Alpha Eric: Book 2 of The Alpha Series

1. Eighteen

Eric

The sudden beeping of my alarm clock jolted me out of a dead sleep. I groaned in irritation at the alarm, and a throbbing headache that just seemed to get worse when I moved in my bed. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath before reaching over and turning my alarm off on my phone. I groaned just a little more, knowing that I needed to get up and go to school. This was bullshit.

I took another deep breath before pushing myself up out of my bed and walking over to my bathroom. I grabbed my water bottle and drained it while looking for the headache medicine I kept in the cabinets. I couldn't find them so I abandoned looking for them and moved to relieve myself.

Once I was done, I started to walk towards my bedroom to get dressed for the day. As I passed the mirror at my sink, I heard a voice in my head.

"Drink more water or the headache will just get worse."

I stopped and grabbed the water bottle. I filled it up before draining it again.

"There. You think that's good enough?" I asked.

I heard a second voice that was much deeper than the first that told me, "yeah, you smartass."

I laughed and asked, "what are your names?"

"I'm your wolf, Riot," the first voice told me.

"And I'm Hati. The Lycan of the Moon," the deeper voice said.

"It is amazing to meet you both. Let's get this day started so I can let y’all out later."

I went and got dressed for school in a black t-shirt and blue jeans before grabbing all of my books and putting them back in my backpack. I grabbed my phone and put it in my pocket before leaving my room with my bag over my shoulder. I stepped out into the hallway, leaving my bedroom door open. Across the hall was Grant, my younger brother’s room, and his door was still closed. Grant is a year younger than me and in two weeks he will be turning seventeen.

I looked down the hall to see that all the doors were still closed. I was the first of all my siblings up this morning. I looked in the other direction to see that my parents' door was open, so that meant that they were already downstairs.

My mind started playing flashbacks of when we were younger and we would have movie nights. We would all pile onto our parents bed and watch movies with popcorn and all kinds of treats. It wasn't easy growing up as the Alpha’s son or the son of the Forest Wolf Goddess, but our parents made it work.

Mom was gone a lot while she was out helping others, but we understood why and never got upset about it much. It was fun when we would get to go with her to watch her help others. Watching her work with her magic was amazing and we all loved it.

I came out of my thoughts when Grant's door opened up and he walked out with his backpack over his shoulder. You would think that we were twins because of how much we look alike. The only difference between us was the color of our eyes. My eyes were dark blue, where his were almost silver because they were so gray.

"Happy Birthday, Eric. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Thanks. I'm good. I just have a headache from hell."

He nodded his head and said, "Let's get the rest of the pups up. I'll get the girls."

I huffed and said, "Leaving me with Jaxson."

He laughed and walked down the hall to the twins' rooms. They were easy to wake up if they weren't already up and moving around. Jaxson, on the other hand, was hard to wake up and always in a pissy mood. He was fourteen and a massive pain in my ass. I didn’t knock on his door and just opened it up, barging right into his room this morning. What a mistake! I froze in shock at the sight that I walked in on.

“Get out!” Jaxson screamed in his pubescent tone as he did his best to cover his groin and what he was doing.

"What the f**k, dude?" I asked in horror.

"What are you doing? Get out!" he yelled even more.

“You know there’s a bathroom for you to do that in, right?” I asked, still in shock.

“Go away!” he screamed.

I shook my head and stepped out of the room, closing the door while trying to recover from the sight. I had just walked in on the little dude jacking off to something on his phone. I rubbed my face, knowing that what I saw would never leave me. Talk about f*****g awkward. What a way to start the day off.

Grant met me at the end of the hall with the twins bouncing around. They were now twelve years old and full of energy all the time. Jade was a few minutes older than Josie. They were like night and day with their attitudes and how they dressed. Jade was a little aggressive and mean, while Josie was sweet and bubbly.

“Happy birthday, Eric,” the girls said together.

“Thank you,” I told them as I pulled them into a hug.

"Where's Jaxson?" Grant asked.

"He's awake," I growled out while squinting my eyes at him.

He suppressed a laugh and coughed instead. I’m sure he knew what was going on in that room and didn’t need to ask anything further. All three of us knew how and what m**********n was. I was thankful no one had ever walked in on me and I had never walked in on Grant. We knew how to handle that business, Jaxson not so much.

“Let’s go eat breakfast with mom and dad,” Grant said as I let go of the twins.

The four of us headed down to the dining hall to see where mom and dad were, leaving Jaxson to finish what he was doing and go down to eat on his own. Normally, each morning they would come down here and drink their coffee together while they made breakfast.

The four of us stepped into the dining hall to find birthday banners up everywhere in the large hall and I could smell the waffles being made from the kitchen.

The four of us sat down in our usual spots and waited. Moments later, mom and dad came into the dining room with plates in their hands for us. They placed the plates in front of us and I stood up. Mom was the first to wrap her arms around my waist and hug me tightly.

"Happy Birthday, Eric," my mom, Luna Jamie, said.

"Thanks mom," I said while hugging her tightly.

She was short and dainty but tough as hell. She released me from her hug and I could feel Hati come forward in my head.

"We are the warriors for your mother. No matter what, we protect her at all costs," he said.

"That's all the Lycans, isn't it?" I asked.

"Yes. We are the Forest Wolf's assassins and army."

"Assassins. I like that."

He dropped back not saying anything else and I blinked to find my mom looking up at me with a frown on her face.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked.

"My lycan."

"You've already met them both?" she asked while dad listened.

"Yeah."

"What are their names?" she pressed further.

"My wolf is Riot, and my Lycan is Hati."

"The wolf that chases the moon," she said softly while thinking.

I looked at her in amazement and said, "He told me he was the Lycan of the moon."

She smiled and nodded her head. She stepped aside and let dad hug me finally. His embrace was like it always was. Tight and manly. I was the same height as him now and felt like I could be considered his damn clone, since I looked so much like him.

“Happy Birthday. How are you feeling?” my dad, Alpha Cameron, asked me.

“Thanks, dad. I’m good. My headache is almost gone.”

“Good. Are you excited about letting them out tonight?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m just a little hesitant about going through so much pain at once.”

“We will take it slow and if we need to we will have you wait to let your Lycan out,” mom said.

I nodded my head before I turned to sit down with Grant and the twins to eat breakfast.

“Where’s Jaxson?” mom asked.

“In his room getting ready,” I told her.

“Ok,” she said with a smile.

Mom and dad turned to go back into the kitchen, leaving us to start eating breakfast. I lathered my waffles with grape jam and then a little syrup. Right as I was about to take my first bite of breakfast, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked to find Jaxson there with his d**k beaters on my clean shirt and I grimaced.

“Happy Birthday,” he told me.

I shrugged his hand off me and looked at my shirt before saying, “thanks.”

Jaxson sat down next to Grant and I kept inspecting my shirt where he touched me. Grant was sitting beside me and I could feel him watching me. I looked over and leaned forward past Grant to look at Jaxson.

“Please tell me you washed your damn hands,” I said to him.

He looked at me like I was bat s**t crazy before saying, “yeah.”

I watched Grant as he tried to keep from laughing his ass off at the whole situation. d**k. He knew what he was doing this morning, sending me in to wake the little perv up.

I shook my head right as our parents came back with Jaxson’s plate and their own. We all sat there eating breakfast together before our parents started their work day and we went to school.

As we finished eating, I got a large number of texts from my aunts and uncles wishing me a happy birthday. My cousin, Alpha James, even texted me to wish me a happy eighteenth. I sat there answering texts while thinking about summers as a pup. All the pups from my mom's side of the family would go from pack to pack to visit everyone for a week. We would start at Trinity Forest, then come home to Hunter’s Moon. Next, we would go to Midnight Forest to see uncle Sean and aunt Paris before going to Red Moon to see uncle Mason and aunt Calla.

Once those trips were over, my cousins from Harvest Moon, Fallon and Aria, would come to visit for a few days before we went to Harvest Moon. I really like hanging out with uncle Jack, who's the Alpha of Harvest Moon. I felt like I was more like him than I was like my dad sometimes.

When I was done with my texts and everyone was down with breakfast, we said bye to mom and dad for the day. We grabbed our backpacks and headed out the door of the packhouse. The five of us started down the road to school while listening to Josie talk endlessly.

"Do you think you will find your mate today?" she asked me.

"I don't know," I said with a shrug.

"It took dad six years to find mom, so there's really no telling how long it will take for any of us to find our mates," Grant offers.

"That's fair," I said, nodding my head.

"Will you be happy when you find her?" Josie asked me.

"I don't know. I don't even know her yet," I told her.

"I guess you have a point. I can't wait to turn eighteen and find out who my mate is," she said happily.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I'm sure he's going to be awesome and handsome," she told me with a bright smile.

I looked at her and squinted my eyes, "what if he's a jerk and I need to beat his ass?"

She gasped and looked at me in surprise before saying, "if he deserves it, then I'll be cheering you on, but if not, you're not allowed to touch him."

Grant and I ended up laughing at her while we finished the walk to school. As soon as we got through the front doors of the school, the girls went to the middle school hall and the three of us boys went to the high-school hall. We went to our lockers and waited for Logan and Madison. They were the daughters of my father's Beta, Rambo. Then there was Sebastian, who was my mother's Beta, Ben’s son. Then there was Owen, my mother's best friend Tara's son.

Soon all seven of us were at our lockers talking. Logan, Owen, Sabastian and I were all seniors this year. Grant was a junior, Madison was a sophomore and Jaxson was a freshman. All of us were close and did everything together. Then, when you added the twins to the group, it was chaos.

Logan walked up and clapped me on the back while saying, "Happy birthday and I'm so glad not to be your mate."

She had turned eighteen a week ago and had been ducking and dodging older guys in the pack, not wanting to find her mate. All of us thought it was funny.

I laughed at her and said, "I'm glad to not be your mate too. I already feel sorry for the poor bastard and you haven't even found him yet."

All of us laughed at our dumb jokes right as the bell rang to start heading to our classes. I grumbled as we all split up to go about our day. The morning went by slowly and I was happy when lunchtime came. We all converged on the cafeteria and went through the line to get our food. We all sat in the places that we always did to enjoy our lunch.

"No mate yet?" Owen asked me.

"Nope. It's only day one so I'm not worried," I told him.

"Fair," Owen said with a nod.

"Are you sure?" Logan asked while tapping my shoulder from beside me.

"Yeah," I said, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Well, you should tell that to Monica," she said while looking at the table on the other side of the room behind me.

I grimaced and shuddered at the thought. That girl had a crush on me since day one and it was annoying as hell. There was no way the Moon Goddess would do that to me. I turned to look behind me and saw Monica watching me intently. She was about two months older than me and my wolf wasn't making any noise in my head. I sighed in relief and turned back around to my food.

I took a bite of our lunch and happily said, "not my mate."

Everyone at the table chuckled lightly before starting to eat their lunch. The rest of the day went by without incident. When the final bell rang, I went to my locker to drop my things off and waited for all of my siblings. One by one, they arrived so we could all walk home together.