She's The Alpha

Chapter 3: A Beautiful Intruder.

E M B E R

I slowly gain consciousness and groan as the bright sun rays fall on my face. I peel my eyes open and try to get used to the light before I sit up and look to see tall, skinny trees surrounding me. Before I can register what happened, a massive headache shoots up and I feel slightly dizzy.

What the —

My hand brushes against my forehead and I skim my skin only to bring my hand and notice blood.

Dried.

I frown.

Did I cause myself an injury?

I look around and then up at the bright sky with birds chirping merrily. How long have I been out? I manage to stumble into the cottage and rummage through it, only to find a plain old shirt.

I displeasingly sigh and then pull over an old, dirty, ragged shirt as I force myself to recollect past events: from looking and running after that man, even infiltrating into a different territory, to that intoxicating scent. I suddenly gasp and cover my mouth with my eyes widening — Mate. Rayne makes her appearance by jumping around and purring. We have a mate.

I stare at nothing and stay still, stunned.

Isn't it good news? We finally have a mate.

Wait a minute! I am in Midnight Hunters' territory. I let out another loud gasp.

Fuck, how did I let myself come here?

But what's more important is how I sensed my mate to be here. Could he be a prisoner? Then I can rescue him. Rayne purrs blushingly.

But what if he belongs to this pack? In deep thought, I bite my lip and then chew on my nails when something rustles. That brings me out of my reverie, and I snap my head to the side.

I squint and try to focus, but before that, I must do something else.

The Moon Goddess has always been generous towards me with my powers, so with this, I mask my scent to conceal my identity because we know what happens when a werewolf stumbles into this territory.

I quickly get up and try not to let my fatigue and dizziness affect my rationality. However, the moment I turn and take a step, a loud voice stops me in my tracks and rumbles, "Oh, that — stop right there! You f*****g trespasser!" making me flinch and Rayne growl.

Shit. We're caught.

C L A Y T O N

We have a rogue on our territory, one of the patrollers' mind-links to me. s**t, not again.

I look and then march over toward the office. I knock on the door thrice and hear a familiar growl. Having an intruder in the territory isn't a big deal and I don't really go to Seb for such trivial reasons yet, for some reason, I believe in asking his permission this time.

"What is it?" he barks the moment I step foot inside his office, noticing him working through the files I left him with early morning. "Seb—" he growls, and I clear my throat, "I mean, Alpha, there is an intruder sighted on the western borders." "Bring me the head," he dismisses me harshly.

I stare at him wide-eyed. "Yes, Alpha."

With that, I let him be, only to march out of the office. It's not surprising that he would order something like this. But I don't want to. In fact, I never want to use violence in my life unless it is an absolute necessity. I shake my head and make my way out of the Alpha's house as I head into the forest and see him with the patrollers he assembled.

He exclaims, "Ha, it's going to be fun torturing another lowlife who can't seem to learn a lesson and stay away." I roll my eyes at our enthusiastic bunch of hecklers led by the pack's Gamma, Graham. It doesn't take us much time as we rustle through the woods and reach the cabin, our post on the western frontier. When I slow down at the sight of someone so beautiful, I find myself mesmerized. Such lovely features she has, so delicate like a fragile flower, and the old dirty loose shirt hugs her petite figure with curves at the right places, and her long hair sweeps away in the soft breeze, that I smile, but then I frown at the dried blood on her forehead.

She is injured, and I begin to take steps toward her when Graham abruptly shouts, "Oh, that — stop right there! You f*****g trespasser!" I see her flinch and then watch him grab her by her shoulders and knock her down on the ground. She groans in pain but immediately snaps her head to glare at the Gamma with an expression that gives away nothing and eyes with no fear. She looks like an unassuming and weak human, but her aura gives away some authority that is hard to figure out, and I almost bow my head in submission.

Who is she?

E M B E R

This pale-skinned Asian dude in a leather jacket with very sharp, disgusting cologne and his black hair pulled up in a bun grabs my hair to pull my face and make me look up at them. He stands around 5 feet 10 inches tall, and there is something evil about him. He snarls, "What the f**k are you looking at?"

You are the f*****g one holding my face to look at you, asshole.

"Who do you think you are? Don't you know that every being, living and breathing, is forbidden to come up here? Do you have a death wish or something?" He roughly nudges my head, and I notice his men surround me.

It's you who wishes to die. I glare at him as I clench my fists behind my back and control myself not to let Rayne take over. He again grabs me by my hair, and I wince, letting out a low growl as he smirks, "You must be a stupid person. How dare a f*****g human come here? This is no tourist spot that you can visit whenever you want."

"Do you even know how we treat outsiders who trespass on our territory? Do you even know anyone who survived to tell—" Noticing my unchanged expression, he lets go of my head after a rough pull when a hand lands on his and he stops to call out, "Hey!"

I raise my gaze and see another guy beside the first one. "Let go." "But Beta — " "Graham!" the second guy interrupts with a commanding voice. I raise my eyebrow. A 6-foot-tall guy with dark brown hair and soft blue eyes looks over his comrade and makes him let me go by my hair before he looks back down and kneels at me, asking, "Hey, you look worn-out. Are you okay?" I notice mirroring the rude guy's shocked expression, mine is more of an amused one.

He lifts his hand to place it on my shoulder. However, I flinch, startling him for sure. Noticing my reaction, the Beta tilts his head and gently smiles. "Sorry. I was just concerned since your forehead is covered in blood."

Oh.

I look down and realize that my skin is scraped.

"What the heck, Clayton!" Graham? He calls from behind this dude.

Clayton? He glances over and rolls his eyes before he looks back at me. "Hi!" He warmly smiles and offers a hand. "I know it might sound bizarre to you, but you are in werewolf territory." I raise my eyebrow showing astonishment on my face. but he continues without giving me time to say anything at all. "People might believe werewolves are not real, but we very much are. We just don't go around announcing to the whole world and try to live a nice quiet life in the woods."

Well, he is right about that. However, I try my best to look a little scared and worried as I pretended to be a human.

"Anyway, I'm Clayton, the Beta of Midnight Hunters. I am the second-in-command." I subconsciously place my hand in his as he notices it and says, "I don't know if you heard about us, but our reputation precedes us. We are named the most ruthless werewolf pack of all, but you don't have to fear us and tell us how you got here." He stands up and helps me in the process. "Oh, please! She should fear — " Graham scoffs but stops in the middle when Clayton snaps his head to narrow his eyes and glare at his subordinate. I take this moment to analyze the situation quickly. I do have the strength to run for a bite, but I can feel my powers, which aren't enough. I feel weak, or else I wouldn't have let this stupid i***t treat me this way.

I glare at the rude guy when Clayton murmurs, "You need to calm down, Graham."

"What? Do I need to calm down? Why should I?" He scoffs as their voices bring me back to reality. Clayton startles me by throwing a cardigan over my shoulders and I puzzlingly look over at him as they argue.

"You are overreacting."

"I'm not overreacting because I'm reacting perfectly. It's you who aren't following the direct orders of bringing the head of this intruder to the Alpha," Graham argues back. Direct orders of the Alpha? I raise my eyebrow as Clayton rubs his forehead and sighs before he looks at his subordinate. "I have taken orders and obeyed them every time, but this time, it feels different — " "Why? Because this filthy lowlife enamors you?" The i***t scoffs and glances at me in disgust.

I growl under my breath.

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that? You should be afraid of us," he glowers back. I narrow my eyes when Clayton takes a deep breath and turns to me reassuringly for some reason.

Rayne silently watches as I straighten up and pretend to cry out, "Uh, I'm sorry, but I lost my way. I even fell off the cliff —" The fool interrupts and snaps at me, "Bullshit!"

My face twitches in annoyance, and I almost snarl at this man when Clayton butts in, "Fine. We'll let the Alpha look over this matter."

Graham huffs in annoyance, "But Beta, we have been handling the rogues independently. Alpha doesn't need to be bothered."

Clayton pauses to reply and clicks his tongue, "Not this time, he needs to be brought into this issue." The two men challengingly stare at each other before the fool snarls, "Fine!" and then looks over at me. "Our Alpha won't think twice before snapping that pretty petite neck of yours." Before I can reply, he gestures to his men and runs back to the packhouse. I watch him go when Clayton clears his throat to grab my attention. "Come, I'll help you."

Oh.

Puzzled, I stare at the arm he offered, hesitantly placing a hand over it. We begin to take steps, with him leading me. "Uh, sorry for his behavior. Graham is protective."

I smile at his attempt to alleviate the situation and tease him. "Try overprotective."

He throws his head back and chuckles, nodding.