Mated to the Alpha

Chapter 2

2

Max

“Max, Max.” A woman comes up to me. “I thought I wouldn’t see you here.”

I smile at Alexia, the young woman a good friend of mine. “Why not?”

“Because of last year, I thought we wouldn’t see you here ever again.” She wraps her arms around me. “Are you looking forward to all the pretty boys and girls?”

I shrug. “You know I don’t believe in these events. Though I could use some fun tonight.”

“Whatever.” She smiles and leads me to the front of the hall. “There are some people you might want to meet.”

I trail after, her long red dress nearly tripping me every time I take a step.

In front of me are a group of men and women, all huddled around one phone. When I come closer I realise they’re looking at a video. On the screen are, I assume, the boys and girls that are our potential mates. I don’t know who is filming but they seem to have a preference for the girls in the tight dresses.

I grin. “You don’t think I’m interested in that, right?”

“Of course not. But it doesn’t hurt to see them without them seeing us.” Alexia pulls me closer to the phone. “That way they won’t crowd around you.”

Flashbacks to last year go through my mind. It wasn’t that they were crowding me, more that people were crowding her and I was just in the way. I shudder at the memory. That is why I hate big events, I’m too quiet for them, I stand out, just not in the right way.

I step back some and try to blend into the wall behind me, Alexia now back to giggling and talking to her friends.

Seeing all these people together, all Alphas, all single, all looking for a mate. It makes everyone look more normal, the baseline for being an Alpha or not jacked up a hundredfold. It’s not even that height or size matter. Alexia is like a delicate flower, she only reaches the shoulder of most men here, and in the dress she is wearing she looks almost like a girly girl. But underneath that all, she is a trained martial arts fighter, she is shooting up the rankings in the army and runs a very tight pack back at the base. She could probably take out most of the people here with ease. But in a dress, at an event with others who understand her, she is just a young woman.

It’s this early interaction between everyone that I like best, the atmosphere is easier, more relaxed. We’re all the same, all here for the same thing, sort of. It’s only when you add the other pack members and the humans into the mix that things start to tense up. Though, with enough alcohol it shouldn’t be too bad. There are enough people out there, enough choices and there are strict rules in place on what is allowed behaviour. The rules are strict, but if you put sixty or more Alphas together in a room with an all-you-can-eat buffet of available bodies, you’re gonna need them.

A man and a woman open the doors at one side of the room. “If you can all come over here, we’ll announce your name and then you can go down the stairs to the main hall. We’ll announce you two at a time, one male, one female. At the bottom of the stairs there will be someone waiting for every one of you and you’re expected to dance with them for a while.”

“How long?” Someone from behind me raises his voice.

The man and woman look at each other. “Let’s say, about 5 or so couples that come down the stairs. That should leave the dance floor decently filled until the end of the announcements.” They step aside. “When we call your name, please come to the front.”

I try to keep my face under control, my features pleasant as I step down the stairs. Alexia holds my arm, her presence helping me not to freak out.

She squeezes my arm for a moment, sensing my discomfort. It’s by far not the first situation we’ve been in together. We grew up in neighbouring packs, our family regularly in contact about everything and nothing.

The crowd looks up at us expectantly, waiting for us to reach the bottom of the stairs. We both take the hand of the dance partner we’ve been assigned and start a slow waltz.

They might send us down two by two, but we would not work together on the dance floor. We’d both try to lead and that isn’t helpful at all.

The girl in my arms is quite a bit younger than me, maybe early twenties while I’m nearly reaching the next decade in my life. But she’s tall, which is good, because it stops me from looking like a giant.

The girl smiles at me. “Are you looking forward to the rest of the night?”

“Sure, just as soon as this part is over.” I wink.

She nods her head. “I get you. But they want us to dance male-female for these dances, it’s not like we can choose.”

“True.”

“Hey, can you introduce me to the woman you came down the stairs with? If you know her well enough that is.” A blush spreads on her cheeks that the makeup can not hide.

“I will.” I turn us in a different direction. “How long do we have left?”

“Two couples.” She lets out a bit of a sigh.

The event might be called a Mating Ball, but the organisers don’t really care who you hook up with. Everyone here knows I’m not interested in women, or, most know anyway. There are just certain traditions they want to uphold and this is one of them. What happens after this is all up to us. No pressure to act one way or another, just playing nice with others.

The girl in my arms lets out another sigh as we hear two more names being announced. We’re off the hook.

We blend into the crowd, quickly locating the direction that Alexia is moving in and following her.

I’m sitting at a table with Alexia and Amber, the girl that I danced with. They’re laughing at something together and I see some interesting glances between the two of them. Alexia is such a flirt and everyone knows it, but Amber seems to give as good as she gets.

Me on the other hand… People think I’m boring, too grumpy and not handsome enough. I don’t even know why I came here today, apart from my parents hinting that it was time for me to settle down. When I was younger I could get out of these events, feigning having to work or build my career. But now that I’m running a lucrative IT company they’re expecting more, and I know that my pack is getting restless too, wondering if I’ll ever be able to take my official place as head of the pack. Because for that to happen I need a mate.

Stupid rules. No mate means no offspring and that means failing as an Alpha. Not that it matters much, I’m not interested in having s*x with a woman to create offspring in the first place. And two men can’t create a baby together, not possible. But it does put me in a difficult situation. As usual.

Someone taps me on my arm and I look up.

“Maybe you should go and look outside, socialise some, be nice to people.” Alexia motions to the back of the room where two large doors show the way to the garden.

In the idea of tradition they’ve put some old-school games and carnival things outside, including a ‘lover’s maze’.

“Fine, fine.” I stand up. “But please come look for me if I don’t come out again in three hours.”

Alexia rolls her eyes. “Drama queen. Go enjoy yourself.”

I walk to the back of the room, passing some people I know, greeting them and moving on. Maybe some fresh air will help me get rid of this suffocating feeling.

I stand right outside the doors, the back garden sprinkled with lights and filled with laughter. I take a deep breath, yeah, maybe going outside was a good idea.

I walk past the stalls, couples playing silly old games in each one of them. Some winning, some losing, but all enjoying themselves.

Walking around a corner I end up off the main path, only a few people are here and I finally calm down. Good, calm, easy.

A prickle in my neck makes me look up, the wolf in me immediately on edge. Ahead of me, a young man is sitting on a bench, looking around like he has no care in the world, but then his eyes fall on me and I feel that same prickling feeling again. Interesting.

I walk up to him, but then walk on. The man’s human, I frown and then blink. Why would the wolf in me be interested in him, unless he is some kind of threat to me? But it’s not anger or fear that I feel, it’s curiosity. I turn around another corner and lean against the wall. I don’t know what is happening, but I do know that I want to know why my wolf is so interested.

I glance around the corner, the man is still sitting in the same spot. Now he is looking at his phone, boredom obvious in his posture. I guess being a human at an event like this might be boring, yeah, knowing you’re just here to entertain us.

Well, if he is supposed to entertain us, let’s make sure he does his job. I walk up to him again, standing behind him as I reach out and grab his shoulder.

The man stiffens, dropping his phone in the process. I grab the phone before it can crash to the floor. Fear, good, that is better than boredom.

“Aren’t you supposed to be inside?” I stand next to him, using my length to look more threatening than I really am.

“Don’t care. Not my party, obviously.” The man is not impressed as he looks up at me, totally calm again.

I swallow as I take in his face, the tanning of his skin, his ice-blue eyes, his dark lips. His black hair that is spiked up in a way that is supposed to look as if he came just out of bed, but looks more like he had s*x just minutes ago. “Then why are you here?”

“Money.” The man grabs his phone from my hand and gets back to doing whatever he was doing before.

Well, at least he is honest, but it irks me too. “Little chance finding a real jackpot when you’re out here on your own.”

“So? Don’t care anymore.” He shakes his head. “This is just one big elitist bunch of crap.”

Wow, that is one way to put it. So glad to know that others are having as much of a time as I am. “Why is that?”

“Don’t you realise? The only way to even get to talk to anyone important, you need to know at least twenty of their friends and have f****d at least half of them. Or you don’t count.” He sighs and his shoulders relax. “I just thought this was going to be fun. One night where I get to spend some time with royalty, or as close as we commoners can get, and maybe hook up with someone. But it’s all backstabbing and cat-fights. I could have gone to a club for that.”

Okay, maybe the guy isn’t as nasty as I first thought. I sit down next to him. “I don’t want to, but I totally get what you mean.” He is right, the organisers might try to make it look all nice, but there is a lot of politics and elitist crap going on. Another reason I hate going to any official events.

He looks at me sideways. “Why are you here? Are you one of the wolves they invited, like, to become a mate to an Alpha.”

I try to hide my laughter but I can’t help myself. Me? Becoming a mate to an Alpha? I’m not really that handsome, I know, but in any other situation than this he would not have mistaken my status.

The man frowns. “What?! I said something stupid, didn’t I? Is that not how it works?”

“Sure, that is exactly how it works. You’re not mistaken.” I try to stop laughing but the annoyed look on his face is making him so much more fun.

“Then what?” The man shakes his head.

“I’m not to become a mate to an Alpha, I am an Alpha.”

“But...” He shuts his mouth quickly, his posture changing now he knows to who he is talking.

“But what?”

“You’re not like... You don’t look like an Alpha.”

“Not sexy and handsome and ripped.”

The man nods, but averts his eyes from me. Interesting.

“I know, we don’t all look like the Hulk.” I put my finger under his chin and make him face me.

“I...” He licks his lips quickly, his eyes darting around before settling on my lips. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“It’s okay. It’s not you, it’s this place. I’m not in my element here.” I lean forward and the man gasps before he pulls his head back.

“I’m not attracted to men.” He stands up, out of my reach. “Sorry. Have a good night.” He walks off fast, his movements stiff and slightly uncomfortable.

Not attracted to men maybe, but I didn’t leave him unaffected. I could smell his excitement as I touched him. His jeans filling more as I came closer to him. His body betraying whatever he believed about himself. His body only craving one thing tonight, my touch.