Alpha's Battle for Love

Chapter 2: The Gray Alpha

Tristan

“Piece of sh*t!" I cursed, standing in front of the printer that was supposed to be printing out documents for an ancient relic that I had just sold to a buyer from a Middle Eastern market online. And it was for a pretty penny too. But for the fourth time in the past two weeks, the f*cking printer that I've had for a few years now has once again jammed. If it wasn't the ink screwing up, it was the actual printer itself! I slammed my fist against the top of the printer and cracked the paneling.

“I'm about to hurl this f*cking thing down the mountain!" I spoke.

“You might as well buy a new one, boss," said Feren, my Beta and best friend for many years. “You've run that thing ragged for years; you know?"

I smiled. Yeah, when you're in the business of Antiquity and selling ancient relics, you need a computer as well as a printer. I remembered when my father, the Alpha before me, had to buy printer after printer after printer because he had used the hell out of them all.

“You're right," I told her. “I'll have to go today before they close. I need to send off the papers before Friday."

When my father was exiled from the native branch of the Gray Pack of Scotland long ago, he began a business, dealing in Antiquities and selling them to buyers; mostly those who owned museums. He even sold some artifacts and relics on the World Market. And after he died, I was the one who took over. I really had no choice. I didn't have a lot of choices in my life, but I took them on just the same, for the sake of my pack. The sins of the father are passed to the son, they say. My father was never a perfect wolf or Alpha. He made some mistakes and it cost him his standing with my uncle and the other wolves of the Gray pack. Long before I was born, he, my mother and our pack were exiled to the States. They settled here in Noere, Nevada. And now, it was just my pack and. We couldn't leave, not with so many of our Shifter relics hidden in these lands. The last war had taken so many of my pack, including my father. There was not much else I could do but keep moving forward. My pack needed me, and I needed them.

I had decided to jump in my car and head to the nearest Office Wares Computers and Electronics shop. The nearest one was on Clover Street across from Stone's Coffee.

When I pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car, that was when I felt the familiar tugging of the Pull. When the Pull came, it was chaotic. It drove a shifter's inner wolf mad. And it usually happened when a wolf was about to meet his or her Fated.

And this one was human…Of course. Another human female! It was a rare occurrence when a human became Fated to a wolf. And it was rather bad. When a wolf coupled with a human, nothing good came of it. I know from experience. My last girlfriend was Marissa, a human. She had been my girlfriend a long time ago. And she left me for another shifter, Baltazar. He had once been my best friend, but our packs had become rivals and I learned too late just how cruel and evil he had become.

I turned to see her driving down that street on a blue moped. She had a helmet on so I couldn't really see her face. But her head quickly turned, and we locked eyes for a split second. A quick glance was all it took for the hairs on my neck to stand up, and for my hackles to rise. The Pull tugged at my skin with invisible tendrils. My inner wolf growled and scratched at the walls within. I couldn't help feeling the draw towards her. My body tingled with sudden hunger. I hadn't felt it in so long. I hadn't been with a woman for many years and there was a good reason for that. The last woman I was with was also human, it didn't end so well between us.

I also felt a strong pull of danger and looked to see an oncoming truck barreling towards her. The light had gone red, but the truck wasn't stopping, and I could see from where I stood that the guy driving his truck wasn't looking ahead, but at his phone. F*cking i***t!

I drew from the power of my inner wolf and burst into a run towards the girl and the oncoming truck. I vaulted over the parking lot, onto the sidewalk, and then into the street. My adrenaline was pumping as I reached the back of her moped, scooping her up and into my arms as she raised her hands to brace herself, screaming loudly. The truck smashed into the moped, sending it flying.

But I managed to save her just in the nick of time. I watched as her moped landed on the ground, bouncing over the sidewalk near the Lucky Beam and skidding to a stop.

Breathless, I looked at her and she was looking back at me. She managed not to lose her glasses, though they were adorably crooked on her face.

When I looked into her beautiful brown eyes, my inner wolf howled, and the Pull tugged hard. I felt myself being pulled in more and more by her aura. I doubted she was feeling the same at that moment. Her beautiful eyes told me that she was shocked by my sudden rescue and perhaps something more.

I would try with all of my being to deny what I had started feeling for her and what would grow between us. I would try to deny the Pull, but she'd become a maelstrom from which I'd be powerless to swim away.