The squeal of brakes and a sharp jolt had me rolling from the seat to the floor. Thankfully though, a well placed foot and hand saved me from that undignified fate. Sitting up, I shook the sleep from my brain before taking in my surroundings. A quick glance out the window showed me that I was back on packlands. Jumping to my feet, I leaned down to grab my duffle and slung it over my shoulder as I walked down the aisle.

Reaching the front of the bus, I turned to the driver making sure to catch her green eyes with my red ones, “Nice try, pup.”

Flashing a fang at her appalled expression, I jogged down the steps of the bus and onto the snow covered ground. Pausing for a moment, I took a deep inhale of mountain air while listening to the bus pull away from the cabin. A sharp wind whipped through the air pulling at my black military cargo pants and the olive green tee tucked into it. Along with the wind came the familiar scents of the pack bringing a tiny smile to my lips that I quickly suppressed.

Exhaling, I strode up to the front door making sure to stomp my favorite steel-toed boots on the wrap around porch to rid them of the snow. Hiking my brown duffle higher onto my shoulder, I twisted the door knob only to snarl a little at finding it unlocked. Moon, I leave for three months and these people just throw safety to the wind. Annoyed once again, I threw the front door open and let it slam against the wall as I stepped into the cabin.

Looking around, I saw that nothing had changed while I was away. The walls were the same dark green covered in pictures of past pack members in wolf form, along with the table by the door for keys and a full coat rack. Although, it seemed that most of the pack was out because the only cars out front were the higher ups. My annoyance grew when I realized that I’d have to go find them instead of them coming to me like I thought they would.

Before heading up the stairs, I took a look into the living room on the right. A group of teenage pack gremlins sat around the T.V as they watched other gremlins play a game. If I didn’t already know they were gonna shit their pants at my voice, I’d be pissed that they didn’t acknowledge the door opening. Actually, I didn’t see a problem with that.

“I know, I don’t see what I think I see,” I rasped out, watching as all six jumped and started scrambling to their feet. “Because it looks like I see a bunch of aspiring warriors ignoring a threat.”

Each of them looked down, shame faced except for my protégé, Theo. “We caught your scent as soon as the door opened. We knew it was you, Kai.” He replied in a ‘duh’ tone.

“With your weak snouts? Not likely. And how do you know I haven’t turned on the pack?” I raised a brow at him, waiting for him to argue his point like always.

“You’re a Feral Born. You’d never betray the people you gave your loyalty to. Besides, you’re practically in love with me! You’d never kill me.” The seventeen year old chuckled, giving his buddies a high five at the last part.

“Oh I am, am I? Then why don’t you come over here and I’ll show you all that love.” I said, my fangs clicking together as I bit the air.

The boy shook his head “Uhhh...no I think we should wait. Make it special, you know?” he said with a wide smile, taking a small step back.

I unshifted my teeth and looked in amusement at his friends who wouldn’t meet my eyes. Probably because the bright red tint tended to unnerve the younger wolves. Their wolf halves knew not to challenge me and no harm would come to them but their humans still thought I was a wild card. Idiots. They were a part of my pack. I wouldn’t touch them unless they committed a crime or became a threat. And may the moon help them if they ever did.

“I’ll pass. I’m not the tender type.” I flicked my eyes back to Theo and met his hazel orbs, “Take this bag to my cabin, Grunt. Your three month vacation officially ends now.” Ignoring his sigh of disappointment, I hefted my duffle from my shoulder and tossed it at him.

He groaned in surprise as it hit him right in the chest, “Damn. What the hell do you have in here? Wolf heads?”

“Sure. Now, take the bag to my cabin so your friends can stop awkwardly twitching at my presence.” All twitching from the young boys immediately stopped, making the corners of my lips twitch.

Theo’s voice rang out as I headed to the stairs, “That wasn’t an answer!”

“Wasn’t it, though?” I murmured as I climbed the steps two at a time, uncaring if he heard me or not.

Theo showed real potential at taking over my position later on when I could no longer perform my duties. Being that I was only twenty three, some thought it was too early for me to have a protégé but the Omicron position was different from others. We had to hone all of our senses to the highest degree, be skilled in four different types of combat in human form and be lethal in wolf form. That wasn’t even mentioning the psychological and intelligence testing, Omicron were the shifter equivalent of the humans C.I.A.

Theo showed real strength in all those areas but I wouldn’t actually start training him until he turned twenty. It would take him at least five, maybe even seven years until he was ready to be responsible for the protection of the entire pack. Longer than my own training because he wasn’t a Feral Born, his senses and the relationship with his wolf needed to be fully developed. Which is what we were working on now, even though the cocky little shit thought it was because I liked him.

I hadn’t told anyone, not even him, that I had chosen him for my future replacement because he needed to choose it for himself first. I had others in mind if he ended up not wanting the position but none that I was as confident in.

Reaching the top of the staircase I took a sniff of the air to single out the Alpha’s scent. In less than a second, I caught it and started moving in the direction it was coming from. Passing bedroom doors and rounding corners, I ended up in the hallway that held all of the offices.

The thump of my boots hitting the wooden floor was almost therapeutic, reminding me that everything would go back to normal soon. At the end of the hall right before the Alpha’s office there hung a large golden mirror. It was the only piece of luxury in the pack house and it had been passed down by the founder of the pack herself to the next alpha and then the next. Each one putting it in a different place inside the cabin to signify a new beginning with the change of Alpha’s.

Pausing as I passed it, I took a few steps back to see my reflection. Light brown skin darker now because of the Arizona sun, loose wavy black hair that stopped right at my shoulders and slightly rounder than average eyes with bright red coloring do to my Feral Born heritage. Just as my eyes dipped to take in the scars across my throat, I picked up on an unfamiliar scent coming from behind the office door. Besides the Alpha’s and Beta’s, I could smell a light almost forest-y scent. At first, I thought it was the natural forest smells coming through a window but then I took a deeper breath.

Freezing in place, I tilted my head slightly towards the door trying to pick up on how many heartbeats were in the room. Two were beating loud and strong while another was just a little bit faster than an average shifter’s. A forest-y almost nonexistent scent with a faster than shifter average heartbeat....

What the fuck was a Wilder doing in the Alpha’s office? And more importantly why did it come out of the forest to be around pack wolves? Wilder wolves were only comfortable being around Feral Borns because we were more similar in nature than pack wolves. And even then, we had an on sight mentality to establish dominance between us. With all of this in mind, I quickly moved forward and slammed my booted foot against the door. It crashed back against the wall with a loud bang calling all attention to the doorway.

A snarl was already making its way up my throat before I fully entered the room. Dismissing the “Oh. Shit.” and then the shouted “Wait!” that came from my Alpha and Beta. I crouched slightly, head tilted down and fangs bared at the man casually sitting before the desk. It didn’t matter if he came in peace or not. Dominance needed to be established.

As soon as the man tensed up with a loud rumbling starting in his chest, I was on him. Before he could blink, I was in front of his chair grabbing him by his ripped up shirt and using his own body weight to turn us in a semicircle. His snarl cut through the air as I jumped on him pushing him to the floor with my weight. Before we could land like I had planned, he twisted. Rolling mid air, the chairs were knocked away as we hit the floor with him pinning me. Legs tangled together, we growled and snapped at each other’s throat. When his head lowered to try and bite at my neck again, I surged up and slammed our foreheads together. The male released one of my hands with a snarl and my claws immediately pressed into the tender skin of his neck. All fighting from him instantly halted as he realized his dangerous position.

In our tense pausing of movements, my Alpha spoke, “Well, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. But Jasper meet Kai, our Omicron. Kai, meet Jasper, my cousin and our newest pack member slash Co-Gamma.”

Not a chance in a moonless hell.

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Omicron is pronounced: O-ME-CRON

Thank you for reading my first chapter!! Let me know what you think! In the next chapter Kai’s personality will open up more and new characters will be introduced! Also I’m new to this app, are these chapters a good size for you guys?

Smooches, Verbage💋