The Oddball Alphas

Warning: Violence is in this chapter. Read at your own discretion. Keiran My hair is the color of ginger. It makes me stand out in a crowd of brunettes, blondes, and raven-haired people. It is like I am wearing a neon sign that says “look at me”, especially with a large chunk of it almost blonde underneath. It also swirls around into curls that hide a part of my oval face which also draws attention. The right side is scarred, so I get gawked at occasionally when the wind picks up just right to push it back. I wish for a breeze now in this oppressive heat. The Louisiana heat… I might as well wring out my clothes and my hair from the sweat dampening everything. All the while, I am thanking whoever is up there watching out for me that my hair is mostly straight from the weight of the humidity. I do not have to worry about brushing it down or trying to work my magic to make it go exactly the way I want it. That’s good because I think I nailed this interview at the mall. I don’t mind hiding a part of my face. It is not a pretty sight to see. One scar caused my midnight blue eye to slant a little as it went from the corner of my eye to my cheekbone. I have more on my body that if anyone saw, they would wonder if I got into a knife fight. It would draw more attention than my hair. It sucks moving around for the last six years. I have gone to small town after small town only to find that werewolves are prominent there and don’t want rogues. I’m not a rogue. I’m a lone wolf. There is a big difference. I don’t go ripping people’s faces off or eating them, but it is not like they would believe me, anyway. As I lean against the hard and hot, orange-colored walls of the mall, I feel sad about moving around so much. I wonder if I smell like one. Is that why packs think I am a rogue? My smell? It would explain everything. I hope that there is not a pack in this city. I need a place to settle down for a while. “Help!” “Shut up, you stupid b***h!” I peeked around the corner of the wall where it dips in and saw a blonde-haired teen girl and five men. She looked frightened with her aqua-green eyes looking wildly around for help. One of those men has her by the hair of her head. I’ll call him d**k. He looks like it with his hair cut short and a nasty look on his angular face. He even has her arching her back a little too far for comfort. Meanwhile, the other two have a firm grip on her wrists that looks to be tightening. Well, it looks like it to me with her fingers turning white. And it looks like they are trying to throw a girl into a black van while in an alcove of the mall’s exterior. Can they be any more original!? These men are muscle-bound jerks with their hardened faces and ripped bodies. They are wearing black, from sunglasses to clothes. This screams cliché, but I have got to do something. I cannot just let her be forced into p**********n or whatever their plans are for her. I wouldn’t do it, Kieran. She is someone else’s responsibility. I ignored my wolf’s gruff voice. There was a bite to her tone that warned me of the stupidity I was about to endeavor. Whatever. I’m not the kind to stand by and watch some kid become kitty food when I know I can do something. My wolf did not used to be this surly. Moonbeam used to be carefree and easy-going. She and I would laugh off the pain from those that hurt us with their words and, sometimes, their punches. We used to find our own bit of happiness in our pack, but it is no longer like that. I cannot find happiness after all that was done to me, even as a lone wolf. However, I still have a soft spot for weaklings getting bullied, harassed, or beaten. I cannot let it go, and it seems like I am the only one who can save her right now. I rushed to the girl in trouble using a bit of my wolf’s speed, and a lot of her strength. I did not want anyone to know that I was a werewolf. The punch landed on the jaw of the one holding her wrist, though, might say I am a wolf. It made him stagger and then fall to his rear. The others were surprised by this, which is what I wanted, so I could take them out quickly. I began throwing high kicks to their chins, punches to their groin or face. I did not aim for their stomachs. If I am to portray myself like I am human, then I know better than to hit these guys there. Muscles will absorb the hit, especially in the stomach area. It would be like a light punch to them unless you’re a werewolf. Careful, I smell silver and wolfsbane. D****t! I am cursing my luck. These guys are hunters, and that girl is a pup. She does not have her wolf yet to fight back against their strength. Not only that, but I hate hunters with a passion. What do they want from her, anyway? I have no time to think about that. There are three guys left panting from the heat and exertion. My anger is starting to take hold of me and that is not good. I cannot let myself get out of control, but hunters are horrible people. The anguish those people had caused me takes hold of my heart and squeezes more hatred into me. I want to render them quicker than my fast-beating pulse. It’s a struggle to continue looking human. I look at them being a little bloodied from our tussle with nice bruises that are starting to bloom. They will have beauty marks come morning, I thought sadistically. I wanted more blood to drizzle from their wounds, though. I want it to flow in a stream to quench the thirst of my dry mouth. We are still punching and kicking at each other, trying to find a weak point to end the fight. I have not killed anyone in a long time, and since they are hunters, I want them dead. I can even taste their blood in my mouth. Moonbeam is snarling and growling for me to unleash her. I wish I could. I really wish I could, but two things are holding me back. One is the girl who is most likely from a pack and will tell everyone about what the rogue had done. And two, I am new to this city, and I have no idea where to dump the body, so it will not be found. We wolves must cover our tracks. I finally got a good job, and possibly an apartment, and now, there is a pack that is going to boot me out of their territory. If I don’t go, then they make life h*ll for me. This s**ks more than anything, making me wish for a quiet place that has no one around to kick me out. I will have to think about that later, too, because I almost missed an upper cut from one of them. Both my fists launched to hit the two men in the face while I decided to take the hit from the man in the middle. He had seized his opportunity and stabbed me with a knife in my side instead. A cry escapes my lips as the familiar pain begins to eat my nerves. The burning finds its way to my chest, making my eyes become red-rimmed and pushing the tears down my reddened face. I looked into my assailant’s eyes, seeing the coldness there sending the first set of chills through me. My heart is thumping with a single thought: are his eyes the last thing I am going to see? I grabbed his wrist, which had the knife plunged into me, and I froze for a moment, gasping for air. It seems to be constricted. I expected a punch. I expected something, but this, here and now, where blood is heating my skin up and pools onto my shirt. I struggle to call for my wolf through the haze coating my mind. That teaches me to expect too little of my opponent when I know they can do worse damage. Why would I be dumb enough to fall for that trick? They were standing closely together in this fight and taking turns throwing punches. It was a trick for me to lose my patience or for them to hit me all at once. I know that trick and I fell right into its trap, but worst of all, they know that I am a wolf now and not a human. Anger started fueling me, again, as I felt my wolf surge forth. My grip got tighter and tighter on this man. He gritted his teeth against the pain that must be filling him. He went to hit me, but that is when she made the move for me. She broke his wrist before throwing a punch that sent him flying backwards. The other two did not have a chance either, as she made my body move forward and grab them by the neck. She hit their heads together. Meanwhile, I am there encouraging her to kick their rears while leaving them alive. Moonbeam did not like it, but she did as I asked, which left me with no more opponents to fight. I staggered a little as I looked around at the bodies, unconscious on the pavement. The black van had left sometime during the fight. I do not remember hearing its engine start, which made me huff. I wanted to have some place to put all these men. Then, I looked at the girl curled in a ball in one of the corners of the building, hiding her narrow, pale face. Tears were streaming down it, and her eyes flicked at me like I would hurt her. Her slim body is shaking in her huddled form and fear permeates the air. I wondered how to calm her down and help me. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked softly. She moved her head slightly to look at me. Her fear was clearly written on her face. I just gave a smile, hoping she would see that I would not hurt her. I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I continued trying to sweet talk her. “Listen, that knife had wolfsbane on it. I’m not going to be doing so well in a minute. Could you help me?” “I’m… I’m Emily,” the girl said shakily. “I don’t know what I can do to help you. I hit the panic button for my pack to come help…” “Then, make sure that your alpha and his hierarchy don’t kill me,” I chuckled as I cursed in my head. I started to lay down feeling my weariness get to me from the pain and the effects of the wolfsbane. “I would much appreciate living.” “I’ll let them know you helped me,” Emily nodded while keeping her eyes on me. “You do that,” I gasped as I yanked out the knife. As I laid on my back, I could feel the heat of the pavement scorching my skin. It added to the heat that was already in my body from the wolfsbane tearing me apart inside. I felt like I was burning up. I could not take a rest anywhere else with the very little energy I had left. Moonbeam would have to take over and that would cause problems. The wolfsbane would make her see everyone as her enemy instead of a person. She would kill them, so I had to direct her to heal me. I will need her to figure a way out of the alpha’s dungeon later. I listened to the sounds of the cars on the freeway several meters away. They are honking their horns and braking their cars. There are people chattering away as my mind becomes foggy from the searing pain that makes me want to scream in agony. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. There are no animals nearby to give me the ambiance I would like to have to go to sleep with. It would have been nice to hear an owl’s hoot or a frog’s croak. This will have to do, though. I don’t have much of a choice when going into my healing sleep, which causes everything in me to shut down. “Ma’am!” Emily called urgently. “Ma’am, please, wake up. I swear my pack is on its way. We can heal you.” Fat chance, I thought, as I felt myself going deeper into my slumber hearing a lot of men and that girl. I don’t know what is being said, but I do know that she is crying and shouting a lot. She was arguing with someone until I felt this warmth lifting me in the air. Electricity zapped through my body, stirring it alive like I had never been in my entire life. The many male voices turn into three. They were sugary-rich and so coaxing that they coated my skin. I felt so comforted that I drifted deeper into my sleep. I felt so safe that I did not let myself think twice about why.