She's My Beta and My Mate

Chapter 5: Friends Weigh In

Micah

The Alpha's house is huge, and I've never had any intention of living here by myself. But my parents moved out about a year ago, leaving me here by myself, so I have friends over to eat just about every night.

Well, I'm not exactly by myself. There are servants that live here. That's not quite the same thing as having a family, though. I sit at the head of the table because I'm the Alpha, but it still seems strange. This is where my dad has always sat. Growing up, I used to look over at him and think, “That'll be my chair one day."

Now that it is, I sometimes wonder if I'm doing this right....

“So," Eli says as he spears another big piece of meat off of the tray one of the servants has just refilled, “the mission went pretty well today, don't you think?"

I look up at him, not sure what to say. While, on one hand, I am glad we found evidence that the invaders were from Dark Eclipse pack, I am not happy that it was Zariah who found the proof.

But everyone sitting around the table is looking at me, waiting for me to agree with Eli. “Yeah, sure," I say. “It was great.

Eli scoffs at me. “That sounded convincing," he says.

“Yeah, Alpha. You could've at least said something to her when she found the tracks," Alex agrees, taking a drink out of his glass.

I stare at him for a moment. “I would have, but everyone else was busy blowing smoke up her rear end. I didn't get a chance to."

“Whatever," Kimber chimes in. “You didn't want to or else you could have."

James looks lost. “What am I missing?" he asks. It sucks to be the new guy.

“Nothing," I tell him, hoping to dismiss the entire conversation.

It doesn't work. I might be the Alpha, but with this crew, I am also just one of the guys sometimes. Eli fills him in. “Zariah found a path that showed clear wolf tracks leading toward Dark Eclipse while we were on our mission today. We were just about to call it a day when she found it."

“Wow, that's great," James says.

“Yep, that's what we all thought," Alex agrees, looking at me with steely eyes.

I shrugged. “It was a good find. So what? I'll tell her later."

“It would've been nice if you would've told her right then, like every other person on the mission did," Eli says.

“All right. I get it, Eli. You can let it go now," I tell him. A servant brings in dessert, and I am glad dinner is about over. Usually, they hang out in my movie room for a while and watch a game or something, but I hope to run them all off tonight. I don't feel like hanging out. I just want to be alone.

Maybe they're right and I should've said something to Zariah about how good it is that she found the tracks, but she already thinks she's the Goddess's gift to the pack, so I didn't want to encourage that.

Besides, she probably didn't even notice I didn't say anything. It's not like my opinion means much of anything to her anyway.

***

Zariah

Alice chose a romantic comedy. I could almost kill her. It's the last thing I want to watch this close to the Moon Goddess ball. I am concentrating on my popcorn instead.

I have already filled her in on what happened on the mission today. I didn't mean to tell her that everyone congratulated me except for Alpha Micah, but when she asked me what he had to say about my discovery, I didn't lie to her.

“He's such an a*s sometimes," she'd said.

I couldn't disagree.

When our other friends, Briella, Sarah, Marla, and our one guy friend, Greg, got here, Alice had to open her big mouth.

I'd nipped it in the bud by turning on the movie quickly enough, but I knew they all wanted to talk about it.

Alpha Micah was always a topic of conversation whenever any group of girls our age got together. How could he not be? He's so muscular, and handsome, and dreamy, and hot.... Ugh! I get so sick of hearing about it!

We've all seen this movie before, so I'm not too surprised when about halfway through, Alice says, “I can't believe he didn't say anything at all!"

I open my mouth to tell her now isn't the time, but before I can say anything, Briella says, “Right? That's no way to lead a pack! I have no idea what gets into him sometimes."

“It's like he hates you," Marla says with vindication.

I roll my eyes. Marla has the biggest crush on Alpha Micah, and the whole world knows it. She probably only wishes he hated me. It would be one less girl to worry about.

Not that I think there's any way in the world that Alpha Micah would ever be interested in me.

“Seriously, though, Zariah," Greg says, putting his hand on my shoulder, “you can't let him get away with treating you that way. You're going to be his Beta soon enough. You need to ask to speak to him, and you need to tell him he has to treat you with respect. If you don't, the other pack members aren't going to treat you with respect."

I look into Greg's rich chocolate brown eyes and wonder why every guy can't be as thoughtful as he is. “You're right," I say. “I should talk to him about it." I can't imagine actually having that conversation with Micah, but Greg's not wrong. “But anyway, let's not talk about it anymore, okay? We're missing the movie." I'm not just talking to Greg, I'm talking to everyone, but I rest my head on Greg's shoulder, so thankful to have a friend like him.