I'm an alpha, not your princess

Chapter 5

Cleo Yates’ POV

I sprinted all the way back to the apartment, I slammed the door behind me. I leaned against the door as I tried desperately to catch my breath. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears, my head was spinning and I was worried that I was about to pass out from the stress. That was much too close.

“What’s wrong? Are you ok?” Caleb came into view. His hair was still wet from the shower and he was wearing nothing but the towel that was tied around his waist. He looked delicious, maybe tasting every inch of him was just what I needed to take my mind off what had happened.

My wolf growled at me. She hated the idea of being with anyone other than her mate but she hated it even more now that she knew how close her mate was. She was going to just have to get over it, I wasn’t going to him no matter how much she wanted me to.

“I went for a run and almost had a run in with Mars.” I said. I was starting to feel a bit calmer. Now I was just disappointed in myself. I had come so close to being discovered and I had been here for less than twenty four hours. I was such an i***t.

“Did he work out who you were?” He asked. There was concern in his eyes and he walked up to me and wrapped his arms around me. The warmth of his body and his clean scent calmed me down further.

“No, he didn’t see me and I covered my scent.” I replied.

“Are you sure? You know that isn’t 100% against someone with alpha blood.” He sounded calm but there was a slight edge of worry in his words.

“I am sure that if he even suspected I was his mate then he would have broken down the door to get me by now.” I said. The very thought of that made me shudder in fear and my wolf shudder with arousal.

“I need to be more careful in future though, that was far too close.” I said.

“At least you got away with it. Now you should probably get ready, we don’t want to be late on our first day.” Caleb said, in the too bright tone that he used to placate me whenever I was upset.

I knew that he was still worried but I didn’t want to turn it into an argument. Instead I nodded my head in agreement and headed to the bathroom.

I locked the door and got into the shower. I let the warm water wash away the anxiety from my muscles. I blocked out my wolf and stood under the warm water.

Ever since I had seen Mars in the clearing my wolf has been giving me a hard time. She wanted her mate, she kept telling me that I should put aside pride and go to him. I felt sorry for her. I knew this was causing her a great deal of pain.

I didn’t feel complete without my mate but for her it was much worse. It didn’t matter though, I couldn’t forgive what he did three years ago. Mate or no mate, he was an utter monster.

When I left the bathroom Caleb had dressed and made us both a coffee. A latte with cinnamon flavoured syrup, he knew me so well. This is exactly what I wanted from my mate. Paying attention to me as a person rather than wanting me for what I can give them. I kissed Caleb on the cheek and took the coffee from him.

The lessons ran from 8am till 5pm with one hour for lunch. Today’s lessons mostly focused on getting to know each other with Grant leading the sessions. There were four other packs represented, three of which I recognised. Two of them were from large packs which were on good terms with my own, the Cedar pack and the Green pack. The other pack that I recognised was a bit more problematic. They were the future alpha and beta of one of the two packs run by the king’s brothers, although I always forget which is which.

It became clear within just a few hours that our teacher favoured the Hunt pack numbers above all others. He spent more time talking to them than with the rest of us put together.

This suited me well as I didn’t want to get close to anyone who was that close to the royal family. The rest of us were already starting to get to know each other, I had a feeling we would all be close friends by the end of the year.

“Cleo.” My head shot up, nobody should be calling me that here. I had been packing at the end of class. Everyone else had already left the room except for me and Natalie Ascot. She was the future beta for the Cedar pack and the only other woman here.

“Don’t worry we won’t tell the others who you are but I thought you would like to know you didn’t have to hide anything from me or Dan.” Dan Cedar was the future alpha for the Cedar pack and it made sense that they would know my true identity given how close his father was to mine.

“Thank-you, it is good to know I have some friends here.” I said.

“Is it hard being here after what happened?” She asked, giving me a sympathetic look.

“I thought it would make me feel sad but it just makes me angry. They need to pay for what they did and one day I will make sure that they do.” I said.

I spoke quietly, I couldn’t see anyone else around but this wasn’t the kind of conversation I wanted others to hear.

“I have no doubt and we will be standing by you when the time comes, your highness.” She winked at me and left the room.