The Rejected Alpha

the river

There was nothing in this world that could have prepared me for the raging chill of the water or the wild strength of the current that had once raged only below the ice. But at least I didn't have to fight it.

What was the point in fighting a battle I already wanted to lose in the first place?

And so I allowed myself to sink down and get dragged along by the current. Every once in a while I would be slammed against a rock, or my skin would be pierced by a shard of ice that had been shattered.

It didn't matter to me.

I was letting this arctic water carry me to the end of my days, and with any luck it would also carry Nikolai to the end of his.

There was something funny about it, in a way.

The whole time I'd been with the Black Mountain Pack, all I could think about was the way that their monster of an alpha seemed to drown me in those forever blue eyes of his. Now I was actually going to drown in water that felt just as cold.

My lungs had started to scream, and black spots danced across my vision, as the current finally slammed me into the ground and forced all of the remaining air out of me. As I went to gasp and suck in water, I was met with a breath of fresh air.

Somehow, I had bounced off the bottom and been shoved into a tree limb that was attached to the banks. Now I was wrapped around it, breathing fresh air.

I was alive?

It took a few moments for all the spots to clear, but when I came to my senses I saw the river raging beside me.

By some twist of fate, I had been pushed by the current into a calm side pool and against the fallen tree I was now perched on.

I couldn't help but laugh.

My joy was cut short by the vicious howls I could hear cutting through the night. It seemed that the pack had realized that their alpha and luna were in danger, but they were far upstream. Some of the voices sounded closer than others, but I highly doubted that any of them would come all the way down here.

They probably wouldn't even know where to start looking for me.

"Lyra?"

The words sent me looking up to the top of the gorge that still towered over me.

A pair of wide golden eyes met my own, followed by a pair of brown eyes that had been so cold earlier but were now only filled with concern.

To my wild horror, both Sage and Jordie stood on the edge of the gorge in wolf form, staring down at me. Jordie stood there with his red fur fluffed up and concern radiating off of him, while Sage had his ears pinned against his head as he leaned down to look at me.

"Lyra, what happened? I'm coming to help, just give me a second to figure out how to get down," Sage called out, as he started looking around the edge of the cliff.

Jordie only stood there and stared. There was a kind of understanding in his golden eyes that I understood. The third pillar knew what had happened.

"No! Stay up there," I practically screamed at Sage.

The brown and white wolf froze and looked at me in shock. "What."

"Stay up there, Sage. You have a home here now, but I never will. I will never live here. I would rather die. Keep your damn mouth shut and take care of Whit," I snapped at him, growling loudly despite my pathetic condition slumped against the log.

"You're a fucking idiot, Lyra. I did what I had to do to survive, but I will always be your friend, and I won't let you kill yourself like this," he hissed back at me, before going back to scanning the edge of the cliff for a way down.