The Alpha's False Mate

CHAPTER 13: A New Start

I bite my lower lip and angle my chin in a slightly upward position. I stare at the white ceiling, setting out to find the best answer to Clark’s question. This shouldn’t be this difficult! I could just let Cloette go, and if something bad happens to her, I wouldn’t be blamed for it. I did my part. I helped her. Now, it’s up to her to help herself. I direct my view back to Clark and say,

“Let her do what makes her feel comfortable. It’s her life.”

The anger inside of me decreases after spewing those words, realizing that I don’t have the right to be angry at Cloette’s choice. With that, I swing my thoughts back to the black BMW that might have a connection to Olivia’s attack.

“Let’s focus to what you’re saying earlier.”

“Right! According to the report, the police found a plateless black BMW in a junk shop near the Immaculate Conception Church in Baguio City, which is extremely far from the crime scene. Iago personally identified it as the one he saw the night he found Ms. Olivia.”

I rest my fingers above my lips as I say, “The East Nebula pack owns and protects the northern territory. I wasn’t expecting them to be our pack’s enemy. Whether it’s really them or not, the only purpose of the attack is to stop our pack from having a much younger and stronger main alpha.”

Father’s skills and strength in battle aren’t the same as what he used to have back in his younger years. He doesn't wanna find another luna after my mother, in addition to the primary reason why he and the rest of the pack are pushing me to take his place and lead.

Clark pivots the conversation back to the police’s investigation. He says, “Before I forget to mention, the BMW is perfectly cleaned. Iago couldn’t trace any scent of the culprits at all. Also, there's no evidence found that'll pin, whoever owned the car, to the crime.”

I exhale a breath of frustration then walk past Clark to get a better view of my other gammas. I say as I look around them, “Make sure that no other packs, aside from our pack, could get inside our territory. We’ve been very welcoming to some of them over the last couple of years.”

Instead of agreeing with me as what I’m expecting, they only glance at each other. Though they maintain impassive faces and calm posture, their hesitation about my declaration hangs in the air.

“If my father is the reason why you think it isn’t possible, don’t worry about it. I’ll talk to him.”

They remain unresponsive and it’s only Clark who shows the audacity to counter, “But Alpha Lavine, Alpha Rusell initiated the law that only the hostile packs towards us aren’t authorized to set foot in Metro Manila. He made this rule to garner trust from the other packs for business purposes. If you intend to break that rule, then…” He swallows, dwelling on whether he should proceed or not. In the end, he chooses to keep his mouth shut when he sees my baleful glare.

I’m not s.tupid! I know exactly what we’re about to lose if we’re to ban all the other packs from entering Metro Manila. Our pack will lose connections. Losing connections means losing trade partners from other regions, which will hit our businesses hard. Now, if I'm to pursue my plan, I need to give a valid and practical reason why. Telling my father that my future luna was attacked by some of our trusted fellow werewolves and is now in a coma, is where my disadvantage will come from. I have to pore over this before everything is too late. My father must know that we can’t gamble our trust on the East Nebula Pack. Since they managed to attempt to kill my future luna, it’s not a question if they’ll do it again to our other pack members.

When fatigue crams my head, the only solution I could rely on to make me feel better is to get some rest. Therefore, I say, “I’ll head back to my suite. Don’t call me unless something important comes up.”

“Yes, Alpha Lavine,” my pack mates reply.

While getting back into my car using the backdoor that directly leads to the garage, I could feel the sides of my head pulsating with overflowing problems after problems. What makes the worst come to worst, is the actuality that Cloette, whom I shouldn’t care about, is screaming for my attention too. Annoyance tumbles in my chest. I don’t even know whether to aim it at me or at her.

As I drive my way towards the Golden Empire Hotel, the impulse to find out if Cloette is doing okay nags me, shattering my stance to let her do whatever she wants.

“I can’t believe that I’m doing this to myself,” I murmur with sharpness in my words.

I turn my car around and towards the place where I might find her - in Buan Homes, where she lives. The series of lamp posts brighten up the peaceful road while the featureless night sky showers its dim light. It’s around four in the morning when I arrive at my destination. My stomach stirs the instant I get out of my Bugatti. The reek of rotten food and animals’ feces detonates in the air like bombs. This causes me to hold my breath every ten seconds or so. The only pleasant scent that’s dawdling around the area is the smell of sweet jasmine. That smell serves me right, Cloette has nowhere to go except here. When I step on the stairs, somewhere on the upper floor, one voice subjugates the others. It’s a woman’s and it’s mad as hell. I shrug it off and just carry on in getting to Cloette’s room. The moment I land on the third floor’s corridor, my body cripples in place while my heart scuttles to my feet. The voice that keeps yelling since I was on the ground floor belongs to the woman I saw before and she’s shooting it at Cloette. Bags and heaps of clothes are scattered on the floor while Cloette is kneeling down, folding the clothes and putting them inside the bags.

“Not only that you're not paying your rent, but because of the wolves you brought here, many tenants left!”

Cloette’s gaze is dipped in her belongings. She’s silent and, surprisingly, not crying. Her wolf is doing a good job in controlling her tears. She glances over her shoulder to fire a glance at me. But the moment she does, the old lady strikes her in the head with her hand.

“What are you looking at?!” the woman yells.

The wrinkles on her forehead deepen and so does the redness on her face. I run the instant a growl escapes from Cloette’s mouth. Just before she could get to her feet, I clutch her in my arms and pull her away from the woman. Fangs are already protruding from her gums and fur is occurring on her forearms. Without letting her go, I whisper,

“Control yourself. Just relax and breathe.”

Though she’s still releasing guttural noises, but they're not as intense as the ones seconds ago. I free her from my grip so I could rotate and face the lady whose anger is swooping to the rooftop.

“So, are you friends with her?” she asks.

Though there’s a hint of anger in her tone, her approach to me is not as crazy as her approach to Cloette.

“About the wolves,...”

Without permitting me to finish my sentence, she chips in. “Yeah right! That woman brought the wolves here. She’s so ignorant and didn’t even think that those animals aren’t household pets.” She places the back of her fingers on her waist as she continues, “And don’t defend her about those wolves. Me and her neighbors saw how one of the wolves carried her on its back from this room,” she says, pointing towards Cloette’s room. “...until they entered an expensive-looking car. That’s a proof she owns them!”

Before she could blabber more, I say with firmness and without regret, “I own the wolves.”

Cloette gasps at my back, but I don’t glance at her coz I don’t wanna withdraw my sight from the crinkled face of the woman in front of me. The woman chuckles softly then scratches her head, making her prematurely white hair become more disorderly-looking.

“Do you want me to yell at you too?” she sneers.

“You don’t have to,” I say, confidently. “I believe the root of your anger is money, right?”

The woman arches an eyebrow. She folds her bare arms as she darts her sight from my face to my shoes and vice versa.

“How much does she owe you, including all the damages caused by my wolves?” I ask.

Cloette clutches my arm, then says, “No! I’ll pay her myself!”

Our attention is plucked from each other when the woman sniggers.

“You still think that you can redeem yourself from your jaw-dropping debts?!”

“I’ll…”

I stop Cloette with a wave of my hand before turning to the woman and ask again, “How much do you want so we can leave?”

The woman raises her gaze towards the ceiling of Cloette’s open room. It only takes her a matter of seconds before answering, “Can you pay 200,000 pesos?”

“That’s too much!” Cloette hisses.

I steady my unsettlingly calm eyes to the woman, which she avoids to look at. I ask, “Your complete name?”

“Lolit Gonzales,” she responds, still can’t look at me straight.

I bring out my phone and dial my secretary’s number - a beta of my pack.

“Later, at exactly seven in the morning, bring a 200,000 peso cash in Buan Homes, third floor, room 39. It’s a few streets from Quinta Marketplace. The receiver is Lolit Gonzales, the owner of the apartment building.”

[“Okay. What’s the reason I’ll record for the withdrawal?”]

I smirk insufferably then say, “Charity. This apartment building is the worst I’ve seen. It’s filthy and it needs serious renovation.”

My words give the old lady the courage to glare and grunt at me. While she’s at it, I widen my smirk. She turns to Cloette’s former room, shuts its door with deliberate force and locks it. She glares at me again then at Cloette before disappearing through the corridor without looking back. I hunker down to gather all Cloette’s clothes. After packing all of her belongings, she immediately ambles towards the direction of the stairs without a single word to me.

“Not even a ‘thank you’?” I ask.

Though it’s nothing serious, she angles her body to me, offers a weak smile and says, “You told me not to thank you all the time. But thanks anyways.”

She turns her heels again and walks away. That’s an attitude! I walk forward with small steps, tailing her down the stairs. Both of us are not saying anything which makes the silence almost unbearable to hear.

“So,” I start, making an effort to pause the silence. “Where are you gonna go?”

“I’m still thinking,” she replies without glancing back.

For reasons I can’t explain, my words intuitively glide from my throat. “Stay in my mansion.”

She stops walking and so do I. Still with her back facing me, she asks bitterly, “And you?”

“I barely go home to that mansion, I live in my suite… in my hotel. I won’t come home until you learn some skills to fight and find a new place to stay. I don't think you're comfortable around me.”

Slowly, she turns around and directs her compelling coffee eyes to mine. Regardless of how her posture shows some reluctance, she successfully transforms her thoughts into words.

“I thought that by leaving, I can at least lessen or stop my indebtedness to you. But I just realized that I’m still incapable of doing everything on my own.”

“And while you’re still incapable, stay with me.”

Cloette jerks at what I said, her eyes broaden. When I repeat my statement in my mind, I finally perceive that the way I phrased it could mean something I didn’t wish to. So I set my shoulders back and reword it, “You can stay at my mansion. The members of my pack can help you until you’re ready.”

The awkwardness between us starts to occur and that awkwardness becomes absolutely palpable when, in an unexpected turn of event, Cloette speaks.

“I need you. Not only because I’m still weak but also because I… I’ve… fallen for you. I wanna pay back all your kindness to me while helping you with your father’s demand.”

Time stops. Sequence of inexpressible emotions charges through me when she adds,

“Make me your false mate.”