The Adopted Alpha

A Friend in deed

Clare was a huge fan of nature so talking morning walks to school should be fun right? No, it was not. Not when it meant that she would arrive at school all hot and tired even before the day had begun.

Especially not when she was running late.

None of the jackasses she lived with offered to give her a lift. Not ever and especially not after the had their asses handed to them by Hunter for her sake.

The thoughts of Jeff skipping school today because he was "under the weather " almost made her smile.

Almost. She would if she wasn't sure to arrive at school super late today.

She heard a car behind her, slowing down as it approached. She rolled her eyes knowing it was one of her pack members trying to make fun of her.

To her surprise, the car stopped right in front of her. The windows began to slide lower and Clare mentally prepped herself to bolt if it was a kidnapper.

She wasn't good at fighting but she could run really well at least.

Hunter's head popped out from behind the tinted glasses to her surprise. This was not the car he had brought her home in the day before but it wasn't any less expensive.

His parents must really be loaded with cash.

"What are waiting for Clare Baros, get in."

Clare ran in towards the passenger seat without any questions.

What was there to complain about? It really felt good to have a friend in need.

Clare didn't rush out as usual when it was lunch break, or any of her classes. Because Hunter sat beside her in every class and kept the bullies at bay.

It was like having her own personal bodyguard.

Of course, there were some harsh whispers carrying rumors ranging from the fact that she had spelled the school's latest eye candy to her being pregnant with Hunter's pups so he was obligated to take care of her.

Maybe they didn't realize that would imply that Hunter had had s*x with her which would in turn imply that he found her attractive. Or they were just ignoring that fact. Who knows?

Whatever the back story of her relationship with Hunter was, she didn't care as long as they did not accuse her to her face.

So during recess, she casually packed up her notes and saw Hunter waiting for her with his usual unreadable expression. Yeah, they had to work on that one.

He gestured for her to follow him and she did, trailing up behind him so they could go to their spot in the library. Ah! They had a spot.

But they didn't go to the library, he led her instead up a set of stairs to the school roof.

Clare had never been there before. It was the hangout of the jocks and cheerleader, her major bullies, when they were wanted a smoke so, yeah.

Which also meant that she didn't know how nice it was up here. A lot of fresh air and a nice view of the park lake that ran not far from the school.

"Wow! This is nice." Clare exclaimed with smiles.

Hunter looked in the direction that she was as though he was just really looking around for the first time. "I suppose it is."

"Of course it is." Clare turned to face him, his face was still devoid of any expression. She sighed, they really needed to work on that.

"I brought you here so we could talk without any interruptions." Hunter said trying to bring her back on course.

"Is it about, yesterday?" Clare asked

Hunter nodded. "Yes, about those guys...."

"You don't need to feel obligated to protect me."

Hunter's eyebrows knit "What do you mean?"

"I thought maybe, y-you are tired of being with me and also those nasty rumors they've been spreading about us. "

"Okay, please shut up now Clare. I am not ditching you, I wanted to offer to teach you to protect yourself since you didn't contact me yesterday."

"Oh!" Her expression lifted slightly. "Thanks for your offer. I was going to tell you that I accept when we saw but it skipped my mind. A little self defense could not hurt anybody. But to fairly warn you, I am an omega, a half omega to be exact."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I am half omega and half human."

Hunter still looked confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Clare eyes almost bulged. "Are you not a werewolf?"

"No," He replied "Does that matter?"

Clare's jaw dropped. How was he able to beat all those guys yesterday? She had assumed that maybe he was an Alpha of some other pack like the rumor mill said.

He had always seemed a bit off to her anyway with the cold feel to him. A vampire then?

"Are you a vampire? Are you going to bite me?"She backed up a bit.

Hunter's lips twitched at the sight of her fear and Clare swore she saw sunlight reflected off his incisors for a second. "I'm not going to bite you so don't worry. Plus why then would I be offering to teach you self defense?"

"To lure me out here obviously."

"In which case I could have gotten it done by now."

"Maybe you have a 'powerful predator and desperate prey' kink, I don't know. As they say, to each their own."

Hunter shook his head at her weird logic. "Well I have no such kink. So are we still on for the self defense classes?"

Clare nodded her head. Knowledge of how to defend herself could not hurt her.

It hurt!!

Every limb in her body ached by Friday. Lunch was spent doing so much rigorous exercises that Clare had never felt how out of shape she was more than then.

She wasn't really a fan of exercises.

Since her training each Sunday had always been a 'let's beat Clare up in places that can't be easily seen' affair, She never got to do any exercises even then.

The closest thing she had to exercise was walking to and from school. This week though, Hunter had always been taking her both ways in one if his cars.

Aching and beyond tired, Clare stripped and got into the shower. She let the stream of water massage her sore muscles and let out a tiny sigh.

Hunter had adviced her to either take hot showers or get a massage. She couldn't afford the later so the shower would have to do.

After turning the shower off, she dressed in her pajamas and went straight to bed. She was asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.