Alpha Alden

~Kezi

Being roused from sleep at an ungodly hour is perhaps the worst feeling to ever experience. A sharp yell and a tight grip bring me back to the surface, expelling the last remnants of a blissful dream.

All I see is darkness, but I hear frantic movement and distressed breathing.

"Kezzi, get up!" a voice yells in my ear, yanking me from my bed.

"What's going on?" I groan. It's Avia, my caregiver, my teacher, my friend. She never allows a situation to be out of her control, so hearing this evokes instant fear within me. This is serious. I can faintly see her red hair through a fringe of darkness, her vice like grip on my wrist allows her to lead me through my own room, stumbling over boxes I had just unpacked clothes from.

"Is this another test?" I question, as she leads me to my own window. I hear the scrape of it as she shoves it open. The bite of the ice tinted wind follows after. "I'm starting to get sick of these."

"Quiet," Avia breathes. She sticks her head out the window, then back in again. "They will hear you."

My blood runs cold. "They?"

She doesn't respond, clambering out the window. She does it swiftly and adeptly, her feet landing in the snow. She's good at this. She is trained for this. It's why she is my protector, why they hired her. When she reaches through, I hesitate.

"Can I pack something?" I ask warily. Leaving without any belongings seems despicable. I've done it before, and it's like tearing myself from my home. A home that doesn't exist.

"Not today Kezi," Avia insists, motioning for me to follow her through the window. "They are inside the house."

The sound of that has me following her instantly, sliding over the slick window sill. I land in the snow, feet bare. I'm still in my night clothes, which billow in the wind as we duck down. My feet burn, and my skin shivers, but Avia doesn't move. I realise why when I hear my bedroom door open.

"Search the room," an unfamiliar voice says gruffly. It's masculine and rough, which sounds like it belongs to the kind of person who could tear me apart. Someone else is in there too, kicking through the boxes, muttering obscenities under their breath. I hear things being torn apart. Have they noticed the open window? When I glance up, Avia had managed close it slightly, leaving a small sliver for us to hear through. When had she done that?

"She's not in the bed," another voice says, slightly tighter and more anxious than the other one. "Keep looking."

Glancing at Avia, I notice her motion to keep crawling along the side of the house. I do. This isn't my first experience in a tight situation like this one. This is what my life is like. We only survived three days in this place. And to think, I had hope.

"Cross the road," Avia whispers, as we pull away from the house exterior, stalking across the front yard. Darkness conceals us, but it doesn't help my heart rate. At least it distracts from the burning pain in my feet and arms, which bare the brunt of the wind and the snow on the ground. Typical Love Pack weather. We slide across the road, hurrying as much as possible. Avia is constantly looking over her shoulder to ensure they aren't following. I know what she plans the moment she pops our neighbours gate opens, ushering me inside.

She's stealing their car. Waiting outside while she does so, I shiver, and cast one last longing gaze at the house we hardly had time to stay in. This is my life. No use being upset about it. This is what happens to Time Travellers. We are hated. Shunned. Our existence is a constant felony. This is all by the order of one Alpha. Alden, of the Wisdom Pack. He become aware of my life when I was sixteen. Three years later, I've been on the run from him.

Who knows what he would do if him or his men caught me. They would kill me. Or have me arrested to spend my life in a prison. That's what I assume anyway. And all of this is for a few souls who didn't decide this life. We are slaves of the Immortal, Time. I've never actually been given an order by him, but I still hold the ability to travel backward in time, if he allowed me to. I've never explored the ability. Way too scared. I understand why we are despised. Time is cruel. We harbour the abilities to ruin the lives on many innocent people.

"Kezi, get in here," Avia insists. I had been so deep in thought, I hadn't noticed she had managed to start the car. Avia's abilities never seem to end. I hop in, out of the snow, out of the wind.

But nothing will protect me from Alden. I can run my whole life, but will I ever really be able to hide?

~Kezi

There's one thing about being a Time Traveller that I quite enjoy.

My eyes focus on a single point on the ceiling of this car. A piece of frayed fuzz hanging down. Everything else around is fazes in and out of focus. Despite seeing it so vividly, I'm floating in between realities. Different parts of my mind reach for my conscious all at once. My emotions, my thoughts. If successful, it expels a euphoric state of pleasure that's better than any drug. It's the best way to push problems away for the meantime. Until they creep back up on me. This is my hiding spot. Right in the middle of my mind.

"Kezi, wake up," Avia's voice creeps into my conscious. Just like like early this morning. Shielding my face with my hand, I allow myself to adjust to my surroundings. The morning light is blinding, but regardless, I attempt to assume where we are. Curving roads, rolling hills covered in dense pine. This is nowhere I know. Somewhere between Packs.

"I need gas. How about you grab some snacks from the station, and we will continue. We aren't so far away now," Avia tells me, turning in a small gas station tucked in between two hills. I nod, despite the reluctance to step out into public after what happened early this morning. The gas station is occupied by one red truck parked on the side, clearly belonging to one of the staff, and a small hatchback getting gas. I would feel a lot more comfortable if no one was here. Contacting anyone is dangerous and traceable.

Avia and I just need to get to another Pack, change our identities, and move on. She pulls in, and I hope out. The air around here is crisp and fresh. I'm curious. I would ask where we are if I wasn't so concerned about someone else hearing. People may get suspicious. While Avia works on filling the car, I wander into the building, caution and snacks on my mind. Something buzzes above my head as I walk in, my tip of my shoe nearly catching on the edge of the mat. A woman at the counter barely glances above her thick rimmed glasses, concentrating instead on the paper in her hands.

Perfect. I slip into an aisle, picking up foreign snack items, keeping them tightly pressed against my palm. Chocolate. Chips. Other indentifiable items. Avia walks into the store just as I reach the counter. She grins at me and winks. I'm surprised she's so nonchalant about being here, in the open, with witnesses around. Surely we have been reported to officials, who now have a warrant for our arrest. A public one, too. One citizens can partake in. Avia pays, and even has the audacity to banter with the woman at the front about the weather. She's speaks easily, smoothly, as if she has lived in the middle of nowehere all her life. This is why I trust Avia. She can talk when I cannot.

"This is dangerous," I mutter lowly to Avia as we walk back to the car.

"You're starting to sound like me," she murmurs in response, sending me a wink. I roll my eyes at her. She's awfully calm since last night, which is a new angle for her. I'm used to her imminent stress, constant head turns and cautious glances. Now I suddenly feel as though I'm compensating for her. Our drive begins again, and I waste no time trying to find out where she is taking us.

"Where is it this time?" I question, peeling the golden packaging off a bar of chocolate. "You haven't yet shared your masterful plan. I'm concerned."

"That's because you're not going to like it," she responds, looking grim. I sit up, even more curious.

"Why not?" "Because we are going to start a new life in the Harmony Pack. No one will find us there. We will find a small town and blend right in. I'm your young mother, and we will find a way to make our life right again. And this time, we won't be found," Avia says firmly. I'm silent for a moment. There is no real way to react to a plan of hers that will change her mind. This is how it's going to be from now on. No question about it.

The Harmony Pack is a daunting idea. Mainly because it's so foreign to me. We have tried many Packs before, having revisited some. However, this Pack, set away from others, is one we never considered visiting. I know little about it. Only that it is a picturesque place with an Alpha named Noah.

"You're not saying anything," she notices, glancing anxiously at me. I sigh through my nose. "It's just what has to happen, right? It's my life."

Avia grimaces, but doesn't reply for a moment. She's been with me for a few years, protecting me when my parents claimed they couldn't. She knows all that I have been through. Her sympathy has always been imminent, however, we both agreed it's not something we can dwell on. This is my life on the line. If I'm captured, Alden will surely order my death like he has with the rest of us. I sleep the rest of the way. I find it the easiest way to cope. It seems as though I can remove myself from any situation and just be neutral. I yearn for that, in a normal life. I'm shaken awake by an insistent band.

My body jolts awake, my eyes fluttering open. Immediately, I identify potential threats in the situation, but find none. Avia still sits next to me, driving soundly down a smooth road. No one else is in the car, or near it. We are fine. I place my hand over my chest, hoping to calm my racing heart.

"Where are we?" Avia has a content smile on her face, but that's not what I notice. We are surrounded by endless meadows on either side of the road. Each blade of grass is drenched in a shade of green I've never seen before. It's almost emerald in its pigment. And there are no fences separating the grass and the road. Only short walls of blooming flowers in a variety of colours. Most common seeming to be a baby pink and a pristine white.

"Welcome to the Harmony Pack," Avia says warmly.

"Your new home." My agape mouth finally closes.

"Where is everyone?"

"There is a village coming up in the next few minutes. We won't stop there though. I'm thinking of a very specific one deeper into the Pack," she informs me. Very slowly, very deliberately, she slides a piece of paper across the dashboard that I hadn't noticed. Frowning at her, I pick it up, examining the words quickly scrawled upon the surface.

Don't mention anything. We are being monitored. An uneasy chills cools my blood. Is she being serious? I don't know what to do. I put the paper down, and look forward, not saying a single word.

"Our life has been hard, but this will be a new start for the both of us. Aren't you excited?" She says. Her voice is tight all of a sudden. Forced. Something tells me she isn't referring to our exact situation.

"Apprehensive perhaps fits how I feel a little better," I says shortly.

"But it will be good for us."

"Very true, you'll start at a new school, make new friends. We will love it here," she tells me, a quivering smile coming upon her lips. We don't speak again until we reach our destination. By that time, I'm almost weak with relief. I was tense, and careful throughout that entire drive, thinking through what she meant, who was watching, and why she hasn't turned around. She has chosen another suburban home in a tight knit villiage.

They house is very bland, perhaps newly built. However, the rest of the town is anything but that. Nothing is out of place here. No piece of trash on the ground. Not a trace of any week in anyone's gardens. It's so perfect it's nauseating. Uncomfortable. Avia and I still don't speak as we take what little belongings we have, which in my case, is a sweater, and take it inside. Not that mine is very necessary.

The weather here is Spring like, the sun hot on our backs. The moment my foot is in the door, my mouth opens to speak, but Avia puts her hand up to stop me. I watch her rush to find paper and a pen, and scribble down another note. This time, it takes awhile, leaving me shifting on my feet, worried about what it may entail. Noah has spies everywhere. He can hear everything. I brought you here because Alden won't expect us in such a highly monitored Pack.

No speaking about this again. We are a mother and daughter starting out new life. The content of the note is unnerving. What's does she mean spies? How am I meant to live my life when everyone is watching at every turn? I feel hairs on the back of my neck raise at the very thought of it.

"You start school in two days. I'm so excited for our new life," Avia says warmly.

"Aren't you, Lexi?" I visibly flinch. My new name. Kezi has been stolen, her identity vanishing. Now

I am Lexi, a student at a school, learning something she has learned at schools everywhere for her past two years. No one will know though. No one can know.

*Two months earlier*

~Alden

"Let her in."

My assistant nods, pacing toward the door. I watch her slip out, and moments later, another figure walks in. She's all pushed back shoulders and overbearing confidence. She strides into the room, sinking into the chair in front of my desk with no grace at all.

"This is exciting," Melia says, chewing on her index fingernail. I've noticed she's always done that out of habit.

"What does my Alpha need me for?" I've known Melia since she graduated high school. She failed the standard test that requires an 80% pass rate. We can only have the most intelligent members within my Pack. Before she could be sent out of the Pack, I caught and trained her. I needed someone who could commit themselves to my venture. I have committed myself to removing the brands from the victims of a powerful immortal named Time. With a single brand, he is able to turn innocent mortals into his slaves. He uses them to do his bidding. And I have promised I would free them. However, there is one traveller who has escaped me multiple times.

"I'm sending you out on a mission," I inform her. Her expression startles, her eyes widening. Plenty of warriors who are trained for missions like this spend years doing so. Melia is still young.

"I need you to find me a Traveller who has avoided me thus far. You're my last resort before I hunt her down myself."

"I have some questions," she says pointedly, tapping the tip of her chin. "First of all, why me?"

Turning the file I have around, I push it in front of her, flipping the top up. We both stare at the subject in the photo. Hazel eyes alight like fire, flecks like gold swimming around her pupils. Hair raven black, painted like ink curls around her neck, to her chest in thick waves. She's a born Vengeance Pack member. Her beauty is immeasurable. But she is a criminal. Melia stares at her for a moment, crystal eyes examining her target thoroughly. I see her mentally storing the subjects features. The curve of her brows, the angle of her hairline, the shape of her lips. She will do an excellent job in finding her.

"This is subject #062. She has been evading us for a substantial amount of time. If you find her, you will be rewarded handsomely," I tell her, pulling the case file back into my possession. "I know you will find her. I have trained you for this."

"Name?"

"Kezziah Elizabeth Williamson." She nods promptly. If anyone is going to find the subject, it's Melia. I'm positive that I will not be following up on this case after she has dealt with it. That is how much faith I put in her. And I don't have faith in anything.

***

~Kezi

"Is it seriously necessary for me to go to school?" Avia sets down a plate in front of me. It has a single pancake on it. Something is seriously going on if she is putting this much effort into breakfast. By the look of her - hair thrown up, ingredients smeared on her clothes - she's been up early. She must have went to the store this morning to get groceries for this rather empty home.

"Absolutely," she says shortly. That tight smile is so painted, it's unnerving. Why would she take me here if we are being watched so closely? Who is behind all this anyway?

"I think this is going to help you settle in here, and find some new friends."

"I don't need friends," I say pointedly, picking up the syrup she slides on front of me. In other words, I don't want friends. Avia doesn't say anything, occupied with dishes in the sink. I eat the pancake quickly. The facade she has painted across us is for our protection. I would be foolish to do anything that would risk that. I need to be nothing but the quintessential Harmony Pack member I'm required to be. That will be the only way to hide from Alden.

"I'm going to have a shower," I say sweetly, kissing Avia on the cheek as I slip the dish into the sink water.

"Thank you for breakfast." The shower turned on the moment I slid the door open. Technology here has been adopted from the Wisdom Pack, making the lives of the members here as easy as possible. That seems to be the theme I have gathered here. Everything is so...Perfect. My feet step onto the cool white tiles. There's green accents everywhere in this bathroom. It's the only thing that gives it life between the dull whiteness. It's a shade I hate. The water is warm and velvety. I spend an unhealthy amount of time in there. When I step out, I pause in front of the mirror.

Wiping the condensation from the surface, I turn around. Glancing over my shoulder, I see the one mark that has ruined my life. The lines are thin, streaking up my spine to my right shoulder blade. The curve into something I don't understand. It's been there for a year in a half. He simply touched my lower spine with his finger and that was it. Everything changed. I quickly shoulder on my shirt, covering it. Too many people are affected by this. Me, the immortal who did this, and the Alpha who is hunting me down. Time never truly revealed his intentions. He hasn't approached me since. All I have heard from rumour, and from what Avia has told me, is that he has Travellers to use when he feels fit. I could become his slave at any moment. At this point, I'm not sure what scares me the most; Alpha Alden pursuing me to no end, or Time, ready to appear at any point. School turned out to be a mess. And I swear everyone could tell I'm two years too late for this. No one approached, and the teachers ignored me.

This place is like a bubble. And no one is letting me. It's fine by me, though. I don't need friends that I potentially may leave behind. The less people I associate with here, the better. However, there was one girl. Our lockers were a few spaces apart. When I was fishing around for my next class books, I noticed her staring out the corner of her eye. Turning to face her, I summon the best possibly greeting that hopefully won't get me struck in the face.

"I love your hair," I say warmly. A white flag of soughts. I'm not lying either. It's pin straight, woodland brown and looks shinier than the surface of a buffered car bonnet. I can tell instantly where she is from. Her eyes are like sharp crystal, chiseled out and stained a pale blue. And her skin. It's porcelain smooth and immaculate. Nothing about her is out of place. She's a Wisdom Pack member. Knowing that fact leaves a bad taste in the back of my mouth. Cursing myself, I keep the smile painted upon my face. Not everyone out of the Wisdom Pack is out to get me.

"Thanks," she says slightly. Her accent is liquid smooth, but doesn't drag at the end of each word. It's all clipped and proper. She's been bred in the depths of the Wisdom Pack.

"I'm Melia."

"Kezi." I can't tell if she's smiling at me or not. Her lips are slightly tweaked up, but her eyes are like piles of shovelled snow. Cold. She looks like she doesn't want to be here, which I can relate too. Perhaps I'm reading to deeply into this. She's simply a student here, slotting her textbooks into her locker, shoulder a book back on.

"You're new here. I say you from the back of History class. I'm kinda new here too," she tells me, knocking the door to her locker closed with her elbow. I flinch at the clinical bang it makes.

"Oh yeah," I say, rubbing the back of my neck. "I just moved from the Vengeance Pack. My...My mother moves a lot for her job," I tell her. It's a fabricated story I had pronounced to everyone I've met since this began.

"I saw you sitting alone at lunch. It's hard to make friends here, I totally get it," she tells me, motioning toward the end of the hallway. We fall into step with each other, shoes squeaking on the linoleum floor. "Especially when you're not a born Harmony Pack member."

She gets it. Finally. Someone does.

"Tell me about it. I've accepted the fact that everyone will forever avoid my until I graduate," I exclaim tiredly. It's a fact that never truly bothered me until this moment. Looking at Melia, as strange and as foreign as she may seem, I may have someone to relate to.

"Have you see the main gardens in the square yet?" She asks. I shake my head no.

"It's amazing, you have to see it. It's like their pride and join in this place. Everyone village has one apparently. You should come with me to see it after school," she says. Her tone seems to have lightened. Perhaps she's shy, and that beginning persona was a front to protect herself. I wouldn't blame her.

"Sounds good," I say. At that moment, I broke every rule Avia had etched into the forefront of my mind. I made a mistake. A big one. One that changed my life forever.