Alpha Beach

Decision To Sign

Tony didn’t come back for hours after he had gone up and gotten a hold of Liam. 

It was for the best, Michelle thought. As it was she did enough and certainly didn’t need a big change before her biological presentation. Briana made sure to read out what stress could do to each of the designations regardless of whether or not they had presented yet. They all summed up with the fact that stress was bad and that they should avoid it whenever possible. 

It would have been nice to know that ahead of time, but as it was, she was here in the nest she made. Michelle shook her head at the reference hoping that she could just forget it all and let her biology set a smooth enough course to just get on with her life. That wasn’t the case though. It would never be. Shane constantly came up in her mind. The altercation just before and being recognized by enough people she never knew all came up, one after the other. 

On multiple occasions, Briana told her, point blank, to stop thinking. It was a concept that was easier said than done. Her future was being decided up there in the guard shack and she wasn’t even part of the conversation. 

What was taking so long anyway?

As the long three whistles blew and the announcement that the lifeguards were done for the day, Michelle could sense yet another shift. Guards broke down the gear on their chairs that spread for miles up and down the coast. Vehicles set off in their directions, driving on the packed sand to pick up their backboards and other gear, including those who were fast enough to get in. Some avoided the pick up, she knew, being that their schedules would conclude closer to their shacks down the beach. 

Michelle had to hand it to them. They really had their practices buttoned up. Everyone knew their role and proceeded to handle it. 

Inwardly the voice hissed about whether or not she would ever learn hers. One she wished she didn’t roll her eyes or sigh so heavily at. Briana was quick to hold her in her Alpha’s stare. The command was there, not to let it consume her now with the remainder of this mile’s stretch of Alphas coming in to close down and leave. 

“This may be family, Michelle, but your change may bring out the worst in the Alphas headed back. Do. Not. Call. Attention. To. Yourself,” she said pointedly before continuing on like the rest of them. 

Just as she said the practical swarm of Alphas, both male and female, surged the place. Some looked over at her curiously and she couldn’t help but assume they were deciding on whether or not to try posturing for her attention. The thought is foreign to her. Just that morning they were friends, fighting over who got the rest of the creamcheese. Now? Enough has changed to question just what kind of cream she’d be receiving now.

Michelle frowned at herself. She tried quieting her mind again. Counting backwards barely helped. Breathing slowly nearly made her vision go black and that’s when she felt him behind her. His large palm at her back warmed her so well she nearly moaned despite having so many within the same area. 

“Shh,” he soothed her, but before her next breath, she could sense her name being called before it happened. 

Michelle turned to see Liam, his sister Hildi who looked as if she just left work to be there, and Tony beside her. Their decision was made and she was going without a moment to spare. 

**

It happened so fast. 

Liam said it was for the best and that it would give her a chance to spread her wings, metaphorically. His sister, Hildi, chimed in about it being in her best interest to help her along and get her started on her own path. It was simply more about being able to function without a biological family to rely on. 

“Especially when you, you know…” 

Michelle groaned at the fact that her reasoning wasn’t done in private. It seemed Hildi’s heart was in the right place but her mind had the girl concerned. 

“When am I leaving?” she asked, trying to be rid of this building concern within her. 

If they didn’t have any trouble bringing up her biology in the pit, what wouldn’t they say? Apparently, nothing was off the table. 

“Tonight,” Hildi assured her. 

“There have been preparations made to join one of Murnar’s teams,” Tony spoke up, looking for her attention once more. 

She could feel it, how people looked at her now with an intention that was more than what it was. They were waiting for the green light. The shift. It was as if she could blink and magically turn. But all that was there, besides Liam and Tony, were Alphas. Their change isn’t necessarily one that a Beta or an Omega goes through. She’d heard the locker room talk time and again. Women went through an awakening, one they needed to surpass before being able to become the Alpha they were always destined to be. Betas were still a mystery to her, as were Omegas. There weren’t many that fulfilled their Omega’s wishes which uneventfully turned them into Betas as a result. 

There was enough to worry about now.

Lifeguards began to disperse as Hildi gave the command which in turn eased her mind. Shane’s presence remained until he was excused too. 

She wanted to ask him, no, beg her to let him stay, but a command was a command, and good Alphas knew how to follow orders given from a superior.  

Michelle watched as he grabbed his bag, hauled it over his shoulder, and left without so much as a goodbye. 

She did her best to swallow the pain that burned in her throat. Nothing, not even a breath helped cleanse her windpipe before she heard herself squeak, “wait.”

Shane either didn’t hear her or didn’t want to. His form seemed to be swallowed up in the burning glow of the setting sun as if he never even existed. 

“It’ll be alright, Michelle,” Hildi promised as if she was really saying that there were more fish in the sea, but left it as that for Tony to take over. 

There, under the shack, they went over terms and conditions. He spoke about paid leave if she happened to have her designation presentation while on tour, which, he noted, happens. Tony went through a long list of other clauses that would need to be read through, thoroughly, Hildi added so that she was absolutely certain that her contract would not force the underaged surfer to preform if she was sick or any other reason that would give her the ability to injure herself or otherwise. 

Despite it all, Michelle was glad to have Hildi looking out for her. She had been within her acquaintances for long enough to consider her family enough. And with this show of authority, as if Hildi was looking over her own biological family members, it was encouraging. 

For the first time since she dropped in this morning, Michelle felt at peace, ready to sign her life away to a sport she had always loved.