A Tinder Date With The Alpha

She’s Human

Dillon

Olivia curses in the back seat but I don’t bother to find out why.

“Do you have a charger I can use to…wait, where are you taking me?” She asks when I turn into the gravel leading to the pack.

I clear my throat. “Home.”

“We’re in the middle of nowhere.” She says, panic in her voice.

“And that’s where I live,” I reply.

I adjust the rearview mirror when she begins to fidget with the door and our eyes meet. She looks away immediately, her cheeks flushing.

She remains silent for what feels like a minute, and then she hits the door repeatedly with her palm.

“Tell me what’s going on!” She yells.

Melodramatic, I think to myself.

“We’re here,” I say as Ted opens the gates and I drive straight to my grandmother's cottage, parking right in front of it.

I step out of the car and wait for her to do the same but she doesn’t so I walk around and open the door for her.

“Come,” I say, extending my hand and she hesitantly takes it but pulls away almost immediately. Tingles. I felt them too the moment our skin touched but the way she pulled her hand away makes me think the impact was more on her end.

She frowns, her cheeks flushing again as she hops out of the car.

I extend my hand toward her and her frown deepens.

“Your phone,” I say.

She shakes her head vigorously, her wavy auburn hair following the motion. “You can’t have my phone.”

“You signed the contract and that was among the rules. You don’t get to use your phone around here and once you’re inside these premises, there’s no leaving. You should have read through.”

She gasps, bringing her hand to her chest, “I didn’t carry any clothes and didn’t even say goodbye to my sister. I can’t stay in this strange place, especially not without my phone.”

“You signed the contract and the action is irreversible,” I say and she holds her hand to her forehead as I snatch the phone away.

“Who do we have here?” My grandmother asks, standing at the door, the cane in front of her supporting her weight.

“Grams, this is Olivia. She’s going to stay with you as they arrange her cottage.” I say, “Olivia, meet my grandmother, Belle.”

Olivia smiles, trying to play nice as she walks forward towards Belle.

“Nice to meet you, Belle.” She says, bowing slightly.

“My grandson never brings girls home,” Belle says, “tell me something, are you his mate?”

“Of course I am,” Olivia says, surprising me, “We’re mates although he’s more like my boss.”

I slap my hand to my face, realizing that she misinterpreted the word mate.

“Let me show you to your room, Olivia,” I interrupt, proceeding into the cottage and she walks in after me. She follows me into Belle’s house and to the guest room.

“This is where you’ll stay today and spend the night, your cottage will be ready tomorrow.”

She shrugs, her mouth opening as if she’s about to say something but I leave before she does, closing the door behind me. I’m not ready to answer any of her questions or explain anything. What’s even worse is that I can barely stand her. My beast won’t stop saying things it shouldn’t whenever I’m around her and her scent, god her scent.

I pace the living room, pinching the bridge of my nose as I process everything. I brought her into the pack without informing anyone. Not that I have to inform someone in the permission kind of way, I’m the alpha and no one checks my decisions. I need to inform the pack inhabitants so that no one attacks her if they come across her. I’ll do that tonight, I’ll introduce her to everyone but not as my Luna.

“Why do you look tense?” Grandmother asks, walking into the room slowly with the aid of her cane. She slowly relaxes on her favorite recliner and drops her cane to the floor.

“Olivia is my mate, Grams,” I say, sitting down opposite her.

“She’s beautiful,” Belle says.

I groan, realizing that Belle can’t tell the difference between a werewolf and an ordinary human even though she’s been a part of this pack long enough.

“She’s human,” I say.

Belle squints as if processing it, and then she smiles. “Nothing wrong with that. Is that why you brought her to me?”

“Yes, she’s your kind so you’d know better how to interact with her without seeming eerie.” I say, “Let me deal with something, I’ll be back.”

I walk to my house and into my office, ignoring Lillian as I summon Michael through mind link. A few minutes pass and he walks in.

“You’ve brought her into the pack, haven’t you?” He asks and I nod.

“Of course, why?”

“Inhabitants are beginning to sense a foreign presence and you know what that means.”

I sigh, “I’ll introduce her to all of you before anyone finds and attacks her. Let everyone know that there’s going to be a meeting in the pack house tonight. Everyone must attend, everyone.”

“Aye, aye,” Michael says, saluting playfully. “We can’t wait to meet the new Luna.”

“Shut up,” I say as he leaves.

I take a quick cold shower and walk to Belle’s cottage to pick Olivia up.

She’s seated in a recliner, laughing at whatever Belle is saying. That alone assures me that Belle hasn’t told her anything about us, nothing strange at least.

I clear my throat and they both turn to look at me, they mustn’t have noticed my entrance.

“There’s going to be a meeting in the pa…” I clear my throat again. “There’s going to be a meeting somewhere in a few minutes and you need to be in attendance, let’s go.”

She stands up, the remnants of her laughter from whatever Belle told her still plastered across her face. She doesn’t have the make-up she had earlier on, I can tell because her scar is more visible now than earlier and her lips are plain, and her clothes…She’s in a blue floral dress, with a pink cardigan on top of it. She didn’t carry any clothes so Belle must have given her the clothes of her youth.

She begins to walk towards me, the glitch in her steps making me notice the plus-size flat-bottomed Marie Janes on her feet.

“You could have just worn the shoes you had earlier on, you know,” I say and she harrumphs.

“I’m a little too tired to walk in them, Dillon.”

“Right,” I say, leading the way to the pack house.

All eyes are on her as we walk inside, me holding the small of her back and her following my lead to the high table.

I pull a seat out and like a rehearsed move, she takes it as I take mine.

The crowd goes silent and Michael begins to speak.

“Dillon here wants to introduce us to a new member of this pa… this uhhhmmm community, that’s why we’re all gathered here tonight.”

The inhabitants begin to whisper their obvious suspicions to one another. They think she’s my Luna but I haven’t claimed her so they’re wrong.

I stand up and clear my throat, instead of growling, to silence the crowd.

“I’d like to introduce you all to Ms. Olivia Robinson who’s joining our community as a teacher. She’s one of New Zealand’s best teachers so I hired her to be Michelle's homeschool teacher. You all know that my niece Michelle can’t learn with the other pups, I mean, kids because of her condition so this teacher here will help us handle Michelle. I expect you all to be kind and respectful to her.” That’s true but not entirely because Olivia is not even close to being among New Zealand’s best teachers. I lie because it’ll be a valid reason to let her stay here, at least before I claim her as my Luna.

The crowd growls in unison and that startles Olivia. Her eyes are wide and if I can see correctly, her hands are shaking. She’s frightened by everything and everyone around here. I too would, if I were her kind.

“She’s human!” One of the notorious omegas yells in the crowd and that comment alone makes Olivia jump from her seat and run, leaving the Marie Janes she had on her feet behind.

I raise my hand, commanding everyone to stay where they are, and then I chase after her.