The Abandoned Alpha

Lost and Found

Elise

"Elise, we aren't supposed to be here. Your mom is gonna kill us if she finds out. I mean being late for school is one thing, but leaving the territory is an entirely different level of punishment... and without guards? I'll be grounded for life!"

"Calm down Sammi. She isn't going to find out. We're only going to be gone for an hour, they won't even miss us. We will be back before school even starts. Besides I'm eighteen now!" I pull the car into the lot and we hop out.

"You have been eighteen for all of two days. Are you sure this is where the shop is?" Sammi asks and I look around doubting myself and the information I was given, but this has to be it. It simply has to be.

"Come, I think it's this way." My mother and father have their anniversary party on Friday, they will have been married, and Alpha and Luna of our beloved pack, for twenty years, and there were no two people on earth that I cherished more. When they were first married my father gave my mother a locket with a unique wolf carving on the back, years later my mother lost it on a trip out of our territory and I had been searching for it ever since. Yesterday it showed up on a website at a pawn shop, but it was in human territory, a place I was told never to go. But, I was determined to get that locket back and present it to my parents for their anniversary.

"Here, it's down here." A staircase led down to a door that had a sign on it reading New To You 24 Hour Pawn Shop. We opened the door and I was instantly overwhelmed with the smell of cigarettes. The further we made our way into the shop the stronger the smell got until we discovered the source. A man with slicked-back blonde hair and an unruly mustache leaned over the counter and just stared at us with a cigar hanging from his mouth.

"Can I help you little pretties with somethin'?" He asked and Sammi grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

I mustered up some courage and walked up to the counter. "Yes, we - we saw a locket on your website yesterday. One with a wolf on it? Do you still have it?"

The man didn't say anything, he just took the cigar from his mouth, put it out in an overstuffed ashtray of leftover butts, and pulled a box from the shelf behind him.

"This thing?" He asked as he set it in front of me and opened the lid. I tried to hide my excitement, but inside I was rejoicing. Finally, I had found it, but I didn't want this man to know how much I wanted it.

"Yes, that's it. How much?" I asked.

"Well, how much ya little girls got?"

Sammi leaned over and whispered in my ear. "This is bad news, I'm telling you." I shot her a look and returned to the man.

"Well, I have fifty dollars, I don't think it's worth much more than that." I stood up tall and made my offer, and I was ready to have the man be happy with it and make the deal.

"It may not be worth much more than that to anyone else, but I think it's worth a whole lot more to you two. Two pretty young girls comin' into my shop wearin' designer dresses and purses that I get top dollar for. I bet this thing is worth a whole lot more."

I hadn't thought of our appearance or where we were in the city, but he was right. He could see right through us.

"A thousand dollars." He said and I nearly gasped in shock.

"A thousand dollars?! I - I don't have that kind of money. I can give you two hundred, and ... and this purse and hers." I grabbed Sammi's purse and she grabbed it back.

"No way!" She yelped.

The man put the locket back in the box and stuck it back on the shelf.

"Two thousand dollars and it's yours." He said with a smirk on his face.

"No. No way! Sir, that locket belongs in my family and I am going to have it back!" I slammed my hand on the counter and he stood up and loomed over me.

"Look little girl, I told you the price, pay or get the hell out of my shop."

"Hey Frank, there's a big box in the alley...What going on here?"

The most beautiful boy I had ever seen walked in from the back of the shop and was standing next to this horrible man at the counter. He was easily over six feet tall and had a thick head of unruly curly black hair. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses and a ratty sweatshirt and jeans, but you could tell he was perfect underneath it. And through the thick haze of smoke, I thought I could smell the most wonderful scent of the forest and cocoa. My wolf grew restless within me at the site of him.

"These little darlings want to buy that locket you found last night." He smirked and lit up another cigar.

The boy shrugged and pulled the box from the shelf. "This?" he opened it and I could barely get a squeak out.

"Elise, earth to Elise!" Sami knocked me in the shoulder and I snapped out of it.

"Uh, um yes that one." I stood just staring at him.

"So how much Frank?" The boy asked and I finally found my words again.

"I offered him two hundred and he told me two thousand. It's absurd." I could feel my anger come back and I was thankful for it, remembering why I came here and how awful the man was.

"Frank, don't be silly." The boy slapped him on the back. "Two hundred is fine. Way more than anyone else would give ya. It looks all rusted and the chain is broken. Whatever stone was in it is missing. It's a fair price."

"Really?" I beam at him and he nods and smiles an absolutely devastatingly beautiful smile.

"Leo, you always were a softie for the ladies, I'll need to keep you away from the counter next time." The man playfully slapped the boy on the back of the head and I handed him the money as he slid the package over the counter, but I couldn't seem to move. I just stood there like a puppy looking up at him.

"Okay, well, I have to go get the s**t kicked out of me at school, wish me luck, Frank."

I watched as the boy left and headed out the back of the store and I grabbed Sami and took off out the front.

"Come on, we have to find him." I grabbed her arm and ran around the corner, seeing him flip his hoodie up and head down the street.

"Elise, we are going to be late for school. We have to get back."

"Sami, I think that boy is my mate."

Leo

I spent the night at the pawn shop again. The group home that I'm assigned to has seventeen kids in it and is only supposed to have six. There's no room to even think there, let alone do homework or get a decent night's sleep, and anything you might have of any value will certainly be taken before morning if you're not careful. So, I spend most nights at the shop.

I met Frank, the owner of the shop when I was fourteen or fifteen. I was living in the alley behind the shop before the state caught up with me, and Frank offered me a couch to sleep on if I would work unloading boxes and doing odd s**t jobs around the shop. He's a d**k to most people that come in, but he isn't a bad guy. Last night I waited for the nightly check-in and then easily snuck out unseen. They never bothered with a morning check-in. We all were supposed to be in school, so as long as we made it there no one ever cared.

I hear a commotion in the front of the store and as I walk out there I'm shocked when I see two girls standing at the counter. I have never seen them before and I know they aren't from around here. They are both beautiful, but the one girl I can't stop staring at. I'm thankful I put my glasses on and she can't tell. She is stunning, with bright green eyes and long brown hair down to her waist.

I like her. You need to make her ours.

I ignore the voice in my head and try and shake the odd feeling I have off. I make a deal with the girls quickly and leave. I dash out the back door, throw my hoodie up, and make my way to school, all the while I can't get the girl's face out of my mind and the voice in my head is getting louder.