The Alpha Heir - Archie

Chapter 2

Orange stripes of morning light crept in the otherwise dark bedroom.

The large boy occupying the massive, custom-made bed, right in the center of the room, was still asleep despite the sun being already poking out of the horizon.

He moaned restlessly and tossed, caught in the intensity of a dream. Inside his head, the wolf was free, nose to the ground, following someone's scent through a distorted, reddish forest. He caught the scent again and howled in triumph as he rushed to catch up. Through the trees, there was a flash of white fabric, long honey-blonde hair. On the wind the warm smell of vanilla and sugar. Cupcakes.

He was desperate to catch her and drag her out of the dream so he could keep her. Yet, she managed to stay just out of reach, faster than him, something that the mighty wolf wasn’t used to. He growled out his frustration, having lost the mouthwatering scent again and before he could find it again, his family’s noises pulled him back to reality.

Archie sat up in bed with a sharp intake of breath.

"Her… Again." He mumbled, running his large hand down his sleepy face.

He has met her in his dreams before. Her scent was strong as he chased her through the forest of his mind; he could almost reach out, almost touch her long locks whipping behind her....almost, but not quite. Xerius could never get close enough to actually touch her, to properly reveal her face.

Nevertheless, he knew who she was.

He knew it way before Xerius ever snarled it out loud, before he even caught that scent. There was a pull to her.

Everything about her called to him.

He had sensed something else about her but was unsure exactly what. And it had troubled him deeply.

Archie groaned and stretched, long arms cracking above his head. He didn’t leave the bed right away, still feeling the desperation of the dream, the desire to go back in it and claim her.

Despite being awake, he could still smell cupcakes in the air.

He tilted his head and took another sniff.

The scent led him out of bed and downstairs to the kitchen, where his mother, his uncle and his sister were. Some pack members were in the living room, waiting to meet the Alpha; grandmother was with the twins in the nunnery. As usual, at pretty much any time of day, their home was full of people and activity.

"Good morning, sleepy head," his mother quipped from the stove.

“Ello, mom," Xerius spoke from Archie’s lips, as usual unable to pronounce the letter H, no matter how much everyone had tried to teach the wolf.

Archie peered into the oven at the yellow cupcakes starting to dome up.

"That smells good, mom.” So good that it made its way into my dreams.

"Don't even think about it! They are mine!" His sister, Sofia, fired a towel at him to shoo him away from the oven and her cupcakes.

"Hey! I'm just looking." He rubbed his thigh where the towel had snapped him and tried to look hurt. Sofia giggled and wrapped the towel up to hit him again as he ducked behind his mother for protection. She hit her mother instead, who scowled at her.

"Don't get me in the middle of your shenanigans please Sofia! For once.” Their mother said as uncle Marco chuckled from the kitchen counter, with an ipad in his hands and a pen behind his ear. He was Beta of the pack and their mother’s best friend – the two had grown up together and were joined at the hip.

“We still need the icing, kids,” He intervened, “Or what’s the point to eat them?”

“It will be at least half an hour more.” Elena added, grimacing when she grabbed the coffee pot. It was empty again.

“I knew I had to bring my own,” Marco grinned, grabbing a thermo from a bag, “There’s never in your house, Elena.”

“Oooh, coffee!” She chanted and leapt for the coffee pot, pouring herself an unhealthily large quantity in a mug with written ‘Queen’, “And you are showing me this only now?!” Elena glared at Marco as she added some milk and sugar.

“Because I have learned to defend my own coffee with you!” He retorted, toasting the Alpha female with an impudent tilt of his glass before.

She downed half the glass, as if she hadn’t drunk anything in days.

“When you sleep on average of three hours per night, coffee is never enough,” Elena reached up to rub a knot in her neck.

Meanwhile Archie had eaten his own eggs and steak in a comfortable silence, listening to Sofia, chatting no stop about a new martial art invented by humans - krav maga, and how their grandfather could teach it better.

Archie didn’t need coffee nor he liked it, just like his father he only enjoyed drinking cold water.

“Have some avocado toast, baby,” Elena told him, all smiles and hearts instead of eyes as soon as they stop on him.

Archie tried to hide his grimace and moved to kiss his mother on the cheek, and winked at his little sister that showed him her tongue, "Don’t have time, mom. We need to hop in the shower."

The 'we' referred to man and wolf.

He looked at his baby sister from head to toe: in her usual tight black training outfit, dry leaves stuck in her hair, mud caked her knees and elbows. "You should too, louse." He told Sofia.

“Here, take this,” Elena beamed at him, handing him two bags filled with sandwiches and other snacks for the day.

“I swam in the lake! Showers are for humans," Sofia piped in, as she was running a finger around the mixing bowl, to get every last bit of cupcakes mix.

"Sofia ..." her mother warned her, offering some toasts to Marco, "Don't joke about humans ..."

“There aren't any here, Mom. So I can joke as much as I want!"

“It doesn't matter if they aren’t here. It's offensive and you know it. Now go take a shower before you fill my kitchen floor with leaves and twigs."

Marco chuckled as he pulled a leaf from Sofia’s unkempt hair.

"But mom! I don't need it!" The teenager complained, huffing.

"You can't go to school like that!" This time, their mother turned and placed her hands on her hips.

Sofia imitated her, before insisting, “I'm not going to school today! Dad told me I can go to a meeting with him-"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Their mother's voice increased in volume.

"I learn a lot more with Dad than at school! What do I care about studying the history of the Roman Empire anyway? They have been defeated and are long dead."

"It lasted a thousand years though." Marco said.

Archie could smell fight in the air so he slipped away silently, with a small smile.

His sister's taunts followed him back up the stairs, finally cut off when he closed the bathroom door. Archie smiled as he turned on the shower. He couldn’t wait for Sofia to find her mate, though he didn’t imagine anyone that would fit her temper and aggressivity.

He stepped into the shower. Coldwater pounded down onto his shoulders, running down his back.

“We need to find er,” The wolf spoke.

“It was just a dream.” Archie replied.

The man and the wolf had a very different opinion on the subject. If one was convinced the girl with honey blonde hair was their mate, that they would find her soon, the other believed it was just what it had been. A dream. A momentary illusion.

To be completely honest, Archie wasn't even quite sure he had a mate. He knew he was different. He wasn't too upset by the idea. If he didn't have a mate, unlike werewolves or Lycans, he would become Alpha and choose a suitable mate.

Stepping out into the steamy bathroom, he grabbed a towel and put it around his hips. Rivulets of water kept travelling down his large chest and thick legs.

He wiped off the mirror and eyed his face. No matter if he shaved every day, the morning after a shadow of a beard would be right back there, covering half of his face.

Without looking, Archie found the cabinet under the sink and opened it. Lined up inside there were toiletries, like bars of soap, tubes of toothpaste, deodorant and several packages filled with contact lenses. With the thumb and forefinger, he pulled his eyelids up and placed the tiny plastic circle onto his pupil. He blinked twice and repeated the process with the other eye.

The person returning his gaze from the mirror had now dark brown eyes, human enough for a day in college. “We don’t like lenses.” Xerius whined. It took Archie a while to get used to wearing contacts, and even more to put them on in less than a minute. His wolf side still loathed them.

“We can’t wear sunglasses inside the classroom.” Archie drawled as he wrapped a towel around his waist and made his way back to his room.

Retrieving a random black t-shirt and a pair of jeans from his closet, he noticed how his tennis shoes had holes on the front.

Archie let out a frustrated sigh, eyes on the two holes on his shoes.

With a shoe number 15, it was hard to find his size, and when they didn't focus and the feet talons elongated, it meant broken shoes. That wouldn't have been a problem if he had stayed at the pack: he preferred to be barefoot. But he certainly couldn't afford to go to college without shoes. For that day, he would use his father's, even if they would be a little tight.

Ready to start the day, Archie walked down the hall to grab his school stuff from the home office.