Cruel Alpha

Chapter 2

Wilder woke up on his own, way before his alarm. It both surprised and scared him. The fact that he had a whole day of busy schedule and activities, also, scared him. Becoming a boring business person seemed to be part of his reality he still had to accept. Only upside of working in an office, Wilder thinks to himself, is the fact that I look good in suits.

Wilder made his way downstairs where Axel was having breakfast ahead of his busy day. “I can’t understand how you eat this early in the morning,” Wilder complained as he poured the coffee into his mug. Axel only chuckled. “It's Wren’s birthday, don’t forget to show up.”  Wilder nodded as he took several sips of the coffee, he might be awake, but his brain still needed something to stimulate itself. “Relax, I am not that bad, I won’t miss my only sister’s birthday party.” He spoke sarcastically as he made his way away from the dining room. “Though I don’t promise to stay until the end.” He said near the exit, knowing perfectly well that Axel will hear him. 

Wilder worked in one of the companies that his father, previous Alpha, invested in, Orion made sure to manage the money in a way that it will keep bringing benefits to the pack for years to come. Wilder was bad with numbers and math and luckily for him, he was also the 3rd in line for the Alpha title, or else all the money would have been blown away for pleasure and fun and maybe an occasional funny statue. Even though Wilder liked to tease Axel about his abilities to lead the pack, he was managing pretty well. Wilder was in the marketing department, doing what he did best: convincing people to do what he wanted them to do.

A few months ago, they started a new project in collaboration with some other marketing team from another company that Wilder could care less about, all he cared about was the fact that there were extra funds and manpower to utilize. It is there that he met Lauren. What caught his attention wasn’t the fact that Lauren looked gorgeous in a suit (maybe even better than him) or that she was one of the few werewolves in the office, it was the fact that Lauren caught his lie and kept it going. 

On the first day of the new team meeting Wilder lied about the number of funds available, saying less than the actual number, the only people who had access to that knowledge were the team co-ordinators, in this case, Wilder and Lauren. Though Wilder didn’t know this and thought he was fooling everyone, then Lauren got up, introduced herself, and instead of bashing his lie, went on the board with it and completed his idea. 

The idea was to make the team believe they have a smaller budget, in order to stop them from getting bigger ideas and spending more money which will eventually lead to them going over the budget. 

“You are smart, I like that,” Wilder told her when they were alone in the office. Lauren chuckled. “You are sly, I like that.” She had replied. “I would be pleased to continue this conversation over dinner sometime,” Wilder said and left the room. 

Now he walked into the office and headed straight to Lauren’s office hoping to get the newest development regarding their project. “Good morning, any news from the agencies.” He said as he closed the door. Lauren was looking through the papers on her table, trying to organize them in the way she liked instead of the way her assistant kept doing. Wilder kept telling her to stand her ground with the assistant, Lauren always blew him off. 

“Morning, nothing new, still waiting on their reply.” She fixed her blonde hair, tugging it behind her ear. Wilder couldn’t help but notice the movements. “Anything else I should be aware of before the meeting with the big guys?” he said and sat down in the chair in front of her. Lauren shook her head with a smile. “Nothing I haven’t told you yesterday.” Wilder smiled as well. “You had no reason to come to my office,” Lauren noted. Wilder only chuckled. “Well, seeing your beautiful face is enough of a reason for me.” Lauren blushed but didn’t look away from him. 

“I know your type, Wilder, and I am determined to not be a pawn.” She said, regarding Wilder’s quick-passing fancies when it came to women. He was still to have a relationship that lasted longer than a month. Wilder rolled his eyes. “My reputation precedes me, I see. The good thing is you are from the next pack over or you would have heard even worth things before having a chance to actually meet me.” Lauren was from one of the neighbor packs. Wilder’s pack, River Banes, shared a border with Lauren’s. 

“My, my, now I have to meet your pack members,” Lauren said and then added. “I need to know what kind of a person I am getting involved with.” Wilder smiled. “Rest assured, darling. I willing to be whatever you want me to be.” Wilder felt surprised by his own words, and the truthfulness he carried with them. Well, you are wiped, my friend. His wolf spoke and Wilder couldn’t help but agree. 

Later on, Wilder made his way back to the pack early, in order to have enough time to fix his hair and tease Wren for getting another year closer to being an old woman. When he got to his house, he saw few cars already parked there. Someone’s starting celebrating early. After he got ready, Wilder followed the noise and clatter to the living room. Wren along with some of her friends were sitting there, she was surrounded by small boxes of presents. “Good evening people,” Wilder called as he looked around Wren’s friend circle. The usual’s of the house; Blair and Robin were sitting on the right, along with Iris and Hope on the left side of the couch. 

They all nodded and exchanged ‘hey’s as Wilder smiled at his sister. “Someone is getting a year closer to being an old hag.” He said in a cheery voice which drew ‘boos’ from the girls and a chuckle from Wren. “Unoriginal, Wilder, I expected more,” Wren said with a smile on her face. Wilder hugged his sister. “Happy birthday you.” He said and handed her his gift, a necklace with a charm on it. He kept the tradition of getting a similar gift to her every year, Wren once even teased about the growing collection of charms for necklaces, but Wilder couldn’t think of anything else so he kept repeating himself, with a new charm each year. 

He pulled away and looked around the girls. “Why are you all here?  Wasn’t there a pack dinner?” he asked as he sat on the empty couch opposite the bigger one. “We wanted to have a mini celebration of our own before the big one,” Iris said and others nodded. “Wasn’t ‘the big one’ the club you were hitting on after the dinner?” Wilder said with air quotes. Girls looked at him in confusion, only Blair nodded with a defeated look. Wilder wasn’t supposed to know this. But Blair’s mate, River is his best friend and it seems like mates can’t keep a secret from each other.

“Your mate can’t keep his mouth shut, I will see you all in the club.” Wilder said to Blair dramatically which drew ‘no’s and ‘told you River wouldn’t shut ups’ from the girls. Robin rolled her eyes and leaned back on the couch. “Another reason mates are bad.” She joked which got her a hit on the arm from Blair and a smile and a nod from Wilder. “Precisely.” 

Wilder and Robin shared a look while others only rolled their eyes. They were used to Robin and Wilder’s nonsense about all the ways being mated to someone is bad or is enforcing old traditions or limiting abilities. Their opinions were mainly ignored by everyone, but after they went against the Moon Goddess just to prove their point, people started to respect their stance on things. Especially after they won the deal and Moon Goddess ‘un-mated’ them, as Wilder liked to call it.

Though there were moments people around the pack still eyed them in confusion, or with pity. After all, they will never have someone who is destined to spend their lives with them and they won’t have a Goddess to call to on their dark days. In a way, they won the deal, but sometimes Wilder still wondered about the consequences of it. Did we really win? Or was this an elaborate way for Goddess to punish us?