I can see that memory clearly now, as if I’m right there, in the center of the forest where I’d taken her virginity and rocked my hips in sync with the beats of her sweet, melodious moans. Her tanned skin was flushed, her full lips swollen from our passionate kisses, and her voluptuous curves under me, dancing to the motion of my thrusts. Our bodies fit perfectly, as if created for that specific moment of union when my cock was buried deep inside her—she, soft and supple as a cushion for my hard frame.
Absentmindedly, my free hand drifts to a particular spot on my chest—the tattoo of a faceless female that I had done during a drunken stupor while in black ops.
Suddenly, the faceless woman has a name when I moan with another firm stroke of my cock.
“Ah…Cecelia…” I murmur as my scrotum tightens with impending release, but it’s when her face fully flashes behind my eyelids and her innocent eyes arrest my imagination that I’m sprung out of the heady daze and snatch my hand away from my cock.
Gasping and staring at my palm with accusation, I gulp hard in an attempt to let the blood swelling my cock flow away. My heart is pounding as I reach for the faucet and turn it to the cold side, letting cool water wash over me to calm my nerves.
I can’t think about Cecelia in that way. The alpha trials are coming up, and I know how the pack feels about her. It won’t look good for me, being entangled with the omega hybrid.
Everyone knows what her father was accused of. Several years ago, the Lunaris Pack faced a great threat when a group of humans blackmailed our alpha and threatened to expose our existence to the human world. We’d fought hard as a werewolfrace to keep our identity hidden, especially out here in the secluded coastal town of Nightmist, where no one knows that the residents are werewolves. The threat was dealt with, but all fingers pointed to Hugo Morales, Cecelia’s father.
He’d been the only Lunaris wolf who’d mated with a human woman and produced a half-breed child. The woman, Cecelia’s mother, died in childbirth, and Hugo had only been given refuge with his daughter amongst the pack because he was a thoroughbred werewolf. Losing his human mate is what led him on a vengeful spree, revealing our existence to the humans to exact revenge.
If she’d been accepted into the wolf pack, she might have had a chance to live while she carried a werewolf pup. Hugo must have been plotting against the Lunaris Pack for a long time after they refused to take in Cecelia’s mother. He was punished accordingly for his crimes, but the Lunaris Pack hasn’t forgotten.
Cecelia remains the half-breed outcast omega who will never be fully accepted.
I can’t be caught up in her mess. That’s the only reason why I want to apologize for the past, so I can bury this for good. It doesn’t help that I can’t get that night out of my head, when I’d taken her virginity on her twenty-first birthday and later rejected her.
I’ve trained my whole life to win the trials, and I can’t let the omega serve as a distraction. The sooner I can clear the air, the better. I would have done it earlier tonight if she hadn’t run away from the cafeteria hall.
Grunting as I turn off the shower, I realize that I could have easily gone after her, had I not been stunned by her mere presence and that overindulgent scent of florals that once again scattered my mind. I wish Cecelia Morales hadn’t affected methe way she did three years ago. Perhaps then I wouldn’t have taken her virginity in the first place.
Shrugging off the horrendous thoughts threatening to take my head out of the game, I wrap a towel around my hips and drag my feet to the bed. Perhaps coming home wasn’t the greatest idea, after all. But it’s the only way I could make it back in time for the trials I’ve trained for all my life.
I plop onto the bed and close my eyes for the night, not bothering to get dressed. I desperately need to sleep so I can escape the thoughts about Cecelia, but it doesn’t help that she haunts my dreams.
***
“Yo, Dominic!”
A chorus of whistles follows Santo’s cheerful greeting the moment I enter the pack den, igniting a smile on my face.
There are two days left before the alpha trials begin, and the participants vying for the ranks were called to a meeting with the current alpha. Among them are some of my closest friends in the pack, like Santo, who’d grown up beside me. He’d only returned from an extended vacation this morning, so I hadn’t seen him since I got back.
We greet each other with a fist bump and a knock on our shoulders while he congratulates me for my success in the black ops squad.
“I heard you were a beast out there,” Santo chuckles as we take our places around the log benches in the center of the pack den. “I’m afraid we’ll be wasting our time with the trials.”
I chuckle under my breath as I smirk. “We’re not just competing for the alpha title, Santo,” I remind him. “There’s still the beta and delta positions to win.”
“Yeah, well, your only competition for alpha is over there,” he says as he nods toward Simon, seated across from us. The alpha’s son holds his chin up with an air of haughtiness as if he already has the title in the bag, his blue eyes tinged with a sinister glint as he stares at me.
“I wouldn’t be too worried,” I brush off Simon’s glare with a snort. “If he wanted to be alpha so badly, he should have volunteered for black ops.”
“You were the only one brave enough, Dom. Simon can kiss all of our a—”
Santo is interrupted when Alpha Sirius leads the group of Lunaris elders into the pack den. Everyone gathered in the hut straightens up, and I clear my throat before bowing my head when the pack’s leader walks past.
Alpha Sirius continues marching behind the sacred altar, where he takes his seat on the carved wooden throne, throwing his burgundy cloak over the armrest before striking a match to light a candle on the table in front of him.
“Thank you all for coming here today,” he begins with a nod toward the elders seated at the back of the room, his face glowing with the orange flicker of the candle’s flame. “As you all know, the alpha trials will commence on Monday at Mount Desert Campgrounds. Those of you who are gathered here have been chosen to participate in these trials, which consist of four carefully curated tests.”
“I don’t see the point—” Simon begins with a disgruntled sigh, but his father lifts a dismissive hand to cut him off.
“You will not question this pack’s traditions, Simon,” Alpha Sirius practically growls at his son, his crystalline blue eyes sending tangible icicles in his direction. “The alpha trials are a longstanding rite of passage for any leader and his subordinates in Lunaris.” Alpha Sirius turns back to the room. “This is how the three highest ranks will be determined. Whoever scores the most points in the trials will emerge as this pack’s alpha. It will also determine the beta and delta of the pack.”
