Three Alphas, one selection

Chapter 3

Dilara POV

It’s lunchtime. I have been running around all morning with Emilia. She was checking in with everyone today. Making sure all the main families are happy and feel supported. She is now busy playing with the orphans, while I make their food. After they have eaten she will read to the younger ones and then tuck them in for their nap. Being an orphan in a pack isn’t the easiest thing since packs are very family and hierarchy-orientated. It’s unintentional, but sometimes the orphan is treated badly by other kids. The kids have learned that who your family is and the influences you have is what is important, since the orphans don’t have family or the influence that goes along with it they are seen as nothing. The adults treat them better since they understand the situation in ways that kids can’t. We don’t have a lot of orphans. Werewolves are orphaned mostly when their parents are warriors and another pack attacks or the mother dies during childbirth. We are pretty durable. I got in the kitchen and saw Sanders already waiting for me. He was sitting on the counter. He looked so cute and innocent sitting there. His light brown hair is messy and his dark brown eyes look tired. He pushes himself very hard, I think it is because of the rumour of him becoming the next Alpha. Everyone wants him to be the Alpha, but he isn’t born into it so he has to work for it. My ears aren’t deaf to the rumours about us. There has been talk that Emilia is training me to be Luna and Silvano is training him to be Alpha and that they will force us to mate and become the next leaders of the pack. I don’t think they would force us. I don’t want to be the Luna. If there is any truth to the rumour I will run away to university before it happens. Not that I would mind being with Sanders, but I would like to give my mate a chance first.

“Are you going to help me?” I asked him as I put the apron on. I wanted to know if I should give him one. If I have to there is a cute pink one that he would look priceless in.

“Trust me it will be dangerous if I helped. I will observe and maybe I will learn something.” I shook my head at him. I quickly put together the pancake mix. We have a pan that can make eight perfectly round pancakes. There are seven orphans so I’m going to make 24 pancakes then all of them can at least get three.

“I’m leaving tomorrow.” I looked up at Sanders. It was the last thing I expected him to say. I’ve never really spent too much time with him, but I liked that there was an option to if I wanted, but when he leaves, I’ll lose that option.

“Where are you going?”I asked, while I waited for his answer I started decorating them with fruits in order for them to look like animal faces. I used bananas, strawberries and blueberries.

“I’m going away to train, I’ve learned everything I can from our warriors, but being an enforcer is different from being a warrior.” Right. Suddenly the bear pancake I was making looked sad.

“I thought you didn’t want to become an enforcer,” I said looking at him worriedly. He is such a nice, warm and happy person being an enforcer will extinguish that side of him. I finished the bear and started with an owl.

“I don’t, but as the son of the gamma, there isn’t a better option. Anyway if I do this I can spare the warriors from doing things that could scar them.” Yes, but then he is the one that will be scarred by it. I finished the last one.

“I’m just going to go serve this to the kids. We can talk when I get back.” I took the platter out and placed it on the table. The kids were already waiting. As I put the food down they cued up. Three out of the seven kids are under three so their caregivers came to get their food. I always make sure to make things that all ages can eat. I used formula milk to make the pancakes. It’s healthy. Once everyone was served I took the empty platter to the back. I took one of the pancakes and made a sheep since it takes the most whipped cream. I put it on a plate and took it to Sanders who was still on the counter. I handed it to him and got on the counter next to him.

“If you don’t want to do it don’t. If we don’t have an enforcer the warriors make turns to take the role, whereas if you become the enforcer you will have to endure it all on your own. Our pack doesn’t have trouble and no one breaks the rule. We don’t really need an enforcer.” I said as I sat next to him trying to make the skirt work since it wasn’t meant for counter sitting.

“I don’t have much of a choice, my parents want me to do it. The Alpha also signed me up for it and I don’t want to disappoint him. The rumours are true. He told me he wanted me to be Alpha, but since I wasn’t born as an Alpha people will challenge me and he wants me to be as strong as possible. He wants me to be able to keep my seat.” I can’t believe the rumours were true. I wonder if all of them were true, is that why Emilia smiled when she overheard our conversation this morning? Were they playing matchmaker with us?

“I guess that is a good opportunity for you. Do you want to be Alpha?” I asked him as he took his strawberry ear and put it in his mouth.

“Yes, it will set up my future family and give them better opportunities and choices. As an Alphas children, no one would make choices for them. I’ll only be gone for a year.” If I get into the university I won’t be seeing him again. I didn’t want to think about it. The truth is that I know he had a crush on me and if I had the time or just tried we could have probably been something, but I was focused on my future. He is also a player. I’ve seen him with many girls over the years. I swear that at every event he was with a new girl. I didn’t want to think about it so I took my finger and scooped up some of his whipped cream.

“Excuse me you made this for me.” He complained, pouting like a little kid.

“What, you’re not going to share?” I asked teasingly, pouting at him. He took the pancake in his hand taking the biggest bite out of it. His mouth, chin and nose were covered in cream. My eyes were wide. I guess he really doesn’t want to share. I make the pancakes look delicious. He then grabbed my chin and pulled me to him. He slammed his lips on mine, also smearing the cream all over my face. I kissed back, it was my first kiss and I want to remember this moment. The moment when my childhood crush kissed me. The kiss felt so right. Our mouths moved in sync so perfectly. I didn’t want it to end. I loved his lips on mine and his hand holding my face to his. He pulled away. The both of us were out of breath. I was just staring at him.

“I just had to do that once. I know when I get back you’ll be gone.” He said. He must have heard about me applying to the university. Emilia has been telling anyone and everyone. I kept telling her that I hadn’t been accepted and we shouldn’t be telling people until we heard back, but she didn’t listen to me.

”I’ve been trying so many years to get your attention, but you just looked past me every time. Your only focus is work. I even started hanging out with girls at all your events to try and spark some jealousy in you. You never seemed to notice. Now you are leaving and I get it, it is what you worked so hard for, but I would have hated myself if I never told you how I felt. I really like you and I know it won’t change anything now, but I still wanted you to know.” I was shocked I knew he liked me, but I didn’t know he liked me this much. I was about to tell him that I liked him too, but Emilia came walking in. She looked at us sitting on the counter. Our faces were smeared with cream. It was so obvious that we had been kissing. I quickly jumped off the counter grabbed a tissue and wiped my face.

“We need to go now.” She told me. I nodded and followed her out the door. I waved at Sanders as I walked out. I can’t believe she saw that.

“I’m sorry. I’m working now and we just wasted the orphanage resources.” I apologized. I’ve never done anything like this before. I don’t just follow the rules, but I respect them.

“It didn’t look like they were wasted to me.” She said smiling at me. I blush deep red. She is joking about this. I’m so embarrassed that we got caught.

“I’m just glad that the two of you finally got together. I’ve been rooting for you. He is the only guy you have ever shown interest in even if it was just gawking from afar. Silvano and I had a bet on it. I said that the two of you would kiss by the time you finished school and he said that you would kiss earlier. He won. We were hoping that the two of you would be mates. It would be so nice knowing that we left the pack in your hands. You need to promise me that if you haven’t found your mate while studying that you’ll come back and see if he is your mate. The chemistry between the two of you is just so electric.” She kept on going not even giving me a second to actually give my opinion on the matter, but it does seem that all the rumors are true. I wonder if it wasn’t them that spread it, just to plant the seed and see what everyone thought about it. The two of us are probably the last to find out the plans they had for us.

Yesterday kept playing over and over in my mind. It made me wonder how things would have been if I was more like all the other teenagers. If I spent less time working, less time planning these events and rather attended them how would my life have been? Maybe Sanders and I could have had a relationship instead of this one kiss before he left. I couldn't help but wonder about it all, but I worked so hard because this was the future that I wanted. One kiss isn't going to change my mind, but I do want to tell him how I feel since I didn't get a chance to yesterday. I don't even have his number and I think it's better for the future. There is no point in holding on when I'm leaving this place because I will get into a university. It might not be the werewolf university, but it will be far away. My own little adventure. I can't live my life here. My parents protect me here. No one dares to challenge me since I'm a favourite amongst the high-ranking families. The truth is that I'm far too sheltered and innocent. It’s one of the reasons my parents don’t want me to go study. I apparently don’t know the cruel reality of the world. I on the other hand know that I’m not as experienced with the outside world, but I’ve worked hard and I know how to study hard which is what I will be doing at university. It’s not like I’m setting out to go mess about. I got up showered and got dressed. I put on a white long-sleeved, collared A-line dress and pulled a knitted sleeveless A-line pullover beige dress on over it and put on a cute white belt through the loops at the middle. For shoes, I grabbed my favourite light brown swede high-heeled boots. I let my slightly curled strawberry-blonde hair hang loose. I did my make-up blushing my cheeks and nose and adding some mascara. I was out the door before my parents could notice that I was on my way out. I went over to Sanders house. Emilia told me how late he would be leaving and I wanted to say goodbye, but I also don’t want to impose on his goodbyes. with his parents. So I decided to wait for him outside by his car. I didn’t want to be on my phone, because I didn’t want to seem like I was bored while waiting for him. I also want to see his reaction as he steps out and sees me waiting. He was shocked when he saw me waiting, I found myself wondering if he had thought about me as much as I thought about him last night.

“I wanted to come and say goodbye,” I explained as he came closer with his bag in his hand. He wasn’t taking a lot, probably since he has full intentions of coming back. He threw his bag in the front seat of his car.

“I wanted to say goodbye since I don’t know when we will see each other again,” I explained further. He pulled me into his arms in a big hug. He held me so tightly like he would never let go of me. Like he was afraid I would disappear. As he pulled away I was flooded with a sense of courage, I went on my toes slamming my lips against his and I kissed him. I couldn’t believe I did it, but I did. It was indeed my lips on his. As I pulled away I whispered:

“I like you too, stay safe.” I pulled out of his arms and walked away. I needed to get away from him before I decided that I wanted more of him. I walked to the corner of his street and it was there that I waited until I saw his car racing past me and to his new future.