The Alpha’s Daughter They Mistook for a Dog

I was the youngest daughter of the Silver Moon Alpha, and the least promising of his children. My dad was the Alpha of Silver Moon Valley. My sister led patrols across the snowy mountains, and when a wildfire broke out, my brother pulled hundreds of people from the neighboring pack out of the flames. And me? At 22, my wolf spirit still hadn't awakened. I couldn't even shift into human form. The older I got, the more I looked like a round, fluffy white dog. My dad never looked down on me for it, though. He gave me the safest river valley to call my own. My sister always teased me that I'd fall flat on my back just chasing a rabbit, but then she'd quietly chase off any vicious dogs that came near the valley. Before my brother left, he made me practice my distress howl over and over. If I was ever really in danger, I was supposed to howl three times toward home to call for help. I always thought I'd never need those howls. Until the day the Black Pine Alpha's daughter and her two brothers barged straight into my territory. She took one look at my snow-white fur and decided to take me home as a pet. Once she got bored, she'd skin me and turn my fur into a scarf. I bared my teeth at her, and she just cupped her cheeks and laughed. "Look, this dog is trying to cuddle up to me!" Furious, I lunged and bit her boot, and then a net threaded with silver came down over me. It hurt so much I couldn't even lift my paws. She stepped on my tail and had someone film it, bragging that she'd caught the most beautiful prey in the world. Before they stuffed me into a crate, I howled toward the valley three times with all my strength. I hadn't even finished the third when the helicopter lifted off. When she heard my squeaky little howl, she laughed so hard she almost cried. "A dog, howling like a wolf!" I buried my face under my tail, miserable. I'm done for. But she had no idea that the ones back in Silver Moon Valley who'd taught me those three howls were not people anyone should mess with. Chapter 1 As the youngest daughter of the Silver Moon Alpha, I'd been practicing my howl since I was little. But even at 22, when every other werewolf could shift freely between human and wolf form, I was a round, fluffy white pup. My wolf spirit was still asleep, and my voice had never grown into a real howl. Every time I tried, I sounded like a hurt little puppy. My dad, Leon, took it all in stride. "If you can't shift yet, there's no rush." He pulled a blanket over me. "There's plenty of room for you in Silver Moon Valley." My sister, Sierra, wasn't nearly as gentle. Whenever she came back from patrolling the mountains, she'd watch me chase the fat rabbit that kept stealing my berries. The rabbit would clear a rock with ease while I went headfirst into the grass. Then she'd lean against a tree and laugh at me. "Mia, are you trying to catch that rabbit, or are you putting on a tumbling show for it?" I bared my teeth at her. She scooped me up with one hand, brushed the dirt off my muzzle, and told me, dead serious, that there'd been strange tire tracks outside lately. I wasn't allowed to leave the valley. My brother, Ethan, was away helping with a wildfire rescue. Before he left, he taught me the rhythm of the three howls for help. When I was little and fell into a snow pit, he heard those howls and dug me out of the waist-deep snow. "If something really happens, call your family." He held a rope up to my neck to measure it, then smiled and tapped the tip of my nose. "My little princess." Back then, I thought he worried too much. Later I understood my brother was right. If something went wrong, call your family. Assuming the bad guys didn't gag you first. That afternoon, the fat rabbit snuck over to eat my berries again. I chased it across the stream, and suddenly engines rumbled down the mountain road. Three SUVs knocked the territory marker crooked and drove straight onto Silver Moon land. The Black Pine pack's crest was painted on each hood. I quickly ducked behind the bushes. The door of the first car opened, and a blond girl in tall leather boots stepped out, her neck draped in glittering jewelry. The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up. "Nolan! Look at that! Is that a snow fox?" Two men followed behind her. The older one glanced at the wooden sign that said "Silver Moon Territory, No Hunting" and frowned. "Violet, we're just passing through. This isn't Black Pine land." "I'm not here to catch wolves." The girl waved her hand carelessly. "Look how pretty that white fur is. Catch it alive for me. I'll keep it a few days to play with, and when winter comes, I'll make it into a scarf." The other man, Dylan, already had his phone up. "When have we ever denied you anything? Let me get this on video so everyone can see our little princess's new pet." Every hair on my body stood on end, and I bared my sharp fangs at her. "Oh my God, it's smiling at me!" Violet clapped her hands, thrilled. "Nolan, do you think it likes me?" I was so furious I nearly bit through the branch at my feet. A few bodyguards closed in to grab me, and I dove into the low bushes next to the rabbit hole. I might not have been good at much else, but chasing that fat rabbit had taught me every gap between the rocks I could squeeze through. The first bodyguard slipped into the stream. The second tripped over a dead log, and I could hear Dylan behind them laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight. "You can't even catch a dog?" Violet's voice suddenly went shrill. "Nolan, didn't you bring the net?" A net? I whipped my head around. A big dark gray net was already flying toward me. The knots looked strangely familiar, almost exactly like the ones on the nets my brother used to secure injured people on mountain rescues. Before I could react, a few thin, bright silver threads flashed in the net. The moment the net fell over me, pain ripped through my whole body. The silver burned all four of my legs. I slammed onto a rock, and when a bodyguard reached for me, I opened my mouth and bit down hard. He screamed and flung me off, sending me crashing into a boulder. My vision kept going black. Before I could even struggle to my feet, a boot came down on my tail. "So you're biting people now?" Violet crouched down and forced my face toward the camera. "You've got quite a temper, little thing." I wanted to bite her again. She ground her foot down hard, and the pain made my whole body curl up. "Keep it for now," she ordered. "Once I'm done playing with it, I'll have someone skin it in one piece. I don't want a single cut in fur this white." Dylan held the phone even closer. "Smile, Snowball. You're today's biggest prize." My name wasn't Snowball. My name was Mia. I was the daughter of Leon, the Silver Moon Alpha. I was the little sister Sierra complained about but protected every chance she got, and the little wolf Ethan had promised he'd always bring home. But the silver threads kept tightening, and I didn't even have the strength to lift a paw. The bodyguards dragged me toward the helicopter on the hill. I gave the first howl toward the forest with everything I had, then the second. The third had barely left my throat when the helicopter's rotors roared to life. The noise swallowed my cry for help. Violet laughed and rubbed my head. "A dog that thinks it can howl like a wolf. How cute." Locked in a crate, I watched Silver Moon Valley shrink into a little patch of green below me. For the first time, I regretted not paying more attention when my sister tried to teach me to fight. I found out later that my dad got to the stream that same day. He heard my third howl, smelled the blood left on the rocks, and picked up a scrap of silver thread the tires had torn loose. He didn't say anything for a long time. He had Sierra seal off the mouth of the valley and called my brother's satellite phone at the wildfire rescue site. "Ethan." My dad's voice was terribly hoarse. "Your sister's been taken." Chapter 2 When Violet put the silver collar on me, all I could think about was biting that metal tag engraved with "Snowball" to pieces. The Black Pine lodge was a timber mansion tucked deep in the pine forest. Elegant lampposts stood outside, and the living room walls were covered with antlers and mounted animals. The moment the crate was opened, a woman wrinkled her nose. "It's bleeding all over. Shouldn't we get a vet to look at it first?" Violet ignored her and told her people to put me in a glass pen so visiting guests could look at me. "Don't wash it yet. If it behaves, we'll clean it up later." The silver collar suddenly tightened, and the cold metal clasp pressed right into my wounds. The pain tore a yelp out of me. But she only smiled and flicked the little gold tag in front of my face. "Come here, Snowball. Sit." I turned my back on her. She brought over a plate of roast meat, and its rich smell wafted over me. I hadn't eaten or drunk a thing since noon, and my stomach growled at the worst possible moment. When Violet heard it, she laughed and slapped the table, then held the meat up high to tease me. "Paw. Now bark twice, and you can eat." I turned my head away. Even if they treated me like a dog, I was still a wolf. A wolf might go hungry, but she would never do tricks for anyone. When I wouldn't cooperate, she just fed all the meat to the big hunting dogs nearby. "Looks like it still hasn't figured out who its master is." Violet waved the handler over. "Let my babies in to teach it some manners." The moment the cage door opened, I understood what she meant by "teaching manners." Four hunting dogs almost as big as me surrounded me. The black one in front lunged at me. I scrambled along the bars and only just got out of the way, and his sharp teeth splintered the floorboard beside my paws. Another dog clamped down on my back leg and dragged me a foot and a half across the floor. The thick smell of blood made me cough. I remembered what my sister taught me. If you can't get away, never turn your back on your opponent. I pushed through the pain, rolled over, and bit down hard on the side of a hound's neck. The big dog let go, thrashed a few times, then collapsed and lay still. The other hounds backed away, whimpering softly. I propped myself half upright, my mouth full of the taste of blood, and I even felt a secret little thrill. See? I'm not some dog you can push around. That thrill lasted all of three seconds. "You killed my dog!" Violet charged into the pen, grabbed me by the ear, and hauled me up off the ground. "I've raised him since he was a puppy. How dare you hurt him!" She reached for the hunting knife hanging on the wall. Nolan stepped in to stop her, and I naively thought I'd been saved. "We have important guests coming tomorrow night." He stared at my snow-white fur. "If the fur gets cut up, how are we supposed to show it off? Put it in another cage and lock it up tight." Just like that, I was thrown into an isolation room floored with cold metal plates. Every time I moved a paw, the silver collar tore my old wounds open again. The metal was freezing, so I lay on my side to hold on to what little warmth I had. Dylan stood on the other side of the glass, filming with his phone and narrating for the camera. "See that? That's the vicious dog the Black Pine princess just tamed." After the door closed, a girl in an apron stopped outside for a moment. Her cheek was red and swollen, her sleeves were worn and pilled, and she had a small bowl of water hidden in her hands. "Don't make a sound." She pushed the bowl through the gap. "Drink some water first." I sniffed it warily. It was clean water. I'd just put my mouth to the bowl when Violet's voice suddenly exploded behind her. "Lucy, who said you could feed it?" The girl froze in terror, and the bowl fell from her hand and shattered on the floor. Violet slapped her so hard she slammed into the pen. "Did you forget my rules? I said it stays hungry. Nobody feeds it without my say-so." Lucy kept her head down and apologized over and over. Violet raised her hand to hit her again, and I don't know where I found the strength, but I still lunged and bit her bootlaces. The bodyguards immediately pinned my head to the floor. Violet grabbed a leather whip and lashed my back, then pointed at Lucy. "Kneel over there and watch. Speak up for it one more time, and I'll punish you too." I don't remember much about the wounds I got that night. I only remember that after everyone was gone, Lucy knelt outside the isolation room with a soft cloth and gently wiped the blood from my mouth through the bars. I was shaking all over from the pain, and she was shaking too. "You didn't have to take that for me," she whispered. I put my one good front paw on her hand. Her eyes welled up, and she didn't say another word. An old brass plate hung on the wall of the isolation room, engraved with a worn wildfire rescue emblem. I looked closely at the knot pattern on it and recognized it right away. It was the knot my brother had taught me. When I was little, I kept tumbling down rocky slopes, so Ethan would secure me with a soft rope. He told me that kind of knot could keep someone safe without cutting into their skin. Later, when he worked on wildfire rescues, he taught the same knots to people here at Black Pine too. But now, these people had woven silver threads into the rope net and turned something meant to save lives into the bonds that held me. At the other end of the hallway, Violet was excitedly planning tomorrow night's party. "The footage has to be perfect. I want everyone to see how I tamed this dog." I licked the bloody wound on my back leg. Tomorrow, the second I get a chance, I'm biting her again. Chapter 3 Early the next morning, I was dragged into the middle of a crowd, and Violet ordered me to fetch a glove she'd thrown, as entertainment. In Silver Moon Valley, my dad could hardly bear to let me walk on ice when it snowed. At the Black Pine lodge, Violet had metal clasps nailed to a wooden platform and chained me there with silver. She tossed the glove to the far end of the stage and gave the chain the slightest tug. It felt like a red-hot iron band clamped around my neck, the burn sinking into my bones. "Go on," she said, smiling at the watching guests. "It puts on that pitiful act to get sympathy." I forced myself forward two steps, and the metal edge sliced open my paw pads. Blood dripped onto the stage. The audience burst into applause. Someone praised Violet Grant for being so good at training animals, and one guest even made an offer to buy this rare white fox. Dylan set up a big screen and played the video of me killing the hound the day before. On the screen, blood covered my mouth as I stumbled and struggled, and the jeering laughter around me drowned out everything. One guest asked quietly, "Doesn't that little thing look kind of like a wolf?" "If that's a wolf, then I'm the highest-ranking Alpha in the Rockies," Dylan said, then burst out laughing at his own joke. Lucy pushed her way over with a first-aid kit, trying to bandage my bleeding paw. Dylan stepped in to stop her and whispered something in her ear. Lucy went white and backed silently into the corner. I turned to look at her. She was gripping the first-aid kit tightly. Her lips parted several times, but no sound came out. Not long after, a woman in work clothes walked up to me. She didn't reach out to touch me. Her eyes landed first on the burns the silver had left on my neck. "Who put a silver collar on it?" she asked. Violet jerked her chin carelessly toward Nolan. "What's wrong, Joanna?" "I'm the lodge's vet. Silver doesn't leave burns like this on an ordinary dog." Joanna crouched down and looked closely at my ears, then brushed aside the fluff on my forehead. "Look here. There's even a faint crescent-shaped marking. You should take that collar off right now and contact the nearby packs to find out who it is." My heart started pounding. Finally, someone wants to find out who I really am! I nodded hard and touched the back of her hand with my good paw. Joanna's expression grew even more serious, and she stood to reach for her phone. Violet snatched her work badge. "So you're saying I can't tell a dog from a wolf?" The smile disappeared from her face completely. "Look at the size of it. It's not even as big as one leg of a grown wolf, and it doesn't show any sign of a wolf spirit. You'd make up a lie like that just to cause trouble?" "I'm only suggesting we confirm who it is." Joanna reached out to take her badge back. "What if this is a child who just hasn't been able to shift yet—" "Shut up." Nolan stepped forward and signaled for security to take Joanna away. Unlike Violet, he didn't shout. His face just darkened. "We have a room full of important guests tonight. Don't let rumors like that get around." As security dragged Joanna out, she turned back and shouted, "Don't let silver touch it again! At least treat its wounds first!" Not a single person there listened to her. I tried to go after her, but the silver chain yanked tight and dragged me right back. Violet crouched down, pinched my mouth shut, and smiled coldly. "Trying to find yourself some help, huh? Naughty girl." She had someone bring her a pair of silver pliers, then clamped them around my sharpest canine tooth. The piercing pain brought tears to my eyes, but I still bit down hard on her outstretched finger. Violet shrieked and raised her hand to strike me. Dylan quickly grabbed her. "It still has to go on stage tonight. Too much blood won't look good. Wait until all the guests are here, then you can deal with it properly." "Then let me take a little souvenir first." She snipped off a long tuft of fur from my tail and told someone to make it into brooches for the VIP guests to wear. The white fur scattered across the floor was ground into the dust under people's shoes. I couldn't help thinking of how my dad used to brush my fur. Whenever he found a knot, he'd carefully work it loose bit by bit. He never once yanked. I used to think he fussed too much. Now I wished more than anything that he'd fuss over me a little more. Lucy took me back to the isolation room, her hands shaking as she closed the door. Only when I pressed my head against the bars did she bend down, her voice barely a breath. "Little one..." she whispered. "I don't know if they really think you're a dog, but I can tell you understand what people are saying." I looked up at her. "My little brother, Finn, has never been able to shift either. The pack says he's a useless little wolf, so they use him to train the hounds." She bit her lip, and her tears fell onto her apron. "Last night he bit one of the dog trainers, and they locked him in the storage building out back. They're sending him away tomorrow." I froze. So in this lodge full of mounted animals, not being able to shift didn't just mean getting laughed at. It meant anyone could treat you like prey. Lucy gripped the bars tight. "Please, if you really have a family, could you... find a way to save Finn too?" I couldn't even get myself out. But looking at Lucy's battered face, I still leaned forward and gently rubbed my forehead against her palm. This time, I wanted my family to come for more than just me. Chapter 4 Of all things, the distress signal my brother had taught me ended up on the big screen as party footage. That afternoon, while Violet was trying on her party dress, Lucy snuck into the isolation room to see me. She told me Finn had been dragged out and tortured again that morning. When they brought him back, he huddled by the window of the storage building, shaking all over at the slightest sound outside. "I want to get him out of here." She clutched a ring of keys, her knuckles white. "But I can only open the kitchen and the isolation room. The lock on the storage building is silver. If I touch it, I'll get burned. And there are guards posted all around the main gate." I touched the old scar on her hand with my paw, and my eyes landed on her loose, worn sleeve. My brother once told me that if a howl couldn't carry far enough, I should leave three claw marks. The first meant I'd been there, the second meant I was badly hurt, and the third meant I was still waiting to be rescued. Back then, I only half understood, but I practiced all summer, and every wooden door in our house ended up covered in my crooked scratches. I pulled a loose tuft of white fur from my tail and pushed it into Lucy's hand, then traced three faint lines across her palm with my claw. I was too weak to even break the skin, but she studied them intently. "Get this outside the lodge, right?" I nudged her palm with my nose to say yes. She hid the white fur in her sleeve, picked up an empty water bucket, and pretended to be working as she headed for the back door. Through the glass of the isolation room, I saw Dylan burst around the corner of the hallway and grab her by the wrist. "What are you hiding in your sleeve?" Lucy struggled and said it was just animal fur that got on her while she was cleaning the cages. Dylan pinched up that tuft of silvery white fur and sneered at the nerve of a servant trying to sneak a message out. He told the bodyguards to lock Lucy in the staff quarters downstairs, and added, "Isn't she always going on about that useless brother of hers? Then neither of them gets to see the other." I threw myself against the glass pen and pounded it with my paws until they hurt. Dylan left without looking back. Now the only one who could save Finn was me. That evening, Violet sent someone to groom my fur. Water seeped into the cuts from the silver chain, and the pain came in waves. But she didn't care how ugly the blood looked. She just had them cover the wounds with a wide satin ribbon so they wouldn't spoil the view. All the filming equipment in the main hall was set up, and she wanted me to do a practice lap on stage first. While the handler was changing the water, I kicked the water bowl into a light stand. The bulb burst with a bang, the big projection screen went black, and every guard's attention snapped toward it. I squeezed between the table legs, ran into the hallway next to the kitchen, and came within inches of the side door that led to the woods. The wind blew in through the crack in the door, and I smelled that familiar pine. Once I was out that door, I could find my way back to Silver Moon Valley, wolf spirit or not. But right at that moment, I heard a faint tapping. Through the grimy glass window of the storage building, a skinny little gray wolf was clinging to the windowsill, his eyes wide with terror. His legs were even thinner than mine, and he had a heavy silver lock around his neck. The moment he saw me, he shrank back. Only after he was sure I wasn't going to attack did he shakily press his nose to the glass. It was Finn. I looked at the side door, so close I could almost touch it, then looked at the helpless little wolf behind the glass. In the end, I turned and threw myself at the lock on the storage building, chewing as hard as I could at the leather strap around it. "Over here!" A bodyguard's shadow fell over me. Someone grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and slammed me onto the hallway floor. Pain stole my breath. Then I heard someone give an order. "Move that little thing in the storage building to the old mine. Ship it out tonight." Two workers pushed over a sealed shipping crate with a faded old mine logo printed on it. I stared hard at that logo and burned it into my memory. Violet rushed over. When she saw the broken lights and the stage carpet soaked with water, she threatened to dock every worker's pay for the month. She jabbed a catch pole at me and called me an ungrateful little thing. I gave up on running for the side door. While the workers were setting the cameras back up, I reached out and carved three deep claw marks into the edge of the wooden stage. I pressed so hard the tips of my claws split. I didn't know if anyone would see those marks. What happened after that, I only pieced together later when Sierra pulled up the footage and showed me. After my dad found the blood by the stream, Sierra quickly learned that Black Pine vehicles had crossed the territory marker. She pulled the flight logs for every helicopter in the area. The three SUVs, the takeoff time, and the lodge's public announcement of a private party that night all lined up. My brother got the satellite call at the wildfire rescue site, handed off his rescue work, and rushed back to the Rockies without stopping. Nolan got an angry call from Sierra. "Did Black Pine take a white wolf pup?" my sister asked over the phone. "I want an answer right now." "You've got the wrong place," Nolan said flatly. "We did catch a dog, and we're passing it along tomorrow. Don't ruin the friendship between our two packs over some wild animal." Sierra didn't argue with him. She quietly saved the recording of the call and sent it to Ethan, along with the helicopter photos and the promotional video the lodge had just posted. In the video, I was fleeing as the silver chain dragged at my neck, then doubling back to the stage to leave three crooked claw marks in the wood. And at that very moment, I was curled up in the isolation cage, thinking no one in the world would ever understand my call for help. Chapter 5 Just as Violet was about to skin me alive in front of all her guests, I finally heard my brother's voice. At eight o'clock that night, the lodge's main hall was blazing with light. Guests from all the nearby packs crowded around the stage holding their drinks. Violet wore a white gown and a bright smile, as if she were hosting a grand celebration. Her people set me in the middle of a pile of flowers, fastened the silver chain to a corner of the stage, and covered the ugly wounds on my neck with the wide satin ribbon. She'd even given me a title. The rarest snow fox in the world. "I caught this one in the mountains myself," she proudly told everyone. "It's vicious. It even killed one of my hounds. But I've already taught it how to behave." On the big screen, Dylan played the footage of me being dragged around and abused. One guest in the audience took in all my wounds, and his smile slowly faded. "Where did you catch it? That area looks like Silver Moon territory." Nolan stepped in to smooth things over. "It's just a stray dog. Surely the Silver Moon Alpha wouldn't claim a dog as one of his own." He said it like it was nothing, but I could see him checking his phone over and over, like he was waiting for some kind of news. Violet yanked the silver chain tight and forced me to stand. The wounds on my paws hadn't scabbed over yet, and when I stepped onto the silver-dusted stage, the burning pain made me recoil. She jabbed my back leg with the catch pole. "Walk a lap so everyone can get a good look." The guests crowded around. I limped forward. Some of them looked at me with pity, and others praised Violet's skill. I desperately wanted to tell everyone that a white dog for them to play with wasn't the only thing being held captive here. There was also a little wolf named Finn, and he'd already been shipped off to a cold old mine. But I couldn't even get out a single full sentence. A middle-aged woman pushed her way to the main doors. It was Joanna. She planted herself in front of the security guards and said loudly that this animal was very likely a werewolf who hadn't shifted yet. She demanded they take the silver off right away and confirm who it was. Violet didn't even bother to look at her. She waved a hand, and security dragged Joanna out the door. Then Violet made an even more shocking announcement. "Everyone, I'm not planning to sell it alive today." She picked up a long, slender hunting knife from a servant's tray and walked slowly toward me. "I'm going to remove this snow fox's pelt in one piece, right in front of all of you. Anyone who wants it can just place a bid afterward." I scrambled backward. My back leg slammed into the metal clasp, and the silver chain jerked tight, almost choking me. Memories flashed through my mind. My dad holding my paws and scolding me for not watching where I was going when I chased the rabbit. My sister complaining I was useless while she secretly chased off the wild dogs by the stream. And before he left home, my brother carrying me on his shoulders, teaching me to practice the three howls across the whole valley. But now, none of them were here with me. With the last of my strength, I looked toward the heavy doors of the main hall. The crowd suddenly erupted. The guards' radios crackled one after another. Someone knocked over a table full of drinks, and a man in a dark coat walked straight toward the big screen. His shoes were caked in mud, and he looked worn out from the long journey. His eyes were locked on the three claw marks I'd carved into the wooden stage.