King Alpha Gone Rogue

CHAPTER FOUR: SCRIMMAGE

“What do you mean?” Sam growled in frustration, and hugged himself when cold air blew his way, causing the cold to penetrate his clothing. With a beleaguered sigh, he snapped the car shut, and went directly to the driver’s seat.

He was already really pissed with her for interrupting his very informative conversation with the Royal vampire. But that was hardly a place for them to talk. However, he was very reluctant to take her to his sanctuary. She wasn’t someone he trusted. For one, that weird smell she was emanating seemed suspicious enough, and her belligerent attitude was putting him off even more.

From what he remembered, Arella Chesterfield two years his junior had been a sweet and cute girl who’d been amongst the panoply of his feverish fans. To be fair, when he was on the lookout to be the next-in-line Alpha King, he’d been popular and much revered. Having that same girl facing him with such fierce antagonism awoke him.

Staying away from his pack to continue his mission, Sam had never stopped to wonder how his followers would feel about him. He’d left behind his home, his best friend and beta Tyler without a backward glance. He’d had no contact with them whatsoever, except for Old Hannigan who kept feeding him inside information about his pack’s situation.

Seeing Arella’s open defiance was a rude awakening for him. Did the others blame him too for his prolonged absence? All he’d been focused on was to find the cure on his own before saving his pack. What if they had needed him well before that?

There were no other options anyway – he drove in stone silence towards Balsam Lake Mountain where he’d found himself a secluded cabin.

“Where are we going?” she hissed fiercely, her eyes darting around in panic, which made Sam want to howl in frustration.

Had he done such a bad job of protecting his pack that the members were now wary of him? How had it come to that? With a sinking heart, he tried to picture his hurried departure in his mind, it would be perceived as a cowardly act for sure. And the fact that he never returned to help his people would surely have resulted in abandonment.

Resisting the urge to pound his hands on the wheels, he rotated them with the palms of his hands as he parked into his narrow alley. The cabin was well hidden for the purpose of making his inconspicuous in the human world. Here, in the forest, he could shift in his werewolf form whenever he felt like it.

Throwing a glance at the stubborn profile in the backseat, Sam sighed before saying. “Let’s talk inside?” No reaction from her aside from the clenching of her jaw and her arms folding against her chest. “It would be more comfortable inside,” he asserted with resoluteness.

Without a word, he went to open the cabin door and waited for her to follow, which she eventually did, albeit with great reluctance.

He refrained from offering her a seat for she looked like she was on the verge of biting his head off. “What did you mean you will tell on me?” he repeated his earlier question when he came to no conjectures about her mystic statement.

“What do you think I mean?” that little spitfire spat right in his face with a disrespect that stunned him. Earlier, even if she was an Alpha’s daughter, she would never have dared spoken to him with such low regard. “I’ve seen you colluding with Emir Royal, our sworn enemy. Are you plotting something against us? Is that why you went rogue?”

The presumptuous conclusion would have been laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that she thought so low of him. He’d made a colossal mistake by not contacting his pack for almost two years. He’d been too driven by his mission to stop and think about what was happening to them in the meantime.

“Are things really that bad down there?” he asked instead, filled with remorse.

She scoffed unprettily. “A little too late for that,” she sneered deliberately. “Alpha Kings don’t go rogue on their packs. They’re supposed to protect them, especially during war. We’ve seen enough of your courage to last us a lifetime.”

There was no point defending himself – in an attempt to eradicate the problem from its source, he had indelibly committed the worst mistake. He’d abandoned his pack – and that was something wolves never did.

“Why are you here then?” he challenged instead.

“I am here to expose your true face to the pack. And I would have if you hadn’t broken my phone with your superlative strength,” she snapped angrily, pushing back her hair from her face as she fought for composure. The action brought his attention to the silky waves of golden cascades which spilled from the movement, and he sucked in a breath at the reaction he was experiencing.

Wait a damned second. What was he doing?

Not ours, Starrk warned instantly.

Thank you for keeping me in toe, Starrk. Don’t know what I would have done without you, he retorted silkily in his mind to his wolf. Starrk was a very loyal werewolf, and he’d been waiting patiently for his mate. Although, the quest was not really possible since he was rarely amongst werewolves lately.

He sighed. “Sending a photo of me talking with Emir could hardly be attested to plotting against my whole pack. Besides, why would I want to conspire against my own people?”

Arella frowned down at him suspiciously, lifting her small nose like she was sniffing the credibility of his question, before finally shrugging her carefreeness. “How would I know. All I know is that I saw you getting cozy with Emir Royal. What in the heck would you want from a man like him? Do you remember how his stooges destroyed the Midnight pack?”

She was too inquisitive – that was the problem with daughters of Alphas. They had strong personalities and was not amendable like the omegas and even the betas. They had a mind on their own, and it was not easy to hoodwink them. Arella was the glorified version – she’d always been the brightest student of the Mystic Shadow pack, and now with maturity, she had grown into an exceptional woman.

Sam frowned.

“What’s with you and Selene?” he asked abruptly, cutting off the flow of the conversation with his uncalled question.

Blinking at him in incomprehension, it took her a while to get back on track. “Selene? I don’t understand your question. I thought we were talking about the vampires. What has Selene got to do with anything?”

He stopped to pour himself a glass of water, glad that the course of the conversation had shifted to a less dangerous subject. For some reason, he wasn’t about to sprout stories about the cure to her yet – not until he was sure he could trust her.

“Was that the first time you’ve shifted today?” he asked calmly, watching her over the rim of his glass. The way her blue-green eyes widened suspiciously confirmed that he was right on track, and he did his best to hide his shock.

“I suppose,” she finally relented demurely. He was her King after all, his command was unbreakable, irrespective of the fact that he’d gone rogue. He’d never reneged on the bond of his pack, so it didn’t even count as going rogue. He’d been on a mission.

Not relevant here, Starrk reminded him pointedly, and Sam winced at how sassy his wolf was.

“And you’ve turned eighteen when? One month ago?”

She winced. “Six months ago,” she admitted, averting her eyes, and taking the seat opposite him without him asking her to. That was the power he’d learnt from his father – the key to lead people was to show them that he cared. Which he did. And in his sincerity, his followers would find their solace.

“Six months ago,” he repeated stoically, making an effort to keep the outrage from his voice. That was the first time he’d heard of someone taking so long to shift into her werewolf form. Usually, the wolves would be impatient to surge forward and match their alter-egos. “That’s a long time. Any reason why it took so long?”

Although he had a fair idea why it had taken her so long to shift, Sam wanted her to draw her own conclusions.

“What do you mean. Is that unusual? I thought that Selene would come out when she felt like it. Wasn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?”

Either she was being deliberately obtuse, or she was actually clueless, Sam couldn’t make out his mind yet. What he could decide was that it was no way to treat a werewolf.

“Is it? Can you tell me why Selene is so miserable then?” he challenged with raised eyebrows. “I saw her last night, and she’s on the verge of depression. Care to explain?”

Arella shook her head in denial. “What on earth are you talking about? We get along great. She’s a docile wolf and never refuses me anything. Last night was…errmmm…something happened. We were in conflict and she just lost it. As soon as she comes back, I will have a talk with her and make her promise that such a thing will never happen again.”

Sam was fuming now. That woman was completely insensible to the great gift she’d been given. “Will you? You will order her to silence. She’s not your pet!” he hissed the last word with fury, making her jump at the unexpected assault.

“Of course not. She’s usually very amendable, I am telling you that last night something happened which made her…”

“Has she talked to you at all today?” he insisted when the obdurate woman was still trying to defend her actions. “Has she contacted you ever since you came back in your human form?”

Taken aback, she stared at him silently, and Sam guessed that she was calling upon her wolf in her mind. When her eyes remained blank, he reckoned that she was unsuccessful, and he allowed her sufficient time to come to terms with what he was saying.

“Y…You…She’s not responding,” she stammered wildly, looking at him in sheer desperation. “What’s happening? Did you do something to her last night? Did you tell her not to come forward?”

Sam shook his head. “I will never do such thing. You seem to forget that I am your King Alpha,” his guilty conscience making him bound to assert his rights. “I will never order your wolf to do something without your permission. Selene was very miserable last night, she looked heart-broken,” he apprised apathetically, loathing himself for being the one to break that terrible news to her.

“She’s gone then?” she asked in a small voice, and the vulnerability of her oval face hit him right in the chest.

“I’ll tell you what. Selene coming out in a fit of rage taking control is not normal. You’re not supposed to shift in your werewolf form when you lose your restraint on your wolf. Shifting is a beautiful and painless process where you willingly give the reign to your werewolf to take over, and which you can take back without fuss.”

Head bent, Arella remained silent, but something about her rigid posture suggested that she was hanging to his every word. So, he went on.

“What I witnessed was the complete opposite. I have the feeling that you never let her take control, and instead you find ways to smother her. Last night was a desperate act on Selene’s behalf, and you’re losing her. I understand that you want to keep your human part predominant, but you need to accept your wolf as part of you as well. She’s a gift that you will have to love otherwise you will end up losing her.”

“Is it too late?” she asked with a deep breath.

Sam shrugged, being calculatingly cruel – he was not going to offer free lunches to her. “Up to you to find out,” he challenged with open animosity.