The untamed Alpha and his human mate

Chapter 17: Getting along

Amaya

The sky was clear for once, pale winter sunlight stretched across the open fields in soft gold as we drove closer towards the farm. The sun didn’t warm much, the air still carried a sharp, biting chill, but it lit everything beautifully.

The farm was fun, frost clung stubbornly to the grass in shaded patches, crunching faintly underfoot, while the smell of hay, damp earth, and animals clung thick in the air.

Children laughed in the distance, animals made bleating noises and moved around behind the wooden fences.

The looks and sneers of contempt were not so fun. Clayton preferred going unnoticed, so he didn’t want people knowing who he was, which meant no collar, which meant it was back to rude stares at my scarred face or my weight or both. Esther got rude stares and sneers too, but not as badly as I did.

We managed to mostly ignore them. Before, I would never have been able to not break down in tears, but either more exposure to such horrible reactions had thickened my skin a little or therapy was helping me heal and become a little stronger. It still hurt a lot. I also preferred not to have attention on me at the best of times, but I wasn’t breaking down anymore.

Odette grabbed Esther’s hand and dragged her towards the goats excitedly, then, realising Clayton was the one with the food to feed them, she ran to him, grabbed his hand, and tugged him towards them too. I watched as the animals stiffened and became hesitant when he came near, prey sensing a predator. He handed the food to Esther and stepped back, letting the animals relax and approach Odette over the fencing, their noses twitching.

I stayed back, and as we went along, so did Esther, letting Clayton have some alone time with his daughter and try to bond with her. She was mostly dragging him all over the place, and it was funny to watch such a dangerous being like Clayton being bossed about by some tiny four-year-old, kind of cute too.

Clearly it was going to take him some time to learn how fatherhood worked because while I stayed a little further behind, it meant I looked alone. That drew the attention of some man. I didn’t know what kind of supernatural he was, but he sneered at me. “You shouldn’t be here, you’ll scare all the animals with that ugly f*****g face.”

It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before, and I tried to ignore him, but he added, “you fat ugly b.itch,” and s.pat in my face. Ok, I was stronger these days, but I wasn’t THAT strong, and the tears escaped me. I tried to be silent, but werewolf hearing meant Clayton heard the sob escape me, and he turned around.

He came over to the man, and without slowing down, he headbutted him and kicked him in the stomach, sending him crashing to the floor. He bent down and grabbed the guy by his shirt and snarled into his face, his voice dropping low and lethal. “Touch my f.ucking slave again, you die,” then he spat in his face and stood up.

The man wiped his face and snapped, “who the f***k are you to tell me how I can speak to some s.hitty slave?”

Clayton leaned back down in his face and growled, “I’m your f*****g alpha.”

The man looked confused, and with less anger in his voice, he said, “I have an alpha, you aren’t him.”

A crowd had gathered around by this point, watching silently. Clayton didn’t care, I don’t think he had even noticed the crowd. He met the man’s eyes and said, “I’m your alpha’s alpha.” He stared into his eyes until the words sank in. The man’s face turned to one of fear, and when someone in the crowd whispered, “Clayton Blackthorn?” The man’s face turned to absolute terror, and he scrambled backwards along the floor, got up, and literally ran away.

Clayton rolled his eyes as if he was being overly dramatic, but he wasn’t the only one, others started to make a hasty retreat too until only a few people were left, and Odette pretty much had the farm to herself.

“You shouldn’t behave like that in front of your daughter, her mother never wanted her to be around violence,” Esther said.

Clayton stepped into her personal space and snarled, “well she isn’t here, I am.” He stormed off ahead, luckily Odette had been too busy feeding the animals to notice anything.

“What a vile temper he has,” Esther muttered under her breath and went over to Odette and joined in with feeding the animals.

Esther was right, Clayton did have a vile temper, he was hotheaded and violent, but it was hard to be mad when he had been defending me. Most slave owners didn’t give a damn how the public treated their slaves, it was nice that Clayton did care, though Esther was right that he would need to learn not to be so violent around Odette.

Remembering what Bliss had said about werewolves and food, I went and bought some burgers and hot dogs, and then I went to find him. He was sitting on a bench table, perched on the edge of the table with his feet on the bench, elbows resting on his knees with his hands hanging down.

I dumped the food on the table beside him, and he frowned at the amount of burgers and hotdogs.

“Sorry, I wasn’t sure if werewolves eat a lot, so I figured more food was better than less, I thought it might cheer you up,” I whispered shyly.

He snorted a laugh and grabbed a burger. “You were right, we do eat a lot. Thanks.”

“No, thank you, I know you didn’t have to defend me, most owners don’t care about their slaves, so thank you, Clay,” I smiled and then quickly realised I hadn’t used his full name. “Sorry, Clayton.”

Laughing under his breath, he said, “Clay is fine, though I think you’re the first person to ever call me that.”

I smiled, I liked that I was the only one to call him that, and then I felt a pit in my stomach when I realised I was no longer just attracted to Clay, I was falling for him, and I didn’t see this ending well for me.

He finished the food and swung his legs around and hopped off the table to throw the rubbish in the bin. Usually he was cold and stoic, showing no emotion or even much of his personality, but I caught a glimpse of it for a moment watching him throw the screwed-up rubbish into the bin from afar. He missed half the time, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“f**k, let’s try it with a kick,” he said. He threw it in the air and did some awesome roundhouse kick, but the screwed-up ball of paper went flying over the bin and almost hit the back of someone’s head.

“Ah, f***k,” he mumbled. He went to go pick it up, but Odette came over and tugged him back towards the animals, so I quickly picked the rubbish up, threw it in the bin, and joined them.

While he passed Odette the food from the bag, I was feeling a little brave talking to him today, and I asked, “how did you do that kick?”

“It’s a martial arts kick,” he replied.

“What martial arts do you do?”

He shrugged, handed more food to Odette, and replied, “I do a bit of everything, from kickboxing to shotokan karate to taekwondo and so on.”

“You haven’t taught me any of that,” I pointed out.

“I’ve been teaching you basic self-defence.”

“Can you teach me martial arts? I’d love to learn to kick like that, or do I have to be skinny?”

He frowned at me. “No, you don’t need to be a particular weight to learn.”

I wanted to ask him again about teaching me, as he hadn’t given me an answer, but Odette was already dragging him along to the horses next.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and we had a good time. I never thought I’d hear myself say such a thing. After the war, my life had been hell, abusive owners selling me on to even worse owners. The kind of person Clay was meant I should have ended up with the worst and most evil, depraved monster there was for an owner, but he’d turned out to be the best so far, not perfect. He still had his moments, and his hatred for humans was very clear, but he wasn’t unnecessarily cruel, and I was starting to wonder if any of these rumours were even true about him.