Alpha Heir's Dilemma

Chapter 3

Adler was starting to feel out of sorts…

It had been a couple of days since first day back and his encounter with Jesse, the fox witch hybrid who was supposedly his mate. He had kept catching himself looking through the halls for her, sniffing the air for her scent, surveying the quad between buildings for any sign of her…Trey had noticed, he knew it, cause the bloody bastard kept chuckling that annoying amused chortle at him. Luckily he had football practise to focus on, being back into full swing with first game only days away. He didn’t take football very seriously, it was just a way to blow off steam, but being a werewolf meant he had impressive skills that the coach liked to take full advantage of with no remorse of cheating, even though he was one of the very few humans who knew about the supernatural world around him.

.

The day ran late most times for Adler and Trey with football practise after classes, Trey was driving his Ford F20, Adler in the passenger seat heading back to their house as the night started to close in and the street lights started to come on.

Adler looked out the open side window up at the moon, it was waning towards the new moon, a mere sliver in the sky. He liked the moon and it made his wolf happy to look up at it on a clear night…however there was one moon he didn’t like – the full moon - that brought the beast out of hiding.

He caught movement on the footpath ahead and as the breeze blew in he caught the scent of his mate, making his wolf dance in his head in excitement. He shuddered as the cotton candy, spring rain smell filled his soul instantly making him feel at ease.

“That’s Jesse…pull over.” Adler grumbled to Trey.

“What?” Trey slowed down and inched towards the kerb and the figure dressed in black walking in front of them.

As they cruised up alongside Adler banged his hand on the outside of the truck, leaning out the window. “Well, well…what’s a foxy little witch like you doing out here all alone…” He chuckled at his play on words.

Trey snickered also. “Good one…”

Jesse kept walking with barely an annoyed cluck of her tongue and eye roll.

Trey kept the truck idling along matching her pace.

“Oh, come on, babe…let us give you a ride home…you know there’s big bad wolves out at night.”

Trey snickered again. “You’re on fire, bro.”

Jesse tsked her tongue again, pulling the hood of her sweatshirt up. “Grow up, moron.”

“Jesse!” Adler growled in his Alpha tone, his wolf coming through not happy at being ignored by his mate, the harsh order even making Trey flinch.

Surprisingly she stopped dead in her tracks and turned to glare at him. He gave her a cheeky lop-sided grin with his tongue caught between his teeth. He knew that grin was a lady killer and looked adorable.

“What do you want, Adler?” Jesse seemed hardly impressed.

“Well, funny you should ask…since you’ve been avoiding me on campus…” He had tried a couple of times to actually find her, Trey had been right, his wolf was not going to let him just ignore her existence, but he hadn’t seen her anywhere, not even when he had ventured over close to the art faculty.

“I haven’t been avoiding you, dickhead…why would I?” She made him feel completely unimportant with that one statement making his wolf whine and pout.

“I’ve been trying to catch up with you…” He growled as he continued to lean out the window.

Jesse looked up and down the street, clearly annoyed. “We don’t even have classes in the same buildings at the same times, what do you want?” She folded her arms, glaring at him with those fiery emerald eyes that glinted with her witch power in the darkening gloom.

“I need to talk to you…”

“So talk!” She huffed and leaned back on one leg, exasperated.

“Not here…” Adler growled, getting quite annoyed himself now. “Get in the truck.” His tone dropped as he dropped the playfulness.

Jesse’s eyes widened slightly and she peered in to see Trey staring at her with his eyes bright, almost glowing with a feral yellow light. “You must think me pretty stupid…” Jesse had dropped her arms and was wiping her hands down her sides nervous and apprehensive now.

Adler scowled. “Why? Don’t you trust me…us?” For some reason he felt insulted.

“No.” Jesse answered blatantly. “That’s exactly it…now kindly go about your business and I’ll go about mine.”

“I can’t do that!” Adler growled, his wolf getting angry now as he opened the door of the truck and stepped out. He heard Trey whisper a warning to control himself.

Jesse’s eyes widened further as she backed up away from him as he suddenly loomed over her. He grabbed her with one large hand wrapped around her upper arm and stopped her from bolting off up the street.

“Jesse…I really need to talk to you…” His voice was deep and gravelly, touching her had sent shivers through him and made it hard to control his wolf side.

“What about?” She struggled and pulled her arm free, clasping it with her other hand as she backed away from him.

“When’s your birthday?”

“What birthday? Why?”

“Your twentieth…it should be soon…yeah?”

Jesse’s eyes went impossibly wide yet again and she backed up along the footpath with her hands out stretched. “No! No f*****g way…I’m not telling you!”

Adler grimaced. “I’m not that bad…cut me some slack…I want to celebrate your birthday with you.”

“Yes, you are!” Jesse cried out horrified, turned and started running.

“f**k!” Adler gasped, running a hand through his hair in disbelieve that this could have gone so badly. “I didn’t think she would run?”

Trey grinned, leaning over from the driver’s side and yelling through the open window. “Maybe she wants you to chase her…”

Adler twisted around to give Trey a flinty look. “I really don’t think so…” Yet now his wolf was excited at the prospect.

“Okay…so chase her anyway…” Trey laughed.

Adler looked at Trey confused for a second then looked at the retreating figure of Jesse that was disappearing into the gloom.

A huge smirk came across his face as his wolf managed to wrestle control, then he was off and running…she stayed in human form so he did to, but he knew his stamina would be greater than hers.

.

Jesse changed direction and darted into the park hoping to be able to hide from the jerk wolf.

Why Adler had suddenly taken an interest in her was anyone’s guess and everyone knew foxes were susceptible to wolves unless they were in a group…and help was miles away…only thing Jesse had at her defence was her ability to run fast and the fact that she was actually something else entirely, that was a closely guarded secret though. She pretended to be a fox witch hybrid, what she was, was something that could be far more dangerous…but only once she was older and had cultivated her power…right now she was vulnerable and not far from just being human with only a few tricks up her sleeve.

She knew a few spells of illusion that could give her some time to escape the relentless pursuit of the wolf behind her, but she needed space to be able to have the time to conjure the spell, she had only started learning the basics and it was tricky…

She glanced around the park, it was getting dark now, but the playground where she was had large security lights that flood lit the area. She glanced over at the bushes on the side outside of the lights, it created deeper shadows and she thought maybe she could hide under them and use a cloaking spell.

“Looking for a place to hide?” A guttural, panting voice sounded behind her.

She spun around, too late. Adler was already there…of course he was...damned alpha in his prime could probably run for days.

She backed away from the feral look in his eyes. His head was lowered, his eyes raised and glowing at her.

“Babe…I just want to talk.” Adler’s tone was cajoling and amused. It made Jesse think he was just wanting to tease her, he seemed to read her thoughts as he said. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Piss off, Adler…why are you annoying me all of a sudden…got bored of cheerleaders or have you run out of them?”

“You know why…I think.” He glanced away, unsure if she had guessed or not. “But I can’t say it…”

Jesse grimaced, she was never going to let him think that was a possibility, it couldn’t be…it would never be!

Adler took a step closer. “You smell so good…I’ve never noticed your scent before…hell, I’ve never really noticed you before…”

Jesse folded her arms, hugging them around herself, starting to feel trapped, his voice was different, was this his wolf speaking through him? She had no idea if that was even a thing… “Jesus Christ, Adler…snap out of whatever the hell this is…foxes and wolves shouldn’t mix…”

“You think I don’t know that!?” Adler growled, frustrated, shaking his head to gain control from his stupid wolf.

Jesse gulped in fright at the primitive sound of his growl. He sliced his gaze away to the ground and clucked his tongue as he sensed her fear. “I’m sorry…” His voice was back to his usual smooth baritone.

Jesse stood up straight and faced him with a scowl. “Just leave me alone…as if it wasn’t bad enough having that f*****g giant oaf stalking me when I first started here…you guys are just bullies! And aren’t you supposed to be an Alpha in the making?”

Adler looked back at her, seeing her standing so defiantly in front of him, scolding him of all things. f**k! She was beautiful…why had he never noticed before? He cursed himself…because he was shallow and liked busty blonds, but Trey had noticed…Adler remembered Trey talking about the sexy new fox that had transferred from Europe, most beautiful thing he had ever seen, Trey had said. Adler had looked up and seen her black hair cascading down her back, her black clothes, grungy and dark and had merely grunted not impressed and looked away.

That first morning back at her locker was the first time he had ever looked at her face and now as she stood in front of him, panting from running hard, sweat glistening on her perfect skin that didn’t even seem to need makeup, he saw her for the very first time as that something deep, dark and hidden emerged and looked out through his eyes upon his mate and approved.

He breathed in deeply, pushing it back down, straightening up to his full six foot two height and closed his eyes in a dreamy state as her glorious scent enveloped him strongly due to her exertion and sweating, before opening his eyes and looking at her once more.

She had a distasteful frown on her face like she had just sucked a lemon, it made his wolf whimper and growl at the same time.

As his eyes settled on her once more, her eyes widened and she backed up a step, seeing the hunger in those pale hazel orbs. He grinned at her, knowing his expression looked like a predator…but he was a predator and he had just set his sights on his prey.