Challenge the Alpha

Chapter four - A Journey Of Discovery

Indie;

I wasn't sure how long we'd driven for, two hours maybe? I hoped we were getting close. We drove through thick woods for a while. As we continued deeper, we began passing occasional clearings that featured beautifully structured houses and I wondered if this was part of the community they'd mentioned. We had been silent since I'd agreed to come back with them, an awkward tension lingering between us. I'd steal glances at Rollo any chance I got. I couldn't help myself. His dark brown hair hung lazily down to his brows, an enticing “woke up like this” style. He had a thin beard across his strong jaw and the sweetest, small crinkles to the side of his eyes. You'd only really notice them when he smiled but studying his lightly tanned skin, I could tell they were there. I sighed and looked down at my hands. Even smeared in dirt and blood you can see my sickly pale complexion. I bet Josie has lovely skin. I didn’t understand the uncomfort I felt at the thought of her. I didn’t know the women, hell, I don’t know Rollo let alone have any claim over him. I had been no stranger to men and their constant strive for better. A prettier face, a longer leg, a larger breast. Years of never being good enough had beat me down. The only man who ever made me feel like I was the right amount of everything was Benjamin. Even long before dating, he would shower me with compliments, trying his best to lift me back up after the last ‘loser’ as he called them. I swallowed a sob, covered my mouth with my hand and turned my face to the window. All the times I’d been dumped, I always had Ben. He was my constant, my rock and now I was just alone. I hadn’t been back home to my family in years and I didn’t imagine a warm welcome would have waited for me if I did. An alcoholic mother too interested in herself to care about her children in the slightest, a sister who bullied me through my whole childhood. I was between jobs, my rent wasn’t due, I bet no one had even realized I’d disappeared. Except maybe Ben’s mum. Had we been due to visit? Had we missed something? I tried to recall any plans we might have made but my mind was coming up blank.

I wiped my cheeks with both palms and turned to meet a concerned stare,

“Had anyone report me or Ben missing?”, Rollo’s jaw tensed, he seemed agitated by something I said,

“Do you have someone you want to call?”, I was very aware he hadn’t answered my question,

“Kinda, but that didn’t answer my question.”, I spotted his tongue poke the inside of his mouth, I had barely said anything and I was annoying him? What was his problem?

“Benjamin Harker was reported missing by his mother, Trudy Harker,” he looked away from me, seeming bored with the topic, “She said he was usually with his girlfriend who she also couldn’t reach, Indiana Hopson. Benjamin's supervisors also reported him not coming to work. Indiana’s family failed to confirm an issue regarding her whereabouts and, as she was unemployed, there was no lack of work attendance to look into either.”

I audibly gulped,

“Did you bring Ben with us?”

Rollo closed his eyes as if calming himself, his face softening a little when he opened them,

“Of course I did.”

Fresh tears flooded my eyes, my chest burst with joy and I choked on my emotion.

“Thank you. Just, I need to take him home. I need to take him back to his Mum.”

Rollo turned to face me again, his head tipped to the side, a tick I had noticed he did when he was curious about something,

“Are you not bothered that your family didn’t chase up your suspected missing report?”

“Ben and his Mum were my family.” I held his gaze, emphasizing the seriousness of my comment. After a moment of our staredown, he looked down and let out a heavy sigh,

“We need to go over a story before you can leave.”

“A story? Why would ..” I paused, the realization dawning on me. These rescuers weren’t the authorities. No one arrested me for what I did to Matty, no matter the justification, I killed a man. My mind scrambled, recalling a passing memory while I was being freed from the bed I had been strapped to. I stared hard at the man before me. Man? I don’t know. He changed, I saw him change and I barely registered it at the time. My breathing grew quicker and his eyes widened seeing my panic.

“Indie, calm down,” He held his hands towards me, trying to reassure and comfort, “I don’t know what you’re thinking to help here sweetie, you need to talk to me.”

My heart was working overdrive. I was confused, I felt dizzy, lightheaded and nothing made sense all of a sudden.

“YOU!” Was all I managed to scream at him as I sulked backwards towards the car door. Car! I turned to find the handle, we weren’t going too fast, I could roll out and then run, climb a tree? What was my plan here, how do I get out of this? A firm click sounded as I pulled and I threw a death stare at the driver who just hit the child locks.

“Indie.” Rollo commanded my attention, I had a heavy feeling and while I didn’t understand how, I knew it was coming from him.

“What are you?” I confronted him face on, straightening my spine to try and match his height. I couldn’t leave, they hadn’t hurt me yet so f**k it, lets push my luck and see how far my sass will get me.

“What are you referring to?” He licked his lips and smirked at me, what a c**k.

“I saw you change into something, something,” I sounded f*****g nuts, “something else!”

The heavy feeling retracted and his smile crinkles were back. I was trying to be angry but I felt like I was becoming at ease, lost in the dark storm held within his eyes and losing my bearings.

“If I tell you, I want something in return.”

“Like what?”

“I need you not to run, even if you don’t understand right away, you need to stay with us for now. We’ll figure things out.”

A sarcastic snort escaped me,

“You weren’t just keeping me for a check up were you?”

“It’s all part of the story”

“WHAT are you Rollo?”

“We’re werewolves. All of us that came to get you, Matty was too. His father is an elder in my pack and asked me to come look for him.”

I gripped the front of my scalp in both hands, rocked back and forth. Was I dead? Dying? Desperate for an escape I was making up Werewolf hunks to save me.

“Indie ?”

I pulled my hands down and covered my whole face, shaking my head violently side to side.

“Indie, look at me.”

I didn’t move, I carried on rocking and trying to snap out of whatever dream this was.

All of a sudden a warmth surrounded me, my seatbelt unwound and I was pulled into the lap of my hallucination. He tried as gently as possible to pull my hands down but I refused to budge. I was hopelessly trying to ignore the intoxicating scent filling my nostrils, it was like crumble and custard and made my mouth water.

“Indie, please.” His voice pleaded, soft and sweet. If I was dying, I should be making the most of my mind's final masterpiece right?

Slowly, I let go and resigned myself to him. He pulled my hands away, his left arm around my torso, holding me firmly to his toned body. He brought his right hand to my face, gripping my cheek while simultaneously wiping away my tears with his thumb. We had ended up nose to nose and my stomach clenched. Something was stirring inside me and my senses were going wild. My skin felt hot. His touch soothing my raging passion that had surfaced so unexpectedly. Something hard twitched beneath my thigh and my jaw popped open.

All too soon, I had a rational thought. I was not in the state to give in to this primal urge and he shouldn’t either. He had Josie. Who the f**k is Josie? I pushed against his hard chest and wiggled myself away. If I was crazy, my mind needed to step the hell up, we aren’t giving in to a two-timer. Give me someone committed 1000% and then we’ll talk about the imaginary s*x.

“I’m struggling to tell if this is really happening or if I’m crazy,” I tried to explain, I didn’t know if Rollo could help me or if he was in my head but I literally had nothing left to lose anymore, “can you tell me some more about this whole pack thing please? Tell me something that makes sense.”

“Well, okay, so. Werewolves.”

“I got that part, it doesn’t make sense.”

“We’re part of a pack, there are several around the country.”

“Great, yes, of course there is.” Tell me about Josie.

“I’m the Alpha of the Darkcomet Pack. We’re fairly big and I’m actually fairly new to the position.”

“How do you become the Alpha?”

“You’re either born into it or ..you take it from someone.”

“So your father was an Alpha?”

“No, I took it.”

I paused, I don’t think I wanted to know what that meant just yet.

“What does being the Alpha mean?”

“I’m in charge I guess,” he looked unsure of himself at this point, “I have to lead the pack, be strong for them, fight for them, make decisions on behalf of everyone.” Does everyone include Josie? f**k, why can’t I get this b***h out of my head again. I wanted to gouge my own eyes out.

“The pack is the community you were talking about?”

He looked at me, I wasn’t wasting time between questions and it seemed to surprise him. I wanted as much data as possible to work this all out, it’s how I functioned.

“Yes, we cohabitate with one another on the pack territory.”

“How many are there in your pack?”

“In total, somewhere over 700. But that includes some humans that are part of the group, those who can shift is less, probably around the 600 mark.”

I groaned, threw my head back against the seat and my hands up in the air.

“None of this is making it make anymore sense” I was frustrated and it was showing.

Rollo chuckled while he leant forward across me. He grabbed a hold of the seatbelt and carefully strapped me back in. For a moment, he had been so close I had felt his breath on my neck.

“You’re taking it reasonably well now, I was really worried about you for a moment there. I felt your anxiety peak.”

I pulled my head forward,

“How do you feel that?”

He frowned, pulling his brows together and biting the side of his lip.

“Call it a wolf intuition. I guess there’s some things I just do and it’s second nature, like blinking.”

I didn’t fully believe him. I don’t think he was lying, more just avoiding my question by answering a different one. The dull ache settling in by my temples was all that stopped me arguing. Adrenaline or whatever it was running scarce, I started to feel the pain across my body again.

“How much longer till we’re wherever you’re taking me? I’d really like to get clean.” I longed for hot water, bubbles, soap! Although, I may have happily accepted a cold shower with the state of me.

“We really aren’t far, another 20 minutes.”

I nodded absentmindedly and peered out the window, wondering if I’d catch a glance at another beast casually roaming the woods.

A chunk of time passed which me staring between the trees, searching for any sign of creatures of the night when Rollo asked,

“Can you tell me about you and Ben?” I tensed, every hair on my arm stood on end. The question, so sudden and unexpected, brought a cold sharp tang to my insides. I thought for a moment about what I could say.

“He was my best friend, he got me through thick and thin. We’ve been around each other as long as I can remember but had just started dating a few months ago,” I paused, “It doesn’t matter anymore anyway.”

I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, blinking away the tears. I refused to keep crying.

“Did you know Matty before this?”

My lip quivered. Gosh darn it. I WILL not cry again. I tried to steady my breathing, I could feel my hands tremble.

“Yes.” Was all I said and Rollo didn’t push for more. Instead he pointed out the window, I could see a long building coming into view. Lights hung from beams every few meters along the front, it looked like a large farm barn that had been modernized and made up. It seemed to bend and turn dramatically to the left, as if the whole place was shaped like a boomerang. It fit so perfectly into the large clearing we had driven into, as if the forest had left the space empty just for this house.

“This is the pack house, or my house really. It’s where me and Marcus live.”

“With your families?”

“Marcus has a partner, Kim, who lives here with us. She’s gonna like you.”

“Yeh-huh, so does Josie not live here?”

Marcus let out a snort from the front. I had all but forgotten he was there. The term ‘silent as the grave’ took a whole new meaning with him.

Rollo looked pissed off. He was doing the tongue thing in the side of his mouth again. His eyes closed. Obviously a fan of meditation.

“No, she does not.” He spat out at me quite sharply.

I rolled my eyes and reached for my seatbelt, but Rollo moved quicker and before I knew what was going on, my chin was caged in his huge hand forcing my gaze to him. His eyes swirling with captivating darkness.

“Roll your eyes at me again and I will spank the living daylights out of you.” He growled.

Oh my. He is a dominate one, my heartrate had picked up again and I couldn’t help myself,

“Is that a threat or a promise, Alpha?” I fluttered my eyelashes and let my lips fall naturally open, the black in his eyes now glimmered with gold.

“You have no idea who you’re messing with, sweetheart.” He said as he let go and moved back to his side of the car, stepping quickly out and slamming the door behind him.

I smirked to myself. I touched a nerve without even trying and I was loving it. Someone clearing their throat made me jump back to my senses,

“Sorry, Indie, the Alpha seems to have needed to step away for a moment, do you need help getting out the car?”

I stretched and tested my legs,

“I might be okay, I think I’d like to try walking, but is it terribly cold?”

“I’ll have my mate bring you a blanket.”

“Thank you, Marcus, right?”

“Indeed I am.”