The Cruel Alpha's Daughter's Mate

Chapter 3

Heidi

I was caught up reading the story of Buck as he went from being the pampered dog in the wealthy house to the sled dog and then to the wild dog. It was one of my favourite stories and I had always enjoyed how the dog transitioned and adapted to meet his new circumstances throughout the story. I glanced over at Lara and saw that she was asleep. I watched her for a moment, glad she was getting some rest.

Lara never really spoke about her life in that big mansion with her father. She didn’t have to. I wasn’t blind. I knew what type of a man Alpha Grayson was. As an Alpha he was bad enough. As a father… I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

I knew that since her mother’s death, Lara had been the one taking care of the house. To me it was a strange thing. There were Omegas working around the home. Alpha Grayson had Omegas who tended to his lawn and yard, plus he had Omegas who cooked and did the grocery shopping. Lara never complained about the housework. I just hoped that there was nothing bad happening within the home. Surely if her father was hurting her, she would tell me? Wouldn’t she?

I went back to reading my book knowing that if Lara was sleeping then she obviously needed the rest.

Lara

The next morning, I was happy to discover that I had slept right through the night. I woke up feeling refreshed, and since I had no other plans that morning, I decided to make the most of this opportunity and go for a run.

Heidi was already at work in the kitchens when I stepped out of the Omegas accommodation and headed towards the woods to shift into my wolf form. Once I was inside the woods and out of sight of the various accommodation buildings that were on this side of the pack grounds, I stripped and shifted into my wolf form.

Once the shift was complete, I began running through the trees. It was exhilarating. I felt a thrill run through me as the wind blew through my fur. Racing through the woods, jumping over fallen logs and large boulders that were in my path, I skilfully weaved through trees. When I came to an open flat section of woods, I let loose and raced at top speed feeling the power inside my body fighting to be released.

My wolf, Phoenix let out a loud whoop of excitement as we continued to race through the woods. As I ran, I made my way towards the base of the mountain that overlooked our home. Mt Flame Tree was the most rugged and beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. The mountain was as incredibly unforgiving as she was beautiful. There were many stories about people dying on the mountain. Humans would come here hiking during the warmer months and skiing during the winter months. Every year there were reports of people dying from hypothermia or skiing accidents, or dying from dehydration and bad falls during the warmer months. There had also been werewolf deaths over the years as well. Young werewolves had been known to go up the mountain and get over confident, losing their footing and plunging to their deaths.

As soon as I reached the base of the mountain, I began climbing upwards, making my way toward the summit. As I raced up the mountain side, I jumped from rock to rock. There were a few patches of loose gravel where I had to dig my paws deeper into the ground to prevent myself from slipping down the steep slope. My deeper foothold, helped to keep propelling my body upwards, towards the summit.

When I reached the summit, I stood there breathing hard and mentally patting myself on the back for how quickly I was able to reach the top. Phoenix let out a shrill whoop and said, “That was awesome. We did so good. Wow, would you look at that view!”

“I know, it really is something, isn’t it?” I asked, as I looked at my home.

From up here you could see everything.

From where we were standing, everything looked so small.

As I looked at it all, I wished that my problems with my father were as small as my home looked from the top of this mountain.

“You are worried he is going to hurt us at some point, aren’t you?” Phoenix asked quietly.

“I am. He is so blood thirsty. We wouldn’t stand a chance if he became furious with us and decided to put us in the next Omegas challenge. And it doesn’t help that we now know his and Tiffany’s secret. Look what happened the day he set up that arena. All those Omegas that were slaughtered didn’t do anything wrong. Now they are all dead, because he has a sick need to see bloodshed. I mean our father certainly gives an entirely new meaning to the term blood sport. So, after all that, do you think he would have any problem with ending our lives in order to keep his dirty little secret?” I replied, knowing that she would be able to read between the lines.

“Well, I hope you’re wrong about that. I don’t want to die any time soon,” she told me, shuddering as she said it.

“Hey, neither do I,” I assured her.

I looked around us, taking in the view that stretched on as far as the eye could see. Far off into the distance I could see Rapid River. The sun was reflecting off water in a golden hue. Between our home and the large width of the Rapid River, there were lots of woods, and fields, their various colours covering the land like a patchwork quilt. I could even see where Opal Creek branched off from Rapid River and made its way onto our packs land.

At home I could see the members of the pack moving around, from this distance they looked to be the size of ants.

“We should get back,” Phoenix said, cutting into my sightseeing moment.

“I know, even though I don’t really want too,” I replied.

“I know. I am scared to go back if I am being honest,” Phoenix said.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, you’re not the only one,” I assured her.

“Honestly, it doesn’t make me feel better,” she whispered, “Knowing you are scared and I am scared, it just… it makes us seem like big old fraidy cats.”

“Well, be that as it may, we would be alive and safe. Fraidy cats live long long lives,” I pointed out, laughing quietly.

We began making our way back down the mountain, wanting to take our time. We weren’t in any big rush to get back home. It was a strange thought, that this mountain that had been the cause of so many deaths, was a place that I felt safe.

“We could always just stay here you know. It’s not like anyone would be able to find us up here. I mean, think about how many water crossings we crossed over on our way up here,” Phoenix said.

I thought about what she was saying, and if I was being honest, the thought of staying on the mountain did sound appealing… to a point.

“What point would that be?” Phoenix asked sounding curious about my hesitancy to stay on the mountain.

“Well, if we were to stay up here, we would need to remain in wolf form. There are no structures up here, so we would need to rough it. Plus, I would be doing bathroom visits in the woods in wolf form, which does not sound that great too me. Not to mention all the bugs and insects. No pillows, blankets or mattresses. So, does it still sound all that appealing to you?” I asked her.

“Well, I would be totally fine with it,” she said, giving an evil grin at the thought of staying on the mountain forever.

“Yeah, I am sure you would. But the thing is, I am not sure if I would be,” I replied.

“Can we just explore a little?” Phoenix asked, pleading for the opportunity to explore the mountain. “We don’t have anything we need to rush back for after all,” she reminded me.

“Okay, fine, let’s have a look around,” I agreed, as we began exploring.

The mountain had patches of pine trees, along with large boulders scattered over it. Large logs and branches littered the ground along with rocks and pine cones. Birds were chattering in the trees and I could hear the sound of a bobcat taking down its prey. The sound of the wind blowing through the trees brought all kinds of sounds. As we slowly ran through the woods, Phoenix was happy to be able to explore. “This place is so cool,” she shouted happily.

As we were running, some shadow on one of the sheer rock faces caught my attention. I headed over to see what the shadow was caused by. It wasn’t until I was right on top of the rock face that I realised what I was looking at.

“Oh, wow. This is awesome!” Phoenix shouted happily.

“It sure is,” I agreed, looking at the entrance to the cave in amazement.

“See, we could live up here if we wanted to,” Phoenix announced. “Let’s go explore it!” she declared, wanting to look inside the cave.

“Phoenix…” I said, needing her to realise we needed to be careful.

“Oh, come on, live a little, would you?” she replied, shaking her head in frustration.

“What if we end up being up here longer than we planned? We would be on our father’s radar for sure. He could put us in the challenge. The warrior trainees would tear us to shreds in a few seconds flat,” I stated.

“A few seconds hey. Well, at least it would be over quickly,” she replied smugly.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to die,” I reminded her.

“I don’t. But… this is too good an opportunity to pass up,” she whined.

“Ah, okay, fine. But if we end up dead, it’s your fault,” I told her.

“Cool,” she replied, grinning happily.

I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before making my way through the entrance of the cave.