One Night Stand With The Alpha

Thursday 20th June 1991 - Daniel

I first saw Marlene the day before we met. She was wandering through the city like a lost child with an oversized backpack on, and it was clear she had no idea where she was going or what she was doing.

She caught my attention as I was sitting drinking a coffee in a quiet little café in the city centre, because she nearly wandered out in front of one of the cream and blue trams which wound their way through the streets and it was so obvious this was the first time she had been to the city that I almost abandoned my drink to ask if she needed help finding whichever hostel she was no doubt heading for.

She wasn’t the only one I had watched that day - I just enjoyed sitting in that little café and watching the people on the street. They were different to the people I had grown up with, and this world was as alien to me as it clearly was to Marlene now when I had first visited it. She seemed so filled with wonder at everything - it was larger than life as far as she was concerned, but the reality was it was the proverbial concrete jungle filled with large, grey buildings with no character or charm, and humans I would describe the same way.

Her vibrant auburn hair and the veritable rainbow of clothing she had chosen to wear on her first day in this place meant that she stood out amongst all of the other people she was surrounded by, and although she was an objectively attractive young woman, that wasn’t what had drawn my attention to her.

But…it was why I recognized her when I saw her the next day.

I was on my way home when I saw her. She was alone, at night, and I was curious because this fresh-faced young woman did not seem like she would be comfortable alone at night, and yet here she was… unsure of herself, and completely unaware of what was going on around her so that anybody could have ambushed her or mugged her.

She didn’t notice it when the key fell from her back pocket, even though it clinked against the concrete paving slabs, and I wondered if she was drunk or if human senses were really as poor as that.

I picked the key up, but she was nervous enough that I didn’t think calling after her would be a good idea. A grown man shouting after a lone woman would not look good, so I decided that I would follow at a distance, and make it seem as if she had only just dropped the key when she finally realized it was missing.

She was so oblivious that she didn’t notice until she was on the doorstep of the place she was staying, and I was glad that I had decided to give her the key back rather than pretending I did not see her drop it because I was able to read her thoughts when she thought she had lost the key, and it seemed like she was afraid of waking her house mate and she would have ended up waiting on the street for hours rather than ringing her own doorbell.

She was startled when she first saw me, but my first impression of her up close was that she was more beautiful than I had realized. Her crystal blue eyes were mesmerizing to me, because it was so unusual for wolves to have eyes anything close to that color.

When I passed her the keys she thanked me, and called me sir. I wondered whether that was down to her nervous naivety or because she sensed something about me that she would never truly understand.

I was supposed to be taking over as Alpha from my father at the end of the summer; it’s what I was born to do. It would not surprise me to find that humans sense something in me the same way that other wolves do.

The truth is, she was the first human I had ever been interested in. I moved from my pack to spend six months living amongst the humans before heading back to my Pack and a life as Alpha.

A life I should have been excited about.

A life I had been avoiding for two years, because I was not excited. I did not want to be tied down, or saddled with the responsibility of the role.

My father was an understanding man some of the time, but he was too old to continue as Alpha, and he gave me an ultimatum before I moved away: six months to sort out my head and prepare to take over, or he would pass me over and give everything to my younger brother, Karl.

I didn’t want to give everything up, and so I agreed to his offer and found myself a place to live even though I don’t know how the hell I was supposed to get it out of my system when it was a constant, nagging feeling that I was not good enough and that I was throwing away my freedom when I would never be a good enough Alpha to replace my father.

Having s*x with a human woman was probably the furthest thing from my mind when I moved away; I didn’t find the idea thrilling, and the idea of having to hide the truth about myself was decidedly unappealing when I was trying to forget about my responsibilities and relax for a few months.

I had turned to walk away from her, but she called my name and I couldn’t ignore the things that were running through her mind. She wanted me, in a way that none of the women I had been with before had.

It wasn’t because she knew who I am, and what I am. And in the end, it was because she didn’t know those things that I was so drawn to her. It didn’t matter whether she was attracted to me because of something she would never know, because she was not trying to use me for my power. She wanted to f**k me, and there was nothing more to it… it was pure, and innocent in a strange way. She didn’t understand the concept of f*****g a future Alpha for a shot at future favours.

She had been a little awkward at first when I followed her into the house; we had to sneak up the stairs and she insisted I was silent so that we did not wake up her house mate.

I found it particularly enjoyable to remind her of that when she called my name a little while later.

She was fun to be with, and she was not quite as naive and innocent as I had assumed when I first saw her.

When I woke up beside her yesterday she was not the same as the woman I had been so passionate with the previous night. It was like someone had flipped a switch, and she was a mousy, reserved little girl again. I would not have allowed myself to spend a night with her if she had been like that when we got into the bedroom.

I don’t understand what she was so ashamed of; we were both consenting adults, and we were not intoxicated. She just said something about not wanting people to think badly of her as if it should make perfect sense to me, and then left me alone in the room to go and shower.

I waited for a few minutes but it was clear she just felt awkward about our encounter, and so I got dressed, straightened up her room, and left as quietly as possible to avoid her house mates.

I didn’t expect her to be on my mind for the rest of the day, or for it to feel strange to go to sleep alone again at night.

I certainly did not expect to relive every moment of that night we spent together on repeat in my dreams, or to wake up in the morning thinking that it might actually be a good idea to get back in touch with her because… f**k it.

This was supposed to be my last chance to live wildly, and to be free.

Screwing around with human women was something my father would disown me for if he ever found out, but Marlene… she was enchanting, and unpretentious.

She was a pleasant distraction.

And I was there because I needed a pleasant distraction, so… it isn’t the worst idea in the world to see if she might be interested in spending more time with me.