Misfit Mates {the half-wolf and her recessive alpha}

Female Dogs

“Are you ready, New Kid?" a voice asks behind me as I hydrate after hours of physical wear and tear. I frown and turn to find someone I haven't seen in a long time.

Quinn. He is Lion's best friend, so I basically grew up next door to him too, but let's just say we've had some issues along our life journey together.

It's not because I'm an ässhole, or because he's an ässhole. It's because we both are.

"I'd like to think so," I reply and square my shoulders. The last time I saw him was about six months ago before he left for a clan in Ireland to play rugby professionally. We weren't on very good terms. But to be fair, Quinn is never on good terms with anyone but Lion.

"Hey!" Lion yells, coming out of his office with Midnight trailing behind and almost running over to Quinn for a bear hug, lifting him up as if he didn't look like a rhino, "What are you doing here, man?"

"It's my first break and I thought I'd come by to say hello and meet the new addition to the family," he mumbles and turns to Mid, "Hi. I’m Quinn and I've been friends with your dad for so long it feels like we were born together."

"Nice to meet you, Quinn. My name is Midnight. My mother was Miriam. Maybe you knew her?"

"Sure. I met her briefly," he replies with a smile that seems sincere, but his scent betrays that he’s not feeling very happy. And he stares at her intently for longer than I'd like.

"Mid, cancel that meeting with Beals, okay? And stop playing with your phone during work hours," Lion orders and puts his hand on Quinn's back to take him somewhere.

"Lion is so annoying sometimes," Mid complains in a low voice before returning to the office.

I pull out my own phone as I sit on the floor and I give myself permission to go on Twitter to see what's going on now.

After the tweet I wrote about Mid (I accidentally sent a bunch of horrible people to her profile) I haven't chimed in because the few fans I have got mad at me for being interested in someone.

I got a lot of jealous tweets, but rather than make me feel bad, they make me laugh. I answer every one of them and I make them feel better.

And of course, you can't miss the hate from Redboxinggloves. Surprisingly, he's been posting a lot of gym news that doesn't include drama, but that doesn't save the few of us goners who have to deal with him.

@Redboxinggloves: "No matter how 'hard' the new kid is training, we know what will happen #loser"

@Redboxinggloves: "@MidnightVosse doesn't know how to socialize, maybe she needs better friends. Or maybe she should go back to her human dump" There come attached two images of several tweets from a girl who claims to have met Mid at the mall. According to this mysterious girl, Mid is very weird and socially inept.

That may be true, but I don't like how she is saying it, making fun of her. Naturally and predictably, I do something about it. First I go to the profile of the girl who wrote that, do a mild scan of her photos, and then I attack her appearance.

"Grayson!" Gemma complains a few minutes later approaching me with her phone in hand and completely sweaty, "Would you stop talking shït? That's why everyone hates you. How can you even think of telling someone who supports you that he's a brainless disgusting hobbit?"

"She was badmouthing Midnight. She deserved it."

"Now she's saying you're a bully. You made her cry," she whines, and I see her phone ring with a call from her father, "I swear you're the hardest person in the world to work with. We're going to have to start writing things for you."

"Just do what I do and don't answer your father. Just between you and me, he’s a huge pain in the äss," I mutter and reach out to take the phone out of her hand, "Let's talk about what really matters, did you finish my homework yet?"

"Yes, I did," she replies and holds up a finger for me to wait for her as she trots across the gym until she reaches her backpack. When she's back, she pulls out two folders and hands them to me, "Now it's your turn, there are all the assignments you'll do for me."

"I'm really liking this arrangement. Come over to my house tonight to hang out, maybe they'll be ready by then."

"No, I can't come to your house. I'll hang out with Nestor," she brags, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms across her chest. Nestor is an alpha in our philosophy class, "Maybe after that I'll go to his place."

"Suit yourself," I shrug and grab my phone to text Mid and tell her that tonight is the night the exchange will happen. Gemma hasn't left though, "What do you need?"

"You don't even care," she whines, "You don't care that I'm going to be with another alpha?"

"Of course I don’t, Doll," I give her a funny look because I don't understand where this is coming from. She smells seriously annoyed, "You can do whatever you want, I don't care. I told you I'm not jealous. I thought you liked that?"

"I wasn't expecting you to be jealous, but whatever. What. Ever," she says, suddenly her voice is very hard, and walks away. For a while I just watch her as she finishes her routine, lifting way more than the omegas hanging around, which is really attractive. She seriously has a nice little body and yes, it's inconvenient for me that she's not available today, but that's what I have Mid for.

Speaking of her, when Gemma finishes, she joins Regina and they both walk to the office to talk to Midnight.

After a while, the three of them leave together and head for the exit.

{ Midnight }

Going to lunch with Regina and Gemma is literally the last thing I'd like to do right now, but Gemma mentioned sushi and I've always wanted to try sushi so I had no choice but to accept.

As I walk in between them, I regret wearing my new high sandals today, I don't even know why I bought them. Gemma is almost as tall as me, but Regina is shorter. She’s only reaching my shoulder.

I'm in the middle of them and I couldn't feel more gigantic and hideous if I purposely tried. All the people walking by stare at me.

"...then she said, 'That's not the way to do it!' And she threw the fücking tree branch like it was nothing, it made so much noise that everyone turned to look at them," Regina laughs, but I don't find her story funny because I didn't pay much attention to it at first, so I just keep quiet and start counting.

Since we left the gym, Gemma has given me 3 strange looks and I can recognize that her scent smells like dislike. Complete dislike.

2 people have greeted the girls and completely ignored me.

They have talked about 4 topics that I don't understand at all.

They have asked me 3 questions that have to do with Gray and I have taken 158 steps.

159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165...

We finally get to the place when I take step number 214 and we sit at the fourth table from right to left, second table from north to south in western compass. And I realize what a bad idea it was to agree to this, because I'm so stressed that I'm counting my steps, the words coming out of Gemma and Regina's mouths, the people staring at me and the seconds at the same time. I'm going to go crazy at any moment.

But I really want to eat.

"You've been so quiet, we really want to get to know you," Gemma lies. And she must think I'm stupid because she gives Regina a mocking look when she says that, right in front of me.

"Then why don't you ask me questions that have to do with me, with my life, with my likes, thoughts...? Asking me about Grayson is never going to get you to know me."

"Oh, right," Regina laughs uncomfortably, "Where are you from? I know you're from America, but not from what specific place."

"I'm from a place called Pierre in South Dakota," I inform them, and they raise their eyebrows as if they actually care or if they know anything about the place, "But I'm not complaining about your previous questions, it's understandable that you'd ask me about him given that he's our only link."

"Yes... exactly. So, how did you two become so close?"

"Isn't it obvious? Our families are so close that they're basically one big family. And we have several things in common."

"Like what?" Gemma asks, snorting, "Grayson has nothing in common with anyone else. He's the weirdest person I know... well, the second weirdest person."

Regina giggles quietly at this and I understand that they mean me. That I'm weird. I guess they're right.

There are only 7 men in this restaurant and 5 of them are turning to our table right now. But of the 3 waitresses, none of them are interested in us. Gemma has freckles too, like me, and some moles on her chest. I can count 5. I wonder how many Grayson has counted on her whole body.

Since we arrived, I've been nervously tapping my finger on the table and now I'm up to 52 taps.

53. 54. 55...

"So? What do you have in common? We're waiting."

Nothing. we have nothing in common, I have nothing in common with anyone because I haven't been through any experience in my life. I have no real likes or dislikes. I have no real knowledge.

"A lot of things, for example, we both like poker. He's taken me to play with him and we've had a lot of fun."

Bullshït. I've never played poker in my life. I might be able to play now because I learned how to from watching Gray, but I never have.

"He took you to play with him? Instead of just telling you to shut up and not break his concentration like he always does with Gemma?"

"She’s kidding, that's never happened," Gemma defends herself, but it's a lie. It's very convenient to be able to recognize that just by breathing, I never realized I could do that, "But I'm glad he finally has a person he can enjoy other things in his life with. He has me in a sëxual way, but we don't share similar ideas or likes. It's good that he has you for that."

She’s obviously marking territory. As if it's possible that I'm competition for her.

"It's nice to have a friend. Sharing my thoughts with someone else, sharing so much time with him. I've never been able to do that before," I murmur, immediately regretting confessing that when they share a strange look.

Luckily, at that moment one of the waitresses notices we are here and approaches us.

Thirteen minutes later, they have finally taken our orders and the girls have stopped asking me questions, now they’re just talking around me like I'm some friend of theirs that they take notice of but don't really include. I'm hating every second of this.

Luckily, my phone rings a while later and I answer it immediately when I see it's Gray. I desperately need a distraction before I start counting the molecules in the air as well.

"Hi, Gray!"

Immediately the two girls stop talking and turn to look at me.

"Hey, Mid. I saw you hanging out with Gemma and Regina. Are you okay? Are you losing your mind? Should I be worried?"

"Pretty much, yes and no. I'm answering your questions in order," I sigh, "But I'll be back in a bit, I'm eating."

"Tell me where you are, eat quickly and I'll pick you up to go home and fulfill the deal," he orders, and I hear a lot of background noise, "Are they being mean to you? Because I can go tell them some things."

The girls hear that and roll their eyes.

"Okay, I'm at Yoko and it's pretty close to BM," I inform him and Gemma's eyebrow rises so high it disappears into the hair that falls across her forehead. That makes me feel good, if she can be mean to me then that gives me the right to be mean to her, "Don't worry about me, I'll be better after our... plans. I'm excited."

Sweet victory. I have finally mastered the art of being passive aggressive. I don't love it, I won't do it with other people, but I like that Gemma understood the hidden meaning in my words and that they bothered her. Grayson says he'll come get me in about fifteen minutes and hangs up on me.

"I hope you don't mind my leaving. Gray is kind of pushy when he wants something," I give a small chuckle and move my hands so the waitress can place my sushi in front of me, "I guess you understand, right?"

"Sure," Gemma replies, calming her face as if she's put on a mask of indifference. However, I can smell what she's feeling, "We've been in this weird relationship for almost two years now. I know what he's like when he wants something and can't wait to have it. I know him too well."

"Two years is a long time. It's cute that you love each other so much," I smile and start eating, not caring that they still aren't moving.

By the time Gray appears down the street and beckons me from outside to come out, I know 4 new things.

The first is that I love sushi, the second is that Matthew and Regina are in a serious relationship now, the third is that Gemma is supposedly going on a date with another alpha that ‘she likes sooo much' (that was a very desperate lie, to be honest). And the fourth is that ten minutes ago when we all got a twitter notification and it was from the Redboxinggloves account, they shared a knowing look, which gives me enough evidence to write their names on the suspect list.