Alpha Beach

The Locker Room

Lana left her to her business as it was really none of hers. 

Michelle knew her friend, who had already presented as an Alpha would have no problem making sure she set things straight with Shane or any other Alpha for her. But Lana also knew when to back off. 

It wouldn’t do either of them any good if Lana misspoke. An Alpha’s ego is fragile after all, she told herself. 

On the way to the third stretch she did her best to come up with a plan. Michelle practiced her lines and even the way she decided to say hello to him, if she could find him. There was a slim possibility he wasn’t working after all and if that was the case he could already be gone. 

Guilt pitted in her stomach at the thought. It was nearly too heavy to feel the joy of body surfing in instead of standing through her last ride. While there were other beach goers there, it wasn’t worth gaining attention now anyway. If she could, she would have walked out of the waves with her board in front of her, shielding her from any additional mess she could have gotten herself into.

The sand felt less welcoming to her as she exited. Michelle frowned at the fact. She wondered if it was just her or if something really did happen out there. Or was it that the beach rejected her? 

Michelle shook her head trying to quiet the confusion building in her mind. It claimed wretched things about her. It clamored on about her actions, as if she didn’t already regret them. It suggested she just turn her back and walk away. It told her a number of things, but worst of all that she would never be accepted there or by her Alpha because of what she did today and that burned. 

As she continued on to the beach she realized she was not alone. People ran down the strip and called for her by name. She should have known better, but she looked back at them. It gave these people the ability to reach her which Michelle couldn’t decide if it was a good or a bad thing to allow. Her eyes darted around to scan the crowd. She hoped that Shane was of the guards there, but why would he be? 

She scanned once more, then took a bracing step back. Next she positioned her surfboard between herself and those that came cheering down the beach. 

Some met her with praise while others continued on about how she showed up those Alphas. At first she didn’t know what to say, but as the conversations continued, she relaxed a little. 

A reporter came around the backside of her with his phone in her face. He quickly asked questions pertaining to her decisions and she answered them as honestly as she could.

“Who are you anyway,” Michelle asked carefully. 

“Oh. Um. I’m sorry. I figured you just knew,” the man replied, pointing to the icon on his shirt. “I’m Matthew with Ocean Tri Surf.  A lot of you pros just know…”

“I’m not a pro,” she replied. “I just live here.”

Matthew frowned. His lips pressed together in a thin line before finding the courage to ask, “How old are you?” 

“Old enough to know I don’t need to answer that question,” she carefully replied. 

Michelle didn’t need another Alpha running his mouth in her regard. 

“Hey now,” he grinned as he spoke. “It’s nothing like that. I’m not after your designation’s details. I just want to know how a girl that looks like she might be twelve dropped in on such a momentous occasion and isn’t signed by anyone yet.”

She doesn’t know if he’s trying to sell his broadcast or if he’s being genuine so she simply looks back at him and shrugs. 

“You can’t give me anything in words?” Matt chuckled. 

“Man, there are plenty of good surfers here. Actually, I think it's a requirement to be one if you’re at Alpha Beach,” she sighed and looked out towards the rolling waves. “There’s a wave level for even kids to build their way up…”

“Is that how you started?”

“Nah…” 

His tone seemed gentler now but she knew he was fishing for more. 

“How did you?”

“I just did.”

 It took a while to get away from Matthew and the crowd of strangers and children all giddy to stand by but when she did, she finally made it to the locker rooms. Michelle stood her board up next to the building thinking nothing of it. Hers was one of a kind. One she made herself since she was a kid. Well, a real kid. That board was one she made at the age of six. 

The process of making it herself was therapeutic as it was emotional and every time she would have a moment to really look at her designs, she’d reconnect with herself. The ever distracting voices would go away and she could focus again on what needed to be done. As it stood, showering and getting dressed were it. 

Just as she collected her things, a group of girls came in. None of which she knew or gave her another look, so Michelle pushed on. She hung her bag with her clothes and towel on the outside facing hook of the shower stall as they weren’t big enough to bring in with her. It was a common practice among beach goers but as she turned to lock her door, there was a strange quiet that warned her something was changing. 

Was she?

Was she presenting after all of that?

Michelle wasn’t sure but whatever was happening, it needed to slow down. She needed a second or more to breathe and then some to shower. Her heightening senses only begged for more of her attention while the world around her changed. 

She could hear whispering just over the hiss of the shower head above her and wondered if they were talking about her. While Michelle tried and failed to make out what they were saying, she heard her stall doors’ lock slap against the metal that held it. 

“Someone’s in here,” she called out immediately. 

Michelle wrapped her arms around her small chest in an effort to cover herself in the event that the lock failed her. It slammed against itself several more times as girls passed around the person at the door. 

Again she yelled at the person trying to get in that she was in there and just started. 

“I’ll be a while,” she answered, then added, “There are other stalls!” 

Whoever was out there didn’t seem bothered by her responses. There wasn’t a voice that came along with it, just another beckoning slam against the door as some other intruder stole her bag off of the hook. That one called back to his friends that he got it and she could almost swear that they were the same girls that pushed their way in the locker room with her in the first place. 

“Oh relax, Kitten,” the man groaned on the other side of the stall. Michelle’s mind raced as she fought the urge to scream. 

People screwed up her name all the time but all of those that called her Kitten were scummy old Alphas that could pass as criminals in the next series of Alphas Most Wanted. Most of the time Shane was there to ward off these world class losers from hitting on a kid but thanks to the way she treated him, he wasn’t there. Her distress began to climb only to know that she wouldn’t be saved. Alpha lifeguards didn’t guard the bathrooms which meant she was on her own. 

Michelle dropped her gaze from the lock to the floor and it nearly seemed like the man behind the door knew. Her heart lurched out of her chest as she forced herself to look back at the door. She knew her bathing suit was in range of being grabbed and trying to get it meant she could be too. 

Her mind was full of options now where she thought she would be brainless with worry. Her body was incapable though, still ruined with fear. Even though she was fourteen, she was tall and lean. If the other person so much as got a hold of her wrist, much less her ankles and pulled her just right, she would slide under the two foot space under the door. 

She had to try though. She couldn’t walk around naked!

“H-how do you know my name?” Michelle asked to stall him. 

“Everyone knows you now, Kitten.”

Surely that wasn’t true. She had her friends but she liked her privacy too.

“You’re all over the news,” he grunted, then shouldered the door once more, making her yelp. “I like your pretty sounds. I wonder what you’ll manage when I take you home Little One.”

Michelle wanted to vomit. 

Predators didn’t care if their meat found a designation or not and Michelle was one of those who didn’t have one yet. She was just a teen being attacked in a shower stall. His gravelly voice rang around in her ears telling her to stay quiet. She did not want to give him anything else that would tempt him further. But when the water began to turn cold and she shivered despite the rising heat of the summer day Michelle yipped. She quickly backed away from it and closer to the door without thinking. 

Whoever this man was shifted to take a swipe at her from under the stall. His large palm extended towards her. His fingers grazed her knees as he continued to grab at her. Michelle did her best to get away. She threw herself back into the cold water and gasped at the feel of it once more. She found the urge to fight  the chill racing over her skin to keep her from shrieking but each sensation had heightened her awareness of the crazed man clawing the inside of the door, hoping to claim his prize. 

She watched his arm drop at the sound of people approaching. Finally, she sighed to herself. The sound of children whining about the ice cream they were promised as they came in was enough of a commotion to get him to stop. On its way down, he connected with her bathing suit only to watch his fingers cage it in. He dragged it out of her stall in one quick swipe and was gone. 

Beside her the mother of two had her hands full trying to shower them in the next stall. Her girls panicked at the feel of the freezing cold showers which made the woman swear under her breath. The next locker room was too far away from the boardwalk’s shops to bribe them with anything else either. Michelle quieted her racing heart while listening to such a normal instance after all of that. To think, they couldn't possibly have known what just happened here. 

“...just…it's fine. We’ll handle the sand when we get home,” the mother muttered to herself before turning off the water. “Lets just get the ice cream and…”

“Yay!” one of the girls shouted. 

“Ice cream! I want binella,” another cried. 

“Vanilla,” their mother corrected as the party of three left. 

Again the mood of the locker room had changed. She was left with her thoughts. How was it no one could have realized she was or wasn’t there? Michelle had no scent. Were people following her? She shook her head at that then wanted to cry. It seemed like the case… And now? Now she’s shivering and too afraid to turn off the water but she has to. She has to make a move to get out of there and find literally anyone she knew to help her.