To Love a Wolf Ch. 01

Hey guys! This is my first attempt at writing so let me know what you think. Comments and feedback are welcome. The first few chapters are build up and the good stuff should come soon

Notes-

Avani: Ava-onee

Traceon: Tray-son

Avani-

I was dreaming again. I was running through the woods surrounding the compound in my wolf form like I always during this dream. My sensitive ears picked up on the fact that whoever was chasing me was gaining on me. I heard the howls coming from behind me and was praying that it was my pack coming to save me but I knew it wasn't. They didn't give a fuck if I lived or died even if it was in dream.

I leapt over a fallen tree catching my hind leg and tumbled across the forest floor. I had this dream often enough to know what was going to happen next. Three large wolves and a smaller one surrounded me as I struggled to get up from my fall. The largest of the four growled bearing its huge teeth at me as it raised its paw to strike me. Just as it was getting ready to serve me the blow I woke up to the sound of my own screaming.

I shot up in my bed, drenched in sweat shaking uncontrollably. My father rushed into the room glancing around wildly before coming to my side.

"Princess what's the matter? Was someone in here?" he rushed out.

He looked me over like I was still a small child checking for injury to make sure I wasn't harmed. "I'm okay daddy. It was just another nightmare" I panted out trying to control my breathing.

I heard the omegas burst through the door ready to take on whatever had been in my room. They instantly calmed at the sight of their alpha in the room. "What's wrong Alpha? We heard the screams during our patrols." Greg one of the security guards said, his eyes scanning the room for an intruder.

"Everything is fine Greg. Avani had another nightmare." My dad said rubbing his hand on my back in circles.

"Is there anything we can do to help sir?" the other man asked glancing at me with the same look I got from everyone else in the pack: disdain.

"Yes you can call the pack healer up so that she can help Ava get some sleep, then you all can go back to your patrols for the night. I'm sorry you had to leave your post." my dad said dismissing them waiting until the last omega left and my door was closed again before turning his attention back to me.

He didn't say anything until he heard the five men trample down the stairs and out the door of the house. "Avani you have got to get a hold of this. I hear what the pack says, so I'm sure you have too. Their concerned that your constant nightmares are a reflection of your mental stability and how you will be to handle the pack. How do you expect to control the pack if you can't control your own mind?" he asked laying into me.

This wasn't the first time we had this talk about my nightmares. They happened almost nightly now and talks about my mental competency weren't the only thing buzzing through the pack. My name was constantly on the lips of the pack, from my nightmares down to my figure.

Sure they had no choice but to except me considering there was nobody fit enough to take my father's place as alpha, but that didn't mean they had to like me.

I was the outcast.

I wasn't a full lycan because my mother was half human, and some genes weren't as strong as others. I ended up with my father's eyes and of course the shifters gene but I got my mother's everything else. Her wavy hair, her beauty and grace but the worse thing was I inherited her body type.

The other women in the pack had long, lean, willowy figures where as I ended up with my mother's full medium top- XL bottom figure. That often made me the brunt of everyone else's jokes, well that and my peanut butter colored skin.

My mom was African American and my dad and the rest of the pack were white. It's funny how you can grow up some place around these people and yet they still tease you. I was the lone speck in a sea of sand. I pulled myself from my thoughts and focused on what my dad was saying.

"You have to try and get ahold of yourself princess. You're going to be a wife and an alpha soon. Our pack and the Andretti's need to know that you can handle being a leader of not just one pack but two." he preached to me.

I winced at the mention of the Andretti name. Before I was even born I was engaged to Traceon, the son of my father's closest friend and nearest pack leader, James Andretti. As soon as they found out I was a girl, he and my father had written up a contract and plans were set in motion.

The contract agreed upon was year of my 20th and Trace's 21st moon risings, we were to be wed and that was only a few weeks away. I rolled my eyes at my dad and pulled the covers over my head.

"Dad you don't have to keep reminding me okay? I know that I need to get this under control. I also know what the pack says about it." I mumble at him.

"Princess I want you to be prepared for anything. That means that you have to have your mind together for the sake of the pack!" he said, his voicing getting higher. I heard the frustration in his voice and felt it rolling off him in droves.

I shut down and rolled over on my side away from him, "I wish mom was here." I whispered knowing that he would hear me. I felt him stiffen at my comment.

He didn't say anything else to me except, "get some sleep" before walking out of the room. I felt bad for throwing salt in the wound that was still fresh for the both of us but there wasn't anything that I could do to take it back.

I heard the door reopen and heard the soft footsteps of the elderly healer walk across the hard wood floor. "Avani, the guards and your father tell me you're having a hard time sleeping," the old woman said more as a statement than as a question.

"Yes I've been having this reoccurring nightmare the past few weeks." I say softly siting back up in enough time to watch the disapproving look flash on her face before it disappeared.

"You should have to come to me sooner, Avani. As an alpha you need to keep your head about you and stay on your game. Lack of sleep is a hindrance that you can't afford." The healer scolded as she started mixing herbs together with the gross tea that she always gives me when I'm sick.

I wanted to yell, to scream at everyone that I was more than an alpha, more than this pack. I wanted to tell them all that I am a woman with feelings and just once wanted to be treated as such. But I couldn't do that. I didn't want to have to deal with the fallout from me uttering those words.

Instead I sat there silently watching her as she added the last ingredient and passed me the cup. "Here drink every last drop. This should help you sleep tonight. Tomorrow I want you to come down to the clinic and I'll give you something to take every night that will keep the bad dreams away and keep you calm." she said watching me with her beady eyes.

I knew she wasn't going away until I drained the cup so I held my breath and downed the shit tasting drink, trying not to twist my face up. I handed the cup back to her and she grabbed her little medical bag and walked out the door without saying anything else to me.

I flopped back on my pillows and stared at the ceiling thinking about my pending marriage to Trace. I hadn't seen him since I was 10 years old, when I was young and naïve and thought the idea of marrying one of my best friends was the best idea in the world.

It had always been Trace, Tyree, Trace's fraternal twin Blaze and me growing up. When I think back on us I remember having the biggest crush on Trace. I always wanted to be around him. Tyree and I followed him and Blaze around when they played games that they wouldn't let us play, I even wrote our names together during tutoring sessions.

He was one of the only people in the world that didn't treat me any different like the rest of the pack did. But that was 10 years ago. Things could be and defiantly were different now that we were all grown up.

I felt my eyelids getting heavy as I continued to think about my marriage to Trace. My last thought before I drifted off into a dreamless sleep was wondering if Trace's lips were as soft as they appeared to be when we were younger.

Trace-

I couldn't sleep once again. My wolf was still too agitated from my earlier conversation or should I say argument with my father. I slid gently out from under Rachel, my current girlfriend and snatched my sweats of the floor to cover my nakedness from the cold night air.

I glanced at my bed to make sure Rachel was still sleeping before I quietly padded out of my room. I had lived in this house for most of my life so I knew what floorboards I needed to avoid so I didn't alert any one especially my parents that I was up and about.

I took the stairs two at a time before darting through the hallway and out the front door. I nodded to the omegas doing the nightly patrols before heading in the opposite direction into the woods. As soon I cleared the first lines of trees, I pushed my sweats from my hips dropping them down to the cold earth before shifting, my bones breaking and reforming. I dropped down onto my paws and started running into the forest.

I could hear someone heading over to where I had shifted and picked up my pace. I didn't want to be bothered by anyone right now. My father had made it appoint to tell me again that I needed to cut Rachel lose tonight at dinner.

As the time came closer for my mating to Avani to merge our packs as one the more my father seemed to ride my back about my responsibilities as an alpha and to not get caught up in the thrill of being in a relationship with a woman i couldnt keep. He didn't seem to understand that I didn't want to be pushed into a mating like the alphas that came before me.

It may have worked out for most of them, my parents included, but for a lot of mated pairs the match was hell sent and I didn't want to be stuck in that type of relationship. I wanted to be able to choose who I gave the rest of my long life to instead of being forced to be with another.

I kept running until I reached the clearing a few miles away from the compound. I dropped into the cold tall grass, staying in my wolf form to keep warm, and rolled over onto my back to stare at the sky going back to my thoughts. Granted I couldn't necessarily see myself mating with Rachel either but I wanted the choice to be mine.

My thoughts turned back to Avani and the time she spent here on home base when were little. I always got this weird feeling when she was around and could never place what it was. She had been one of my best friends along with my twin brother Blaze and Tyree, another little girl from the Chambers pack. We were the only ones who hadn't picked on her over her African American heritage and had been extremely close.

We had done everything together up until it was time for her to go back home when I turned 10. That was the year that I started my training in both taking over my father's position and how to protect the pack. I haven't seen her since the day she left base 11 years ago.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of running paws hitting the ground coming toward me. I knew instantly it was my brother, Blaze. We shared a bond that I assume most twins, fraternal or not, had with their siblings.

I saw his wolf stride into the clearing and shake his head at me."Shouldn't you be in bed?" he asked me through our telepathic bond, plopping himself down next to me.

"Shouldn't you be as well?" I shot back not bothering to get up. My wolf was enjoying the comfort of the cool grass.

"Yeah I should but my stupid older by 10 seconds brother ran off and I was concerned," he said sighing mentally.

Blaze and I were like night and day. He was patient, level headed and thought things through vs. me, who wanted things done like yesterday, was slightly hotheaded and impulsive. I rolled my eyes at him,"Let me guess mom heard me sneak out again didn't she?" I asked knowing the answer.

"Of course she did. I don't understand why you think you're getting over on her. You were never able to when we were little so you think you would have learned. Now what's going on?" he questioned.

"Nothing. I'm still mad over my argument with dad earlier so I needed to breathe." I told him rolling off my back and onto my feet and started troting back toward home.

"Stop being a big ass baby Trace. You won't know what being mated to Avani will be like, but you know her enough to know she won't make your life a living hell." Blaze said following behind me back through the forest.

"Knew, B. I knew her when we were little. I don't know her now. Time changes everybody." I said, breaking out in a sprint.

"Whatever you say brother," he called out."Whatever you say."