Alpha VS Alpha

Feeling Confused

Sophia

At first, I was frustrated when I started sparring with Rider. He was so cocky and arrogant; I knew he intentionally tried to push my buttons. He kept demanding I surrender, but that would never happen.

It surprised me how strong he’d become since the last time I fought him and he was definitely giving me a run for my money. Given my royal bloodline, few people could beat me, but a couple of times throughout our fight, I thought he might.

After a while of us sparring and going back and forth with who had the upper hand, I found myself enjoying the challenge. My frustration faded and was replaced with excitement. I always loved a good fight. From the look on Rider’s face, he also seemed to enjoy himself.

At one point, he was lying on top of me, trying to pin me to the ground. I had my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms locked around his neck, holding him tightly against my body. I felt something hard poke at my core and quickly realized he was turned on. His c**k was hard. The worst part, I was also getting turned on. A fire was lit in my lower abdomen, and I found myself wanting to feel more of him. My core throbbed, and even though we weren’t wearing many layers of clothes, I still found it to be too much. I heard him inhale deeply and knew he got a whiff of my arousal when a low, animalistic growl left his throat. s**t. This shouldn’t be happening. We hated each other; I kept reminding myself.

His face was buried against my neck when suddenly I felt his soft, warm lips against my skin. A shiver ran down my spine as another wave of arousal washed over me. My voice betrayed me, and a soft moan left my lips. My head subconsciously tilted to the side to give him better access. Was this really happening? Was he kissing my neck? The worse part was, at that moment, I didn’t want him to stop.

We were brought back to reality when someone cleared their throat. Rider immediately stood up and put distance between us. I’d never seen someone move so fast in my life. It was as if my touch had suddenly burned him.

“Sorry to interrupt, alpha, but we really need the field for the warrior’s training. We’re already late,” the head warrior stated, sounding slightly awkward. His eyes dipped down on Rider’s body before he quickly averted his eyes. I followed his gaze when I saw the clear-as-day tent in Rider’s shorts. His erection was unmistakable and holy s**t, was it big. My eyes nearly bulged out of my head at the sight. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his shorts did a poor job hiding the bulge. Rider tried hiding it with his hand, but it was too late. The thirty-ish warriors standing around watching us had clearly seen it. I would normally have laughed at his embarrassment, but I quickly realized that the scent of my arousal was still very fresh in the air. I internally scolded myself for getting turned on. How embarrassing.

Meanwhile, my wolf felt no shame. She just wanted whatever was happening between Rider and me to continue.

“s**t, we’re late,” Rider cursed as he looked down at his watch. He didn’t even acknowledge the warriors, but simply turned around and stormed away from the field.

I quickly got up and ran after him, still confused by what had just happened between us.

“What the f**k did you do to me?” Rider growled out the question when I finally caught up with him.

“What do you mean? What did I do to you?” My anger matched his. Was he going to blame me for what happened back there?

“What kind of spell did you put on me? Some seduction spell or something? I know how much you like f*****g with me,” he spat out bitterly.

“f**k you! I didn’t do anything. Maybe you’re just attracted to me,” I replied in my own bitter tone, causing him to chuckle dryly.

“Attracted to you? Do you mean attracted to how annoying you are? Or how self-centered you can be?” He asked sarcastically, without even glancing my way. He picked up the pace, and because of his long legs, he was pulling ahead of me.

“Are you describing yourself?” I asked, causing him to stop abruptly in his tracks before turning to face me. His angry eyes locked with mine.

“Listen, whatever that was, it was a mistake. Forget it ever happened,” he stated.

“Fine by me.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I couldn’t deny that his words stung a little. My wolf whimpered in my head at how harsh he was being.

“Let’s go. Because of you, we’re both late for the meeting,” he snapped before turning around and walking off.

“You have no one but yourself to blame for being late to your own meeting,” I replied and saw that big vein in his neck pulsing from how angry he was, but to my surprise, he didn’t answer; he just kept stomping toward the packhouse.

I was overwhelmed by emotions. I felt confused by what happened between us, but angry and irritated by Rider’s reaction. He blamed me for what happened. I wasn’t trying to seduce him, and it wasn’t my fault he got turned on. He had no one but himself to blame for that.

We made it to his office, and the others were already waiting for us. By the smug looks on their faces, I knew they had seen our interaction earlier.

I took a seat between Rory and Emma on the couch and wished for the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I couldn’t believe how I had acted. How embarrassing. Luckily, everyone’s attention was on Rider for being late to his own meeting. They left me alone for the most part.

The meeting felt like it went on for several hours when in reality it was only one hour. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I felt suffocated. Rider mentioned something about an alpha meeting and something about going out tomorrow to search for the rogue camp, but I wasn’t paying attention. My mind was still working overdrive because of what happened earlier.

As soon as he dismissed us, I bolted out of there as fast as possible and made my way toward my bedroom. Once inside my room and finally alone, I threw myself face-first onto the bed. I wish I could turn back time and change how things went down.

I groaned in frustration when there was a knock on my bedroom door. Can I not get a few minutes of peace?

“What?” I barked at whomever it was that dared interrupt my pity party.

The door opened before I heard Emma’s voice.

“What happened to you? You’re never that quiet,” she asked, and I lifted my eyes to see her and Conrad entering my room. I once again groaned before shoving my face back into the comforter.

“I see. That bad, eh?” She chuckled as I felt the bed dip on both sides of me.

“I think I just really need to get laid,” I grumbled, and I heard them both chuckle in response.

“What happened after we left?” Conrad asked.

“I don’t even know when you guys left,” I huffed. How could I have gotten so caught up in Rider that I didn’t even notice them leave? I was oblivious to what was going on around us which was so unlike me.

“Well, we left right around the time you guys started dry-humping each other, and the smell of arousal started suffocating—”

“Emma, we were not dry humping!” I argued.

“OK, but what about the smell of your arousal? I sparred with Matty and managed to keep my hormones under control,” Emma replied, and I looked over to see a smirk on her face.

“Yeah, and I sparred with Rory, and neither of us got aroused either,” Conrad added.

“Can we please drop it?” I asked angrily.

“OK, OK, jeez. You know, Rider’s hot, and it’s not the end of the world for you to be attracted to him, you know?” I immediately growled at Emma’s response. My wolf didn’t like her referring to him as hot. Both Emma and Conrad’s eyes widened in shock at my reaction.

“Wow, Rory was right,” Conrad mumbled, but it was more to himself.

“Rory was right about what?” I asked angrily.

“Oh, nothing. He just thinks you guys are acting weird because of all the stress you’re both under.” Emma replied, but I knew she was lying to me. What was she hiding?

“Whatever, I need to go for a run,” I said, changing the subject.

“We’ll come with you,” Conrad replied.

“No, I’m going alone,” I said with a pointed look. He didn’t seem happy with my response but luckily for me, he didn’t argue.

I left them in my room and headed towards the front door of the packhouse.

Once outside, I made my way to the tree line, where I quickly stripped out of my clothes. I grabbed an old baggy T-shirt from one of the stashes in a tree and tied it to my leg before shifting into wolf form. I gave full control to Malia before she took off through the forest at a full sprint.

We ran for over an hour, only stopping for a quick drink of water and a minute to catch our breath. I took the break as an opportunity to talk to my wolf.

Why aren’t you more disturbed by what happened between Rider and me earlier? I asked Malia in my mind. She was silent for a moment before she replied.

I don’t know, I like him. I think he might be our mate. Malia replied, her last few words barely above a whisper. Once again, my eyes widened in shock. There was absolutely no way that Rider and I were compatible with each other.

There’s no way he’s our mate. I gasped.

I wouldn’t be so sure. I felt a connection with him and his wolf. My wolf mumbled.

I swear this day just keeps getting better and better.

What’s your problem with him? He’s perfect for us.

No, he’s not. Did you not hear him earlier? He blamed me for what happened on the training field.

He’s just confused, like you are. You guys have always been at each other’s throats, and he doesn’t know what to make of these new feelings.

Either way, you know it could never work between us, even if you were right. There was a long silence before my wolf replied.

If he’s our mate, we will make it work. Her voice was full of determination.

I won’t give up my alpha title, and he won’t give up his either. It would never work. I said sternly.

Just keep an open mind. I could hear the sadness in Malia’s tone.

Listen, we don’t know if he is our mate yet, so don’t get all worked up over it. Maybe we just think he’s hot like Emma suggested earlier.

Maybe. She mumbled, but didn’t sound confident.

We remained silent while Malia continued exploring the forest. We both needed this time to clear our minds so we could focus on the reason we came here in the first place—the rogue problem. We didn’t need any distractions that could prevent us from accomplishing our mission; we needed to focus. Malia eventually laid down in an open field of wildflowers and overgrown grass located on the western border. We stayed there for quite some time, thinking over all the information and evidence we’d learned so far about the rogues.

We must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I knew, I was awoken by the sound of someone screaming. It was now dark outside. We must have been asleep for quite some time.

Malia got into a defensive stance, low to the ground, as we tried to determine where the screaming came from.

Do you smell that? She asked, just as the coppery smell hit my senses.

Blood. I replied.

Before Malia could respond, we heard another scream in the distance. It was definitely a person screaming, and it was coming from outside the border.

‘Emma, Conrad, I heard screaming from beyond the western border. Inform Rider and get some warriors out this way ASAP. I’m going to check it out.’ I mind-linked Emma and Conrad. Since I wasn’t part of Rider’s pack, I couldn’t link with him directly. I could only mind-link with my own pack members.

‘Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick. Are you alone?’ I heard Emma ask, but ignored it as my wolf took off running toward the sound of screaming.

‘Listen, Sophia, we’re on our way. Don’t go off on your own.’ Conrad added, and I could hear the concern in his voice, but it was too late. I had already crossed the border and was heading toward the smell of blood.

Something in my gut told me to keep moving forward, so I did.