Choice of The Alpha

1.13

Chad turns and looks at me. “Are you going to be OK?”

I look back and force a smile. “I will be fine, but I appreciate your concern, thank you.”

“Just remember, I’m here if you need me.” He turns and opens his door to get out. My mom opens her door just after him. I sit there for a moment before I get out. I really need to work myself up for this. This is certainly going to be interesting.

I can feel Sasha stirring in my head. She’s nervous too. I can’t really blame her though. Most of this is going to be all on her. We are going to have to shift and she is going to meet the full pack. This is her chance to show them how strong we are. Her chance to teach them that we are just as strong as any male. That we can be alpha by ourselves. This is her chance to make an excellent first impression.

“Thanks, no pressure.” She whines in my head.

I chuckle. “Sorry Sasha, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.” I opened the door and stepped out.

Chad had walked around the car and was waiting for me to get out. He held out his arm for me. I hooked my arm in his and we started walking toward the crowd. Everyone is staring at me. I stand up straight and tall and don’t look anyone in the eyes.

My mom is walking ahead of us. We follow her through the crowd and onto a path through the woods. Everyone falls in line behind us. She leads us to a clearing. There are log benches set around the edge and two holes dug into the ground. We walked over to the seats closest to the holes. Everyone followed us around and took their own seats.

As I sat there, with my mom on my left and Chad on my right, I watched the people filing in. There looked to be around 200 people here. Some were watching us. Others were staring at their feet. I watched as Chloe and Angela came into the clearing. They sat down and looked over at me. They gave me matching half smiles, and their eyes were glistening. I smiled back and continued watching everyone.

Once everyone was seated, a man on the bench next to us, stood up and walked forward. Everyone’s eyes snapped to him immediately. I could feel the aura of power he was radiating.

“Welcome everyone. As the beta of our pack, it is my duty to lay our alphas to rest. This is a sad day for us all. Not only did we lose valued members of our pack, but we lost our leaders. But the pack will survive.” At that, he looked around and locked eyes with everyone. When he got to me, he nodded his head. “Today we return our leaders back to the ground where everything comes from.”

Everyone turned and looked at the opening where we all came in. Four, big, burly men, were carrying two bundles between them. The bundles were wrapped in something green. It almost looked like moss. I couldn’t say for sure.

They carried the bodies over next to the holes and laid them on the ground. A few women came forward and placed items on the bodies.

“As is our tradition, we offer these symbols of your place in our pack. The symbol of the moon, our Goddess. The knife, as a symbol of the warrior status. The crown of ivy, as a symbol of leadership of our pack.” The women laid the items on the body and walked back to their bench. The men walked back to the bodies. They each grabbed an end of the wrap and slowly laid them in the holes. “Now we lay our leaders to rest.” He turns to us. “Rebecca, as their daughter, it is your right to start the burial process.”

Everyone looks at my mother. When I look at her, she has tears in her eyes. I reach out and squeeze her hand. She smiles at me and gets up. She walks over and grabs a handful of dirt, tossing it into the hole. Then she grabs another and tosses it in the other hole. When she’s done she goes over and stands next to the beta.

They turn and look at me. “Alexia, as granddaughter to our fallen warriors, you are next.”

I freeze. No one told me about this. I feel Chad squeezes my hand. I look over at him. “I can go with you, if you would like.” He whispers. I just nod.

We both stand up and walk toward the holes. As we are walking, I hear people whispering around the clearing. I ignore every one of them and focus on my task at hand. After Chad and I toss in our dirt, the pack stands up. They each come forward one at a time and fill up the holes.

Once everyone has had their turn, they all turn once more to the beta. “Now that our leaders have been laid to rest, it is time for the pack run. We shall all run together to mourn our loss.” Everyone starts heading toward the trees.

My mom puts her hand on my shoulder, “It will be just fine. I will meet you at home. Katie already offered to drive you after the run.”

I nod at her afraid to try and use my own voice. I don’t want to sound weak. My mom starts walking back the way we came, and I follow everyone else into the woods. I see that everyone is taking off their clothes as they walk. In the woods, I can see the shapes of large wolves.

“Okay Sasha. It’s now or never.”

“I’m ready.”

I walk over to a clump of bushes and start taking off my clothes. When I’m ready, I close my eyes. A warmth envelops me. When I open my eyes, everything looks different. I try to take a step back, but nothing happens.

“I'm in control now.” I hear Sasha say. “From here, it is my job to do this. You just get to experience the sensations with me, but I control this body.”

“This is kind of weird. Is this what it’s like for you?”

“Yes it is. But don’t worry, we are still together. Let’s do this.”

We start walking out of our bushes. All around us are wolves milling around. Sasha walks up to this large red wolf. He looks at us and nods. The wolf raises his head and howls a long mournful howl. The whole pack follows suit, and the woods are filled with the sound of loss. Then he takes off through the woods. Sasha follows right on his tail. The other wolves form a group behind us.

This feeling is amazing. It’s like flying. We are going so fast that everything is a blur. I can feel the leaves against our paw pads. I can smell the tossed up dirt from our passing. This is amazing!

I hear Sasha chuckle. “Just wait.” She puts on another burst of speed. I watch as we pass the large red wolf. He looks up at us in surprise and speeds up as well. We just keep running. Now we are at the head of the pack and everyone seems to be struggling to catch up. Sasha bursts into a clearing and climbs up a small hill. She turns around and faces the incoming pack. They all slide to a halt staring at us. She throws her head up and let’s out a loud and powerful howl. The whole pack responds with howls and then bows down before us. Looking around us I see all of the wolves bowing down with their eyes on the ground. Except one.

This large grey wolf, has her lips pulled back in a snarl and a slight growl coming out. Sasha stares her down and she slowly lowers her head. Her lips are still pulled back.

Sasha let’s out another howl and turns to take off running. The pack follows behind us. As we loop around and head back towards where we started, I start to question what just happened.

“We showed our power.” Sasha answers proudly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we were faster than the whole pack. They all felt our alpha power. If they didn’t, they would have challenged us.”

“What about that one wolf?”

“We might have to keep an eye on her.” Sasha growls slightly. “It appears that she doesn’t like us and is not happy about declaring us as alpha.”

“Wait. Did we just declare ourselves alpha?” I'm shocked. I didn’t know we were going to do that.

“In a way, yes. We declared our power and our right to lead this pack. It’s not finished though. We aren’t truly alpha yet.”

“What’s left?”

“You need to show them your power too. Show them that you can be a leader. Then the pack needs to accept us.”

“Great no pressure.” She just laughs at me.

We get back to where we all shifted and she walks over to where we left our clothes. She closes her eyes and I feel the warmth come over me again. When I open my eyes, I’m back in human form. I put my clothes on and walk into the clearing where we buried my grandparents.

The beta comes out next and walks up to me. He lowers his head in respect.

“Alexia, it us a pleasure to meet you. I am beta Lucas, I was second to your grandparents.” He looks up and smiles at me. “I would be happy to follow you.”

“it’s nice to meet you too Lucas.”

Just then, Chad and Katie came walking out towards me. They both have huge smiles on their faces.

Katie rushes up to me and gives me a big hug. “Oh sweetie, I knew you would be powerful.” She lands back and looks me in the face. She just smiles.

Chad walks up and holds his arm out again. “Shall we go?”

I blush and grab his arm. He leads me out to the cars and we follow Katie to her car. As we get in, I see everyone else walking out to their cars as well. They are all smiling and laughing. It’s a complete difference from when we first arrived.

Then I see her. She’s tall with long brunette hair. Her hair falls around her shoulders in gentle waves. She should be gorgeous, at least if you didn’t look at her face. Her face was scrunched up in anger and she was shooting daggers at me with her eyes. That’s the one that doesn’t like us. She’s who I need to watch out for.

I turn to Chad, “who is that?”

He follows my gaze and flinched a little. “That’s Clara. Don’t mind her.”

I watch her out the window as we start to pull away. Definitely going to watch her.