Fated To The Alpha (Complete Fated Series collection)

Chapter 7

I stayed in my room all night. My parent’s judgy eyes are too much to handle, so I go to bed early.

Waking up the next morning, my mother is screaming for me to hurry up. I quickly race around getting dressed in record time, even for me, throwing on the first things I lay my hands on, which happens to be jeans and a bottle green shirt. Maybe I should have paid attention to the shirt, green really isn’t my color, I think, staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror while brushing my teeth.

“Katya, Now!” my mother yells.

Damn it no time to change shirts now, I spit my toothpaste and rinse my face before racing downstairs.

“Really, Katya. Did you sleep through your alarm?” My mother scolds as I race toward the front door where she is waiting, keys in hand.

She passes me an apple and I grab it, taking a bite as I follow her out to the car. Yep, instantly regretting that first bite, toothpaste and apple is definitely not a pleasant combination.

On the drive to school, my mother gives me one of her lectures about coasting through the middle. She must think I have forgotten because she carries on about not drawing attention to myself, yadda yadda. I tune her out, mostly adding occasional nods and hmm noises so she thinks I am listening.

When I get to school, Jasmine is waiting for me, my heart squeezes almost painfully. As excited as I am to see her, I can't help but worry. The closer I get to her, the harder this is going to hurt when she finds out my secret.

“Hey, Kit Kat,” she greets, waving to me.

That was a new one, the corner of my lip twitches. "Kit Kat? Really?" I shake my head, but I can’t hide my grin. Well, at least it’s better than my father’s nickname for me.

Jasmine smirks at me defiantly. "Yep, I like it," she announces. "You're sweet on the outside and crunchy on the inside, plus your name is Kat. It's perfect. We've got Math first, come with me, I’ll show you where the classroom is."

I hate Math, it’s such a boring subject and always gives me a headache. It's not even that I’m bad at it, I have never failed a subject. I just hate it, all that thinking makes my brain ache.

“Remember what I said, Katya,” my mother calls to me as I walk into school. She heads for the staff room while I make my way with Jasmine to our first period.

Thankfully the first half of the day flies by, even though it involves Math. Lunch arrives before I know it, however, that also means detention, and I don’t even know where to go for it.

The bell rings as I turn to Jasmine to ask her when I see a figure entering the doorway behind her. I don’t expect to see Alpha Ezra wandering into the Science classroom to come and find me. Everyone grabs their stuff and hustles out of the classroom to lunch, leaving me alone with the Alpha. Even Jasmine retreats, giving me a sad smile as she goes.

I Pack up my belongings and sigh as I prepare myself, there is no getting out of this. I hang my head and walk over to the Alpha, preparing for the gallows.

Odd, I expect him to look strict, or glare at me for having to waste his time with me. But his eyes are sparkling, and his lips twitching. "Why so glum?" he questions.

I stare at the man, maybe it has been too long since he's been in school like the rest of us. "It's detention. Why would I be happy about that?"

He smirks. "Lots, because you're with me, " he tilts his head toward the door. "Come," he says it like he expects me to obey.

I sigh, I have no choice. Following him, we stop at my locker, he leans against the one next to it, watching my every move.

“Put your stuff away,” he orders.

I shrug, like I wasn't about to do that anyway? I reach for the handle of my poor beat up locker when he grabs the lock and undoes the combination, making it pop open. I turn and stare up at him.

“What? I know all the combinations,” he replies, and I raise an eyebrow at him.

“Really, then open that one,” I tell him, pointing to the one next to mine which I know is empty. He laughs and shakes his head before putting his hands up in mock surrender.

“Okay, you got me, I may have snooped,” he admits with a smile on his lips.

“And why would you do that?” I ask, confused. I can’t afford him doing that, I’m smart enough to not keep proof of my defect, but the idea of anyone snooping through my stuff sets my teeth on edge.

“You’re new and I am not sure I fully believe your parents' reasoning for changing Packs,” he tells me, and my stomach drops as I avert my gaze back to my locker.

Shit, s**t, s**t.

“And by the sound of the way your heart rate picked up, I am assuming they didn’t really leave because your mother hit the Alpha’s daughter?”

“Technically, she did hit her,” I retort.

He closes my locker and grabs my hand. He doesn't respond, tugging me after him.

Warm tingles shoot up my arm and my palm warms. "Um, Alpha?" I whisper, he looks down, meeting my eyes. His flicker to where our hands are joined and he lets go.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” he admits.

His behavior is confusing. My brows furrow as I try to puzzle him out. He does not act like Alpha Jackson ever did.

I shake my head to try to break the awkward silence. "Where are we going?" We walk past rows of empty classrooms. Everyone else is safely at lunch.

"You don't have to look like a hunted deer, Kat. You're not going to get in trouble with me," his deep voice rumbles.

As if to emphasize his point, he walks us into the faculty area and stops at an office door before opening it.

This is not a normal detention room.

"Is this your office?" I question. The room smells of sandalwood and cinnamon, I breathe deep and spin around taking it all in.

“Yes, I have decided to be more present here. The school is short of staff and I have free time, so why not?” he says.

I step past him and take a seat in the chair in front of his desk. Weird place to have detention, and there clearly isn't a lot of room either, just one other chair was beside me. I am about to be alone with him for the next hour.

“What’s wrong?” He asks while taking his seat across from me.

I shake my head. “Nothing,” I answer and he stares for a second, almost as if he is studying me.

The door behind us opens and I twist around in my seat to see Mateo walk in, a pizza box balances on the tips of his fingers as he closes the door behind him. He sets it on the desk before flipping the top open and the glorious smell of cheese and pepperoni fills the office. He plops down in the chair next to me.

"Eat," Alpha Ezra orders.

I look at the pizza, then between both men. All of this is not what I was expecting. "Isn't this supposed to be detention? Should I be doing something like school work or writing a hundred times about how I won't break anyone's nose or something?"

For his part, the Alpha chuckles while Mateo cracks up like I'd told some joke. "You want to do school work?" Alpha Ezra presses.

"Well, no. But isn't that what normally happens in detention?" I peer up at him. "I am in trouble, right?"

The Alpha takes his attention off of me and scowls at Mateo. The man has taken a large bite of the pizza and the cheese was dripping from his lips. "Why aren't you with Angie?"

Mateo snorts. "You really thought I was going to be stuck with that Barbie doll? I dumped her on someone else. I don’t want my lunch hour wasted listening to her lies."

Instead of scolding him for neglecting his duties, the Alpha chuckles. "Where is she now?"

Mateo grins and swallows the hunk of pizza. A malicious smile splits his lips. "I left her with Shirley."

He popped the rest of the giant slice in his mouth. "What?" I squeak. "Like my mom, Shirley?" I verify.

He nods, his smirk has grown huge. He was so damn proud of himself. Maybe the Moon Goddess wasn't completely against me. I could only imagine the hell my mom will unleash on that b***h. She'd be running until she coughed up blood.

I bite back the giggle threatening to erupt.

Alpha Ezra's eyes flicker my way and he raises a brow. "Something funny, Kat?" The question is serious, but the smile on his lips isn’t. My Alpha is enjoying this.

"My mom is going to eat her alive," I giggle. "Angie is going to have to scrape gum off the cafeteria tables, or run laps for an hour straight," I snicker. "Or learn how to throw a proper punch."

Both the Alpha and Beta chuckle at my glee.

"Exactly why I rearranged for Shirley to be in charge of her," Mateo says with a sober nod. "That girl needs a humbling experience. You're wrong though. It's not the cafeteria where she's scraping gum. It's under the student desks," he winks at me and takes another slice of pizza. Instead of cramming it into his mouth, he thrusts it at me. "Eat," he orders.

The Alpha nods along as if this is all perfectly normal. "Eat," he agrees. "Then we will talk."

I wonder if this is a final meal situation before he kicks me out? But for once, the normal doom and gloom doesn't feel right, I'm hopeful. I can’t imagine he would smile and laugh at me if he was planning on throwing me away.

Instead of arguing, I take the offered pizza and bite into it. Both men smirk and take their own slices. We all eat in silence until the box is empty. Mateo gets up to take it out to the trash, before returning.

Alpha Ezra raises a brow at him and they stare at each other, eyes glazing over with a mindlink. Mateo shrugs and deliberately walks back to his chair before plopping back into it and smirking. Whatever was being said, he was clearly amused by it.

The Alpha rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but doesn't speak. Instead, he turns his focus back to me and this time I don't have a piece of pizza to fend him off with.

Mateo shifts in his seat, leaning a little closer to me. "You like it here so far? Besides having to deal with Angie and all," he makes a little shooing motion with his hand.

I nod. "It's different, the way you run everything. But, I have already made a friend, I think, and I'm not behind in any of my classes." At least until I have to train that is.

The Beta leans over, drapes an arm over my shoulder, and sniffs my hair. His whole body vibrates and a weird soft growl rumbles from him.

The smiling Alpha Ezra is no more, he glares stone-faced at his Beta, staring pointedly at the hand draped over my shoulder.

I try to slip away, but the Beta jerks me closer, he rubs my arm and sniffs again. "I think I know why her scent reminds me of someone."

I glance at him, curious what he means, but he never gets a chance to elaborate on that comment.

“Hands off, Mateo,” Alpha Ezra snarls.

Mateo stays close to me for a second, glancing up at the Alpha and gauging his seriousness before putting his hands up and smiling. He shifts away back to his own seat and gives me my precious space back.

“Time for detention?” I ask, wondering when this punishment was going to begin.

“No, I wanted to ask you some questions," the Alpha replies, voice calm again.

“As would I,” Mateo says, leaning forward and looking at the Alpha who growls at him.

“What sort of questions?” I slowly ask. If I say the wrong thing I am going to get us thrown out of the Pack. The room suddenly feels like it is closing in around me as I try to calm down. I think I would rather swap places with Angie right now, scraping gum sounds way better.

“Why did you really leave your Pack?” the Alpha asks me, eyes pinning me down.

Flames of anger lap in my gut. I wish the pizza box was still around so I could hit him over the head with it. Why was he ruining everything?

"If you're insinuating my family is hiding something, why did you even accept us into the Pack?" I demand.

"You're sure you want to question your Alpha?" he asks, raising his eyebrow.

I bite back an instinctive snarky retort and bow my head in submission. Questioning him is the last thing I need to be doing, I scold myself for snapping at him. Hopefully, mom won’t find out.

"If you really must know, it's because I love knowing I snagged two of that prick Jackson's best fighters, that's why."

I note he doesn’t even add Alpha to my old Alpha's name, he must really despise him.

"Considering you come from those two, I must say your bloodline intrigues me. I wish to see exactly what you are capable of. Yet, as I've been watching you I notice you have a lot of pressure on your shoulders."

I sigh, why is it that having Beta blood changes how people think of me? Why am I suddenly thrust on a higher pedestal because of it? All I want is to be a normal she-wolf, without the wolf part obviously.

"Oh, you don't agree?" he questions. s**t, I must have done that louder than I thought.

I raise my chin and stare up at him. "And what if I'm a disappointment?" I challenge.

The Alpha chuckles like I'd told a joke. "You? Kat, you have Beta genes, and your mother… Well, she is a tough woman."

I wonder if he will think the same when he knows my dirty little secret.

Mateo c***s his head, studying me. "I've got a question."

I prepare myself for whatever hardball question he has for me. What secrets has he uncovered by eating lunch with me? "Yes? What is it?" I ask. At least I sound normal and not like the scared rabbit I feel like on the inside.

“Have you found your mate yet?”

“She isn’t eighteen yet,” the Alpha answers for me. Mateo's shoulders droop, is he disappointed in my age?

“Tell me, why did your family really leave? I promise no repercussions will come if you tell me the truth, You will be free to remain here,” the Alpha says and I feel my heart skip a beat.

My stomach drops and I break out in a cold sweat. The uneasy grip on control I have slips.

The Alpha sniffs the air slightly, his eyes narrow on me. "Why are you scared?"

I can't hold on, I'm going to break down. "Can I go, please?" I whisper the words. I can't manage to speak louder.

He reaches over the table and tries to grab my hand, but I pull it away and out of his reach.

"Kat, you can tell me," he offers with sincerity.

I think about it, how easy would it be just to tell the truth and be done with it? But no, it’s not just my life at risk, it is my parents’ too. "Nothing, what they told you is the truth, Alpha."

He tilts his head to the side and his eyes slide to his Beta. He gives his head a little shake. "You can go, Kat. But I will speak with you again."

I don't wait, I rush out the door.