THE ALPHA

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Wait - what the actual...

Suddenly all the excitement died down and the room became silent.

Chris looked at me with his jaw dropped and Kat just looked confused.

“Huh?” She sounded.

My thoughts exactly. Did they get our names mixed up?

“Crystal Swan.” Bridgette repeated.

No that was definitely my name but why was she saying it? I wasn’t on that list. I couldn’t be. I didn’t even apply!

“Cryss, get up there.” Chris whispered.

Huh?

My mind was blank at that moment. My feet stuck to the ground.

Go up there?

No, no, no, no. This was a mistake. I did not apply for this program hence my name could not have been called out. This was a day time dream. A nightmare in fact. If I waited a bit longer, it would end.

One Mississippi, two Mississippi...

Nope. Still here.

Everyone was staring at me.

No way. I was not getting up. I would get up and Courtney and Bea would burst out laughing. This must have been one of their practical jokes.

Hardy ha ha, girls, I’m not falling for it.

“Cryss.” Chris hissed gesturing to the stage.

I looked up there and Bridgette didn’t look pleased at all. What were the chances that Beta Bridgette was in on this joke too? I mean Courtney was her little sister and Bridgette probably hated me enough to go along with it.

I shook my head.

No. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be.

“Crystal Swan.” Bridgette repeated impatiently. “We don’t have all day.”

I turned to look at Kat. “What do I do?” I whispered.

She looked stunned. “I - I guess you have to go up there.”

I gulped. This was really happening.

I slowly rose from my seat. I could feel everyone in the crowd watching me.

Okay, Crystal, it’s okay, right foot, left foot, all until you get to the stage and explain why they are so wrong about this.

I scooted past Kat and Chris. Why did my clothes suddenly feel too tight?

I looked down the aisle, everyone was staring.

On second thought, no. Freaking. Way.

I quickly spun around and bolted out of the school hall. I whipped out my phone and clicked on a number I never thought I would have to call again.

The phone rang for a few seconds before he finally picked up.

“Crystal” He let out, his voice sounding blunt.

“Tristan! Get your alpha butt to our spot right now. We need to talk.”

***

In my experience, secrets do a lot more harm than good, especially the big ones that you really have no business having in the first place. But this one couldn’t be helped.

I’m not the kind of girl who breaks rules and does scandalous things like meeting up with older guys in the middle of a forest.

But well, here I am, in the middle of the northern forests, the same northern forests that had been declared out of bounds just some minutes or so ago. Waiting to meet an older guy.

Not just any older guy, but the brave alpha of this here pack. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.

I paced back and forth in my position in front of the little stream. I had discovered it some years ago on one of my exploratory ventures alone. It wasn’t the only water body that existed in the northern forests but it was probably the smallest. Hence the most insignificant so people hardly paid attention to it. It was just a narrow strip of a depression in the ground that took water back to the main Woodfell river.

It was my spot.

Well, I guess it was our spot. 

You could always count on discretion in the northern forest but here, you could also count on silence. Other than the stream and nature, there was absolutely no noise pollution. Here you could think and talk without getting interrupted.

I heard a rustling sound and when I turned around I was met with the sight of a large wolf with rich dark brown fur and startlingly blue green eyes.

I rolled my eyes. “Did you really have to come in your wolf form?”

The wolf just stared at me and I could only imagine the snarky come back he had for me. He made his way into the forest and it’s then that I noticed the dark material tied to his hind leg.

A few seconds later, he re-emerged as the man I knew. He was wearing the dark material which turned out to be dark blue sweatpants. His brown hair was all over the place, probably from his run here.

“You told me to get here as soon as possible, I thought you were in trouble.” He spoke though his voice and face didn’t show that he was even the least bit concerned. But I knew he was.

He leaned on a tree, crossing his arms over his chest and I’d be a fool to not notice the way his muscles bulged or the fact that he was entirely shirtless!

I tried not to make eye contact with him but that was hard for me to do with the way he scanned me from head to toe as if checking to see if I was indeed alright.

“What’s wrong?” He finally spoke. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school? And didn’t you hear? These forests are now out of bounds, why are you here?”

Stop staring, Crystal!

Oh right, back to business.

“I left school.”

He rose an arched brow at me. “You left?”

“Skipped, ran away, ditched, whatever term you want to use.”

“And may I ask why?” His tone sounded blunt, rude and a tad bit irritated.

He was treating me like I was wasting his precious time, like I shouldn’t have called him and that made me irritated.

As if he didn’t already know why I was so mad.

“The AAP? Seriously Tristan?” I yelled in anger, even stomping my foot on the ground. 

Yes, I had gotten to the point where I resorted to such levels of childish rage.

“Oh that.” He spoke as if it was nothing at all.

“Oh that?” I poorly mimicked him. “Why would you do something like that to me? I don’t belong in the AAP, I’m way under qualified, I didn’t even apply! Did you do this so that I’d be closer to you? Because if so, that is so low! Don’t you think people will start asking questions and - “

“I didn’t put your name on that list.” He spoke calmly.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s the Alpha’s Apprenticeship Program, you really expect me to believe that you didn’t know about this? Your brothers were selected for goodness sake!”

He pushed himself off the tree, looking completely unfazed.

“I don’t pick the candidates, that would be unfair. The elders each anonymously submit a candidate from the applicants and the council do the voting. When they’re done, they give me the list to look through to make sure they’re no conflicts of interest.”

“And you didn’t think I would be a conflict of interest?”

“What was I supposed to say, Crystal? That my mate who rejected me four years ago was on that list?” He snapped, finally losing his cool.

I couldn’t say anything in response, much less look at him. Guilt ate at me.

Finally, I just mumbled; “you could have at least told me.”

“You told me never to talk to you again, remember?” He spoke and I could hear the spite in his voice. He started moving closer to me. “And you didn’t want anyone finding out about us. I kept our secret because that’s what you wanted.”

Tristan turned around and started walking away.

This is what I was talking about, secrets aren’t good for anyone.

“Tristan, wait!” I ran after him.

He stopped suddenly and I bumped right into his solid back.

Ow!

He spun around and sighed. “Are you okay?”

I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah.” 

“Listen, Tristan, you know why I rejected you.” I told him trying to make my voice as soft as possible.

“I really don’t, Crystal.” He responded.

He was trying to be cold towards me but I could see the pain in his eyes. I had hurt him and even after all these years, the wounds were still fresh.

“You would never be happy with me. We would never work. I’m a halfling and you’re the alpha of one of the major packs of the Werewolf Union. You already face too much ridicule for being such a young alpha. What would people say if they found out you imprinted on a weak Luna?”

He suddenly took a step forward, his body stealing the little space that had existed between us. 

“And how many times do I have to tell you that I don’t care about that? I’m the alpha of the Silvercrest pack, I’m descended from a long line of alphas, I have fought more wars than werewolves twice my age, I was not handed any of these things, I fought and worked my butt off for all of it.”

I could feel the heat radiating off his body. My wolf was alerted by his wolf. The magnetic attraction that was still very much alive fought to make its way out but I suppressed it. What good did that do though? My human side was just as attracted to him as my wolf side. I mean who wouldn’t be?

His voice grew lower as he leaned in closer. “So tell me, Crystal, why on earth would I worry about what a few unimportant people have to say about who my Luna is?”

I gulped.

I took a step away from Tristan. “You might not care because you’re a superstar and all but I’m not. Life in this pack hasn’t exactly been easy for me, you know.”

“Did someone hurt you?” He growled causing me to shiver.

“No.” I quickly responded, which was a lie but I wasn’t going to tell him that some of the people in that very apprenticeship program were my tormentors. “I just mean -“

“You just mean you’d rather be with Roman, the freaking traitor?” He spat.

“Wait what? Do not talk about Roman.” I could feel anger brewing inside me. Roman was a delicate subject and he knew that but I guess I couldn’t expect him to care especially after what Roman did to him. But I cared. And I hated that this happened and that everyone hated Roman now but he had once mattered to me.

Tristan let out a humourless laugh. “Of course.” He muttered mostly to himself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Forget it.” Tristan shook his head, his mesmerising eyes met mine. “You rejected me, Crystal, stop making excuses about it, I get it, okay? You didn’t want me.”

Why was he doing this to me? I was getting increasingly more and more frustrated.

“Tristan, please just stop.”

“If it’s because I’m older than you, the freaking traitor was older than you as well.” He continued.

Well, Roman is nineteen and Tristan just turned twenty but that was hardly the point since I was eighteen now anyway.

“I don’t want to talk about this, Tristan. I want to talk about this mess with the AAP.” I told him.

Even though he was trying to hide it, he was hurt by my words, there was no doubt about that. I didn’t want to hurt him but I just couldn’t do this right now.

“I don’t know who put you on that list.” He repeated slowly.

“But you can find out, you’re the alpha for goodness sake!” I yelled in frustration. 

“I already told you, it’s anonymous, what do you want me to do? Visit all the elders until I find out who chose you?”

“Well, you could.” I spoke, giving him a hopeful smile.

He didn’t return it. “No.”

“Tristan!” I groaned.

“I have better things to do.”

Oh how I wish I could play the ‘But you’re my mate’ card. Even though I knew Tristan would do anything for me in theory, I don’t know how much it actually applied in reality.

Even though it was shameful, I took out the big guns, the puppy dog face.

I lowered my head and stuck out my lip slightly before looking up at him.

He looked confused. “What the hell are you doing?”

Well that didn’t work.

“Trying to use my adorable face to get you to help me.”

“That’s what that was?” 

I could tell he was stifling a snicker.

“Look, If you want help getting out of this, talk to Bridgette. I can’t help you, you’re a ‘conflict of interest’.” He spoke with a small smug smile on his face.

I rolled my eyes. “Clever. And you know just as well as I do that Bridgette hates me!” I whined.

He shrugged. “Not my problem.”

And this was the boy who was supposed to care about me more than anything in this world.

“Tristan!”

He turned to start walking away.

My goodness! This boy!

“Try to not look at the negatives here, think about the positives, this is the chance of a lifetime to most young werewolves.” He called over his shoulder.

“You’re just enjoying the fact that I’ll be working for you, aren’t you?” I yelled after him.

He turned around then looked away again. “You really seem convinced that I take pleasure in forcing you to be in my presence.” 

I frowned. “Tristan. That’s not -“

He turned back towards the trees before I could even finish. “Get out of the forests and go back to school, Crystal!”

Next thing I knew, he erupted into the massive form of fur that was his wolf before he ran off.

I ran a hand through my hair in frustration.

This has definitely been an interesting first day back to school.