The Adopted Alpha

Reluctance

Rick's eyes flitted from her and to Neil's. He looked the other guy from head downwards and up again.

Clare's eyes widened. Rick was gay?... Bisexual?... Queer?.... Whatever he was. Well, why did no one know? He never gave any inclination and right now, she got the vibe that he was going to ignore his mate.

Neil was right, his mate was going to need a little push.... scratch that, a lot of push, if Uncle Drew happens to be homophobic.

Thinking fast, she moved closer to Neil sitted besides her and placed a suggestive hand on his arms, digging her nails in a little, much like Kat was currently doing with her cousin.

Predictably, Rick's eyes narrowed in controlled anger and he might or might not have clenched his teeth to stop from moving closer to the duo and yanking the blonde haired boy who's wolf called to his away from the clutches of his Uncle's adoptive kid.

He managed to control himself without giving off too much. He rolled his eyes at them and pulled Kat back out of the cafeteria.

“Ricky baby, what was that about?" Kat pursed her blood red lips at him. “I thought you said you were starving?"

“Let's just order room service." Rick answered not sparing her a glance.

Clare let out a sigh of relief when Rick and Kat exited the room. She looked at Neil who was now looking a lot less smiley than he looked before.

“You have to be frigging kidding me. My Cousin is your mate?" Clare exclaimed at Neil once they were seated again. “Oh goddess, no."

“Why? What is the problem?" Gabby asked for the now quiet guy.

“Everything!" Clare wanted to shout at them. She wanted to say that the Moon goddess must have made a major mistake this time but she held her tongue.

She could not discourage her new friend.

“Let's just say, it's going to be a little harder than we all initially thought. But it has to work out at the end. How often do people reject their mates, right?" She gave Neil an encouraging smile.

Gabby quickly got the gist of it and added her two cents “She's right. You are one hot piece of salami. Your mate stands no chance. Right Aidan?"

"Yes!" Aidan pipped up from beside his mate. Neil cracked a little smile. “You really think so guys?"

Gabby's lips parted “Of course, just look at yourself. Who is not attracted to their mate.... right? You said that yourself."

“Yeah! I'm confident you can have Rick wrapped around your fingers in no time at all." At least she hoped so, but she would never voice that out. Sure, Neil was gorgeous and totally loveable but if Rick could give up on his dreams for his dad's dream for him, then his mate wasn't as sure either.

On the bright side, Neil was also a beta like Kat. On the more dreary side, Rick had no right to the Alpha position in Neil's pack.

Overall, Clare could not shake the feeling that Rick's reaction to his mate was only a prelude to what Neil would have to face later on. But she was ready to help Neil if he was still determined to pursue his mate at the end of the tournament.

Clare barged into her hotel room ahead of Hunter. He came in right after her and watched her throw herself dramatically on their shared bed.

He silently went over to his side of the bed to pull off his sneakers. Clare seemed to have gotten over the incident from earlier that day since the mate saga between Rick and Neil but it still made him feel awkward.

Especially not knowing what she had seen for sure. It just felt awkward somehow.

“Uhhh!" Clare moaned. “The mother of the moon really did a mistake this time."

Hunter spared a glance at Clare but kept quiet. She looked like she was in the mood to rant so he let her be. Sure enough she continued without missing a beat.

"Neil doesn't deserve that jerk, am I right? Or is it Rick that doesn't deserve Neil?" She asked him looking up at his back profile from her sprawled position on the bed.

“Whatever? And Neil said he wanted a dom" She laughed to herself, apparently finding something funny about what she was saying but Hunter didn't get the joke. "I mean, Rick? He basically follows his father's every whim. I wanted to tell Neil that his dreams had been dashed but I had to lie through my teeth that it was going to be fine."

“Rick is going to need to grow a pair of balls and maybe some guts while he is at it so he could fit Neil's high expectations of his ideal mate."

Hunter spared her a glance, "I'm pretty sure those two phrases mean the same thing."

Clare rolled his eyes at his annoying lack of interest in her ranting as usual. "That is so~ not the point. And how can you just calmly sit there when this is happening?" She inched closer to him. "Do you not have a single bone of curiosity in your body?"

Hunter lied down on his side of the bed. He always could not even bring himself to feign an interest in issues concerning human beings since everything had the same inevitable end as far as he was concerned. Of course, he was making this exception, only for HER sake.

Curiosity was HER thing not his and she would always tell him off in the same way.

Thinking of her dampened his mood further. He missed HER.... a lot!

"Do me a favor, Hunter. Pretty please!" Clare grabbed his hand and blinked her long black lashes at him prettily.

Hunter sighed "What is it?"

"Pretend to be Neil's boyfriend during the tournament."

He narrowed his eyes at her and she was quick to continue.

"It's just pretend. To get Rick jealous."

Hunter simply turned his back to her. He was not obligated to do anything that did not directly concern her so it was a no.

"Come on," Clare whined in her familiar way. "It's for a good cause."

"Well, I'm not a good person."

"Hunter!"

"No!"