The Alpha’s Exceptional Mate

“All right! Time’s up! Pass your papers now!” the female human resources assistant announced after checking the time on her wristwatch. Leila Alston’s heart pounded like a hammer when she heard that voice, and she hadn’t finished answering her paper yet. A light bulb flashed into her head, a sign that she had thought of an idea, which she wasn’t sure if good or not. “Yes, that’s right. Letter C for Christ,” she told herself like a fool. She quickly encircled all the third choices of the five remaining unanswered items on her test paper. After that, she handed her paper to the human resources assistant. “Thanks for coming today. We’ll notify you via text message and e-mail if you pass the assessment test.” “Thank you.” Leila smiled and packed her things, and got out of the room with a smile. Even though she wasn’t sure of the answers to the last five items, she knew she passed the assessment test because she had studied well. Leila was looking for a restroom to use, but she stopped when she had just entered the restroom as she overheard the two girls who also took the assessment test a while ago. “Are you sure? How did you know that?” “When I was looking for you a while ago after the assessment test, I bumped into someone I know who currently works at this company. She said they had already hired a new administrative assistant.” “What? Then why did they still let us take the test?” “For formality purposes, maybe.” Leila felt sad hearing the conversation. She dragged her feet out of the retail company. She looked up at the tall building in front of her. This was the seventh company that she had applied for a job. She was a recent graduate of a Bachelor of Science in Office Administration. She thought that having a degree would be one of the good ways to be hired quickly, but now she realized she was wrong. The competition for fresh graduates and unemployed people was tight. And some companies, including the one she was gazing at now, already had a person hired. Some job postings and processes were just done for formality. After all the six times she exerted effort in applying, she didn’t expect her seventh attempt to be another failure. She even traveled from Ozirus North to Ozirus Center, but the possibility of her getting hired here turned out to be nothing. “What a waste of time,” Leila said in her mind, but the words came out almost in a whisper. She bit her lip and almost lost hope, but she thought of herself and her brother. Gaining courage, she clenched her fists and cheered herself, “No, I will never give up. I know there’s a company that’s meant for me. Maybe this isn’t my time yet.” She walked to the bus station and dialed her brother Drew’s phone number. “Why isn’t he answering my call? Is he still in the class? What time is it now?” she talked to herself in a moderate voice. Seeing 11:47 a.m. on her phone’s screen, she didn’t call him anymore because he still had a class. Finally, the bus stopped by the station, and she rode on it. She was seated in the middle right window seat. She was so exhausted from job hunting that her eyelids involuntarily moved down, closing her eyes. “Flash report! Two men were found severely wounded at the boundary of Ozirus South and Ozirus West. According to some people near the incident, they heard shouts of two men asking for help and growls and howls of wolves. But a few people also said that such growls and howls might not come from the ordinary wolves as they saw their enormous size….” Leila opened her eyes and saw the passengers watching the news on the television on the bus. The flash report caught their interest and made them start talking. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they were not just wolves,” one man in his mid-thirties spoke from the last right window seat of the bus. All the passengers, including Leila, looked over at the back. “Really? Why did you say so? I heard that there are wolves in the South,” a married woman in front of Leila asked. “My grandfather was one of the hunters before. They hunted wild animals in the Ozirus Forest. One time they saw more than three wolves, but one was different. It was a few times larger than the ordinary wolves we see today. Maybe that’s what a few people refer to in the news.” “If that’s the case, maybe those were not wolves,” the bus driver couldn’t help but join in the conversation. Out of curiosity, another woman asked, “If they are not wolves, what are they? There’s no way they can be called bears. There are no bears in the South’s woods, I think.” An old man behind the bus driver butted in and spoke, “Werewolves.” They reacted differently to the older man’s words but were mainly scared. “He’s right,” the man who first opened the topic spoke back, agreeing with the old man. “Werewolves? That’s impossible! They are just in movies and books,” a female teenager holding a romance book commented. Leila didn’t pay attention to the passengers’ conversation anymore because, aside from fear, she noticed she was close to her destination. Stepping her feet on the ground after paying the bus fare, Leila met a woman whom she concluded was a teacher because of the uniform. The woman also resided in Ozirus North. “Nice meeting you, and congratulations on finally finishing college,” the teacher greeted her genuinely, beaming. Although she was curious about why the teacher knew about it, Leila bowed a little to show respect as she smiled back. “Thank you, Ma’am.” “You must be wondering why I know that. I have seen you a couple of times here, and I know you’re Drew’s sister. Drew is a student of my friend who’s also a teacher.” “Oh, I see.” She nodded and plastered a smile again. “Hmm, I’m not sure if you already know, but I think you don’t. The thing is that my friend has mentioned that Drew hadn’t attended her subject class for more than a week already. The same is the case for the other subject classes. She tried contacting him, but he wasn’t answering. I know you. That’s why I am approaching you now.” Leila’s mouth stayed open for a while, surprised by the information she had just heard. The good teacher she was talking with now must not be telling lies. “I didn’t know. I thought my brother always attended his classes since he always wore his school uniform, and he left and arrived home on time. Thanks for letting me know about this, Ma’am.” “I know you can help him and resolve if he has problems. Let me know if you need help.” Leila and the teacher bid their goodbyes and parted ways. Finally, at home, Leila kept calling Drew’s phone number. It rang a few times, but he couldn’t be reached anymore after a few minutes. She was going crazy right now and didn’t know what to do. An hour later, she heard his voice coming clearer as he reached home. “Oh, you’re here! I bought some delicious—” “Drew, where have you been?” she cut him off. “Why weren’t you answering my calls?” “Of course, at school. Where else did you think I would be?” He headed to the kitchen to put the foods he bought for them while she followed him with her eyes. Leila crossed her arms over her chest while looking at him seriously. “Do you have something to tell me, Drew?” “There’s nothing.” He couldn’t look at her as he transferred the food onto the plates. Leila heaved a sigh. “A teacher approached me.” That made Drew pause from what he was doing. Afterward, he continued and didn’t respond. “She said you didn’t attend to all of your subjects for more than a week now,” she continued, but it seemed he didn’t want to speak. “Why don’t you want to talk? Do you have problems?” “No, I don’t have any problems. I just don’t want to go to school anymore,” he finally replied. “What?” She couldn’t believe it. “Let’s eat before the food gets cold.” He sat on a chair, scooped some rice, and put it on her plate. “Now that I know, you don’t want to talk about it? Drew, have you gone nuts? I did the best I could for us to live and finish our studies without anyone’s help! Even if it was hard to study and work at the same time, I endured and sacrificed because we are the only ones left, and I am the eldest! How could you do this to me?” Leila’s voice trembled, tears falling down her cheeks. “Did you forget what Mom told us before she died? She wanted us to finish our studies to have a good life, but you didn’t go to school and don’t want to finish your studies anymore!” “Why do you care? It’s what I want!” Drew couldn’t help but talk back. He got mad as her voice rose in anger and kept scolding him. “You shouldn’t mind me! It’s my life! You’re out of it! And I’m not a kid anymore!” After saying those words, he lost his appetite and headed to the front door. “Where are you going, Drew? We’re not done yet!” “I’m leaving!” he shouted. “Come back here, Drew!” He was already far away in an instant, and she couldn’t stop him. *** Austin kicked Brett’s face and punched Triston’s, a quick movement that the two didn’t see coming. They stepped back a few times to distance themselves from him. Austin smirked as he saw the two rubbing the blood on their lips with their thumbs. “Now you two agreed on killing me, huh? For what? So, you will compete for the Alpha title when I die. Right? I’m afraid you can’t kill me.” Triston uttered a short laugh, mocking Austin. “That’s what you think. Don’t be so proud of yourself, dude. You may be the strongest among us, but our strength combined will knock you down.” “Well, let’s see,” Austin said confidently. Brett and Triston nodded at each other. Austin positioned himself, growling as his eyes became golden-yellow, waiting for their attacks. When Triston’s eyes turned golden-yellow and roared and ran fast, going to him to throw punches, he met his fists with strong palms as a shield. Noticing Brett’s presence coming closer to them, he quickly squeezed Triston’s hands with his palms and twisted Triston’s hands. He then kicked Brett, but Brett was able to ward off his kick. Triston took the chance to bang his head to his, making his hold on Brett’s hands to let go. Brett punched him in the right face, and Triston punched him on the other side of his face. Then the two jumped and kicked him hard in the abdomen, causing him to fly backwards because of that strong force. His back landed on the ground. He instantly rose from the ground and defended his face from getting attacked by Brett’s punch. At an unbelievable speed, Austin tackled Brett to the ground and strangled Brett’s throat with his hand, his sharp nails pressing on Brett’s throat. Blood came out of Brett’s throat from his claws, and Brett was choking while holding his hands firmly. Triston picked the wood at a near distance and hit his back very hard, causing him to groan in pain and release Brett’s throat. This time, Triston tackled him to the ground and hit his face countless times. Brett, whose eyes were now the same color as Triston, wanted revenge for suffocating him earlier, so he took the pocket knife from his jeans and slit Austin’s side. Austin shouted in pain as blood crawled down from the visible cut on his side. He couldn’t find a moment to move away when the two were throwing him punches, hits, kicks, and other awful actions that he could hardly fight back until he lost strength and stayed on the ground, lying helplessly. Triston laughed evilly. “We can’t kill you, huh! Look at how terrible you look now, my dear cousin! You don’t look like an Alpha anymore!” Brett smirked as Austin coughed blood and was unable to move his body.