The alpha 2, p.2
The Alpha 2, page 2
“Alright,” the first woman giggled and then looked my way. “Well, I’m Serena.”
“Annika.” The strawberry-blonde gave a small wave.
They didn’t say much else and sat back down.
Finally, the last werecat stood up, a man with short, sand-colored hair and blocky glasses.
“I guess it’s my turn,” he said as he rubbed his arm. “I’m Thomas. Max and I had a lot of the same classes, and he used to copy my homework, so if you ever need to borrow notes, I’m here for you.”
“I appreciate it,” I laughed awkwardly. “But I think I’ll be fine.”
“What kind of notes?” Benji asked, and Nikita elbowed him in the side. “Ouch! Hey, it’s midterm season. A man’s gotta study.”
Thomas smiled and sat back down.
I surveyed the room once more and nodded.
“Well, I’m Jesse,” I said before I turned a little to point toward my new captains and my omega. “You know Nikita, maybe a little better now than before.”
“Sorry to hoodwink you all,” my lover said with a bittersweet expression.
“This is Benji, and this is my Aunt Eva.” I indicated between the two of them in turn. “Now, I don’t know what the werecat equivalent is, but in this pack, both of them will be referred to as captains. They will be my right-hand people, and I guess if I’m ever not around, and you want to talk about anything, you can find them, and they’ll point you my way.”
“Wow.” Christopher nodded with an impressed expression. “You’ve got this business figured out.”
“We’re a team now,” I replied. “I thought it would be good to set up some order from the get-go.”
“So, you’re really the Alpha from those old legends?” Serena asked in an awed tone.
“Seems like it, or we all wouldn’t be here.” I smiled. “You are part of the beginning of a new era, and we’re going to grow strong together and do a lot of really great things. But the first bit of business we need to address is the whole Aiden situation. He’s going to want revenge, and we’ve got moxie, but we need to back that up with some real fighting power. So, we’re going to go for the werecoyotes.”
A collective noise of surprise passed through the room.
“Damn.” Zane whistled. “Really?”
“A larger pack will come with better defenses,” I said. “I say we gather some more information and prepare ourselves. That’s going to be our mission for the next week. Any objections?”
No one had anything to say about that. In fact, the people seemed to be excited about the operation. I figured that before me, shifters dealt mostly with their own kind and didn’t try to gather pack members from outside their race. But as the Alpha, I didn’t have to worry about those kinds of niceties.
As Nikita had told me, the sky was the limit.
“Then we’re in agreement,” I concluded. “Great. We’ll attack as soon as possible. But before we get to that, I think we need to figure out what we’re going to do with the mess at the other house.”
The living room lapsed into silence as everyone collectively remembered the mess ahead of us.
While the fight against Max yesterday ended up being successful, there was also a fair bit of carnage waiting for us now. I could close my eyes and imagine the blood-soaked halls and the werecat corpses waiting for us back in that big house, and it made my stomach clench up.
“We’re gonna have to deal with the bodies,” I said once again to my little pack. “Sooner rather than later. I know these circumstances are a little… strange.”
From across the room, Aunt Eva politely cleared her throat, and I looked over at her as she offered a comforting expression my way.
“Well, Jesse, it’s actually a fairly common shifter problem,” she said. “Grisly though it may seem, it’s pretty normal.”
“She’s right,” Serena chimed in. “Max has sent us off to clean up after fights in the past. There’s some spots in the woods we use to dispose of bodies, secluded spaces and all.”
“We’d be willing to take care of that,” Annika said as she twirled her hair. “We’re your betas, after all. It’s our biological duty to serve you.”
“Oh.” I glanced around the room and saw all the werecats nodding in agreement. “I, uh, I thought this would be a bigger deal.”
Everyone looked thoroughly nonplussed about this whole thing. It was like we were discussing the weather rather than a war zone.
“Eh.” Christopher shrugged. “That’s just how this goes, man. Only the weak ones fall in battle, anyways.”
“We’ve got plenty of bleach and cleaning supplies back at the house,” Thomas said. “We can have the place cleaned up by noon.”
A couple of the werecats rose up to their feet.
“Would you like for us to go clean the house now, Alpha?” Eliza asked in a polite tone. “We can take care of the bodies as well.”
“You know what?” I replied. “Yeah, that’d be great. We can follow you over shortly after to check in on your progress.”
“You heard the man,” Zane said to the others. “Let’s go.”
The remaining werecats stood up and all began to shuffle out of the house, so Aunt Eva, Benji, Nikita, and I walked with them to the porch and watched them hop into their cars and pull out. There was a chill to the morning air, but even so, I knew spring would creep up on us before we knew it.
I waited until the werecats were out of sight before I let a loud sigh escape, and my shoulders sagged a little as I did.
“Thank God,” I said. “I wasn’t looking forward to that.”
“You’re trying to get out of cleaning duty?” Benji teased.
“I can do kitchens. I have no desire to tackle blood and body disposal.”
“You might not always have this option,” Aunt Eva warned me in a compassionate tone. “Your father had to clean his share of messes. It’s horrid work, but it’s part of who we are.”
“I know, I know,” I sighed.
As we turned to go back inside, I heard the familiar chime tone I set for my school email from my back pocket. I pulled out my phone and looked to see what was up, and when I saw the subject line, my heart skipped a little.
It was Professor Collins, and he was following up about the audition he’d offered me a few days ago.
I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about this. Granted, I did have a lot on my mind when he first suggested to me I try out for the quintet set to play at the alumni banquet, but I should have known better. The quintet was typically reserved for seniors, but Professor Collins suggested I audition because he’d seen so much growth in me over the years. Not only that, but Jack Nolan, a prolific musician and Everleigh alumni, would be coming to this banquet, and Professor Collins said it would be a great segue into actually meeting such an important guy in my field.
I kicked myself for not saying yes from the get-go. I didn’t want to pass this opportunity by. However, I was also the Alpha now, and there was a whole group of people counting on me to lead them.
“Jess?”
I looked up from my phone and realized Benji and I were the last two people on the porch, and my friend was staring at me with a concerned expression.
“Sorry,” I said as I put my phone back into my pocket.
“Are you doing okay?” Benji asked.
“I guess.” I shrugged. “Professor Collins is waiting for me to answer him about that audition.”
“Riiight, you mentioned that.” Benji offered a sympathetic grin. “So, you’re gonna do it, right?”
“I dunno.” I rubbed my arm. “Maybe I should just wait for next year?”
“Jesse, Jack Nolan might not be there next year,” Benji reminded me.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be mixing up my academics and my daily life right now,” I said. “Especially with the whole Aiden thing. Can you imagine? I’d be in public and pretty much defenseless.”
“Oh, yeah.” My captain rubbed his chin. “You have a point.”
“I want to do both, believe me,” I continued. “And maybe one day, I can balance it. Part of me thinks I should sit it out, but then the other part of me doesn’t want to stifle all those dreams yet, you know?”
Benji nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a tough call. Maybe you talk it out with Collins. However you end up deciding, though, I’ll support you.”
“You mean it?” I felt a hint of tension unwind in my shoulders.
“Sure, dude.” Benji grinned. “You’re my best friend, my brother, and my Alpha. And whether you’re leading your pack or killing it on the violin, I’m gonna stand by you, because that’s what friends do.”
“Thank you,” I said as we drifted back inside. “Really, I appreciate it.”
Aunt Eva sat in one of the armchairs, and Nikita looked over at me and patted the edge of the sofa.
“You wanna join me?” she asked.
I did, and as Benji lowered himself into the other armchair, Nikita put her head in my lap with a soft sigh.
I absently stroked her golden-brown hair.
“Well, then,” Aunt Eva led off. “The betas are tending to the new house, and we have a plan moving forward. I would consider that a productive morning.”
“So, uh, how does the new house thing really work?” I asked. “Like sure, we can all say I inherited his stuff, but aren’t there titles and other important documents that would contradict me?”
“In older times, it was an understood agreement,” Aunt Eva said. “No need to sign any paperwork or do very much at all. Nowadays, you’re right, it is a little more complicated. But there are shifters who specialize in helping to sort out the legal side of the transfer of assets. Usually, they’re unaffiliated with the defeated alpha or the victor. I personally haven’t talked with any in a long time, but we can put some feelers out.”
“Shifter lawyers.” I laughed without humor. “And I thought I was getting a handle on understanding all this.”
“You’re taking it all better than I thought you would,” Benji said.
“Thanks…?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Wait, is that a compliment?”
“I’d say so,” Nikita chimed in from my lap, and she turned a little to look up at me.
“Alphas taking out other alphas is pretty common practice,” Aunt Eva assured me. “We can get everything taken care of with no trouble. But you wouldn’t get in trouble if you wanted to move in now.”
“Move into Max’s house?” I looked over at her with a lifted eyebrow and chuckled. “You kicking me out, Aunt Eva?”
“No, no.” My aunt laughed a little, too. “You’re more than welcome to stay if you choose to. But having a second home will be great for the pack. And it could give you a chance to step out on your own. And of course, I wouldn’t be too far away, either.”
“Huh.” I turned my head one way and then the other. “Maybe we can consider this a little later down the road. If Aiden’s got a target on my back, I’m thinking I should try to lay low for a bit until we strengthen the pack.”
“That’s a fair decision,” Nikita said. “Aiden knows where Max’s house is. He probably wouldn’t be able to find you as easily if you weren’t there, you know?”
“Exactly.” I looked out the window for a brief moment. “So, these werecoyotes… what do we know about them?”
“I know they’ve pretty much claimed Monroe as their own,” Benji offered.
“Monroe?” I looked over at him. “Like a thirty-minute drive from us? I’ve never really gone there.”
“Not much reason to go. It’s a pretty small town. Maybe a few shops on the main street, some houses, and that’s about it. It’s kind of southeast from here, when you’re heading toward the interstate.”
“Ah.” I sat back a little on the sofa and was absorbed by the plush cushions.
“They’ve formed a tight-knit community,” Aunt Eva said. “Their pack has been under the control of the same family for generations. They keep to themselves for the most part, but I’m going to speculate their pack is double the size of the werecats you just obtained.”
“So, we’ll probably be two-to-one in combat.” I continued to stroke Nikita’s hair. “Good to know.”
“Yeah, but you can take it.” Nikita shifted off me to sit up, and she stared at me straight on. “You took Max down like he was nothing.”
“Not nothing,” I admitted with a slight blush. “I mean, there was a bit of a struggle.”
“Yeah, but only one of you survived,” Benji added. “That counts for something.”
“And anyways, you’ll train,” my omega mate insisted. “You’ll get stronger. And then you’ll kick some werecoyote alpha ass. You’ve got the benefit of surprise on your side, so this whole thing is in the bag.”
“I think your enthusiasm is in the right place,” Aunt Eva interjected with a hint of warning in her tone. “But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here.”
“Why not?” Nikita asked innocently.
“Because, dear,” Eva sighed. “The fact of the matter is these werecoyotes outnumber our pack. I don’t doubt in any of your abilities to handle the situation, but if you barrel into this with inflated egos, you’re no better off than the alpha you just killed.”
“Aunt Eva’s right,” I agreed as I grabbed my omega’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. “But that’s okay, because it doesn’t have to be a cakewalk. The challenge will help us grow, you know? And that will help me get more used to all this shifter stuff, too.”
Nikita scanned my face for a while before she let out a resigned sigh.
“I just want you to know you’re special, Alpha,” she confessed. “And I’ve got all the confidence in the world in you.”
“Me, too,” Benji chimed in. “But I wouldn’t say the special bit. You’re already enough of a narcissist as it is.”
“Hey!” I turned to my friend as he broke out into a peal of laughter. “Since when have I ever been narcissistic?”
“I tease, I tease!” Benji lifted his hands in a “don’t shoot the messenger” kind of way. “I’m going to make it my goal to do regular checks to make sure this prophecy stuff doesn’t go to your head too much. You’ll thank me later when you’re recalled by your subjects as a just ruler.”
“You’re lucky I already promoted you,” I teased.
Nikita giggled a little, too, and I noticed a smile break through Aunt Eva’s serious demeanor.
“In any case…” I let go of Nikita and put my hands on my knees. “I think this is a good start. And it’s Saturday, so we don’t have to worry about going to campus for a couple days while we get all this stuff sorted out.”
“I think the break will serve you well,” Aunt Eva agreed.
My phone started to ring in my back pocket and made me flinch a little. I worked my fingers into my pocket, pulled down the device, and checked the caller ID.
“Parker’s calling me,” I announced, mostly to Benji.
“Parker?” my friend confirmed. “Why?”
“No clue.” I frowned.
Parker and I had been friends for nearly as long as I’d been friends with Benji. He was among the group of guys Benji and I had played DnD with every Tuesday ever since our freshman year of college. I realized, with a hint of embarrassment, that I actually hadn’t talked to the guy since Monday, since I’d missed out on our Tuesday session this week because of the incident at the Mini-Mart that started this whole werewolf shifter experience.
Oops.
“Parker, my man,” I said with a splash of overzealous joy.
“Oh, my God, you’re alive!” the man cried out from the other end of the line. “Where the hell have you been, man? You and Benji both have been unreachable this week.”
“My bad,” I apologized. I glanced over at Benji and realized the captain leaned forward in an attempt to hear the conversation, so I lowered the phone and put it on speaker. “Benji’s here, too, by the way.”
“I still resent you for last session,” Benji said by way of greeting. “What kind of idiot challenges a group of bandits to a fight empty-handed?”
“Aris knows damn well what he’s doing,” Parker quipped back. He was talking about the barbarian he’d been playing as in our latest campaign. Parker leaned into the fact that he’d rolled a very low intelligence score for the guy, and it created some interesting scenarios as a result.
“Right.” Benji rolled his eyes. “And the fact that I used up all my healing spells to keep your bitch ass alive?”
Aunt Eva wrinkled her brow in confusion. I’d attempted to explain our campaign and the game in general to her multiple times, and though she understood the gist of our adventures, the game as a whole had never really caught her attention.
Nikita, on the other hand, looked thoroughly invested with this tiny story of our escapades, and she clung on to every word with an eager look.
“We didn’t get too far, anyways,” Parker insisted. “Not without Jesse playing, at least.”
“I’m glad I didn’t hold up game night too much, then,” I chuckled.
“We goofed off in the city for an hour waiting for you, and then Jake suggested we play Munchkin until you showed up,” Benji explained.
“And the rest is history,” Parker concluded. “Anyways, that’s not why I called. I had to check and see if you’d heard the news.”
“What news, Parker?” I wrinkled my nose.
“About the missing student, dude,” Parker said. “Max Jansen is missing. And the cops found something like an animal attack, too.”
Chapter Two
If you’d like to see a map of Monroe, you can see it on my Patreon (search Google for ‘Patreon Eric Vall’), or you can find it in my Facebook group (Search for ‘Eric Vall’ in Facebook Groups). It’s also linked on my website at www.ericvall.com
My blood ran cold as I tensed on the couch, and Nikita, Benji, and Aunt Eva’s faces all flickered with a hint of fear as well.
My mind started to spiral at once.
They’d found Max. The cops had come by the house and sized up our carnage before we could clean any of it up. Maybe they’d taken all the betas into custody already.
