Bitten by the Alpha Book 3

Can a masterpiece outshine its maker?

Can a child surpass its parent?

I never aimed for perfection. Perfection implies no room for growth.

And growth was always part of my plan.

It was the foundation of my decision.

The drive to push the primitive into prosperity, knowledge, and love.

But with growth comes friction, conflict, and death.

These are the prices we pay for progress.

Yet, even through unimaginable hardship and oppression, this race of beings, a blend of the best of man and beast, emerged stronger.

But now, these beings, for whom I’ve aligned the stars, stand on the edge of self-destruction.

Even from my high vantage point on this astral plane, dimensions away from their reality, the smell of blood is thick.

It no longer seems that the noble race I birthed exists for the promise of tomorrow.

They exist only for today’s victories.

The power they can gain.

The authority they can seize.

The countless ways they can force others into submission.

In truth, it seems they’ve outgrown me and the purity of their original purpose: to balance animal strength with human love.

But instead of seeking harmony, they seek discord.

What was I, their Goddess and creator, to do?

Other gods might have destroyed their creations for such corruption. But that’s not my nature. I love them too much for such a wrathful response.

But I couldn’t hand them the solution either.

Their mistakes were no longer just in action, but in intention.

And evil intent was too terrible to be fixed by a parent’s scolding.

They had to wipe out the evils that had grown within them through their own bloodshed.

As much as I wanted to ignore the battles brewing below, I couldn’t.

Their pain was my pain. And I had to endure it with them.

But through the pain, I held onto hope.

A hope that lived on in stories passed down through werewolf generations.

A grand prophecy carried in my bloodline.

The arrival of a savior.

A beacon of innocence and a warrior of righteousness.

The salvation of werewolf kind.

But even the arrival of this messiah wasn’t guaranteed without my descendants’ loyalty to me.

And so, the fate of this hero now rested with the only one of my offspring who hadn’t completely betrayed me. Who still had faith in me.

Quinn.

I thought I saw the universe.

Just for a moment.

A moment is all you need to understand infinity.

If you dwell on it any longer, your perception might get clouded by the paradoxes of your immediate surroundings.

Suddenly, I saw everything.

And I knew everything.

Everything that mattered and everything that didn’t.

I saw that there was little in the vastness of existence that mattered.

In fact, it became clear that there was really only one thing in this infinity that truly mattered.

Love.

For people. For creatures. For life.

I saw that everything in this reality was a result of love, or the lack of it.

This realization hit me like a divine revelation.

But in a moment, it was gone.

Eternity faded to darkness.

And there I was.

Still.

Silent.

Senseless.

I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know why I was.

All I knew was love.

No other thought crossed my mind.

Not until a dull sound broke the silent darkness.

At first, it was distant and unclear.

But then it grew louder…

And louder…

Until it was deafening…

The harsh noises echoed in my ears, shaking my skull.

Their tone was rough and guttural. Their rhythm frantic.

It sounded like a gruesome chant straight from the devil himself.

As my senses started to return, I realized that my first impression wasn’t far from the truth.

I recognized that voice.

It was a voice I had once trusted.

A voice I thought had my best interests at heart.

A voice I thought belonged to family.

But it belonged to a wicked manipulator.

Aunt Jodie.

Soon, the darkness started to fade into a terrifying mix of dark blues, sickly greens, and threatening grays.

Among the swirling colors, I could see Aunt Jodie’s face. It was twisted into a mad smile as she continued her strange chants.

I tried to scream, but no sound came out. It was as if I’d been silenced.

When I tried to move, my muscles wouldn’t respond.

When I tried to make a fist, I could only manage a slight bend in my pinky finger.

I was still in Jodie’s chamber—the same room where I had passed out.

Now I was lying at her feet, completely paralyzed, while she performed a spell over me.

Her hands were moving over my body with the force of a storm. Her eyes were rolling back in her head. Her words were completely foreign to me.

I didn’t know what she was doing.

All I knew was that I probably wouldn’t leave this room alive.

There was no escape.

It felt like Jodie was tearing me apart piece by piece and draining all my energy.

All I could do was try to endure it.

I stared past Jodie’s wicked smile at the blood-red tiles on the ceiling, etched with gold. I wished the whole ceiling would collapse and end this nightmare once and for all.

After believing that Jodie actually wanted me to reach my potential, I learned that she wanted nothing more than to use me as a pawn in a plot against our common ancestor, the great Moon Goddess.

She made me turn against my family.

My friends.

Even my mate.

But now that I was aware of her plan, I doubted she would let me live much longer.

But oddly, the thought of death didn’t scare me.

In my time as Aunt Jodie’s apprentice, I had learned that there were scarier things in this world than death.

Quinn was stirring up something powerful, I could feel it.

I was scared, scared that Aunt Jodie would turn her wrath on Jax and my friends. And then, on the Moon Goddess herself.

I felt like I was the only one who could truly protect them.

My body and soul were screaming to break free and find my mate.

Aunt Jodie noticed my restlessness.

She paused her chanting to taunt me.

“You took quite a fall trying to save your friends,” she said, pretending to be concerned. “You should know better than to go against me.”

I wanted to respond, to fight back, but I couldn’t. My body was in pain and my voice was gone.

I didn’t want to give up without a fight. But no matter how hard I tried to speak or move, I couldn’t.

Aunt Jodie had taken control of all my senses.

“Don’t worry, my dear,” she laughed cruelly, “I won’t keep you here long. It will all be over soon.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know.

I had her right where I wanted her, completely helpless.

But I didn’t know how long I could keep her like this. It was time to finish what I started.

To do that, I needed approval from my master.

Even after Matheius’ voice left my head, I could still feel his watchful eyes on me.

It was time to start the next part of our plan.

The werewolves were weak.

A broken race that needed a fresh start.

Finally, we could start the plan we had been talking about for years.

And it all started with Quinn.

I looked down at my niece, lying motionless on the cold stone floor.

She was such a sentimental fool.

After everything I had taught her… After showing her all the amazing powers she had…she still clung to her friends and her mates.

She had been so brainwashed with lies that she denied herself the true powers we had.

But soon, she would see. She wouldn’t have a choice.

“Alright, Quinn,” I said, “I’m tired of this lying around.”

I knelt down next to her and whispered in her ear.

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve kept you alive. Well, it turns out that, whether you like it or not, you’re still useful to Matheius and me.”

I looked at her, waiting for a reaction. But she didn’t move. Not even a twitch.

With a snap of my fingers, Quinn’s body slowly started to move again. But she was still so stunned from my spell that there was no way she could escape.

I stood up and closed my eyes.

It was time to use our shared bloodline with the Moon Goddess against her.

With our powers combined, Quinn and I would be strong enough to bring Selena’s precious moonstone down from Astria and into my hands.

As her last remaining descendants, only we could do this.

“With our combined powers, I call upon the power of the Great Moonstone through the realms of time and space,” I said with a ceremonial tone.

“Together, we will use its mystical powers to add another to our circle of cosmic power. Another descendant of divinity.”

As I felt the power of the Moonstone flowing through me, my eyelids started to flutter, and my hands, pressed against Quinn’s body, started to shake.

I knew it was working. I could feel it.

The stone was close.

I let go of Quinn’s body, and then—

I felt it!

The cold, smooth surface of the moonstone in my open hand.

I opened my eyes to look at it—to marvel at the wonder of the world that was now mine.

But when I looked up, I saw something else.