"Zara," a monotone female voice called to me, vibrating against the imprisoning walls.

I shook my head, blinking against the white light. With a flick of my tongue, I licked my dry, sticky, lips, dipping into a warm, sweet taste. Looking down at my paws, the white fur was coated in dark, red liquid, matted black in some areas.

My nose twitched at the heavy scent, emanating from a nearby carcass that pooled blood on the floor toward my paws. I lowered my nose and sniffed, inhaling an earthy, iron-coated scent of blood.

Gross.

Then I dragged my tongue across a wet spot on my right paw, the same warm and sweet sensation filling my tastebuds.

Not bad.

My paws looked horrendous, like I clawed through a crime scene, so I licked at them until they seemed presentable. The effort was as successful as a child's finger painting.

"Zara," the voice pressed.

With blood squishing between my toes, soaking the hairs, I grounded my paws into the puddle and stood up. My eyes followed the blood trail to what remained of the goat, a pile of bones, the ribs arching up over the blood-matted carcass.

My ears twitched to find the source of the voice. Anna's voice appeared to come through an intercom speaker in the ceiling. I took a few steps at it and sniffed the air. Compression and backward pull on my right leg halted my steps. One look over my shoulder revealed that my leg was tethered with a heavy chain, with the other end bolted to the floor.

"You need to shift back."

I opened my mouth to respond 'How,' but only a sharp bark came out.

Lovely.

"Zara, you have to shift back. You have to control yourself. Picture it in your mind. Recede the fur and slide the bones back into their original positions."

Is that all?

My lungs expanded with a deep breath, which I pushed out my nostrils and squeezed my eyes shut. Imagery of my original form, my bare arms and legs filled my mind. Smooth skin replaced the bloodied white fur, my blonde strands flowing out my scalp.

A pulsating sensation built up in my stomach, throbbing faster than my heartbeat, and spread into a slow burn throughout my body. Another ear-sickening round of cracking noises filled my ears, churning my stomach and wrenching my face with tension.

While this time the transformation was still painful, it paled to the initial time.

Finally.

My lips released a gasp when the waves of dull pain receded and the cement floor radiated cold into my skin.

Skin.

With slow movements, my palms pushed myself back up off the floor. My eyes roamed my body, sighing when I inspected a human form. I laid on my side with my knees curled up to my chest... in my birthday suit. Bare-ass naked, my pale skin was coated with blood remnants. Sweaty and clammy, my skin smelled metallic and rancid, like decay.

A seamless door opened and Anna's voice flowed through, "There you are."

Anna's heels clicked across the cement, each louder with her approach. Towering over, she covered me with a blanket, then pulled my shoulders up and brought me to standing. I leaned my weight on her, my ankles wobbling with each guided step down a narrow, cement-walled hallway to an elevator.

The dull hum of the elevator, my body jiggling under its shifts, oddl calmed my racing mind. Once the doors opened, I recognized the upstairs hallway, back to my bedroom. Anna hooked her arm around my back, her hand cupped into my ribs. Despite my goat engorgement, my weight sagged onto her side with each stumbled step.

My mind drifted without aim as we hobbled down the hallway, unable to process more than the next step of my machine feet. Before I knew where I was, Anna laid me down in my bed. Wrapped in a fluffy set of pajamas, my eyelids swelled with fatigue. I wasn't sure when I'd bathed or showered but my damp hair hit the softness of my pillow.

The last thing I remembered was her soothing voice as she pushed something into my arm. "Just sleep, Zara."

Her grim face blurred into blackness.

"Zara?" a male voice muffled through my door, a security guard, preceded his heavy knock. "Your father is waiting."

"Oh goodness."

I sat up and pushed my fingers into my forehead against the pounding headache. Nausea rolled through my empty stomach and my bedroom blurred around me.

My eyes took in my limbs sprawled out over my bed. Sweat soaked the sheets under my backside. An uncomfortable feeling stirred inside me when I saw that I wore pajamas, which also clung to my damp skin, with no idea of how I got dressed in them.

Was it a horrible nightmare?

As I glanced around my room, my senses fired off. My eyes narrowed on every detail, the flakes of dust filtering the air, reflecting the light in the window like tiny snowflakes, the repetitive, whirring sound from the overhead ceiling fan, a door knob click, and every hair on my forearms raising up.

"Miss Zara?" The guard cracked open the door. "Your father."

"Of course."

My legs slid out of bed and my bare feet padded across the soft plush carpet. After I threw on the first set of casual clothes my hands grabbed from my closet, my chin dipped as I hurried down the hall.

Prior to today, I never knew how many men stood on security detail. Now, I smelled the distinct shifts in cologne and deodorant of each one, even the discreet ones situated out of view, that I passed through the halls to his office.

Like every summoning to my father's office, dark and oppressive like him, felt like a punishment walk of shame. The same dark stain on the floors coated the woodwork decorating the walls, devoid of any personal items except for one... A carved, wooden Lykaois crest.

Wouldn't want any family pictures, nope.

"Sit." He pointed at the chairs that faced his desk, a large, bulky wood form that took up half the expansive room. "You're late."

After I sat down, my lips pulled into my standard tight smile. Those false smiles were reserved for him, but I needed more exertion than usual to force one. At this point, he didn't hold any regard for my happiness, which made the next words out of his mouth an absolute shock.

"Now that you've shifted, Zara." My father stared at me, his eyes dark and deadly emotionless as always, from behind his desk. "You must select a mate."

'Mate...' 

The word echoed in the back of my mind from a voice that wasn't mine. I blinked rapidly, trying to place the voice in my head. Rather than debate with myself, I ignored it and concentrated on what my father had said.

"I'm sorry, an Australian friend?" My fingers traced over the metal studs tuffing the chair's leather armrest.

I didn't think feigning ignorance offered more information than asking what the heck he meant. Surprisingly, he obliged me, "No, a soulmate."

Wide-eyed and mouth gaped, I stared right back at him. The airspace between us thickened the longer my shocked expression faced off against his blank one.

The man who never lets me leave the house wants me to find a... soulmate?

"You want me to... date?" My voice dripped with sarcasm. "I'm afraid to ask, but how am I supposed to do that?"

Werewolf Tinder?

My thoughts flashed back to Cole and Elena's... neck sniffing exchange in the gym.

Was that werewolf flirting? Can't be, I can do that to a tree or hydrant.

My father's eyes darkened as his gray eyebrows etched crease lines around his eyes and mouth. Sunken in and yellowed at the corners, his brown irises rolled and he exhaled loudly. He drummed his fingers on his desk, erupting taps of his fingers. "Don't be absurd, Zara. Your wolf is white. Therefore, you must find a black wolf mate."

Oh boy, way to drain the dating pool even further.

'Mate.'

I blinked hearing that voice again, dropping my eyes to my father's tapping fingers. Dirt outlined his jagged nails, his skin dotted with sun blemishes and knuckles gnarled with age.

Mentally, I tracked the unrecognizable but familiar voice from my dreams. Shifting my eyes, I glanced around for her presence, before a realization sank in.

The voice in my head was... her voice.

No, couldn't be...

Lumi?

She sounded less than thrilled in her response, which jolted me in my seat.

'Yes.'

I sunk my nails into the aged leather armrests, which cracked under the pressure. My heart thumped against my chest walls, each beat harder than the one before.

You're... in my head?

My father's barked out voice interrupted my thoughts, "And, as your father, I will not allow your mate to have a rank lower than alpha."

Now we're sounding like an arranged marriage.

I couldn't begin to describe how excited I wasn't about that idea. A bipolar reaction jolted through me. Partially pleased that I was worthy of a high-ranking partner, my heart sank like I resigned a death sentence.

"Father, I don't -"

His nails drummed louder, silencing my voice. "I have arranged -"

Oh, here we go.

"- For each of the four packs' future Alphas to have an equal chance to pursue you."

My eyes stretched as wide as they went and lightheadedness rushed through my skull. If I hadn't been sitting down then I would have needed to.

Great, now I'm a piñata that's going to dangle from a tree and get whacked at with werewolf dicks.

"Four?" I stared at him as if he was a blank sheet of paper, because that's how much information he provided. His empty desk surface space offered more answers than the blank look he shot me from behind it.

Now I have to date four werewolves? I didn't even know I was one until a week ago.

"You will meet all four candidates, from which you will choose a mate," he expressed in a flat voice, devoid of emotion.

"Like that?" Wondering what the catch was, my eyebrows drew together.

I assumed Lumi seemed uncertain about that as well, since I felt a confusing sense of mental restlessness, like she paced around in my mind.

"For an ordinary werewolf, yes." His eyes glinted with the first flickers of life since I'd sat down. "Like your mother, you're not ordinary. You may select the order to entertain these suitors, but you must engage with all four and select a mate afterward."

My ears perked up at the reference to my mother. He never spoke of her, not to me at least. Yet, his vague terms and conditions left me echoing, "Entertain?"

While I appreciated the idea of gaining good company, in particular interacting with others my age, wining and dining was not my specialty.

"I am sending you off," he announced with finality that leaned me back in my seat. "You will spend one month with each pack, North, East, South, and West."

With no exposure outside this compound's walls, my heart skittered at the idea of exploring the country. The map image Elena had shown me filled my mind, but knowing my father, there was a catch. "And do what, exactly?"

The corners of his thin, pale lips twitch, not into a smile but he exhaled. "Learn about them, their history, family, culture, defense patrols, fighting styles. Discover which alpha and pack that you are most compatible with and choose a mate."

His words struck me like an arrow had been shot in the chest, since they contained the last salvageable shred of my dignity.

"Fighting styles? As in, train?" That suggestion sounded more preferable than playing Wolf Bachelorette.

He nodded, clasping his hands over his desk and adding in a stern voice, "Originally, Elena and Cole were to escort you. However, given their current predicament, you will travel alone the first month."

"Predicament?" I hoped they weren't in trouble.

Both slacked off from their teaching responsibilities ever since they... well, whatever they'd done. I was also to blame since my bleeding out episode last week left me unmotivated to physically exert myself to the point of muscle failure and fatigue.

"They're mating." His flat, annoyed tone implied their mating was an inconvenient interference on his plans.

My eyes widened at his lack of reproach. I shifted in my seat at the idea that I went on this 'quest,' as this travel adventure now felt, alone.

"I can't go alone."

My resistance surprised both of us, leaving my mouth hanging open. I never defied my father on anything, as evident by how his spine straightened.

I continued with my newfound bravery with, "I-I don't know what I'm doing. Plus, Cole is my trainer. I would like the extra security detail of someone I trust."

"In their current state," he spoke evenly, offering an air of suspicion that he didn't believe their assistance would be helpful. "They are a bit... unstable. Distracted to the point of being borderline misguided."

"Those are my terms." My chest swelled with a deep breath but I recoiled.

After seventeen years being quarantined at home, traveling alone felt like exposing a vulnerable wound. I didn't know Elena long but she was the first person, or werewolf, that I felt comfortable with.

I don't think Elena could hurt a fly but she can't go anywhere without Cole. They're attached at the hip.

My father surprised me with his quick, curtness, "Done. You may leave."

His words didn't register in me until I exited his office, that this was the first time he hadn't said, 'You are dismissed.' I wasn't sure what I'd done differently, but his response was a welcomed change.

The evening prior to my next Elena lesson, I conducted my own werewolf research. And in particular, werewolf romance, in the form of free, available online stories.

Half monster, half human... would the human side tend to be romantic?

Clicking on the 'werewolf' genre link in my favorite online story site, I hummed because I never read outside my toxic mafia romance stories. My eyes popped at thousands of stories returned on my screen, each with millions of reads.

"So many alpha stories..." I mumbled as my eyes perused the book titles, most of which contained names.

I clicked on the first eye-catching title, Alpha Gage. With twenty-three million reads, it seemed to be a good starting point and I clicked onto the preview page.

"Oh my goodness." My mouth hung open and voice dried into higher squeaks the more words my eyes drank in. "It... c-can't be like that."

     "Tell me kitten, how badly do you want me?" His large frame, tensed muscles, and masculine, woodsy scent overwhelms me. My mind screams fight or flight but my body betrays me. My senses tingle with... arousal.

"Arousal?" My eyes widened and averted from the screen as I questioned if I read that wrong. Yet, like a horrible traffic accident, they dragged back and I couldn't look away.

     "I'm going to enjoy this." His large hands knots my hair, cupping behind the nape of my neck. Pliant under his grip, my neck arches as his canines graze over my tender flesh. I draw in a sharp breath as his other hand slips down to lower his pants, and my eyes betray me when they saw the sight of his large, bulging -

"Aaaaaand, I think I can skip that part." I panted into my screen.

"Let's try another... Alpha Adam." I clicked on a book with a cover of a muscular shirtless guy that hugged a girl from behind. "This looks like a romance book."

     "No!" My eyes widened as one of his hands clutched around my throat.

 "Again with the throat choking," I mumbled.

     "You. Are. Mine," was the feral growl. Adam's eyes flash as his wolf surfaces, challenging him for control. With one hand, he rips down the front of my shirt, leaving me exposed and breasts heaving. My nipples tighten and tingle in the cool air, making the tip of his tongue flick out and click in disappointment.

     "And, as Blood Moon's Alpha, I will take you however and whenever I want. Drop to your knees, mate."

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no." The pad of my finger couldn't move fast enough as I clicked 'back' on the story, away from Alpha Adam forcing himself into the girl's mouth. "Let's go with... Alpha Bishop."

     "Mate," Alpha Bishop growls in a low tone. My entire tray of food drops and splatters onto the floor as my entire core area heats up. His eyes burn into me and within a blink, he slams me against the wall, grinding his hips into my pelvis. I thrash and cringe but internally every press of his hardness into my treasure spot feels so good.

"Treasure spot." My index finger and thumb pinched the bridge of my nose.

     "I know you're ready for me, pet," he growls into my ear with one more forceful press of his hips aligning himself with my entrance. My lips betray me and a loan moan escapes. "I can smell it, even through your clothes."

     In one sweep of his arm, he lifts me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing.

     "Alpha Bishop!" My legs flail and my fists punch into his hard, chiseled shoulders. He doesn't flinch, only hoists me up higher and smacks one palm onto my buttcheek. The sting releases a squeak from my lips and gush of fluid into my panties.

     "The more you fight, little one, the more I'll punish you."

"Noooooo... Wattpad, you aren't helping me here."

Click, click, click.

The Alpha's Girlfriend.

The Alpha is my Mate.

I Submit to the Alpha.

The Alpha is my Spank Daddy.

With a sigh, I folded my elbows over my bed and buried my forehead into my forearms. If thought had a whimpering tone, then mine sure used it.

It can't be like that... Can it?

'Not mate.'

Two words had never brought me more comfort, relaxing my shoulders and lifting my eyes back to the screen.

Has to be some truth out there...

Skipping over the last one on title alone, even if I did appreciate Lumi's snarky insight, offered no respite from forced dominant-submissive relationships. 

Fifteen stories and hours later, I sprawled out like a starfish on my bed, paralyzed and devoid of all emotion except shock and horror. Territorial, narcissistic, sexually abusive, emotionally detached, the list of undesirable qualities of an alpha went on.

"That's what... it's like?" I squeaked up to the ceiling like I expected an answer to appear out of thin air.

Cupping my warm cheeks in my palms, my heart thundered in my chest. Whimpering softly, I knew there was no way I was getting an ounce of sleep.

Not tonight.