Chapter 2 | Secret Crush

~Kiki~

Walking to the farther end of the horseshoe driveway, I got into a new black RAM 2500. It was a loaner car the dealership gave my dad when he dropped off his old pickup truck for servicing yesterday. I used his pickup truck solely for doing my job and walked to school or beaches and other places.

My parents drove fancy cars while Megan inherited my mom's old Chrysler. She was going to get a nice loaded BMW on her eighteenth birthday next year. I was hoping they wouldn't trade in the Chrysler and give it to me instead.

I took a sip of my delicious hot chocolate and set it in the cup holder before keying the car.

Wait, what? Why would my dad bring a loaner with a manual transmission? He knew I sucked at driving a stick shift.

Checking my watch, I hopped out of the car and darted towards my friend Benjamin's house, which was next door.

All the elite warrior families were treated on par with the other high-ranking members. We didn't need to live inside the massive packhouse like the ordinary guard wolves or trackers. Being wolfless, I was an exception and didn't get the same treatment as my family did, but that's a different story.

My dad could afford this lavish two-story house when he was in his late twenties; the house was only a few blocks away from the packhouse. I had fond memories of growing up with Megan, Benjamin, and the other kids when we were all young. Every night was like a sleepover night.

Things changed pretty quickly as we became teenagers and our parents got wealthier. All young warrior Etas were promoted to Zetas, including Benjamin's dad. Benji was a month younger than me and was one of the few who got selected to be an Eta—the cream of the crop. 

"Benjiii" I rang his doorbell impatiently.

He typically struggled to get out of bed so early and lagged behind at the cost of doing thirty laps as punishment, but with my luck, it seemed like he left early. No one answered the door. His parents were also probably on the training grounds.

Bracing myself for a bumpy ride, literally, I walked back to the car. Benji was my support system. If there was anyone in the Thunder Bay Pack that I could lean on, it was him.

In crisis situations like this, I wanted him to tell me I already knew how to handle a stick shift and a beefy truck. He would have even done a quick refresher or a sort of demo. Hell, I even forgot that this thing came with three pedals instead of two.

Letting out a nervous sigh, I wrapped my palm around the gear stick and pushed the clutch all the way in. Feathering it out slowly, I got more confident as I reversed smoothly and cruised my way to the stop sign in first gear. Not bad at all. All that panicking was for nothing.

I passed by the perimeter of the training grounds, watching my friends and family in nostalgia. I was particularly disappointed when I couldn't see Alpha Kayden. This had become my routine for the past four years, to drive by this area slowly while watching him until I got my fill.

Call me a creep, but who wouldn't fall for a handsome devil like that? When the mellow beams of the morning sunlight cast upon his shirtless body, they highlight every plane and ridge of his muscular torso in the sexiest way possible, sending some out of the world sensations to my core. 

Heat crept up to my face as I imagined it. This was usually the highlight of the day in my boring life where everyone except Benji avoided me and called me a freak. 

It wasn't just the good looks that pulled me towards the Alpha like a magnet. He had been my savior on more than one occasion when I was bullied over the years.

This pack did not hold a place for a wolfless member like me, and it was a surprise I hadn't been banished yet. They were probably waiting for me to turn eighteen. The thought made me shudder as this was the only home I knew. I wouldn't survive a day as a rogue.

Alpha Kayden had lost his mom when he was three. Grandma told me it was during a fight at a Coronation Ceremony some seventeen years ago. Alpha Dimitri had almost gone insane when he lost his mate. He had drowned himself in alcohol for months while rogue attacks killed several important members of his pack before he could overcome his grief and function normally.

It was skilled warriors like my parents who protected the pack when the Alpha was lost. To avoid any danger to his son, Alpha Kayden's maternal grandparents took him away to their pack, and he grew up a thousand miles away until he was sixteen. 

There was this brooding aura to him that had drawn me towards him from the moment I had set my eyes on him. He was there to witness my shameful performance at failing to shift when I was thirteen. He was the first person I looked at when my wolf refused to surface. All I could see was an unreadable expression as he watched my tear-streaked face.

Many friends and even Alpha Dmitri's beta and gamma had comforted me, saying I was a late bloomer. He just watched me with a blank face. Thankfully, that blank face did not turn hostile even when the others had abandoned me over the years, one by one, slowly and painfully, except for Benji, who didn't care whether I was one of them. 

Lately, I have been acting very strange around Alpha Kayden. My heart pounds wildly inside my chest at the mere mention of his name.

Thanks to these irrational jitters, I had made a fool of myself on a couple of occasions when he was around, the latest one being falling off a tree on my butt right into a big puddle and splashing dirt over his pants. Guess what day and time it was? It was his Alpha Ceremony day and when he was walking to the venue with his future beta and gamma. 

They called me a clumsy freak while he asked me what I was doing on a treetop. Everyone else was digging into the appetizers by then, but I wanted to get a first look at his appearance that day. Deep down, his ceremony felt like a special day for me as well.  

Well, that was a month ago, and I haven't been in his good books (or blank books) since then. He flashed a look of irritation whenever our paths crossed, as if it was my job to fall into puddles and ruin his clothes.

Circling one last time around the grounds to confirm that he really wasn't there, I made my way to exit the place in disappointment. I wondered what could be the reason because he never missed a day of training.

I cut my way through the open parking lot where all the spare cars of the wealthy pack members were parked. Alpha Kayden drove three different cars, but the love of his life was the motorcycle that he rode almost everywhere.

My stomach did a sudden flip when I spotted him, spotted his back to be specific, as he was walking back after parking his motorbike. No, wait... he did not park it in its usual spot but randomly left it by the curb. He turned back when he heard my vehicle nearing him, and there you go... my stupid body forgot where I was. 

Without realizing what the hell I was doing, I lifted my foot off the clutch completely while turning around the curb and ran the big ass truck over the curb, and then its left front wheel went over his motorbike.

Fuck my life!

Prepare to die, stupid Kiki.