Cruel Alpha

Chapter 12

3 hour drive feels shorter than it did the first time Robin went to Oak Tails. Summer was coming to an end: the weather was cooler and the sun wasn’t really annoying her. Robin enjoyed August more than any other month purely because the sun wasn’t that annoying in it.

She turned to the pack's entrance area to find even more containers and workers around it, she had to horn for them to open a way for her to drive in. What sort of research involves this much expense? Robin thought as she drove more into the Pack area. She decided to park her car in the Beta house. She felt like something was new about it as well, but couldn’t quite understand what changed. She went towards the back of it, where the garage was situated, and looked around in surprise. The garden. The house didn’t have a garden last week, it was dry apart from few wild plants. 

Robin parked her car and went inside the house to see even more surprises. The house had even more furniture, she rushed to the master bedroom only to find it fully furnished. She opened the room she stayed in to find it empty and sighed in relief. At least not a full make-over. But she was disappointed to find the mattress she moved to a smaller bedroom moved back into the master bedroom. You belong there, in the biggest room, you are no longer a child. 

Robin rushed out of the house and looked around the empty street. She needed to find the only person who could have some sort of explanation for all this. Declan. She walked back towards the Gamma house in which he was staying; that one was upgraded with a fresh coat of paint around the house. But it was empty so Robin walked away from it and towards the other house in this part of the pack. Towards the Alpha House. 

Surprisingly, Robin found it to be intact from the outside, with no paint, no garden, only pavement, and a car parked in front of it. It was a large SUV, Robin didn’t remember seeing it here before. Robin growled and marched towards the door. She could sense few wolves were in there. The intensity of it felt like there was a whole party worth of people in there. Robin disliked the idea of it. 

In some weird way, Robin felt responsible for the whole project and Oak Tails. She was the only native of the pack who was involved and she felt like all these new developments that happened without her knowledge were unwanted guests in her house. 

Now that she thought about it, too much of this so-called ‘research’ seemed suspicious to her. The sheer amount of people involved already exceeded 100s and the bunch of tents they set up to do ‘archelogy work’ were awfully loud. They had too many people, too many supplies, and even too many cars. What the f**k is going on?

She knocked on the door loudly and a minute later, Declan opened it. He grinned at her which Robin found to be a very positive greeting for a Monday morning. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting you for another hour. Welcome back.” Robin walked in, pushing through Declan. “Yeah, I left early. Quite a few changes on my absence.” She noted and tried to keep her anger in control; a good garden was no cause to get very angry but Robin couldn’t control it sometimes. 

“Yeah, we got the funds to make the needed changes.” He said and walked further into the house, ignoring Robin’s pointed gaze. “I didn’t know a research project's main concern was a flat screen in my house. This is starting to sound like a rip-off.” Robin pushed as she walked behind him. Declan was clearly leading her somewhere. He chuckled and climbed the stairs. Robin didn’t even notice how this was the first time she has been in the Alpha House, after all these years. What she did notice was that this house had even grander upgrades. She was pretty sure the fully functioning kitchen wouldn’t stay this clean or intact after all these years. 

Declan’s chuckle bought her back to reality. They were standing in what appeared to be a living room. “You are smart, Robin. I told him we shouldn’t keep this going for long, but, eh. What do I know?” He spoke without any of his usual tone and accented endings. Declan didn’t sound like Declan. “Who the f**k, is ‘he’?” Robin growled out, ready to punch the answers out of Declan if necessary. He was taller than her but it wouldn’t be the first time Robin bought down someone to her height with a kick. 

“Now, is that a way to great an old friend?” A new voice spoke, it was coming from behind Robin and Declan smiled and bowed to it. Robin turned to face it, her hand already forming a fist, her mind thinking of an escape route. She looked at the man standing in front of her. He was smiling and eyeing her, waiting for her to do something. The man was way bigger than Declan or even Robin and he had his hands clasped in front of him. His subtle beard was more organized than his brown hair. 

All of these didn’t matter as Robin didn’t care for appearances, all she cared for was the truth. Who is he? And she got her answer as she looked into his green eyes. They gleamed with mischief, a silver line stretching around the orbs. I know you. I mourned you.

He looked into her grey eyes as the realization finally dawned on her. To be honest, it took him even longer to make the connection between this Robin and her. He smiled, noticing how Robin’s heart started to beat faster. Always an easy tell with her.  It beat too fast as if she had seen a ghost and she might as well have. 

The man extended his hand towards Robin. “Hello, I am Lucien. Alpha of the Oak Tails.”