The Alpha's Warrior Princess

Ch. 3: Home Sweet Home? (Pt. 1)

17 years later…

There I stood, box in hand, looking up at the structure before me. It wasn’t exactly what I’d been expecting, but being a city girl, I suppose this house could be considered “small” by country bumpkin standards. To me, though, the house seemed huge! And no way in h*ll was I going to be the one mowing that f*cking huge a** lawn! Nope, no-way, not gonna happen! Dad wanted to drag us all the way out to banjo county PA, he could mow the god d*mn lawn!

I was a city girl. Born and raised. We lived in a three-bedroom row-home in Philadelphia. The southernmost part of the city. We could throw a stone and it would skip across the Delaware River and take up permanent residency on New Jersey real estate. The original capital of our country, Philly (as Philadelphians liked to call it) was the home of the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, soft pretzels, “hoagies”, water ice, the mummers parade, The Phillies, and our biggest claim to fame… the cheese steak!

“God I’m gonna miss my Friday night pizza 'n cheese steak horror movie marathon's!” I mumbled to myself as I felt movement on my back, just between my shoulders. “Well, good morning, little miss Sparks. Bout time you woke your lazy a** up.” I said with a soft smile as I turned and set my box on my Kitten. No, not the animal. My car! And yes, that’s her name! Because she purrs like a contented little kitten.

As I settled the box carefully on Kitten’s trunk, I reached back to the ball of soft, black, fluff that was now peeking at me over my shoulder. Sparks was this adorable little kitten with soft black fur that was shiny and made you feel all warm and cozy when you nuzzled into it. She was a quiet, timid, little thing that literally wouldn’t hurt a fly! She was the runt of her litter, we think, so when I say she was little I mean it.

She was actually so tiny she could curl up in my Dad’s hand and take a nap, that is if he didn’t absolutely hate her. But her best feature? Her eyes! They were blue! I’d never known cats could even have blue eyes but Sparks did. And not just that they were blue. Her eyes resemble diamonds sparkling in the sunlight. Which is how she got her name.

As for my Kitten? She was also a beauty! A vintage, 1967, Chevy Impala in shiny black! And yes, I wanted one because I was a huge f*ckin' fan of the show SUPERNATURAL! Who isn’t?! Still, it felt cheap to name her Baby. Plus, like I said, she purred like a kitten. I felt like Dean would be proud of how well I took care of her. Like as if Jensen ever showed up he’d gush over my Kitten and maybe even kiss me on the cheek or at least hug me. I’d settle for that. I’d had huge crushes on Jensen, Jared, and Misha ever since they first filled my TV screen with their gorgeousness. If only they weren’t all happily married!

I sighed wistfully at the thought as I turned and leaned my backside against Kitten, only to be brought back to reality when I saw the house in front of me again. Sparks was settling back down into the hood of my hoodie, which was her absolute favorite place on earth to be, when I started to catch a provocative scent in the air. I couldn’t place it at first, but it seemed to be getting closer and within a few seconds I pinpointed the scent.

It was freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa with a touch of mint. It reminded me of Christmas and I found myself smiling as I casually scanned the sidewalks thinking a neighbor was bringing cookies by. Yah know, the nosy neighbor who has to be the first to get a tidbit of juicy gossip about the new people on the block, so she comes bearing gifts of cookies and maybe liquor, or something. The “welcome wagon” type. But all I saw was a sleek black SUV coming toward me.

I shrugged it off thinking maybe someone was just baking and turned my gaze back to the house as I listened to Mom happily singing all the wrong words to the song playing on the radio as she unpacked dishes and stuff for the kitchen. Dad, meanwhile, was talking to someone on the phone while pacing about in his office. I was gonna grab my box and go inside when the SUV pulled into our driveway and I paused to watch the driver get out.

Dude was huge! I mean he was the size of a human tank! By my guesstimation, he stood about six feet, three inches, maybe six feet four inches, tall and was built like a godd*mn linebacker. I’m pretty sure the Eagles would pay top dollar just to have this dude warm a bench because the aura he gave off was freakin intimidating as f*ck! Yet when he turned to me he had this enormous smile on his face that warmed his features and made him seem more like a big ole teddy bear than a grid iron giant.

He was handsome with his dark hair and soft brown eyes and, judging by the way he held himself, I could see he was a confident individual. He also seems to be about my parents' age, so I’m guessing this is the “old friend back home” my Dad always talked about. What was his name again? Wayne? Webster? Oh I got it... Wyatt!

“You must be April” the teddy bear said as he walked toward me, extending his hand so I would shake it. Which I did, as I replied “I am, indeed. If you’re looking for my Dad, he’s inside.” “I’m Wyatt, Wyatt Moon. I’m not sure if you remember me, but it’s such a pleasure to meet you again, young lady. I’ve heard so much about you.” Pfft, yeah right. I’m sure. I thought to myself as I kept my smile in place.

Just then that delicious scent I’d caught a few minutes ago suddenly got stronger and it was accompanied by the sound of a car door gently closing. Curious to see if Wyatt’s wife was the bearer of these amazing smelling cookies, I looked toward the sound and froze.

'Well, there goes that idea!' I thought, as that was definitely NOT Wyatt’s wife walking towards me. Nope! That creature was something sent from either heaven or h*ll, the jury was still out on which yet. This creature making his way to me was absolutely gorgeous! I mean, for me to say that was really saying something, considering I never paid guys any mind before. Well, except my crushes, anyway. But that was different.

Dude was even hotter than Jensen, Jared, and Misha combined and that thought made me mourn for the loss of my childhood fantasies which this a**hat had just brutally blown away. I just knew that now, when I closed my eyes to sleep at night, it would be him I’d see waiting for me instead of Sam, Dean, and Cass, and we wouldn’t be battling vamps, were’s, 'n witches we’d be…. Yeah. Let's not go there!

Like Wyatt, this dude was huge. He easily went six feet, six inches tall, maybe an inch or two more. He looked like someone had taken a huge block of marble and sculpted the perfect body, then added on a few extra muscles, topped it off with the most handsomely rugged features and silky black hair, then added in the most gorgeous green eyes I had ever seen and topped them off with long, sooty lashes that would make any girl both jealous and drop her soaking panties for him the moment he said “boo”.

I hated him immediately.

To make matters worse? The closer he got to me, the more my stomach was doing these weird flips. And don’t even get me started on the plethora of butterflies now taking up residence there! I think what pissed me off the most was that the closer the dude got, the stronger the cookie scent became. But unless this dude was hiding a tray up his butt he didn’t have any!

I felt totally betrayed!

Of course, I showed absolutely none of this to him and lifted my chin all chill-like and intoned “hey” as he reached out to shake my hand and Wyatt said “April? This is my son, Alexander. Alex, this is Tyler’s daughter, April”, “Pleasure.” Alex said as his father was saying “you two will be going to school together this fall.”

I looked up at Wyatt and let my smile widen a little at his obvious enthusiasm at the thought that his son and his best friend's daughter would hopefully also become friends. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that wasn’t likely to happen. Just then I heard Alex clear his throat and when my eyes met his he looked pointedly down at his hand which was still out stretched in greeting. I just smirked as I thought, 'well someone doesn’t like to be kept waiting, do they?', and I filed that info away for later as I grasped his hand to shake it.

As my skin touched his, I felt like something exploded just under my skin and it sent all these weird tingles shooting through my arm. 'What the actual f**k!?' I thought as I jerked my hand away then grasped my wrist, rubbing it gently as I frowned. “April? You alright?” I heard Wyatt ask with concern and when I lifted my gaze I could see Alex had no clue what had just happened either. He hadn’t even felt it. It was clear in his features as he gazed at me like I was a loon or something. Great. Another thing to add to my ever growing list of weirdnesses.

We’ll talk about those later, though.

“I’m fine. I just sprained my wrist a little this morning while moving boxes. It’s better now but I guess I twisted my hand the wrong way and got a gentle reminder to be more careful.” I lied, though I think it sounded plausible enough, and they both seemed to buy it.

Before either of them could ask me anything more, I said “Dad’s inside, in his office. Door’s open, so you can just go on in. His office is the first door on your left.” Wyatt grinned in response as he said, “Thank you, April! It’s been nice chatting with you. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other more often now that your family is living so close by!” “I’m sure we will.” I responded as he started for the front door and I turned to pick up my box.

As I reached for it, two muscular arms reached past me and a deep voice that sent a shiver down my spine said “Here, let me get that. You rest that wrist of yours.” 'Bossy, a**hat!' I fumed in my mind, but that inner voice of mine was very happily telling me to let him get it. So I figured, why not? If my inner lazy b*tch was cool with it, then so was I. “Thanks. You can just put that at the bottom of the stairs when you go inside.” I said and he smiled at me like I’d just told him they were having free ice cream day at the local Baskin Robbins.

I knew immediately that d*mn smile would be my undoing someday. Especially when he turned to face me briefly and I saw them. Two absolutely breathtakingly adorable dimples on either side of his smile, which gave him the appearance of child-like innocence that would tug at any self-respecting female's heart. I couldn’t help myself. I smiled softly and muttered a simple “Thanks.” Then I turned away from him as I thought yet again, 'what the h*ll is wrong with me today?!'

Alex took the box and went inside. Me? I stood at my Kitten's side and tried like h*ll to resist the urge to dent her frame by banging my stupid head against it as many times as it took to get some control. Psychotic, I know.

Welcome to my world.