I am Alpha

Chapter Ten.

When we got back to the palace, only Jack and Xander were waiting this time.

Xander approached me and covered my shaking form with a large pelt, and placed a stack of clothes in front of me.

Alpha took me all the way inside, through the same door I exited. I got off of him, trying to stand but my knees gave out on me. Xander stood behind me and caught me, and held me to his chest.

"The first shift is always the hardest. You'll be sore for a day or two, but now that you have your wolf, you'll heal faster." His deep voice engulfed me in it's warmth and I looked at him, shivering.

That's the most I've ever heard him speak, and he's only wearing leather right now so I could feel the hardness of his muscles underneath me.

I didn't answer. I was exhausted and still furious with the Alpha. I stood half standing, completely naked leaning up against Xander's hard warm chest. I sigh.

His arms feel like home, and in my painful and kind of dizzy state, I arch into him.

a low rumble comes somewhere very deep in his chest so only I could hear it.

"Take her to my office." The Alpha said after he'd shifted back, putting on the pants the guards brought for him.

"I want to go to my room." I say but both men seem to ignore me when the Alpha walks out of the door we just came in, taking Jack with him with a nod of his head.

"ALPHA THERIS." My voice cracks but I feel the aura now. It's there, like an echo of power cocooning me in it's power and inside me at the same time, and I pierce it at him.

He stops in the doorway mid-step.

"We will talk later, I have duties and you need rest." And before I can do or say anything else he's back outside, Jack looks at me confused before he follows the Alpha, door slammed shut by the storm that had started back in full force.

My toes are numb against the stone floor and I'm shaking either in rage or from the cold, or both.

Xander coughs.

"Do you want to put clothes on first, or do you want me to just take you back like this?"

I am still naked and pressed up against him, I look up, crooking my neck. His face is the same expressionless mask as always, but a slight pink in his cheeks, which I chalked up to the biting cold.

He's his beautiful with his big round eyes and wides mouth. thick eyebrows creasing in the middle.

His jaw line sharp and his cheekbones strong, his skin a olive tint, but slightly paler this time of year. It was always his lips that grasped my attention. Full and always slightly down turned, the bottom slightly bigger than the top.

"I want ..." I frown at him. and look at his lips which were ever so slightly parted, as if he's unsure about the situation. "ahem.. clothes." I finish.

He helps me lean against the stone tunnel wall and helps me dress, having me lean on him to stick my shaking and sore legs into the pant holes. I'd gasp every time he accidentally touches the skin of my leg or the side of my breast.

He looks at me with eyes black before looking away when I drop the pelt to put on the extra large tunic. Then he gently picks me up bridal style to carry me.

Ever the respectful gentleman. sigh.

Last time this passageway had servants hustling back and forth, this time it was completely empty.

"Did you know?" I asked Xander, my arm up behind his neck.

He looks at me, dark eyes shadowed by the poor light. His face was almost neutral, but there was a sliver of emotion in there. Just enough to be my answer.

I let go of his collar. "Let me go, I wish to walk."

"Faire, you can barely stand."

That's the first time he's said my name. I liked it.

"I wish to walk."

"Tough." He said. And continued walking with me in his arms.

"You knew?"

Still no real answer, just a frown.

"Are you.. okay?"

This time it was my turn not to answer.

I was so exhausted... and his body was so warm, his hold so strong. I leaned my head on his shoulder.

I don't know when I started to doze off, until I saw black.

...

I woke up on a couch in the Alpha's office, a fire blazing on the hearth to my right.

People were outside shifting now, I could hear the howls and barks in the distance of wolves enjoying themselves, from the cracked office window. The Run was something the hosting Alpha usually led at midnight which I imagine he is out there doing now.

I looked down at my toes, covered in dirt. I stood up, having to slowly wrench myself up. Every muscle and every bone aches horribly.

I half shuffle, half limp to the office door. Out there two guards stand by, one of them nameless to me, The other is Xavier.

He didn't look at me, but he did turn his head slightly to the side as if to hear me better.

"The Alpha gave orders to have you stay here tonight." He says in a deep tone, so low, if it weren't for my wolf hearing I probably would have asked him to repeat it.

"But it's morning now." I say softly, smiling.

Well it was after midnight...

Xavier only looks at me deadpan. His eyes were dark green, and had almost an exasperated look to them

He was so, very tall, taller than the Alpha even, maybe 6'9"? and very large. He looks like Alpha's should. And him deadpanning is the most emotion I've ever seen him show. Except for maybe the night we met.

He became a part of my main guard a year ago, when he was on border patrol. He was a recently added member of the pack, had been a lone wolf when he was caught in the midst of a battle between the valley of the harvest moon pack when Alpha Brenigan tried to take its lands, and had apparently saved Alpha Theris' life and offered a place in our pack.

The night I met him, I had escaped to go to the lake for a late night swim, when I stumbled upon a couple of rogues.

Rogues were feral wolves. People who lose their mates and survive, or suffer a huge emotional trauma, and lose themselves to their wolves, and they don't become like normal wolves.

They are quite literally feral. Some walked in packs, some killed anything that crossed their path, including other rogues.

That night, I watched up wind as two Rogue wolves tearing into the flesh of a half alive female wolf while r****g it's corpse. She whimpered ever so slightly, dying too slowly.

The sight was so gruesome, I forgot my stealth when I ran, when the two wolves heard and followed. I was screaming for help and it was not much later when a huge grey wolf leapt into their path.

The grey wolf headed for the one closest to me, killed it with a bite to the throat, snapping it's neck and immediately tossing it aside. The second one, he let it bleed out to suffer.

I watched the the wolf turn back into the man as I watched that rogue bleed. I started walking back to the poor female wolf. The naked man grasped my wrist and I looked at him beseechingly.

He eyed me curiously, his beautiful face crumpled into a nervous frown, but he let go, as he walked closely behind me, back to the little wolf. She still lived, but barely, the wolves purposely had bitten her in places that would not let her die to quickly.

I laid my hand on her blood and slobber soaked fur, petting her slightly, and trying to take some of her pain. I think it works because I start feeling a remembrance of pain everywhere.

I took a knife that I stored in my boot, and plunged the knife into the wolf's neck.

After that, I balled up on the forest floor, shaking and tears falling out of my eyes in a steady stream. Big, darkly tanned and muscular. His eyes gleamed yellow with his wolf, lighting up his worried expression.

He held me, then. Just held me as I cried into his bare chest as I held him back. The Alpha soon found us, screeched at me for being careless. I was numb to his scoldings, though and didn't listen. I learned my lesson without him.

Xavier was then promoted to my guard, and he's been nothing but stone faced and dressed since that night.

...

"You wanna like, go see if they have any left overs in the kitchens? Cuz I do."

I began walking stiffly down the hall, making way for the kitchens.

"Faire." His voice was a bit raised now.

"Xavier..." I said, calling him to follow.

With my wolf here I heard him tell the other guard to stay guard, when I heard him hustle to follow behind me.

"Walk beside me." I tell him, I say my voice low because of the early hour

Nothing.

I stop haltingly and look back at him. He nearly walks into, but easily jukes back a few feet.

"Walk beside me." I say, accidentally shooting the aura I had little control of at him.

He doesn't move right away like he should have at my aura, that I have come well accustomed to already, but he eventually walks up to me, close. So close, I have to crane my head back to see him.

He looked down at me, then nodded toward the way forward. He was nice looking, and I looked at his lips again, wondering how his face would light up if he smiled. And because I never got to before, I chose to study him.

His gaze softens slightly as if he's doing the same to me. His presence always comforts me, and I think it's because the day we met was the day he saved me.

I run my finger across his chest, across the leather armour, letting it trail down. "Why do you always wear so much armour."

Instead of answering me he just gives me that brooding look he usually has on, but the difference this time is he looks me in the eyes. His pupils blow a bit, green slightly flicking to bright yellow for a moment, his wolf behind them.

An emotion was somewhere in there, but I couldn't read it.

Just to see if I could get any kind of reaction, I said, "I prefer how I met you."

He clenched his jaw, and light in eyes glowed a little bit brighter for a moment, but the expression remained, and then the glow disappeared.

I sighed and continued to walk, him at my side this time. I chose to lean on his arm when I had to climb down the stairs, which hurt.

The kitchen was bustling with staff members around to clean up the remnants of the party,

I asked a nice older lady in a cooks uniform for some food and she provided us each a hefty portion of Steak, mashed potatoes and roasted leeks.

I was famished, after not eating the entire day previously, and then expending so much energy to turn for the first time. I ate all of the food, and asked if there were any more plates they could spare.

There had apparently been plenty, as they made a surplus since all the guests were, well, wolves.

If wolves like to do anything, it's eat.

I asked Bruno to eat with me, and shockingly enough he did. Both of us standing at a kitchen counter, eating leftover food. It was the most normal thing I have ever done in this palace.

The surrealism of the moment hit me in the face like a brick, and all of the anxiety of the night and the days to come all came in full force.

The food felt like it curdled in my stomach and I could no longer eat, and place my plate down. I felt my stomach wanting to reject its contents, but I forced it to stay put.

"Are you okay?" The soft and deep voice of Bruno washed over me.

"Yeah." I breathed and laid my head on my hands. "I think so." I said, and my hands started to shake.

A large, warm hand fell on my cold shoulder and I felt some relief at the gesture.

I turned to just hug him properly and he stiffened. The leather of his armor hardly pressed against my cheek.

He ease into it, and his hands fell on my upper back, a comfortable, warm and tingly sensation in my back, shooting through my stomach and resting at my core.

I really do wish he was naked right now.

He stiffened underneath me again and my eyes shot open.

I looked up at him. "Did I..." I took my hand to gesture to my head then his. My cheeks and ears heat and I'm positive I'm as red as my hair when he nodded a bit I answered and I scattered back from him.

"Oh my god I'm sorry I didn't.. This is new and I don't know how to.." I pause when I noticed the smallest of smiles appear on his beautiful face. Oh my god, he's amused.

It was something so quick I might have imagined it, just a slight up turn of his lips, a dimple making a brief debut, but so bright and rarely given I cherished the moment long after it was gone.

His eyes glazed over and he winced. He was being mindlinked and only one other person can do that.

Before he could even say anything I nodded my head towards the door, and he followed me, as he always did.

The Alpha has returned to his office. And he was going to give me answers