from Ireland.

My dad has even agreed that if I don’t find my mate by the end of the graduation ceremony tomorrow, he’ll have me flown out the following morning.

***

So, I’ve officially made it to my graduation ceremony. As of right now, I haven’t found my mate—yet! As you can imagine, I’m pretty stoked!

My mom and grandma spent the last three hours styling my hair that currently sits at my hips when it’s curled, doing my makeup that I’m glad they kept more on the natural side, giving me the full mani-pedi experience, and helping me to get dressed.

Now we’re piling into my dad’s SUV and heading to the grand hall at the pack house for the ceremony, but don’t worry, I already have my bags packed and ready to go for tomorrow!

“So, Kaylee, are you excited? You might meet your mate tonight! There are wolves from other packs here to support their family and friends who are graduating the program, so who knows, one of them could be your mate!”

My mom, Goddess bless her heart, is too hopeful, but I know it’s because she doesn’t want me to move so far away.

“Truthfully, not really. I know you’re worried about me leaving tomorrow, Mom, but I’m honestly really excited to travel and see new places.

“You know I’m not looking for a mate here. No one here treats me with respect, and I’m tired of being treated like an outcast in my own pack. At least if the wolves in Aunt Linny’s pack treat me like one, they’d be right.”

She gives me a sympathetic look but forces a sad smile. She knows how poorly I’m treated by the members of our pack.

“Well, we’re here. I guess we’ll see what happens.” My dad, the saint he is, sounds as unhappy about the idea of me finding a mate here as I am.

We all climb out of the car and make our way to the front of the pack house, waiting with the crowds of people that are slowly making their way inside.

It takes almost fifteen minutes to get in and make it to our seats, but before I can even sit down, a scent slams into me like a brick wall: citrus and pine.

I release an agitated groan as my eyes scan the room, automatically seeking out the source of the scent until my eyes land on an unfamiliar pair of green eyes, but they aren’t looking at me the way you would expect your mate to look at you, though I doubt I’m giving him a loving look either.

“Oh, heavens! You found him!”

I shoot my mom a stern glare, then look back to where the man was only to find that he’s no longer there. I shake off my wolf’s whimpering and force myself to sit down, but my mom can’t just leave things alone.

“So? Where is he?!”

I can’t tell if I’m feeling embarrassed or irritated by his vanishing act at this point.

“I don’t know, okay? One second, he was there and the next, he vanished. Just forget about it. Clearly, he decided he’d rather run away than have me as a mate, and besides, they’re getting ready to start.”

She must see something in my expression that warns her away from continuing because she gives me a stiff nod and shuts her mouth.

Within ten minutes of the end of our conversation, the alpha is standing on the raised stage, giving a speech about pride, honor, and loyalty, and then another ten minutes pass before they start calling names to the stage.