Endearment From A Wolf's Heart

Alpha Junior

"Kendra, are you sure you're okay?" My mother asks for what seems to be the hundredth time when I told her about Pittsburgh. I ended up taking a leave of absence from work, packing a couple of bags, and dropping my car off at my mom's since Adam insisted on driving me down. I don't know whether he just doesn't trust me, or if I should believe this whole act he has going on saying he's just concerned for my safety. Either way, I asked Adam to wait for me in the car so I could talk to my parents alone. The last thing I needed was for my mother to pass out thinking that Aaron was dead walking among us. And for the time being, I'm keeping Adam out of the picture so I don't confuse my parents anymore than they already are.

"Yes. Mom, I'm fine. I promise," I say to her as she walks me to the front door of my childhood home. "I'll be back in a couple of weeks for my ultrasound."

"Okay," my mom answers reluctantly. "I mean, I know I told you to reach out to the Maverickson's. I just didn't think they would ask you to come down there. Let alone let you live with them."

My mom and I share a sad smile. I understand completely how she's feeling. I'm my mother's second oldest child out of five, and the oldest daughter. I'm also the first of her children who is about to be giving her grandchildren, and despite being twenty-five years old, I've always been with or near my parents. I even went to college in my hometown so that I could stay closer to home. Thankfully, I did, or I never would have met Aaron. Regardless, this is my first time going away for more than a week, and while I know my mom wants to give me my space about the whole thing, I can sense that she's feeling a little skeptic about it. Hell, I myself am feeling skeptic. If only she knew what I did.

But really, what do I know? So far, Adam has told me nothing about why it's so important for his parents to know about my pregnancy. Why should they? They couldn't even be bothered to see if I was okay after the crash. They lost one of their sons. I get that, but I lost the man I loved, and so far, nothing has been the same without him. I don't think I'll ever forgive them for abandoning me like that.

"Are you sure this is what you want, honey?" My mom asks, opening the door for me. I nod, giving her one last hug and a little smile.

"Okay, then. I'm sorry your dad couldn't see you off, but we both love you so much. Make sure you call us when you get there, so I know you made it down safely."

"I will," I say. Then I turn to head towards Adam's Genesis. I thank the lucky stars that his windshield is so tinted that my mother can't see who the driver is, otherwise she'd never let me out of here without asking me a million questions. Questions I'm not sure I even have the answers to.

It's evening time now, so in the four hours it'll take us to drive to Pittsburgh, it'll be well past 10pm by the time we get there. If we don't hit the road now, we might not get there until midnight. I'm just about to get in the passenger seat when I hear my mom call out to me.

"Who's driving you?" She asks, squinting her eyes to get a better view of the man in the driver's seat. I try to dismiss it as quickly as I can.

"The Maverickson's sent me a driver," I call back with a final wave. My mother nods, apparently accepting that answer, as I climb in the Genesis. I watch my mother go back into the house before turning towards Adam, who has been silent the entire time.

"Don't make me regret this," I say in all seriousness.

Adam gives me a small smirk, but continues to say nothing as he puts the vehicle in gear and pulls out of my parents' driveway.

Something about road trips apparently always puts me under. When I fell asleep, the sun was just starting to set, but as I'm waking up it's completely dark, and I can just make out the city lights of Pittsburgh on the other side of the Allegheny river.

Right next to me, Adam hadn't said a word the entire drive here, and it makes me think about how different it was with Aaron the day he brought me to meet his parents. Aaron and I had playfully argued about who would be in charge of the music, and by the end of the argument I won. We both laughed it off and I forced him to endure the sweet sounds of girl pop, only to have him change it back to classic rock once I fell asleep. Still, it was fun for that short bit of time to not have to sit in utter silence because we both knew each other. It was never boring with us. We shared something that no one would ever be able to understand.

But that's all over now.

I hadn't really paid attention to the fact that I'd let tears fall from my eyes, until Adam's voice interrupts my train of thought.

"You're thinking about him, aren't you?"

I jump, quickly wiping the tears from my cheeks and putting on a brave face. I turn to meet his gaze, only to find him staring straight ahead at the road. It's really much too dark to see his facial features, or to even make out what he might be thinking. I begin to wonder, how did he even know I was crying?

I shift uncomfortably in my seat, turning my gaze to look back out the window. A few awkward minutes go by, before Adam breaks the silence again.

"By now my parents aren't going to be awake, so you're gonna crash at my place tonight, and I'll take you to see them in the morning." Adam says this all so nonchalantly, as if it's my purpose in life to follow his every order. A bitter feeling begins to consume me again, and I can't really fight back the next few words.

"Yes, master. Anything you say, master." I give out a humorless chuckle, crossing my arms over my chest and staring straight ahead.

Adam lets out an annoyed sigh.

"Don't start," he warns.

"Like I said, whatever you say."

Adam takes an exit, and the next thing I know, we're on one of the bridges going into downtown Pittsburgh.

"What would you have me do then, huh?" Adam asks, irritation just dripping from every word coming out of his mouth. We continue into downtown, taking a few turns here and there. "I could drop you off at some shady motel, if you want. Do you even have money?"

"Of course I have money," I snap back. "Just because I didn't grow up with parents like yours doesn't mean I'm a worthless broke bit–"

"It was just a question," Adam barks. "Would you chill the f**k out?"

"Whatever you say, mas–"

"What the Hell did my brother even see in you? God Damn, you're annoying."

There. That was the trigger. Suddenly, I'm back to not trusting or believing a thing this asshole has to say to me. In fact, I see nothing but red now.

"Let me out," I say. It came out quietly, but that was because of the rage building inside me. Adam cuts through a side street towards the quieter part of downtown Pittsburgh. Well, quiet because it is just after ten o'clock at night, that is.

"What?" Adam seemed genuinely confused, as if he hadn't heard me right.

"I said, 'let me out!'" I yank Adam's arm as I start yelling, catching him way off guard. The car swerves, just missing an oncoming vehicle, but Adam quickly recovers and slams on his breaks. Once our vehicle comes to a stop, Adam looks at me with bold fury in his eyes.

"Are you f*****g crazy?" he hollers. Before he can say anything else, I take the moment to jump out, slamming the door behind me and walking towards the nearest sidewalk. I hear another door slam shut, and in turning around, Adam is suddenly right there behind me. The confusing part is that I'm pretty sure I had put a good twenty feet between me and the car before I heard his door, so how in the Hell did he get over to me so fast?

Adam grabs one of my arms before I can react, holding me in front of him even as I begin to hit at his chest.

"Let go of me!" I yell, hitting even harder. Unfortunately for me, it was like I was hitting a brick wall. Aaron had been built like this too. Not every guy can get a super buff body, but somehow the two of them have managed to just fine.

"Would you be quiet?" Adam hisses. He starts to drag me back over to the car. "It's the middle of the night. You're going to attract the wrong type of people."

"I won't be quiet. I'm done taking orders from you."

"Seriously, you need to shut up." Adam glances around, as if he can sense something I can't. I can hear busy sounds coming from other parts of the city, but on the street we're on it's more eerily quiet. "Come on, we need to get out of–"

"Why? You worried someone's going to think you're kidnapping me?" I exclaim, my voice getting even louder. "You ever think that maybe that's what I want?"

"You keep yelling like this and I'm going to leave you to deal with what's out here."

I quickly gesture around as Adam still tries to pull me towards the car. We're still about twenty feet from it. "There's no one out here, Adam. I think I'd much rather take my chances with–"

Suddenly, Adam has a hand over my mouth, and I'm being pulled towards a nearby building. My back gets pressed against the wall and Adam puts all his weight on me as he continues keeping my mouth covered. I try to scream through his hand.

"Shhh," he hisses again, but this time more urgently. His attention is off to the right, and I follow his gaze. At that moment, I think Adam realizes it's too late, because his whole body tenses up. We've been spotted, and there's something about this situation that I'm not completely aware of.

A group of people, maybe fifteen or so, emerge from the shadows where a nearby street lacks streetlights. They all begin hooting and hollering as they approach us, clearly impressed with what they're seeing. Adam, who begins silently cursing under his breath, pulls me away from the wall and forces me behind him, apparently no longer worried about keeping me quiet.

"Don't say anything and if I tell you to run, get straight to the car," Adam says quickly, planting himself in front of me, trying to keep me out of the group's view.

"Who are they?"

"Kendra, I'm serious," the urgency in Adam's voice frightens me. "Now is not the time, I'll explain later. Just please stay quiet."

The problem I face now is that in Mansfield, it's a small enough town that you don't ever run into problems like these. So at the moment, I'm completely unsure of what to do. The only thing I can think of doing is exactly what Adam wants me to do. I stay behind him, cowering and quiet. Call me weak, but if something bad were to happen here tonight, I wouldn't have the slightest clue about how to defend myself.

"Hey yinz, look at what we got here!" A male's voice calls out through the night as the crowd grows closer. Adam's backside is pressed right against my front and I can feel his whole body tense up again. "Looks like we got one of Augustine's boys out and about. Which twin are you, boy?"

"Shut your yap, Marcus! We all know the other twin died. Who was that? Aaron, I think," a woman's voice answers, calling out along with the others. "This one's gonna be the new alpha when the old pappy kicks the bucket."

I tense up at the sound of Aaron's name just as the crowd all laughs, drawing even closer. Closer than I feel comfortable with. I glance to our left; the car is only about fifteen feet away, but now the group might be able to make it to us if we tried to make a break for it. All I can do now is trust Adam and wait for him to tell me to run. Hopefully, it doesn't end up coming down to that, but clearly these people know exactly who Adam is.

"I don't want any trouble here," Adam calls back to them, his voice carrying out firm and steady. He sounds better than I feel. "We just took a wrong turn, but we'll be leaving now."

"And who's that ya got there?" Marcus asks. There's humor to his voice, the kind of humor that means trouble. "From the smell of it, she ain't one of us. That's for sure."

"She's nobody," Adam answers, reaching a hand back to touch me, as if making sure I'm still right behind him. I don't know what comes over me, but I quickly grab his hand which makes him tense up for a third time. The whole group had just witnessed this transaction.

"Nobody my arse. I'd say Alpha Junior here's got himself a little girlfriend." This time it was the woman who called out, laughing like she just made the funniest joke in the world. "Maybe the side bait wants to come out to play for a bit?"

"If you let us go now, there won't be any disciplinary action from my father," Adam says quickly, his hand still tightly gripping mine. "I'll make sure of it."

"Ha!" Marcus laughs. "You think we're scared of your Alpha? Please...we're Rogue, boy. Your pack has already done their worst to us."

Somehow, in the midst of all this, another member of the group had snuck around us. The next thing I know, I'm being grabbed from behind and yanked backwards. I let out a yelp, and before Adam can even turn around, I feel something sharp pressed against my throat.

Oh God, I'm gonna die.

Adam takes a step forward, but stops when the person holding me says "don't" and presses the knife harder into my skin, almost piercing it. I try not to make a sound at the pain the knife makes.

Marcus now makes his way towards us, taking in the whole view. When he comes into my line of sight, I see just how scary of a man he is. Marcus stands probably a foot taller than Adam, and his hair gives him even more height as it sticks out in all sorts of directions. Then there's his dingy clothes and worn-out shoes, all covered in dirt. The man looks like he lives out on the street full time. I mean really, they all do.

As Marcus locks eyes with me, a broad smile takes over his features. Then a piercing whistle escapes his lips. "Well would you look at that, yinz. Looks like Alpha Junior's been getting down and dirty." The grimey man moves past Adam, and plants himself right in front of me. He glances down at my stomach, reaching his hand out to place it on the swollenness of it.

"Don't touch her," Adam growls.

He goes to move towards us again, but the knife at my throat pierces through and I let out a cry. Then a few people run up behind Adam and grab a hold of him. Another growl escapes from the fight as Adam tries to get away from them, but too many of them have their hold. Once he's done struggling against them, the man behind me loosens up on the knife.

"Damn boy, you're really protective over this one," Marcus chuckles. He glances back and forth between Adam and I. " I wonder why that is."

"Look here, Marcus," the man behind me says. He uses the knife to move my hair away from my chest, revealing my collar bone to the crowd. A couple of gasps can be heard among them, but Marcus just stares in awe.

"Hmm. So this one's been marked, huh?" Marcus smiles, his rotten teeth scaring me more than the look he's giving me. "You don't see that everyday. Not on a human at least." Marcus looks towards Adam, giving him a sly look. "Ya know, if I had marked a human like this, your father woulda had my head, but because it's you, it's okay? Tell me, where's the justice in that?"

At first, Adam doesn't say anything, he just glares at Marcus with such hate and fury. As silence falls over everyone in the group, it's clear to me that they're all thinking the same thing. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out what exactly they're all talking about.

"Hmm, I'd say if the Alpha won't serve you justice, then we'll just have to do it ourselves," Marcus says with a smirk, and then he turns towards Adam, a low growling sound starting to rumble from within his chest.

"I'm not the one who marked her," Adam finally growls, trying to free his arms from the people who have a hold on him. "I'm taking her to my father so we can get this situation fixed."

Marcus laughs. "Oh yeah? How should I believe you weren't the one that did it?"

"Because if I touch the scar, it burns her. Like really burns her," Adam says. His eyes quickly dart to mine, and before I can even share a look with him, he has his gaze back on Marcus again. "And if you let me go, I can show you."

"No!" I say quickly, trying to pull away from the man behind me. I remember that pain all too well, and even though I don't know what it means, it's not something I'm willing to go through again. The man presses the knife against me once more, ceasing my movement. I let out a small whimper. "Please don't."

"No. Please do," Marcus says to Adam with a chuckle. He gestures towards me. "I can't wait to see this."

Adam is then released, only on the condition that he performs like a circus monkey. He takes a few steps forward until he's right in front of me. I try to pull away once more, only to feel a stab on the side of my neck.

"Adam, don't," I plead.

"I'm sorry," he murmurs before reaching his hand up and resting it against my skin. The pain explodes in my chest, a burning sensation so heavy that it feels like my chest is literally on fire. This time, before I can even recover from it, everything goes black.