Becoming Alpha

Chapter 4

Hope

There was no point in trying to break free. I had already spent years trying that and it was useless. I only needed to bid my time until I could be free of the Pack and the new Alpha's ties. In the meantime, what were a few more days of isolation? I had always believed that I wouldn't be able to get out until my eighteen birthday, and that hadn't changed.

I had already showered and changed when I heard the door opening. I turned, expecting to see my brother, but it was the Alpha's son who entered, carrying a food tray.

"What are you doing here? Can't you understand I have no desire to spend time with you?" I asked him.

"If I say my presence is required in exchange for giving you food, will you say you prefer to starve?" I just glared at him, and he laughed. "Yeah, I told my father that would happen. No worries, I will leave your food and get out. But, you should give me a chance, I could be a good mate. My sister and your brother have no desire to inherit the Pack, but I do, and if you do too, being with me is your only choice."

"I could fight you for Alpha," I said, only for him to laugh even harder, as if I was being ridiculous.

"From what I've heard, you have never trained, you were a pampered princess locked in her tower. I have trained since childhood, and since my father wasn't the Alpha in our previous pack, I needed to find a way to become one. Your only chance is to be my mate. I will treat you well, and this way, the Pack will continue in your family," he leered at me, and by his smirk, I could see he believed his words.

"If I'm unlucky enough to be your True Mate, then I will agree to that. But if not, then I will go find my True Mate elsewhere, and then come back and take back what's mine," I challenged, but he wasn't taking me seriously.

"True Mates. What I joke. You should understand that's not your best choice. But anyway. I will leave you to eat and will come back later. You will have to talk to me, every day, for as long as it takes for us to become friends."

I wanted to point out that's not the way to make friends, but I realized that it would only continue our talk, and encourage him to keep thinking we could be friends and even more, so I remained silent. I wasn't sure that I wanted to eat, but I needed to, for my health. Once he left, I went over my options. I wanted to stay in my Pack, I wanted to be the Alpha. My grandmother had named me Hope. She taught me I was the hope of the Pack, and most people seemed to believe that before the new Alpha arrived. I wanted to live up to those expectations, but for that, I needed to become strong enough to reclaim my Pack, something that I couldn't do here, and couldn't do alone.

I needed a plan, and I needed to find help. Maybe talking to the warriors could help, they could train me, or at least give me pointers on what to do. But there were many flaws to that plan, starting with the fact that warriors were loyal to the Alpha, and if the Alpha found out what I was planning, he wouldn't allow me to train. What I really needed was to get away, and be able to get to a safe place where they couldn't influence my actions. I needed to mourn my father, but having them so close only made me angry, and that wasn't helping. Just like before, I needed to be free, only now for a different, more important, reason.

I had practice being alone, but this time it felt different. I missed my father, no matter what he had done. Even when he was being unreasonable, he always took his time to let me know just how much he cared for me.

I was staring out of the window and contemplating my life circumstances when I saw people outside running to the Pack House. I just knew something big had happened. I was curious, and a little angry that I had no way of knowing what was going on.

I saw people coming in and out of the house for a while, and then I saw a car coming in. It wasn't one I recognized, but I could tell that it was a new, expensive model. Two people got out, a man and a woman, and by the way, they were looking at each other, I could guess they were a couple. The car drove away, but I didn't know if there was just one more person or two inside. I was intrigued by their presence and wanted to know who they were, but since I was locked there was no way for me to find out, and I refused to ask about them if it was that guy who came again. I decided that no talking would be a clear sign that I had no interest in him. Luckily, it was my brother who next opened the door.

"You are going to join us for dinner, but you need to behave. It's very important that we present a united front," he said, looking over his shoulder.

"Why?" he seemed very upset, and I felt worried about him.

"The UberPack is here. I think they are trying to take over the Pack," he said, closing the door behind him and moving closer to me. "I know you are upset, but right now it's very important that you don't talk to them. You must remain silent and avoid saying anything about what happened here," he sounded almost scared.

"The UberPack doesn't take over packs, they are supposed to be like a police or something," I pointed out. They were mostly a legend, and not many people had contact with them. My father had talked about them a few times, mostly angry at them for not taking care of the hunters before they killed my mom.

"That was before. Recently they have been very involved with other packs, and I heard that recently they even took over a pack. First, they sent a couple of their warriors to check the place, and then using the excuse that they had found problems there, they challenged the Alphas and took over. You don't want that to happen here, do you?" he asked, staring at me with intensity.

I wasn't sure. Would it be better to have the UberPack in charge of the Pack? I felt like it would be more difficult to take it back from them since they had a lot of backing. I thought that it could be better to just keep my mouth shut for the moment and avoid their attention. Then I would be able to come back and take over the Pack. Everyone knew that the UberPack was just too strong for any simple pack to stop them. If they wanted to take over, they would do it. But they couldn't just do that just because, they needed an excuse and I wasn't going to give them one.

"So, what do I need to do?" I asked.

"Just follow my lead, and try not to talk bad about Doom. Just acknowledge him as your Alpha and tell them that you have no objections to him being in charge." I could see him reading the objections in my face. "At least for today, try to be agreeable, okay?" he pleaded with me.

"I'll try. Just keep your brother-in-law away from me, or I don't respond, okay?" I hated to think they would take advantage of the situation to try and force me to be with that guy.

"Seriously, what's your problem with him? He is a good guy! You should give him a chance," I just glared at him, and he sighed. "Okay, I'll talk to him, but please, try to keep an open mind, and overall, act a little less grumpy."

"I can't promise that," I said, but I would try. I had to start by keeping the Pack safe from the UberPack, then I would find a way to keep it safe from Doom.

My brother could see that I wasn't convinced, but after a moment he nodded and took a deep breath, before opening the door.

"Get ready, we must go and meet the UberPack representatives."