The Alpha's Rejected Girl

4. Dime A Dozen

: : : Sophie : : :

“It’s not an invitation, it’s an order?!” Taylor gapes and her mouth can’t stay closed. It opens wide into a stupid grin and it stays there.

“Tay, sshhh!” I shush her, hoping no one else in Spanish class hears us.

I knew telling her in class was a bad idea, but I couldn’t wait. I mean, what the hell was that? Why would Kieran de Angelo ask me to be at his party? No one ever cares about me. No one’s supposed to know that I even exist.

“Sophie!” Her mouth stays in that wide grin. “This is big! This is grande! No, it’s a venti!”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it, Tay, please,” I hiss at her. She’s getting too excited, even Krystina who’s sitting a few rows ahead of us notices.

“But it is big,” Taylor argues, quieting her voice down, which I’m very grateful for.

“What does it mean though, ‘it’s an order’?” I ask. “Like, I must go or there will be consequences?”

“Babe,” Taylor gives me a look. “This means Kieran de Angelo wants you at his party! He wants you there bad! He wants you there so much, it’s not even an invitation anymore!”

“Or he just likes ordering people to do what he wants,” I interject. “Exercising those Alpha privileges,”

“Well, maybe a little bit of both,” Taylor laughs. “But regardless, you know what this means, right?”

Taylor keeps flashing me that victorious grin. She nods her head, waiting for me to say the inevitable: Yes, I’ll have to go to that party.

“Fine—”

“YES!” Taylor squeaks before I even finish saying the word. “We’re SO gonna go dress shopping after school!”

“Oi!” Our Spanish teacher, Miss Morales, shouts suddenly “What’s with all the commotion back there?”

“N-nothing,” I reply quickly, bowing my head down as the whole class turns to us.

“Anything you two wanna share?”

Everyone keeps staring at us. Especially Krystina, she’s looking very bothered.

“It was a sneezing panda video,” Taylor laughs apologetically, pulling her phone out. And how did she just pull out a sneezing panda video out of nowhere? I can’t tell you. “Lo siento, Senorita Morales,”

Miss Morales rolls her eyes as she goes back to talking about conjugations and the whole class turns around too. Taylor turns to me and gives me two thumbs up, and I can only sigh in defeat.

Great. A party it is.

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: : : Kieran : : :

As soon as the school bell rings, I let out the biggest sigh of relief.

Finally. This shitshow is done. For the day, at least.

I don’t bother waiting for the bell to finish ringing, I get up right away, take my bag, and walk straight out the door. There’s no football practice today either, so I have no reason to hang around.

I get to the parking lot and as I walk to my motorcycle, I see Kyrstina standing in front of it, blocking my ride. She’s leaning her back against my fuel tank, and she stands up straighter when she sees me coming.

“Hey, baby,” she purrs, batting her eyes as she crosses over to me. “Wanna hang out?”

“I can’t, I’m busy,” I walk past her, ignoring her hand that’s reaching for my face. I go straight to my motorcycle, grabbing my helmet.

I thought she’d get the hint and leave, but no. She walks back around, standing in front of my motorcycle and stomps, “Oh, come on, you weren’t too busy last night at Jayden’s party,”

She leans forward, purposefully showing her cleavage at me, and she’s really getting on my last nerve. When girls throw themselves at me at parties, I’ll admit, sometimes I partake. But those things are a dime a dozen. She’s just one of the many desperate chicks I drunkenly hooked up with and it’s not my thing to keep it going.

“Go the fúck away, Krystina,” I say to her face. “You stink,”

Krystina looks like she’s been hit by a damn bus. She staggers back and her eyes go wide in shock. I don’t know, maybe she thought she was something special. I don’t, though. Something about her scent is annoying the fúck out of me.

She smells cheap. Like fake plastic.

Damn. I must have been so drunk out of my mind last night when I hooked up with her.

As Krystina’s face is still laden with shock, I start my motorcycle engine and I speed away as fast as I can. Leaving behind the god awful smell.

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Moments later, I pull up in front of my house, which I admit, looks a little like Hogwarts by the beach. We live in an estate my grandfather’s grandfather built himself. We were just a small pack back in the day, but we were smart and we worked hard, and soon enough, we became the strongest pack in the Long Island area. Every pack in the Southeastern area of the state reports to us. And finally, my great grandfather in the 1800s decided to unite all the packs under one roof — the Sunset Banes.

We got our name from the beautiful sunset that overlooked everyone as people signed the treaty. It was a marvelous moment of peace. I wasn’t there, of course, but everyone always talked about what a great moment that was. Peace, love, and unity.

Walking through the big wooden door, I’m immediately greeted by the row of maids.

“Master Kieran, welcome back,” says Anna, one of the oldest servants we have.

“Where’s Leon?”

“At the training grounds, waiting for you, sir,”

I nod at her and walk past everyone. Everyone bows their heads down as I keep walking. I’m making my way to the backyard, and I need to pass through the long corridor. On the walls, there are snapshots of our history hanging inside picture frames. Photos of my great grandparents, photos of this estate’s early days, and then, there are photos of my family. My dad. My mom. Me. And… My brother.

I stop in my tracks as I see the photo of an eighteen year old boy smiling in the picture frame. This is Kai. He has jet black hair and deep green eyes, just like me. Everyone always says how much we look alike. Looking at this picture now as I’m about to turn eighteen, I can’t help but feel some type of way. I’m at the age where he was when he died.

Kai was six years older than me and he was my hero growing up. He taught me how to play football, he taught me how to fight, and I wanted to be just like him. He was one of those people with natural leader instincts. You’ll feel safe when you’re with him.

But unfortunately, something happened to him the day after he turned eighteen. He went missing one morning. No one saw him leave the house or anything. For days, we searched and searched, and finally, his body was found in the Hudson River. He was dead, a silver bullet lodged in his head.

The authorities claimed that it was suicide. They found the gun in his jacket pocket, along with a suicide note. But seriously, who commits suicide and then put the gun in their pocket?!

We all knew that was a bullshit report, so we started our own investigation. Kai went out by himself that night, though we don’t know where he was going or with whom. Kai was smart and well trained. Something bad must’ve occurred that whoever Kai was with thought it was best to get rid of him.

Investigating Kai’s death wasn’t easy. We had no leads, no eyewitnesses, nothing. After a year of investigating, one year after the day Kai went missing, we received an anonymous package in the mail. Inside the package was Kai’s baseball cap that he wore when he went missing. And with that, there was a note.

Stop the investigation or your other son is next.

The Sunset Banes is a strong pack. We’re not made up of cowards. My dad was outraged at whoever sent this. But my mom, on the other hand, grew worried. She said investigating this further will not bring Kai back. And whoever’s on the other side isn’t joking around. They killed Kai in cold blood. Who's to say they won’t do that to me?

And so, my dad decided to close the investigation. We’re all told to stand down and Kai’s death remains a mystery.

I was only thirteen when that happened. I didn’t have a say in that matter. So I did the only thing I could do. I kept investigating in private. I couldn’t do much since I was underage. I couldn’t even transform into my wolf or do anything. But now, that I’m turning eighteen and I have the wolf’s power growing in me, things are gonna be different. As soon as I find whoever is responsible for Kai’s death, I promise, they’re gonna pay for what they did.

“Leon,” I say, greeting our Zeta or war general. While my dad and his Beta are always inside offices and meeting rooms, Leon is always outside – training soldiers and executing missions. And I always find his line of work much more interesting.

“Finally,” Leon huffs, raking his long dirty blonde hair with his hand. “I’ve been waiting all day,”

“You know I’d be here from sunrise if I could,” I say, taking off my jacket and throwing it to the ground.

Leon lets out a smirk at my enthusiasm.

“Let’s begin then, shall we?” He says, taking off the dirty vest he’s wearing. He’s wearing nothing underneath that. His body is full of muscles and tattoos.

I nod and take off my shirt in one fell swoop. Then, as if on cue, we both transform into our wolves.

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- - - - - To Be Continued - - - - -