The Alpha’s Other Woman
13 Challenge

Carrie

Heidi rushed towards me, her teeth bared. I dodged her and observed, judging her movements while trying to get a read on her abilities. I had been good at gauging such things as a scout, and the ability served me well now. While nothing was certain, I already knew that the odds of winning were in my favour.

I rushed her, and nipped her side with my teeth, drawing first blood. The wound would heal quickly, but enough of such small injuries would wear Heidi down and make it easier for me to finish the fight without a fatal wound.

It probably wasn’t the most exciting luna challenge, since I kept dodging and wearing her down with small fast attacks. There was blood, but not very much ripped flesh. Heidi managed to get a few hits in on me, but I remained mostly unharmed. She was wearing down. She was not a bad fighter, but I clearly had more experience and training from my scout days.

She leapt towards me with a vicious snarl and I got my teeth on her hind leg as she rushed by, ripping the flesh and putting her off balance. She stumbled forward slightly, and I whirled around and shoved her hard to the ground.

Once I got my teeth into her throat, the fight would be over.

I lunged forward.

White light exploded in my mind. My vision clouded and my muscles were shocked into peaceful stillness. For a mere moment that stretched into hours, the interfering light blocked my senses. Confusion flooded through me, and I shook my head to try to clear the haze that overwhelmed me.

As quickly as it had started, the light disappeared, just soon enough to see that Heidi had regained her feet and was going for my neck. Her teeth dug into my throat as I was forced to the ground under her weight.

If I had my wits about me, I might have managed to dislodge her, but my brain was frantically whirling as I tried to figure out what had happened to me. Had Alpha Dane figured out a way to sabotage me? Would he stoop that low?

My wolf was strangely calm about the situation, as if the light had put her into a trance. Her reaction made me all the more afraid.

“And Luna Heidi has won the fight by submission,” I heard Dane announce, and the reality of the situation hit home. I had lost the win, and all because of something strange that happened to my vision. Could something be seriously wrong with my mind? I probably should go and see the pack doctor after this.

Heidi released her grip on my neck and limped over to stand by the alpha. I still felt too stunned to move.

“Carrie is hereby banished from the pack.”

My brain refused to process his final words, but at the moment of his pronouncement, bond with my pack snapped. It had been there all my life, and so I had never really noticed it, in the same way I had never really noticed oxygen.

But now that it was gone, I felt the loss keenly, as if all the air had been sucked out of my vicinity. Somewhere, far away, I heard the murmur of verbal dissent rush through the witnesses of the fight.

“Alpha, you can’t do that,” I heard Samantha snarl. I wanted to mind link her and tell her not to jeopardize herself, but with the pack link gone, I had no connection to her.

“Please, Alpha,” my mother said. Others joined her plea, and if I had not been suffering from a separation that felt like death, I might have felt grateful or loved.

Instead, I was empty, lost from the pack I had worked so hard to support. I whimpered, but I doubted anyone heard me over the sound of voices that were crowding all around me.

“The law does not say that the losing party in the fight must be banished.”

“Did Carrie throw the fight?”

“But for the peace of the pack...”

“Something was wrong. Why did she freeze up like that?”

“The alpha’s word is law.”

“She did so much, this isn’t fair.”

Then I heard Dane’s voice. “It’s already done. You have an hour to get your things and leave, Carrie, before the warriors will treat you like any other trespassing rogue.”

There was another clamour of voices at his final judgement. So much discord, this was why we were told not to mess with destined mates.

Only one thought filled my mind. I didn’t want to leave my pack breaking like this. I had been banished and I might have lost my position as acting luna, but some small part of me would always be luna to Greenwoods. I hated Dane, but I still loved the others.

I howled to catch everyone’s attention, and then I shifted into my human form. Ignoring my state of undress, I looked to the group watching and met the eyes of individuals in my pack.

“Alpha Dane is right. I challenged the rightful luna and lost. It’s within his right to cut ties and banish me for the good of the pack.”

Everyone was silent as I swiftly returned to my wolf form and rushed towards Madeline’s house.

The clock was ticking.

—————

I shifted back into my human form, threw on some new clothing and began digging through my boxes looking for the things I could absolutely not live without. I threw everything into a backpack I could carry in my human or wolf form. I probably should have packed already, but deep down I had not truly believed that this would happen to me. And I hadn’t anticipated I would have so little time if it somehow did. A life, three long years, ended by a measly hour of frantic packing.

If it hadn’t been for that strange light, it would not have happened, but I didn’t have time to think of that right now.

A glint of metal caught my eye as I threw minimal clothing and my IDs into the bag, and I picked up that horrible engagement ring. I had intended to give it back to Dane—maybe accompanied by my fist—but right now, it looked more like something I should keep and pawn. He owed me something for the years I had thrown away on his garbage promises. I shoved it into a roll of socks and shoved them into the bag. What else could I use? I found a lighter, maybe that might come in handy, and a few more things.

The door opened with a crash and I relaxed when I heard the voice. “Carrie?”

It was Madeline. I swung my bag onto my back and went out to see her.

“Oh, dear, I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

I shrugged as if my whole life hadn’t crumbled all around me. I couldn’t feel her like I usually did, nor could I feel my friends or my mother as they came up behind her. There was an emptiness where our connection used to lie.

“What happened?” Samantha asked. “You were winning, and then you just froze.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I was about to force her to submit, then there was white light in my head and it sort of stunned me, and before I knew it, Heidi had me.”

The looks of concern on their faces did not comfort me.

“You need to see the pack doctor.” Samantha frowned, and looked like she would move to drag me off in that direction.

“I’ll be fine. Anyways, you heard the alpha. I’ve got less than an hour before I’ll need more than a pack doctor.” I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. “I’ll see a human doctor or something once I get away.”

“You’re not going to find a new pack?” my mother asked, aghast.

I shook my head. “Not right away.” I didn’t think it would be that easy to find one as a rogue, but I didn’t want to tell my mother that. She already looked on the verge of tears. Hiding amongst the humans would help me avoid trouble with the hunters as well, as long as I kept my head down.

“You could try Lisa’s pack,” my mother said, referring to my much older sister who moved off with her mate years ago, when I was not even ten. She was a lot older than me, and I barely knew her.

I really didn’t want to go begging her for handouts. I wanted to make my own way. I had something to prove. “Maybe. Well, listen, I have to head to the border now if I want to make it.”

“Your father’s grabbing the truck. We’ll drive you to there so you have a little bit longer.” Of course, they would need permission to go further, and I doubted either of them were interested in asking favours of their alpha at this point.

I nodded. I was going to miss Greenwoods.

“I’ll keep all your stuff here for you until you send for it,” Madeline told me, her face a picture of kind sympathy.

“Thank you for everything,” I told her.

I could tell Samantha and Anna were both conflicted, but I was surprised when it was Anna who spoke. “This isn’t fair, Carrie.”

“Nothing I can do about it now. I have some regrets, but I can’t change the past.”

The thing I most regretted was not telling the jerk alpha to go to hell when he first suggested the idea of chosen mates, but it was far too late for that now.

My friends tried to cheer me up, and my father came back with the vehicle, and all too soon I was saying goodbye to everyone I cared about. My parents got into the vehicle with me and my mother started crying as we drove.

“Can we just give her the truck?” my mother asked.

“It’s registered to the pack,” my father said with a disappointed shake of his head.

“I probably couldn’t afford gas yet anyway,” I pointed out.

My mother shoved money into my hand. I thanked her as I took it and shoved it into the bag. I guess she had been more prepared for the event I might lose than I had been.

“How could he do that to you?” she sniffled.

I shrugged. “He found his mate.” I was just glad they didn’t say they told me so.

My father pulled the truck to a stop at the border. We all got out and my parents took turns hugging me.

“Call us as often as you can.” My mother wiped her tears as she spoke.

“I’ll try.”

“We’ll send you more money if you need,” my father added.

“Thanks. Well, love you, but I’d better get going. Don’t let the pack break up now that I’m leaving.”

Neither of them looked happy with my instructions, but it was what I wanted.

I began walking towards the edge of the territory and I knew when I stepped over. I exhaled. The first breath of my new life as a hated rogue. I was not deluding myself. As a lone female rogue, my odds of survival were not good in a world where packs would look down on me, other rogues might prey upon me, hunters would be looking for an excuse to prosecute me, and who knew what other supernatural creatures were out there.

But I was smart and a good fighter, so maybe I had a chance. I began to walk, my parents disappearing behind the trees.

And a voice broke through the sounds of the forest. “Care.”

My eerie calm exploded into anger and pain. “What do you want, Dane?”

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