Rejected Alpha

Chapter Eight

I made it back to the house before Blaze could even hope to catch up with me. He chased me on foot, but I won by a land slid. He eventually gave up and got in one of the cars of warriors he brought with him. Elijah was at the door of the house, thank the heavens. I ran up to him and nudged him, nipping his shirt gently. He knew what I was asking for and he quickly jerked his shirt over his head and handed it to me before turning around. If this were any other situation, I was positive my jaw would be on the floor because damn was that man built. It was also weird I found someone’s father so attractive, but I decided not to focus too hard on that fact. I was in a hurry after all frantic to tell Elijah what happened. I shifted as fast as I could and pulled his shirt over my head hiding Alexanders.

“Elijah, did you send Blaze to get me?” He turned, and I knew he saw how frantic I was because his eyes widened with concern.

“No. Hope mind linked us and we were waiting here for you. We all believed in you and knew you’d be back. Your parents just walked in the house. Why? What happened?” He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked me over from top to bottom for injuries. Again would have been sweet. In any other situation than this one.

“Blaze came for me with a whole damn battalion of warriors. Elijah, I think he meant to kill me. He was raving about not having female stronger than him in that pack. That he was the alpha. Elijah, I can’t stay somewhere, where someone is trying to kill me. I just can’t.” My head snapped up to the sound of vehicles tearing down the road. “I’ll show you. You’ll be able to hear. Please, go inside and stand at the door. Listen.” Without thinking I pulled his shirt over my head and put it on the porch before shifting at the same time.

Elijah had just closed the door when the cars came into view. I stood at the bottom of the stairs, head lowered, stance wide. A defensive position, non-threatening. Blaze was the first out of the car, jumping down before the car even stopped. I could feel the rage pouring off of him in waves. He stalked towards me, fists balled, lips in a thin line. “You bitch.” Blaze growled. “How did you out run me? I am the alpha; I am the strongest. No female in my pack will be stronger than me.” He growled.

I growled back, low in my throat, the sound vibrating my chest, in warning. I knew he wanted to attack; I could feel the change in the air. He was so damn stupid. Trying to fight a wolf in human form. I wouldn’t fight him. Not in wolf or human form. He wasn’t worth my time or effort. So, I straightened my form, staring him down. I normally keep the whole alpha female thing tampered down, but I released it all now, allowing it to fill me. I felt the power, or alpha whatever as it cascaded off of me. The guards whimpered lowering their head. Blaze stood rigid his body shaking. His hands were balled so hard his knuckles were white. A growl formed in my chest, finally making Blaze look down, his teeth grinding.

I shifted, and threw Elijah’s shirt back on instantly afterwards. “What does it matter if I am a female alpha? What does it matter if I’m stronger than you? I am not the alpha heir. I am not the one destined to lead this pack, you are. But you have yet to show them your capabilities in leading them. You laugh at others pain; you are jealous and impulsive. Your anger is consuming you making you act less than what you are.” I shook my head. “Blaze, you have the potential to be a great alpha one day. You’re strong and protective. You’re dedicated and determined. But you can’t let petty jealousy and anger get in your way.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Blaze snarled, still not able to look up to me. “I will be a strong alpha. Better than my father.”

I laughed. “No, you won’t. Elijah is a good alpha; he is who you need to be looking to. Be like him, find ways you can better the pack when you take over. Your father is loved and respected by all, while you’re feared. Did you really think I hadn’t noticed the way people look at you when you walk by? Your people fear you; they don’t respect you. I mean look at you Blaze. You’re trying to kill someone who hasn’t even officially joined your pack yet.”

“I’m trying to kill you so you can’t join the pack.” He hissed. “You will never be one of us.”

“How can you kill me when you can’t even look me in the eye? Elijah can, so why can’t you? And I don’t want to be one of you. I want to be one of Elijah’s. You and your friends are cruel.”

“I will get you Seraphina.” He growled.

“I’m done with you Blaze. You refuse to listen to reason. Elijah, you can come out now.” I called, never taking my eyes from Blaze. It was funny how his entire body stiffened at his father’s name. His body started trembling when he heard the crash of the door slamming. It took everything in me not to cringe away from Elijah and his aura. It was so powerful, forceful and seething with his rage. The warriors started to back away, whimpering at their alpha’s aura.

“Stay.” He commanded the warriors. “Blaze. Look at me.” The command in his voice was clear, there was no way for Blaze to ignore it. And so, he looked up, his eyes meeting his fathers. I knew it was painful for Blaze. His trembling body started shaking violently, his knees gave out and he crumpled to the ground and still he could not break eye contact.

“Stand up boy.” Elijah told him, reigning in his alpha aura. Blaze gasped in relief, breathing heavily as he stood back to his feet. “You are heir to this pack, meant to take over when you find a mate and turn twenty-one. And yet you have still not learned anything. You watch as other beat the weaker of the pack when you should protect them. You threaten females who wanted to help you. And you try and kill one of the only pure blood female alphas the world has seen. Even then you can not look her in the eye. I am sending you to the Red River pack after your birthday so you can train in how to be a proper alpha heir.”

“No, father you can’t do that.” Blaze’s voice was pleading. “The Red River pack is merciless, cruel. You can’t send me there.”

“No. They are strong and united. They’ve trained alphas before and they will train you. Have your things ready, you’ll be leaving the day after your birthday.

“And you.” His eyes went to the warriors. “How can you follow the orders he gave you? All of you know females who can shift are rare, much less pure blood female alphas. And yet you all go with your heir to try and kill her.”

“Alpha.” A larger man stepped forward. “The heir did not tell us what our mission was. All we were told was that we were hunting a dangerous female.”

“And you didn’t think to turn to me for more information than that? I expect more from a commander of the guard Patrick.”

“I apologize, alpha.” Patrick bowed his head.

“Your job is to follow and protect Seraphina here during the day until Blaze leaves. Max.” another man steps forward. A goofy smile on his face as he looked at me and winked, before turning to Elijah. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yes Alpha?” His voice was strong, smooth.

“You are to watch over her at night. No one except who she allows is allowed in her room while she sleeps.”

“I will guard her with my life alpha.” Max vowed.

“I expect no less from our captain.” Elijah told him, sounding proud.

I realized something then. “Uh, everyone calls you alpha, is that what I’m supposed to call you? Alpha and not Elijah?” Thinking of calling him alpha was weird. I don’t think I liked it very much.

“Yes, the pack calls me alpha. But you may continue to call me Elijah. I don’t think I’ve ever had a member of the pack brave enough to call me by my name. You are the first and I respect that you were even able to. There is no point in stopping now.”

I smiled. “Yay, I’m glad. Somehow calling you alpha now would be weird.” I furrowed my brow at the thought.

“Seraphina, I would like to test something. Is that alright with you?” Elijah asked, intriguing the warriors beside us.

“Uh……test what?”

“I want you to release all of your alpha aura and I will do the same. I want to see how long you can look me in the eye.” He looked amused, like this was going to be a game. But I saw what it did to Blaze. I also didn’t want to seem weak in front of everyone.

“I guess.” I angled my body to face him and he did the same. With a deep breath and Ruby’s help we released all of our alpha aura. I felt when Elijah released his, then it was on. My eyes met his and there was no looking away after that. We were locked in a battle of wills, neither one of us willing to look away first. I knew we were gaining an audience and it made me wonder how long we’ve actually been here doing this. Sweat beaded my brow but I still couldn’t look away.

“Ruby, we have to look away.” I told her softly.

“What! Why?” She growled.

“We can’t make him seem weak in front of his pack.”

“Fine.” She growled, falling back into my mind and reigning in the alpha aura just enough that I could break eye contact. It pained me to no end, but I bit my bottom lip until I tasted blood and looked away. Not down, just away. There was only so much I could give, and I would not submit in such a way.

By the time it was done we were both breathing hard, though Elijah was better at hiding it since it looked like the entire pack was there watching us now. However, he was smiling at me, gratitude shining in his eyes. He nodded, very minutely but enough for me to see. I furrowed my brow. Did he know what I did? No, he couldn’t have. I didn’t even know what I was going to do and even then, I only withdrew a very small amount so I could look away.

“This is our new pure blood female alpha.” Elijah shouted so his voice could be heard by everyone in the crowd. “She and her parents were going to officially join our pack on our alpha heir’s birthday, but I want to change that. They will now be joining our pack tomorrow. A ceremony and banquet will be served and like always the whole pack is invited.”

I was stunned at his words. Why was he moving this up so quickly? Maybe it had to do with Blaze. I couldn’t call for help because I had no mental link like everyone else, so I was forced to run. Which by the way sucked. But I couldn’t very well fight the alpha’s son without at least explaining to the alpha what was going on.

“Oh, where is my car?” I asked turning to Elijah.

“Parked in the garage. Hope has already carried everything up to your room. Now I need to talk to you for a few minutes.” Elijah told me, leading me to the house and up to his office by the small of my back. It wasn’t odd behavior or anything, but I was worried what he wanted to talk about. Did I do something wrong during our staring contest? And for the love of God could this man please put a damn shirt on?

“Thank you, for what you did out there.” Elijah told me shutting the door behind us. He reached into a closet behind the door and pulled an extra shirt over his head. Thank you!I was seriously confused though.

"What did I do?"

"You broke eye contact.”

“Oh. I…uh…I’m sorry. I didn’t want to, but I also didn’t want to make you seem less than you are in front of everyone.”

“You mean weak.” Elijah chuckled.

“You’re far from weak Elijah and I’m sure the pack knows this”

“Maybe so. Either way I appreciate what you did. Not many alphas can do such a thing willingly. It couldn’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t, Ruby is pissed.” I muttered

“Any alpha would be. It is strange that she allowed it though. What happened?” He seemed genuinely curious as he asked.

“I just told her we needed to look away. She didn’t want to but when I explained my reasoning, she fell back allowing it.” I shrugged.

“I’m glad to hear you two are already on the same page. New shifters often have trouble reigning in their wolf.” Elijah seemed intrigued, but otherwise asked nothing else. “Max will meet you outside for his guard duty. Have a good night Seraphina.”

“Thank you, Elijah. Good night.”