The alpha 11, p.2
The Alpha 11, page 2
Sarah: Werecat beta (mountain lion) Islander. Dark blonde hair. Green eyes. Mother of Charlie Jansen.
Scarlett: Avian beta (bald eagle) Mainland. Strawberry-blonde hair. Crystal-blue eyes. Small and petite.
Scott Williamson: Werecat alpha (lynx) Previous alpha of Eugene, Oregon pride. Gray speckled fur. One eye scarred shut. Black-tipped ears. Deceased.
Sean: Werecat beta (bobcat) Modoc County pride. Dirty-blond hair. Older brother of Chelsea by two years.
Sebastian Rush: Werecat alpha (mountain lion) Previous alpha of Connecticut pride. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Tattoo of a lion on right hand. Tip of one ear missing. Worked alongside Myles Beck. Territory spanned over all of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Deceased.
Serena: Werecat beta (mountain lion) Mainland. Golden hair. Beauty mark on right cheek. Campus security.
Seth: Werewolf beta Mainland. Buzzed blond hair. Brown and gray fur.
Sidney May: Werecat beta captain (mountain lion) Modoc County pride. Cropped brown hair. Dusty-gray eyes. Bit of a tomboy. Severe nut allergy.
Sloan: Werewolf beta Idaho pack. Long ginger hair. Green eyes.
Sophie: Werecat beta (lynx) Islander. Black hair. Brown eyes. Mother of Poppy Jansen.
Spencer: Werecat beta captain (mountain lion) Islander. Ginger hair. Wanted to be a football player. Boyfriend of Kasia.
Steph: Werecat beta (lynx) Islander. Long blonde hair. Organized and playful.
Steven: Human Violinist in Jack Nolan’s orchestra.
Sven: Werefox beta captain New York skulk. Brown-black hair. Broad shoulders.
Tegan: Werecat beta (bobcat) Modoc County pride. Red-brown hair. Gray-blue eyes. Very petite.
Tess: Werewolf beta. Idaho pack.
Thalia: Werecoyote beta Mainland. Tawny hair. Blue, doll-like eyes. Tawny fur with a fluffy tail.
Theo Finch: Werewolf alpha Black fur with patches missing and covered in scars. White triangle on chin. Murdered Jesse’s parents. Deceased.
Thomas: Werecat beta (mountain lion) Mainland. Sandy hair. Blocky glasses. Wants to be an engineer.
Tiana: Avian beta (bald eagle) Mainland. Curly black hair. Brown eyes. Diagnosed with OCD.
Tilly: Avian beta (raven) East Oregon flock. Red hair with pink highlights. Silver eyes. Zodiac signs tattooed on her knuckles.
Todd: Werecoyote beta Monroe resident. Gray hair. Rotund build. Normally seen sitting in the diner.
Tom: Werefox beta captain New York skulk. Dark blond hair. Broad shoulders.
Travis Kelly: Human Jesse’s friend. Member of DnD group. Mexican-Irish nationality.
Troy Watson: Werewolf alpha Previous alpha of Idaho pack. Black fur. White paws. Deceased.
Wesley: Werewolf beta captain Mainland. Brown hair.
Willow: Werewolf beta captain Alberta. Previous beta captain for Theo Finch.
Wren: Werecat beta (mountain lion) Islander. Always wears sunglasses.
Zane: Werecat beta (lynx) Mainland. Black hair. Pale eyes. Eliza’s twin brother. Campus security.
Zara: Avian beta (raven) East Oregon flock. Sandy-brown hair. Brown eyes. Square-shaped face.
Chapter 1
If I’d thought killing Myles Beck was the biggest immediate challenge in my life, then I clearly hadn’t given much thought to my final year of college.
Myles Beck wanted what I had. He’d wanted to be the Great Reuniter, even though he never could have hoped to fill that role as well as I did. And yet, the fight against him and his collection of goons felt like nothing compared to the work I’d been given by my music professor.
It was the end of my first week back after summer vacation, and there was nothing like being thrown straight into the deep end.
To be completely honest, part of me had been looking forward to starting the final year. I needed some sense of normality once I’d murdered the head of the SDD and his little minions, and then claimed Caitlin, my newest omega. But I clearly hadn’t taken note of how challenging the final two semesters were going to be.
My schedule had changed, as well as the classes I needed to take, but it was my final that would decide whether or not I graduated. And that was the main concern I had at the moment.
When I’d first started at Everleigh University, I couldn’t decide whether I should choose a major in Composition or Performance, so I’d worked on both. I loved both sides of music production, but my mind was finally made up once I assisted Jack Nolan and felt that love and rush of energy that came with being part of an orchestra and really feeling the beauty of full compositions.
So now, if I wanted to graduate with a Bachelor of Music in Composition, I’d have to create an album. The album could have anywhere between nine and twelve tracks on it, but everything had to be orchestrated and performed by myself. Then, at the end of the year, I’d have to pick one song from the album to perform in front of a live audience.
“I bet you’re all thinking how easy this sounds,” Professor Collins said as he gently strolled around the room. “But just remember, if it was that easy, you would have been asked to do this in your first year, not your last.”
A few of the students around me groaned and covered their faces with their hands, but I found myself looking out the window as a variety of instruments began to circle in my head.
We’d known about this album for a few days now, but it became even more daunting as time went on.
I’d probably want some percussion to add a bit of body and weight to every performance on the album, but the percussion realm included a wide variety of instruments, so I had to pick the best one.
Piano was my best bet, and I had to include different aspects of the drums, too. But perhaps I could create a song based around one particular section, like woodwind, and I could create the highs and lows of a song with those different instruments.
But what about voice?
I wasn’t exactly a singer, but sometimes a soft voice in the background added a bit more soul to the song.
However, if I wanted to include all of these different ideas into the album, then I had to make sure I could play all of these different instruments.
Fuck.
“Are you okay, Jesse?” Professor Collins asked me suddenly.
My entire body flinched as I noticed Collins beside me, but then I gave him a smile as I relaxed back in my seat.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied. “I’m just trying to work out which instruments to use in each composition.”
“I’m sure you’ll be just fine.” He smiled as he combed through his short brown hair with one hand. “Unlike the others, you have the advantage of working as a part of the quintet, but you also worked with Jack Nolan over the summer. So you can use that to piece everything together. You were amazing in the orchestra, might I add. Jack sent me some clips, and I couldn’t believe what I was watching.”
“Oh, thank you,” I said with a small smile. “It was… It was definitely something I’m never going to forget.”
Especially because I’d had a flock of enemy bald eagles following my every step at the time.
“I’m sure you won’t.” Collins nodded. “Now, about the final project, one piece of advice I’ll give you is to go with what you know best. The violin is your chosen instrument, so use that where you can, but don’t start playing around with an instrument you’re not familiar with. I wouldn’t recommend picking up an… oboe, for example, if you’ve never played one before.”
“That makes sense,” I agreed as I noted down his advice on some paper. “I suppose it’ll be noticeable in the background if I’m not overly familiar with a certain instrument.”
“Exactly.” Collins winked. “You’ve got this in the bag, Jesse. I just know it.”
“Thanks.” I smiled.
As Professor Collins wandered over to the next student, I continued to stare out the window as a table of instruments appeared in my head. I thought over the ones I’d played in the past, or dabbled with during high school. I had the full academic year to create and produce the album, so I had time to perfect a certain instrument if I had to.
But then, just as I skimmed over the woodwind selection, a tiny bird fluttered down and sat on the edge of the window ledge. The bird appeared to have a green-and-white speckled body with a large red patch of feathers around its neck almost like it was wearing a scarf. But the main focal point of the bird was its long, thin beak.
It was a damn hummingbird.
I narrowed my eyes.
Just over a week ago, when I’d murdered the werefox alpha, Myles Beck, it came to my attention that Myles had ordered someone to spy on me, and that spy was the reason why my SDD file had been updated so quickly after every fight.
I knew this guy as “Matthew Moss,” but that was actually a fake name he used to help stay in the background. He had gotten in contact with several different alphas, who all ended up coming after me and my pack, so he gave them all different names.
Thanks to my connections, though, I’d finally sorted through the bullshit a bit.
The guy’s real name was Archie Best, and he’d been on my radar since the day Myles’ corpse was buried deep underground. He probably thought he’d gotten away with his little games, but Archie had to remember that he was up against The Alpha, not some young entitled puppy who was born with a silver fucking spoon in their mouth.
Archie Best was also a damn hummingbird, which made him harder to catch, but it also caused an eerie feeling to fill my body when that little bird settled itself on the window ledge.
Was that Archie spying on me, or was it an innocent hummingbird going about its day?
I subtly sniffed the air just in case I caught on to a familiar shifter scent, but the only notable scent was the unwashed underarms of the person sitting beside me.
But if that was Archie, I imagined he’d be smart enough to take an anosmiac to mask his scent before he followed me around campus.
On the other hand, I had a feeling Archie would already know what happened to Myles, and he certainly knew what I was capable of. So maybe he’d fled the state and moved halfway across the country by now. Perhaps, after everything that happened with Myles, Archie thought it wasn’t worth the hassle and decided to leave me alone?
In all honesty, I wasn’t sure whether that would solve all my problems or not. Matthew, Archie, whatever the fuck his name was, had caused so many issues during the last month or two. His intel could have cost my omegas their lives, and that was just unforgivable.
He also knew far too much about me.
If that information found itself into the wrong hands, it would be like I had to face Myles Beck all over again.
This guy needed to be stopped, and my entire pack could potentially be in danger if we didn’t kill this man before he came across a new threatening alpha to unload my information onto.
But because it had only been a week since we’d killed the pseudo Great Reuniter, Myles Beck, things were still pretty fresh. I had no idea what it meant to slaughter the head of the Shifter Detection Department, but I knew all of that information would come in time.
My pack had also changed in that time, including size and location. I had hundreds of new betas and beta captains which I’d acquired after the fight, all of which lived on the east coast, so I still hadn’t properly met them yet. Still, that meant my pack now covered pretty much all of the east and west coasts of the country, so it was a damn good thing I had beta captains dotted around the place to keep the betas in line.
The werewolf betas from Lewiston, Idaho, the werecats from Eugene, Oregon, and the ravens from Canyon City, Oregon had all returned home to cover those areas. Monroe and Everleigh simply weren’t big enough to house everyone, but I also no longer needed to have constant protection around me now that Myles was out of the picture. Archie Best was our only known threat right now, so I made sure everyone kept an eye out for a fucking hummingbird.
My lawyer, Arthur Mordaine, had also moved back into his birdhouse-like cottage in the woods. He had been threatened by Romeo Bell, a werewolf alpha from Myles’ collection of shifter buddies, so Mordaine had been living with some of my betas in Everleigh just in case anything else happened.
That fucker was dead now, though, so at least my eccentric avian lawyer felt safe enough to return home.
There was only one of Myles’ alphas who’d survived the fight, and it was an Italian-born werecoyote called Carlo Abella. Carlo had willingly submitted himself to me, so now he was a beta captain, and he’d returned back home to Pennsylvania. He made sure to watch over the other states in that area for me, too, and the two of us were in constant contact.
In fact, Carlo Abella was returning to Oregon this evening because he needed to have a meeting with me, but I wasn’t quite sure what the meeting was about. He just said it had to happen in person, which was fine with me.
But the biggest difference since the death of Myles Beck was the arrival of my newest omega, Caitlin.
Caitlin Barrera was about ten years older than myself and my other omegas, but that wasn’t an issue. In fact, it only made her more attractive. She lived in New York, and she had two children with Myles, named Chloe and Zac, who lived there, too, but she was still with us for now.
I hoped Caitlin would decide to live with us permanently, but I knew it would mean moving her children across the country, too, so it was a lot to think about. She already felt like a part of the family, and my other omegas loved her as much as I did, so we’d all be heartbroken if she had to return to New York.
Myles Beck had other omegas, but I was still trying to work out what happened to them, and their current locations. I had two friends who worked in higher positions for the SDD, Rachel and Kinley, and they knew everything about everyone, but even they hadn’t been able to find these omegas. According to Kinley, the omegas no longer appeared to be on the agency’s system, so Myles must have removed them to keep them safe.
Either way, and regardless of how frustrating that was, at least I had Caitlin and my other five omegas, so I wasn’t too concerned. I’d find the missing women if I tried hard enough.
But I’d also accept their wishes if they’d rather leave the shifter community completely. Caitlin said she had a feeling the other fox omegas had young children, so if the omegas decided to take their children away from this world to keep them safe, then I’d accept that.
Overall, the recent events were a lot for everyone to adjust to, but it had only been a week, so I was sure my pack would be quite comfortable with the number of changes once everything had settled down.
We sure as hell could use the break.
I spent the rest of the morning going over the ideas I’d scribbled down onto a piece of paper, and the afternoon would involve adding to the notes and putting more details in the rough outline.
But first it was time for lunch, and it felt like my stomach had been growling all morning.
A shifter didn’t exactly have the same appetite as a human, so I prayed the cafeteria had something appetizing and somewhat edible on the menu.
I quickly left the room and headed across campus to reach the cafeteria, but just as I turned a corner, I heard someone calling out my name.
“Jesse!” Benji said again.
I turned around to see my half-brother running to catch up with me. His dark blond hair was messy and uncombed, and I was pretty sure he’d worn the same t-shirt and jeans yesterday, but Benji wasn’t exactly known for picking out new outfits every day.
“Hey, bro.” He smiled as he slapped me on the shoulder.
“Hey,” I replied.
Dude, he said silently as he continued to head toward the cafeteria. You will not fucking believe what I just saw.
What? I frowned.
A damn hummingbird on the window ledge, Benji hissed. I swear, those birds are out to get us now. The little winged bastards.
I saw the same thing, I replied. At first I thought it was just a regular hummingbird, which it still could have been, but if you saw it, too…
Maybe it’s Archie? Benji asked as he adjusted the black straps of his backpack. But maybe it is just a random hummingbird trying to ruin our lives?
I suppose we won’t find out until we know what Archie even looks like in his animal form. I shrugged.
What did yours look like? Benji questioned. Mine was, like, green-and-white with a red neck.
Same. I nodded. I mean, your class wasn’t far from mine, so there’s every possibility the bird flew to your window, hung around for a bit, and then flew toward mine. Or it was Archie, and he was keeping an eye on everyone.
Either way, I’ve already informed our campus security, Benji explained. I thought they all needed to know what to look out for, just so we’re all on the same page.
Good idea. I smiled.
My betas, Christopher, Gemma, Kristina, Serena, and Zane made up our campus security, and it made everything much easier and safer knowing they knew to look out for hummingbirds, too.
Fucking hummingbirds. It was difficult to believe something as small and innocent as them could seem as large and savage as a damn vulture.
Benji and I spotted our friend, Parker, as we left the Erickson building, but he just winked at us, laughed, and continued to head toward his final destination. Parker was the only one out of our human friends who knew about our shifter secret, even though we hadn’t planned on telling him in the first place. But so far, Parker had stuck to his promise, and he hadn’t told a soul about our secret lives.
However, the winking and laughing wasn’t exactly subtle.
Hey, Jesse? Nikita’s silent voice suddenly ran through my mind. My professor needed to talk to me about something, so I’m only just leaving class now. Can you get some food for me, and I’ll meet you two at the table?
Of course. I smiled at just the sound of her voice in my head. Do you want a little bit of everything?
I don’t think I even need to answer that question, she giggled. Thank you! I’ll see you soon!
Nikita only had a couple months left of her pregnancy, and she couldn’t seem to go an hour without having something to eat. Her bag was constantly filled with little snacks she could eat throughout class, and her plates were always loaded with food.
