The Alpha Female

ONE: A BROWN COAT

CHAPTER ONE: A BROWN COAT

            The alpha marched through his pack, his compassion shadowed away by his mere presence.  He was a force to be reckoned with.  A tall tanned man, nothing but a beaver skin thrown over his bare shoulders and a pair of tasseled leather pants adorned his frame.  He was a built man, the muscles standing out clear on his arms, as well as his multitude of battle scars.  The shifter was in his mid-forties, nearing the end of his rein.  Alphas could only last as long as they were in peak condition.  He was my alpha.  He was my father.

            I followed behind him.  My icy blue eyes calculating and observant.  I was to learn from my father for the one day that I would take his place, and that day drew nearer and nearer as time passed.

            We strode through the camp, the small cabins that our pack resided in blending in quite well with the scenery, they wouldn’t be seen from above by the humans sky beasts.  We were safe down here nuzzled deep within the pines.

            “Suka,” my father snapped, coming to a halt.  I walked up beside him, standing shoulder to shoulder.  For being the alpha’s daughter I was surprisingly small.  My head rose to about mid bicep on him, my long dark hair was drawn back with some leather twine and I was clothed in a deer skin sundress.  It was mid-October. 

            “Yes alpha?” I was his beta.  Normally betas were their alpha’s right hand man, but in my case, I was his right hand woman.  Most alphas had more than one child, that way the oldest son could run the pack even if a daughter preceded him.  It was common belief that men were smarter than women, stronger, and better at controlling chaos, they also didn’t have to worry about pregnancy and the emotional swings that a female could bring.  I was an only child, and I shot down every stereotype.

            I was level headed, cunning and quick.  My name was Suka Rae, it meant fast grace, king actually. I was born to lead and my father saw that.  He trusted me with his life, and I trusted him with mine.  The entirety of the pack did, and what the alpha says goes.  I would be beta and no one would argue.  I had proven myself many a times before.

            “Gather the hunters,” he started, “I want a party sent out after Honon, he has yet to return and it worries me.” I gave him a short nod.  We were living in troubled times, troubled to such an extent that only hunting parties were allowed to escape into the woods and stretch out their limbs.

            It was deer season here, and when deer came, so did hunters.  We feared humans with all of our beings.  Savages, that was what they were.  What they all were.  Hunters came for one thing, to drive packs into madness and starvation.  They stole our game, and on some rare cases, our people.  To be seen by a hunter was to doom a pack, we had witnessed it many a time before. 

            When whelps gathered around the campfire it was not stories of monsters that were told, but stories of gun handling hunters.  Men who killed even the mightiest of beasts, who slaughtered the humble.  They poisoned small mammals, and ate the feet of bears and wild wolves with their metal teethed mouths.  I had seen it once before, a young wolf stuck in its jaws.  The teeth had torn through to the bone and I knew there was nothing I could do for it.  The wolf would be dead, the hunters would find it crying out, and they would shoot it like they did with everything else.  Merciless.

            “Yes alpha,” I gave him a slight nod of my head and started off in the direction of Taima’s cabin.  Taima was probably the closest thing I had to a friend.  He was a twenty-eight moon cycles older than myself, and he had the height and muscle mass to prove it.  Not like I didn’t have my own fair share of strength.  I did have alpha blood after all.