My Alpha is Different

Chapter 3

Scarlett

I wanted to call or text Gavin Jr. after he gave me his number. But no way, I couldn’t do that. Embarrassment was settling on my cheeks as Amaya called me asking if we were still going out. The rest of the first week of school went without incident. I tell her yes and I’ll be ready and rolled up. She said she’d be here in 20 minutes. Her mom did in fact drop her off about 25 minutes later. We go into the backyard and sit at the table back there. My mom smoking as many cigarettes as she does mean there is an ash tray everywhere you are able to smoke at my house. We’re out back and Amaya decides she wants to grab some drink and stay here at my house, which honestly I’m cool with. I didn’t feel like rolling up another one and going to the mall to hangout like we did every Friday.

My mom’s cool with her staying over and even cooler with me not going out. She and my stepdad go out every weekend and stay at the bar until 3-4 in the morning when they close. On the weekends I did go out my curfew was 1 but honestly if I wanted to be out until the next morning I could more than likely get away with it. My parents go out and get sloppy drunk. It’s honestly the grossest thing ever to me. They’re in their 40’s and act 20 something. My mom and I argue every Friday night about me going out because she doesn’t want to pay someone to watch the other kids and my stepbrother gets to do whatever he wants. I hate it here. Couple more weeks I tell myself. Yeah, not to much more of this foolishness. My stepdad butts into the argument like he always does and I just walk off. I can never talk to my mom alone unless he isn’t there. I’m glad we’re not human because if I had to talk about a period to her with his refusal to be anywhere but in my business I would die. I even keep those products in my purse in case one of my human friends ask I blend in. He is the worst; maybe if I didn’t have to deal with him it would be ok but since that’s not the case I really just avoid him as much as I can. Juan has always been a thorn in my hip. Even as a child I didn’t like him. He treats everything with us kids like a competition, and my mom does too. While on her end it benefits me I don’t like it. Why couldn’t me and my sister just have stayed with our dad if you didn’t really want us here? I’ve asked before and basically it was a guilt trip. “Scarlett, stop that. You shouldn’t say things like that!!”, or “Yeah right! You are right where you belong!!” She would always yell like a little school girl about stuff like that. Juan and I would get along better if I actually cared about his feelings for one. But for two if I actually did more or was more involved with my stepbrother my stepdad would actually pay for everything I wanted. But screw that, and screw them.

When I gain my wolf it’s going to be epic. I couldn’t wait. I wanted to see what she looked like more than anything. My dad’s wolf was a reddish gold color with golden eyes and my mom’s wolf was a golden color with 4 white socks with golden eyes. So I’m wondering if I’ll look like my parent’s wolves, because their wolves are similar to my grandparents, or she’s different. Wolves don’t always look like their parents but they did sometimes. While I’m pondering all this Amaya lights up the next joint and makes a drink. My parents don’t drink hard liquor because my mom drinks too much when she does so I take all the vodka left in my house and drink on the weekends. Amaya always brings a soda or juice with us whenever we’re out so we always have a chase.

My mom comes out when we’re almost finished with the joint and leaves me some money saying to order a pizza for my siblings and me. “No problem.” I reply. She gives me a kiss and leaves. We wait a few more minutes because Amaya knows how much I hate my stepdad and where we were sitting in the corner of my backyard she hid the bottle. My mom doesn’t care if I smoke but she would honestly go ballistic if she saw me drinking. I’m sure she suspected it but I don’t drink if I’m driving and I hide my alcohol at home. As we’re walking back to the front to go in my room my phones pings with a text. I look and it’s Gavin. My heart starts beating like it was going to come out my chest and Amaya looks over. “Who’s Gavin?” She says with a smirk. She knows of Josh because she has seen me with him all over; so I just said his brother. She actually laughed a little at me because even though I’ve denied it many times she can’t and doesn’t believe that I’m not having a full on fling with Josh since I’m not after every cute guy I see like she is. I asked what her laughing is for and she says it figures a guy that’s texting me would be the brother to the guy I’m supposedly not sleeping with or madly in love with. She really bothers me sometimes but hey that’s humans I suppose. Gavin asked what I was doing so I tell him my friend is staying over and that we were just hanging at my house. I excused myself and went to the bathroom because I don’t want Amaya to see how much I really like him. “You should let me know next time you want company.” He replied. My face flushed. “I thought you just gave me your number to be nice. I didn’t think you really wanted to hang out with me again.” I say back. “I enjoyed that little while we spent together and want to get to know you. Maybe I can see you on your birthday?” He responds. “I’d like that :)” I say back quickly and put cold water on my face. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to keep control of myself when he’s here if I can’t control myself just texting. I leave the bathroom and put my phone on silent. I’ll text him tomorrow after Amaya leaves if he says anything else. I go back to my room and we eat after the pizza gets there and call it a night. Amaya went home the next afternoon and I caught up on the last of my homework. I’m only in school for a few hours everyday because of OJT but for government and economics, algebra II, and English 4 I always have homework. I look at my phone and decide I will try and be more confident in myself. “What are you up to?” I text Gavin. I don’t know what he does on the weekends or if he gets any time to himself the way I do. I get back to my work and a few minutes later he responds. “Just went on a run. You doing anything later?” He replies. Now, normally I’m not allowed to go out on school nights but I’ve been sneaking out for 2 years now so I tell that I don’t have plans. “Can I pick you up around 10?” He asked. Now in my mind I know all the rumors about him, the kids, not having the title yet because if it, and his player nature. Did all that make me nervous? YES! Did I want to get caught up in all that? NO! But would I take the chance because I’m not the smartest and I just really wanted to see? YES again. “Ok, can I meet you at the corner by my house?” I felt like an i***t because he was probably laughing at how childish this sounded. “No biggie, see you then.” He said back quickly. It was almost 8 so I went and got in the shower. 10 came quicker than I expected and before I knew it I was hopping out my window and walking to the corner where he would either be coming up or waiting on the swale of.

Amaya

What exactly did Scarlett have going on? She’s different from my friends and me. I don’t know why but I can’t put my finger on it. She doesn’t pursue any of the guys we go to school with and there are even some of the hot ones interested in her. I couldn’t understand it a little but. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying open yourself up for any guy willing to have s*x with you but at the same time go have fun and be free. Seriously, it’s our last year of high school and she doesn’t take any of the advanced classes and decided she wouldn’t pursue dual enrollment either to start getting college out of the way. I mean I don’t either but Scarlett is way smarter than me just naturally. We skip the same amount of school and take most of the same classes even if our schedules are different her grades are always better. I’m on the phone with my boyfriend Thomas but still thinking about Scarlett’s differences. The other thing I really hate is that Scarlett is prettier than me, or at least I think she is. She doesn’t put any effort into her looks either. Not that I’m saying she comes to school or goes out with me looking like a vagrant but she just ties her pretty long hair up into a bun and is bare faced everyday. She wears more comfortable stuff while I’m super girly. Now I don’t go overboard on my make up but I always come out looking my best and I got the attention I was looking for, not always from whom I’m looking for though. To my next point, every boyfriend I’ve had in high school has been attracted to Scarlett, that bugs me to no end. Either they’ll straight up tell me, or they’ll try to get at Scarlett behind my back and she’ll tell me later. I kind of wish she would just do it sometimes, not that I want a reason to fall out with her but the guys she’s friends with are all hot and she doesn’t even pay them any mind in that way. Not that she seems to mind they don’t pay her any mind, again not in that way. She tells me all the time when I make a comment to shoot my shot but it’d be weird. I don’t believe that she is simply “friends” with all these people and she just doesn’t want me, Mel, and Barb in her business. She always has something to say about us too when we’re out here having a good time before high school is over. Mainly about us being careful because she didn’t want us to catch a S-T-D or a K-I-D before we were ready to be moms, or to just be healthy. When she told me about a Gavin texting her the other day I couldn’t help but be a little jealous. She’s not even looking for a boyfriend or plaything and here they are lining up to get her number. Josh was fine as hell in my opinion but not my type. Every time I saw him with Scarlett he was all dirty and looked like he just got out from under a car. I didn’t know he had an older brother and now he’s texting her. Knowing her if they started hanging out she’d introduce me and if he was hot I would try my luck. We’ll see. “Babe you still there?” Thomas asked, shaking me out of my thoughts. “Hey baby, yes I’m here.” I responded. “Was I still picking you up tonight? I wouldn’t mind doing what we did last time I saw you.” He said with a bit of lust in his voice. I enjoyed my time with Thomas, he was good looking, and good in bed. His ex and I have a little social media beef that we laugh about, but she needs to get over him. And it’s really just us making comments and changing screen names to show disses. He’s with me now. Sometimes I feel like dumping him and moving on but it’s good right now, so I enjoy it. I say that because there is this guy at school who always looks at me and I smile back. I don’t know him though. I’ll have to see if Scarlett will talk to him for me and get his number. She isn’t shy at all and she won’t question why I’m asking her to help.

Scarlett

I get out of the shower and roll up. He should be here soon. I put on some leggings, a white T-shirt, and my Jordan slides. After opening the window I jump out and head to the corner. On any other day I’d wait til later but Sundays were easy because my parents were out all Saturday night so they recover all day Sunday. They usually just order Chinese food for dinner and leave everything else to be caught up on Monday morning. Me and Eliza used to clean up for my mom on Sundays but stopped because both Junior and Steph act like they have maids. And my mom gets up stupid early on Monday to clean up anyway. As I’m approaching the swale where I asked Gavin to wait I saw he was there already. Goodness gracious he gets finer every time I see him. As I get in the car I smell him and it’s overwhelming, but in the best way. “Hi,” I say and smile. “How’s everything?” I ask politely. “Hey, all good on my end, I hope your week was ok.” He said back smiling.

We end up leaving and go towards the packhouse. I know he’s not going exactly there because he’s smoking. I want to say something but I’m absolutely terrified of embarrassing myself. He seems to notice. “Scarlett, you know, I’m a good listener. I wouldn’t judge you if you ever wanted to tell me something or if you just need someone to be there for you.” He said before turning into the park. This particular park is on our territory in between the neighborhood I live in and where our actual packhouse was located. He got out so I followed. There was an old table by a tree that looked like it was hidden. We sat down. “I wouldn’t know where to start if I started talking to you.” I said with a touch of disappointment. I mean he’s saying all the right things and here I am thinking that if I told him about how I really felt about things he wouldn’t want to deal with me. I don’t want him to feel any obligation to me like he has to with Dina. ”Listen, I get it. You don’t know me, I’m older, and a whole bunch of rumors surround me. Some of which are true.” He said matter-of-factly. “I have two sons, I’m the future Alpha of our pack, and I’m still sleeping with their mom from time to time.” Wow, did he really just say that? Why was his honesty a turn on? Was he serious? “Uhh,” I say unsure of how to respond to what he just said. “Don’t overthink it. I’m just saying I’m here as a shoulder, or set of ears. Hell I’d even come get you from school if you asked.” I had some of my other friends who graduated already coming to get me but I definitely wouldn’t reject his company. “Um, thanks. I’d appreciate any of those things from you.” I reply unsure of myself. After we smoked we talked about more trivial things in our lives and what I’d do when I graduated. “Honestly I haven’t put much thought into it. More times than not I think I’ll end up shifting into my wolf and running into the woods; never to be seen again.” I said laughing. Gavin laughed and looked at me seriously. “I used to think like that.” He said back. “I guess not getting my mate at 18 and my dad deciding at that time I wasn’t ready to be Alpha shifted my thoughts.” I didn’t know that’s why he wasn’t Alpha. “Then Dina happened.” He added. “But you love her right? I’m not trying to be nosy but you have 2 pups, a title, and a pack that will be loyal to you. Why throw all that away?” I asked incredulously. He let out a sigh. “Well, I thought it was love at one point. But when I think about my future I don’t see her there with me. I love my sons more than my own life but not her. My dad didn’t like the cocky, know-it-all, can’t-tell-me-nothing attitude I used to walk around with. So he held onto my title. After he decided I was ready Dina was pregnant with Devin.” He said back and my eyes almost popped out of my head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I said back sincerely. I really didn’t want to dampen the mood but I needed to know. “It’s ok, I told you to let me know and I started talking,” he said laughing. “Let me get you home.” He finished. On the way back I started telling him about myself, my parents, why they’re not together, and why we joined his pack. I could tell he was absorbing what I said and replied, “Well, we all have our burdens to bear, but we can be there for each other.” He said with a smile. God his smile was so perfect to me. “I’ll try.” I reply. I bid him goodnight and went back to the house and went to sleep.

So the week went by and Saturday is my 18th birthday. I couldn’t wait to meet my wolf. On Friday my friends wanted to go out so I said yes because I told them before my family had plans on my actual birthday. Which was a lie, Gavin already asked first and I was going to let him come see me. We got dressed and went to the mall. Mel and Barb weren’t actively with anyone at that time but Amaya did come with Thomas. We went to the movies and saw Wedding Crashers, which was funny as hell to me. I went home and it was after midnight when we pulled up to my house, so my friends wished me a happy birthday and gave me hugs as Amaya told me to call her later. I jump out of the car and go inside. I did my bedtime routine and went and laid down. Before I fell asleep I heard a voice in my head, “Hello Scarlett.” It was soft and warm. “Hi, who’s this?” I say back using only my thoughts. “I’m Sage, your wolf.” I shot up in bed, and was ecstatic that she was here. “I know you have my questions, I can answer some of them, but not all of them. I know your family life makes it hard for you to try to do things differently. But worry not my friend, we’re in this together. We are family and we take care of family.” She reassured me. “You got it Sage. I trust you, talk more in the morning. I can’t wait to see what you look like.” I could almost see her smiling at me in the back of my mind. I rolled over and went to sleep. I finally will shift later today.