Promised to the Alpha

Three

I was fourteen when I discovered the existence of supernatural creatures. I discovered it on my own, and if I hadn't, I'm sure my parents wouldn't have told me. It was a dark and cold night. My parents were arguing downstairs, while I listened to loud music. I lay down on my unmade bed and look up at the ceiling of my room. The ceiling is decorated with stickers of stars, moons and planets. Hope made me put them up, she seems to have acquired a new fear: the dark. Good thing she is sleeping at one of her friends' houses tonight, I didn't want her to hear the fight between our parents.

All my life I was always the perfect girl, my parents always loved to brag about me to their friends. On this day, I decided to do something that didn't fit my golden girl profile. I turn off my music and put my ear glued to the door: the discussion is still as loud as ever and with no chance of ending. I lock the bedroom door and go to the window. I open it one leg at a time and holding on to the tree growing next to the window, I run away from home. As I started walking through the deserted streets, I realized that I didn't know what I was doing. I had never done this before. I had nowhere to go. I decided to go to my favorite place, on the sparsely inhabited side of town, there is a lake. It is beautiful, with clear water and flowers all around it. Not many people know it and I hope it will always remain that way.

I take off my sneakers and dip my feet in the cold water. I take some of that water and splash it on my face. I hear a howl. I didn't know there were wolves in our town. It was strange, but I ignored it. Until I find a pair of red eyes staring at me. I quickly put my shoes back on and just as I intend to start running away, he shows his teeth. I take a step back, my heart beating fast against my ribs. A few seconds pass and the wolf begins to calm down. He approaches me, very cautious, and begins to sniff my legs. I remain motionless, afraid that any movement will startle him. The furry animal, that is a light gray, begins to rub his head against my belly, as if he wants me to cuddle him. Slowly, I take my hand to his head and run it through his fluffy fur. I get down on my knees and the animal rubs its face against mine. I end up giving him a smile.

"Thank you for making my evening better" I slip my hand behind his ears. Its red eyes look at me fondly. I never expected that a wolf could be like that with someone he doesn't even know.

I sit down on the ground and the animal follows me, laying its head on my leg. I don't know how, but I ended up falling asleep there. I could hear the soothing sound of the water and feel the presence of someone protecting me. It felt like I had someone watching over me. I wake up with rays of sunlight hitting my face, I open my eyes, slowly, to get them used to the brightness. I run my hand over my face, trying to remember what happened the night before.

I should be home.

My parents must be worried to death about me.

I get up quickly and let out a scream when I look back from where I was lying and find a boy lying in the grass, with one hand under his head and completely without clothes. I bring my hand up to my eyes, covering them completely.

"Who are you?" I shout, I'm sure I've woken him up. "How long have you been there?"

"Take it easy, princess" I hear him walking somewhere. The footsteps become more loud again and I can feel that he is closer to me. "You can open your eyes now" I raise my hand, opening just one eye to make sure it is safe. He's wearing a pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt. Where did he get those clothes?

"You didn't answer any of my questions!" I take another step back. I look the stranger up and down. He looks to be only a few years older than, maybe sixteen. He has short brown hair, black eyes, and manly, defined features. I don't think I've ever seen him before.

"I've slept here, it's quite comfortable" he answers, placing himself against one of the trees with his hands in his pockets. "Maybe you don't recognize me" I arch my eyebrows. "Gray fur, red eyes."

"What?" I am getting more and more scared. "What are you talking about?"

I need to go home. I just need to stop talking to a stranger and start running as if mine depends on it. Then why do my legs seem glued to the ground?

"I'm a werewolf, honey" he speaks calmly, as if he is making sense of what he just said. "You must know what a werewolf is. There are thousands of movies about my kind."

"I know what a werewolf is" I roll my eyes. I can't understand what this stranger's intentions are. "And so, I'm not stupid enough to believe what you're saying."

"Whatever, I don't need you to believe me" he approaches me. Even his height is scary, I have to look up to meet his eyes. "But, I'm not lying. Ask your parents, they know the truth."

"How do you know my parents?"

"Our families have an ancient history. You are too young to understand" he gives a sideways smile as he looks at me. "God, you are beautiful."

"I'd better go" I speak and grab my coat that is on the grass. "I wish I could say it was nice meeting you, but it really wasn't."

"It was nice to meet you, Elizabeth. I hope we meet again."

"I don't."

________________________________

I'm running late. Chloe is going to be so angry. I can already picture her in the gym locker room, hunched over her locker, tapping her foot on the floor with fervor, looking at her watch. I enter the gym, say good morning to the receptionist, and go straight to the elevator. I touch on the button of floor seven, it's the floor where I train with Chloe, it's private so we are always alone. Chloe's family owns the facility and since we are friends she lets me use it with all the privileges, even though I pay nothing. I go to the locker room and start to take off my clothes.

Chloe is not there, but I can hear her training in the other room. I finish putting on my tracksuit and walk over to her. The brunette is doing push-ups, whispering the number of each one, she is now on push-up number forty. I don't interrupt her and let her continue, maybe she can get to a hundred. When she gets to seventy, I make a little noise and her eyes immediately find me. I see her roll her eyes before she gets up. She picks up the bottle of water she had left beside her and brings it to her lips, drinking almost the entire contents.

"You're late" is the only thing she says as she goes to the other side of the space to set up our workout.

"I know."

"Why?"

Because I ended up falling asleep on the floor of my best friend's apartment, without my phone, and it was a miracle I woke up early, otherwise I might as well have missed it. Chloe hates it when I miss, especially when I don't warn her in advance.

Chloe and I have always been friends, even though we have a different of seven years old. She was the one who was on my side when I discovered the world of supernatural creatures. And since I was constantly scared, one of the ways to help me control that fear was these weekly training sessions. With Chloe, I learned to defend myself, to not depend on any man to save me. So I feel bad about ignoring our training sessions. I can't miss one without feeling the guilt eating my insides.

"It's a long list, and I don't feel like talking about it right now" she hands me two pieces of cloth. It looks like we're going to wrestle. Carefully, I place them on my right hand which is still bruised from the day before. Collin's face may have healed, but my hand is still bruised. "I'm ready."

"I doubt it" I place myself on the carpet facing Chloe. Her dark hair is pulled up in a perfect ponytail, her cheeks are reddened and obviously, her lips are wearing a red lipstick. "Don't forget that posture is the most important thing, Elizabeth" I've heard that a thousand times.

I move into position, and Chloe does the same. I decide to move forward, directing a punch at her face, which is easily deflected. I duck one of her punches and take the opportunity and kick her in the stomach, which causes her to lose her balance and almost fall.

"You know, I was thinking" I speak, as I continue trying to make her fall. She catches my fist with one of her hands and I end up letting out a groan of pain.

"What happened to your hand?"

"It was nothing" I take my hand back. "I have always trusted you so much" I declare, Chloe looks confused.

I have always looked at Chloe as if she is perfect. Since I was ten years old she has been my inspiration. Everything I did was to please her. I never thought that at this moment I was suspecting that she might be hiding a secret from me. She is very close to my mother, and they both talk every day. It is almost impossible for her not to know that I was promised to Collin. Part of me hopes that she didn't know.

"You shouldn't" she deceives me and I end up falling on the floor on my back. I get up without delay. She gives an amused smile. "Cheer up, Lizzie. What happened?"

"Let me think" I approach her, ready to finally beat her for the first time. She dodges all my punches and ends up holding me in her arms. They tighten around my neck, and don't let go despite my efforts. "Maybe the fact that I'll marry a f*****g werewolf."

She is surprised, and her hold on me gets weaker, giving me the opportunity I've been waiting for. I turn to her, hold her waist and manage to spin her around, throwing her to the ground.

"You already knew" I declare, not even needing her to answer, without it being true. "I can't believe it."

"Let me explain" she tries to get up, but I hold her down with my foot close to her neck.

"How long have you known? Please don't lie."

"As soon as you were born everyone already knew" she answers. For the first time Chloe looks helpless, on the floor, waiting for me to decide that she can get off the floor. I think there is something wrong with me, I am enjoying doing this. "Your family tried to hide it from you, because they always hoped that Collin didn't want to go through with the marriage. he surprised us all."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" I push harder on my foot. I feel my cheeks getting redder from the anger I feel. "You had several opportunities."

"I didn't think I had to be the one to do it. Your mother would kill me if she knew I did" I give a sarcastic laugh.

I guess in everybody's life, you have that moment when you realize that your role model is not what you thought. She's not perfect like you thought.

"I thought you had more courage than that" I believed Chloe didn't care about other people's thoughts, she just acted how she wanted to act, not knowing the consequences. I wanted to be like that. I let go of her neck and let her stand up. "We should stop our training for a while."

"Elizabeth, you have to understand my point of view" she tries to argue. I wanted to understand, however, after everything that has happened to me I just want to be selfish and think only about myself for a while.

"Actually, I don't" I say and go to grab my towel and water bottle. "I'm leaving. When I'm ready I'll come and talk to you, in the meantime don't try to contact me."

Her eyes seem to start to glisten. I could cry too, but I seem to have used all my tears yesterday, leaving a bitter feeling inside me that wants to hurt everyone around me.

I go to the elevator, and it opens. Who is inside, are the last people I expected.

"Did you miss me, princess?" Collin opens a devilish smile. Behind him are my parents.

_______________________________

They decided to corner me in the gym. We went to the second floor, where there are meeting rooms. The four of us in the elevator, it was quite awkward and silent. Before we enter one of the rooms, I pull Collin by his arm and let my parents into the room. Since it's all glass, I watch my parents sit in the room and decide to let me and Collin talk before flooding us with questions about the wedding.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. "Especially with my parents!"

"That's no way to talk to your fiancé, Elizabeth" he starts playing with one of the locks of his hair, his brown eyes meeting mine. "I'm happy to find you again too."

I roll my eyes and slap his hand that curls one of my hairs, pulling it away from me.

"We had already talked yesterday, there is no need for me to have to suffer you and my parents again."

"They want to talk about the wedding, I'm not the one who arranged all this. Although I know you must be putting all the blame on me" he puts his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and leans back in the hallway. My parents were still watching us from inside the room. "I don't like spending time with your parents that it's not really necessary to spend."

"Be careful how you talk about them, they are going to be your in-laws" I crack a sarcastic smile. "I hope you remember that this wedding is going to happen, but it's in my way. It's good enough that I will walk up the aisle."

"I know" he says, but he looks like he has other plans. "Ready to enter the lions' den?"

"After you" I speak, taking a step back so he can enter first.

"Are you scared?"

Very.

"The last time I saw my parents I said I'd rather they die than have me marry you."

"And now, you are here, on my side. Almost with a ring on your finger. It's funny how life works, isn't it?"

He gives a sideways smile and enters the lions' den. With no choice, I go in too. My parents are sitting in their chairs against the window, their hands are together, giving the image of a united front. My mother can barely look at me, and my father looks at me with disappointment. You can never seem to get them satisfied.

"This better be quick, I have more important matters to attend to" Collin speaks up, sitting down in front of my father. I sit in the chair next to him.

"Marrying my daughter is an important matter" my father speaks, harsh and cold. Collin maintains his untouchable posture. "This will take as long as it takes."

"What are we doing here?" I snuggle into my chair and look at my mother. "Are you going to give Collin the receipt?"

"That would come in handy" Collin speaks up. He looks at me with an amused smile. I show him my middle finger. "That way I could return my purchase at any time."

"Can you guys take this more seriously?" my father stands up, slamming his hands on the table. "Especially you, Elizabeth. You're an adult now, you have to act like one. It's just a wedding, it's no big deal. So you can stop with your sarcastic jokes and your don't-care attitude."

In the blink of an eye, Collin gets up from the chair, which is dragged back and brings his face closer to the big, dreaded, Richard Davis. My father is startled. For the first time, I see my father with fear in his eyes.

"I don't care if you are her father. You will not address her like that again" Collin threatens. I open my mouth, surprised, I never expected Collin to defend me like that. I didn't even need him to, I know very well how to defend my own battles, I don't need a man for that.

"I think he understands, Colin" I touch his arm, bringing him back to reality. He seemed to be in a trance, where all he could think about were multiple ways to kill my father. He sits back down, and adjusts his leather jacket.

My father sits in his chair, his cheeks reddening. My mother clears her throat and looks at us.

"Elizabeth, we are glad you have chosen to marry Collin" I had no choice, she seems to have forgotten that little detail. "And we just decided to meet with the two of you to hand over this engagement ring" she gives the ring to Collin, who looks at it and I pretend it doesn't matter. However, I feel my heart beating harder and an urge to leave. A ring makes marriage more real. "It's a family ring, it was usually ultized by the women in our families who were queens of a pack."

"What do you mean?"

"Since you are marrying me, you will become queen of Moon Valley. That means you will have the respect, adoration and safety of all werewolves, just like me." Collin keeps the ring in his coat pocket. I frown, he notices and decides to answer the question that is on my mind: "This is not the right time to give you the ring."

"If you are expecting me to want that ring on my finger, that is not going to happen. So, you can put it on now" I say, giving him my hand in the air. He ignores it completely and turns his attention back to my parents.

"Was that it? Can we leave now?"

"No one is forcing you to stay here. The door is right there" I point to the door.

"Just one more thing, Collin" my mother speaks, her voice calm and serene, but with a connotation of threat. "If I know you've done something bad to Elizabeth. I'll cancel this marriage myself, I don't care if you kill our entire lineage."

"Good to know, Marjorie" he stands up and gives me his hand. "Shall we go?"

"And when is the wedding going to take place?" I ask.

"We'll take care of everything, don't worry Lizzie" I ignore Collin's hand and stand up by myself. "Hope will love to help with the wedding too."

"How is she?" I miss that annoying fifteen-year-old teenager so much. We still talk on the cell phone, but it's never the same.

"She is doing better. She misses her big sister terribly" my mother speaks with a sad smile. "She was so happy that you were going to spend Christmas with us."

I look at Collin. He has a bored look on his face, always taking a peek at his watch. I was thinking of canceling my trip home for Christmas, however, on second thought I should. And take Collin with me. He would hate that.

"We'll spend Christmas with you" Collin turns his gaze to me and I give him an amused smile. "We'll spend Christmas Eve there."

"Perfect!" my mom gets up and walks over to me to give me a hug. My father is still sitting, arms crossed, still angry at the way Collin spoke to him. "I can't wait."

"Me too!"

I really can't wait, because it's going to be a living hell for Collin Crestmoon. We leave the room and go to the elevator. On the way to the elevator, Collin has his hand on the end of my back guiding me through the gym. As soon as we enter the elevator and the doors close, Collin touches the elevator stop button and places me against one of the elevator mirrors.

"You are playing a dangerous game" he declares, his face so close to mine.

"I don't know what you are talking about" I crack a smile. I would like to see him angry. It will even be nice to make your life hell.

"You know exactly what you are doing, princess" his hand goes to my waist, holding it close to his torso. He's only known me for a day and he already wants me that much. It's a pity he'll never know what it's like to touch my body. "I hope you know that you shouldn't play games with someone who can play better."

"You are the one who should know that, Crestmoon" I bring my hand to his chest and arch my back. "Remember, your life revolves around me now" I speak. "You need a woman who can lead by your side and I can make you look very bad in front of your pack if you decide to make my life a living hell. So I would be more careful how you talk to me, I could easily destroy you."

He bites his lower lip and his eyes meet my lips. It doesn't take long before he wants to kiss me.

"Can you touch the button? I want to go home."

The elevator starts up again and Collin pulls away from me.

"I think you mean to my house."

"No, thank you."

"It wasn't a question, Elizabeth," he smiles devilishly. "Your things from your apartment are already at my place. Don't forget you are going to live with me now."