Becoming Alpha

Chapter 9

To his credit, Callum did not try to pretend he had no idea what Kelly was talking about.

He gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry about last Friday. I did not mean to end our date in such a manner.”

Kelly chuckled and waved a hand in the air. “Wait, wait…it was not a date to begin with, we were only grabbing pizza as friends. Don’t go adding labels where they don’t belong. Anyway…why did you go all grumpy all of a sudden?”

Callum stopped looking at her, he dropped his eyes to the table as he tried to think of what to respond. It occurred to him that he should have probably thought through an explanation before he came to sit down at her table but he had not been able to think of anything else apart from just seeing her and being with her.

“Hey?” she said softly and tilted her head in an effort to catch his eye.

He smiled; he couldn’t help it. Everything about her was driving both him and his wolf crazy. She was not only beautiful, but she had a strong character that would make a wonderful alpha’s mate.

“You don’t’ have to answer if you don’t want to. If it’s personal…”

Callum shook his head. “It’s not like that. I just don’t want to lie to you, but I don’t exactly know how to explain.” Lying to his mate was unthinkable.

She pouted as she thought about his response, then simply smiled and shook her head. “Then we drop it and forget about it,” she announced cheerfully and turned in her seat to face the table and the other two guys seated there.

They seemed perfectly content to just sit there in silence while she had a conversation with Callum, but Kelly had better manners than that. She could not allow anyone to feel like wall paper when they were seated at the same table.

The conversation easily flowed about nothing in particular and everything in general. They were approaching the end of lunch and preparing to leave the cafeteria for their afternoon class when Callum asked her to join them after class for another pizza or perhaps a glass of milkshake.

Callum did not miss the sudden sadness that entered her eyes just before she turned down the offer and walked away.

Kelly did not want to get into it, but it was impossible to avoid Callum and his questions when they were having a class together and his seat was right behind hers. He whispered and poked at her enough to cause the teacher to give them an angry stare. And still, that did not discourage the boy from trying to get an answer out of her.

The instant the final bell rang indicating the end of a school day, Callum was blocking her way again demanding to know why she could not join them.

Kelly exhaled exaggeratedly loud. “God, you are persistent.”

He gave her a small smile. “Some may find that a worthy character trait.”

“They obviously haven’t spent two hours with you insistently asking for an explanation,” she murmured under her breath.

He shrugged like it made little difference. “Come on tell me…is it because of my behavior last Friday?”

“I already told you…it has nothing to do with you and last Friday.” Technically it did but she did not want to go into detail and explain that her step mother had caused her problems because he had dropped her off.

Callum could catch a scent of deception when she answered, it was faint but it was there. And it agitated his wolf even more. From the moment he had asked her out today, he had smelled anger, irritation and now deception. All these did not make sense and her refusal to talk was driving him crazy.

Not to mention, the frustration of trying to figure out, how he was supposed to get the girl to fall for him if he could not spend time with her?

They were out of the school building now and headed for the car park. Callum desperately tried again. “Alright, how about tomorrow? Ice cream maybe?”

Kelly sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry…”

Just then, a car honked, long and hard, cutting off the rest of her words. They both looked up and saw a woman staring at them angrily, she honked again and made an impatient gesture with her hand towards them.

Before Callum could ask her if she knew the woman, Kelly mumbled some sort of apology and made her way to the car with the irritating woman.

Stefanie did not wait for the door to close before she started to talk. “That boy again!” she accused.

Kelly focused her attention at pulling and fastening her seat belt even as she answered as calmly as she could. “We do attend the same school and we just had class together, Stefanie.”

“See? You have no respect whatsoever,” she accused angrily and started the car. “I will have to let your father know you are w*****g yourself around school instead of concentrating on your studies. The poor man is just wasting thousands of dollars on you, all for nothing. He should have taken you to some cheap public school…”

Kelly looked out the window and tried to pretend she was not in the car with the woman. She effectively blocked out the rest of her ranting and stared at the car side mirror; watching the school fade away in the distance.

For a moment, she could see Callum, he stared at her with a face that she could only describe as enraged. Even his fists were clenched by his sides. She briefly wondered if perhaps he could hear what Stefanie was going on about next to her.

But that was impossible, he was too far to hear anything being said in the car, especially with the windows closed.

Just before her sight of him was lost, she saw Oscar and Mattias rush to his side. They both seemed to be anxious and looked to the car before they turned their attention back to their friend. The last thing she saw was Oscar placing a hand on Callum’s shoulder then she couldn’t see them anymore.

She sagged in her seat and sighed quietly. Stefanie was still talking, but she had no idea what the woman was going on about at this point. And she really didn’t care. Engaging in a conversation with the woman was wasted effort. At the end of the day, Stefanie was going to tell her father anything she liked and make her life more difficult. Her own words would be cast to the wind as useless.

~~~

Oscar had a firm hand on Callum’s shoulder even though he wasn’t a match for the guy if Callum decided to fight him.

By some luck and show of wisdom that proved one day Callum would make a good alpha of the pack, he did not fight his beta’s hold and allowed his friends to lead him to their car.

They didn’t need to ask what had happened. They had heard everything thanks to their wolves’ hearing ability. They had been waiting by the car for the couple; which had given them both the line of sight and good range to catch every word.

What had gotten them jumping was their alpha’s mood that had turned dangerously violent once Kelly had entered the car with the woman. They had felt their alpha’s anger through their bond and had smelled it in the air.

Oscar guided Callum to the passenger seat and he took the wheel. Mattias took the back seat. For a few minutes they just sat there in silence.

Oscar waited till he could hear Callum’s heart beat slow down to a calmer rate before he spoke. “You can’t go wolf and fight this like a wild animal,” he stated just to be sure his friend hadn’t lost his ability to reason.

“I know,” he answered. His voice heavy and gruff with his wolf so close to the surface.

For the first time Mattias had demonstrated maturity and stayed quiet through it all. His weird comments nowhere to be heard. He studied the environment outside the car carefully with a deep frown of concentration on his face.

“I think we need to go for a run, just to let out some steam,” Oscar suggested as he started the car and began to drive out of the school grounds.

All Callum did was nod. He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He could feel his anger rolling through him. His wolf was clawing to get out and deal with the woman that had made their mate so sad. He clenched his hand hard against the door of the car.

A clicking sound broke the silence, he blinked and looked around until he realized Oscar had just locked the doors. He looked at the guy, puzzled by this.

“Just in case,” Oscar explained and gave Callum’s hand a pointed look.

Callum followed his gaze and saw his hand clenched and pressed hard to the door. He understood. “Drive faster. I need to run.”