Choice of The Alpha

1.14

When we pull at my house I can see lights from the backyard. It’s just turning dusk out, so I can barely see them. The large doors in the fence are wide open with tiki torches on either side. Through the gate I see the yard strung up with lights. It looks like little fairy lights twined through all the trees and bushes.

We get out of the car and walk to the backyard. I freeze in shock. My mom has really outdone herself. There are banquet tables up under the awning by the house. I can smell the roast from here. There’s another table that is filled with wine glasses. All the tables are set out with beautiful table clothes and vases with flowers on each table. It looks amazing.

As I’m taking in the sights, my mom comes out of the house. She has a cute pink cocktail dress on and has a torch lighter in one hand and a bottle of lighter fluid in the other. She sees us and walks over.

“Hey guys! Welcome back.” She seems super cheerful. Is this how you celebrate when your abusive parents die? “I’m glad you’re here! Chad, can you get the bonfire going please? I can’t seem to get it to light.” She passes the stuff over to him and he heads toward the stack of wood.

My mom walks over and puts her hand over my shoulders. “So? How was it?”

“Not bad. Weird but not bad.” We start walking towards the tables.

“I heard a little bit about it. Sounds like you and Sasha put on quite the show.”

“Yeah I guess. I didn’t realize that was going to happen.”

“Well you definitely took a large step towards declaring yourself alpha. From what I can tell, the pack certainly accepted your claim so far.”

“Not everyone.”

“Oh?”

We sit at one of the tables and I tell her about Clara. How she clearly doesn’t like me.

“I have no idea what I did to make her hate me so much.” I sit hunched over at the table. I have no idea why this is bothering me so much.

“It’s ok hun. That happens. You can’t get along with everyone.” She squeezes my shoulder. “Guests are staring to arrive, it’s time to get this started.” She jumps up and walks towards the people who are arriving.

I just sit there and watch for awhile. Chad is over talking with Chris and Grant. He sees me looking and smiles and waves. I wave back. My mom is in a group of women. She seems happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like this before. She’s always been reserved and didn’t have much for friends.

I can feel a stab of hatred hit me. Looking around, I see Clara. She is over with Angela and Chloe. The girls are chattering excitedly while she is glaring at me. She says something to them and leads them over toward the boys. When they get there Chloe and Angela link arms with Grant and Chris. I watch as Clara slides up to Chad. She wraps her arms around his neck and slides he body up next to him.

Next thing I realize, I’m growling. Like truly growling. I can feel anger flowing through me.

“Get over there! We need to kick her ass! We need to show her that she can’t just take Chad from us!” Sasha growls at me.

“Whoa, hold on there. He isn’t ours! Yes I want to kick her ass too, but Chad is not ours. If we claim him they will expect us to mate and lead together!”

“Don’t you get it? We basically already claimed him! He walked with us at the funeral. That is a declaration of being together.”

“What the hell! Why didn’t anyone tell me that?”

“I would get over there if I were you. She is openly challenging us right now. She’s only challenging us with Chad, but if we let her get away with it then we appear weak.”

“And we are supposed to be showing our strength.” I sigh. “OK here we go.”

I start walking over to them. I make sure I stand as tall as possible and stare directly at Clara as I walk toward them. Chad notices me and blushes. He tries to step away from Clara but she only grips him tighter. I get right up to her and stop. I growl at her.

“Let go of him and walk away now.”

She takes a step towards me. “Why the hell should I do that?” She spits in my face. “You’re nothing. You’re not even part of our pack. You’re the bastard child of a deformed b***h. You don’t belong here. Just go back to where you came from.”

I hear gasps and exclamations all around us. I can tell that everyone is watching us, but I never once look away from her.

I feel the anger build up in me. A wave of anger radiates through my body and seems like it flung out from me. Clara must have felt it too. She takes a couple steps back and gets a pained look on her face.

“You may think you’re alpha material but you’re not. You’re nothing but a mistake in this world.” She steps back towards me.

That was a mistake. I was waiting for her. I feel my arm swing around and my fist connect with her nose. She gets flung back onto the ground. Blood is pouring out of her nose. She has a mixed look on her face. Her eyes are still shooting daggers but her face is scrunched in pain. She quickly looks around and sees that everyone is staring at her. Her face blushes in embarrassment. She pulls herself up and runs out of the yard.

I start to feel the anger subside. As I look around, everyone smiles and goes back to talking with each other. Chloe walks up and hooks my arm in hers.

“Well that’s one way to declare yourself.” She laughs. “Don’t worry. No one likes Clara anyway. I just hope you know you certainly made her an enemy. She hates people, hates that her family has no power, and she’s always hoped that her and Chad would be together.” She leads me up towards the food. “Chad has always hated her though. I think you two will make an amazing couple.”

I stop, causing her to halt with me. She looks at my face and laughs.

“No one expects you to like declare him as yours and mark him right here or now. Calm down you don’t have to look so terrified. I was just making a comment.”

We finish walking up and join the line at the buffet table. Everyone who walks past me smiles and lowers their head.

“You’ve done good. At this rate we will be Alpha in no time.” I can feel Sasha running in circles in my head.

Everyone spreads out at the tables and works on decimating the amazing meal my mother made. I can hear all sorts of conversations around me. So far, I haven’t approached Chad yet. I’m pretty embarrassed and don’t know what to expect. Getting up, I head inside to go to the bathroom. I need a few moments to compose myself.

As I turn the corner to head downstairs, I run right into Chad. He looks up at me shocked. Then he blushes and smiles at me.

“Well hello to you too.” His smile lights up his eyes and I get trapped in them.

He takes a step closer and my breath hitches. He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. I lean into his hand. Chad leans down toward me and whispers into my ear.

“If you wanted to be with me, all you had to do was say so.”

His words send shivers all over my body. He just chuckles and steps back. The sudden lack of him near me makes me reach out to steady myself. My breath is coming fast and my body is tingling.

“See you out there.” He winks at me and walks past to go back outside.

I sit there leaning against the wall for awhile. What the hell was that? I’ve never felt that way before.

“You’ve declared your intent for him. When an alpha does that, a bond forms. It will only get stronger. You will feel more and more when you’re around him.” Sasha sounds like she’s enamored.

“More? Stronger? You have got to be kidding me.”

“That’s what you get for declaring him.” She laughs.

I go into the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. I can handle this. Everything will be just fine.

Once I have myself under control, I head back out to the yard. The fire is glowing and most people are sitting around it. I walk up and head towards my mom. She smiles up at me and pats the seat next to her.

Once I sit down I realize people were watching me. Once I was settled they relaxed.

My mom leans over and whispers in my ear. “It’s story time. Everyone is going to tell their favorite stories about the deceased.”

As she leans back, I see everyone is staring at the fire with distant looks on their faces. The first person to talk, was beta Lucas. He leans forward and starts to tell his story.

“Our leaders were strong. I remember the first day they became our leaders. Liz and Zander had been together most of their lives. They were true mates and knew they were meant to be together. The pack was out hunting in the woods one full moon. We were still young. The pack had surrounded a large elk and were preparing to take it down. Alpha Zach lunged at the elk. He misjudged its reaction. As he was mid air, the elk lowered his head and stabbed him through the side. As he fell to the ground, Liz and Zander attacked simultaneously. They both latched on to each side of the elk. Their distraction is what saved Zacks life that day. After that, Zack was never able to fully recover. A week after the accident, he stepped down and gave leadership over to Zander. That same day Zander marked Liz as his mate. Their quick reflexes showed us that they would be great leaders. Every day since then they proved themselves to our pack.“

Lucas leaned back, showing that he was done. I looked around and saw tears in eyes everywhere. The stories continued for awhile. Every one was a comment on how strong, or brave, or heroic my grandparents were. Everything was going smoothly. It was a good night and wonderful to hear more about my grandparents.

Then my mom stood up.