2: The Alpha, that Goes Bump in the Night

Dina’s POV

Apparently, Dylan knew where we were going, because I didn’t recognize anything anymore. Now, we weren’t exactly a traditional pack. Our territory had over time merged with a city nearby, mixing the werewolves and humans to some extent. Wolves could, if they chose to, live in the city and still be part of the pack or live in the suburbs. That’s the fancy word we used for the parallel were-society, that was scattered across the territory. The Pack land was so vast, that several of the werewolf settlements had their own zip code and even different dialects. They were mostly run by Gammas or Deltas, who then answered to the Alpha and Beta. And while the Alpha ruled the pack, all the land was private property, making shifting a whole lot easier without having to risk exposure.

About an hour out of the city, deep into the forest and on more private property, was the Packhouse, the alpha’s house, and a few other homes for the top wolves and their families. The packhouse once served as the housing for the Alpha and Beta, but now it mostly served as a place for the Enforcers to crash, eat, and get whatever paperwork they had out of the way.

Almost like an admin building for that pack if you will…

Our family lived in the city and no matter how much I loved my parents, I hated every moment of being in the big city. It made the urge to shift feel like a code 5-87 waiting to happen, so I quickly learned to suppress it. And what’s worse was you quickly became very paranoid about humans trying to be friendly, since you couldn’t be sure about their agenda.

I glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

2.18!

I groaned.

It was in the middle of the freaking night! What the heck was open in the middle of the night?! I felt a knot form in my stomach, remembering what kind of people my brother hung out with.

There was no scenario where this ended well for me…

Finally, he slowed down and turned onto a road with another “Private Property” sign. I frowned, feeling the knot in my stomach growing, while I prayed we hadn’t left pack territory. Because as much as rogues weren't really as dangerous as they’d been back in the old days, they were still mostly guns-for-hire mercenaries who preyed on pack politics, feuds, and bad blood. In other words: not the type of cure and cuddly you would want to get cozy with…

Suddenly, a house appeared in the car’s headlights, and my wolf became restless. The power and dominance that seemed to be embedded in this area made her uneasy, yet gave her a strange sense of peace and safety.

Yeah, my wolf was definitely crazy…

Dylan parked the car in front of a plain-looking, two-story house that looked like it was built around the turn of the century. Nothing really stood out about it, except that this was the house where Dylan told me to get out of the car. He pulled my duffle bag out of the car and almost knocked me over when he threw it at me. I muffled the growl that my wolf threw at him. So, sue me for not being the biggest wolf around. You really can’t expect a girl to grow all the necessary muscles when she’s living off the stale pastry and expired goods.

Huffing, I followed him to the door. When he rang the bell, I felt physically ill from nerves. Dylan had a bad habit of picking all the wrong friends and getting into all the wrong crowds. If this was one of his “hang out”-places, I wanted to be a million miles away…

To distract myself, I took a look around, eyeing the name on the mailbox. I squinted a bit, sure I must have read something wrong because I could have sworn it said---

Levi Stone!

As in Alpha of The Black Lunar Pack…

Alpha Stone.

OUR ALPHA!

Heck, even my wolf paled in horror. He was one of the most powerful werewolves to ever have walked this continent. Some even said that he was more powerful than the Werewolf King himself! He was ruthless, fierce, and incredibly strong. Like literally: the man was rumored to even have killed his own father and he had to be taken out of school because he was too unstable and attacked anything that crossed his path. Rogues knew to stay away from our pack, simply because they would be killed if they got caught. And some said that one time he’d beaten one of his Deltas within an inch of his life because he messed up his coffee order! The guy was a living, breathing terror…

And for some reason, I was here?!

“Dylan,” I furiously whispered-yelled, turning to my brother, and hoping my evil eye would be enough to kill him! “What’s going on here?”

He ignored me and instead fixed his eyes on the doorbell, which he continued to ring. But that just confirmed what I already knew.

This was THAT alpha’s house!

Our alpha!

The man who was rumored to kill as a sport!

“And I’m out of here!” I managed to say, and while I had every intention of hightailing it out of there, the door suddenly flung open and a dark shadow seemed to swallow up the entire porch. 

“Somebody better be dying!” he bellowed and took a step forward, glaring at my brother with a stare that could melt diamonds. I gulped, determined not to let my fears show - but it was hard! The man was easily 6”5 and wide enough to fit the door frame to frame. Most of him was shrouded in darkness, but I could still make out his alpha-like physic: a body of nothing but pure muscles, toned and honed to track, capture and kill. Honestly, I’d never seen a man that, by simply standing there - doing nothing but looking royally pissed! - held so much power and authority as the alpha before me.

Suddenly, I praised myself lucky to never have met him before and that I never was--- and that’s when I realized that I was going to be introduced to the alpha of our pack by Dylan.

The all-around pack a-hole.

My life officially sucked!

As if sensing the direction my thoughts had gone, the alpha suddenly turned his eyes on me. They were surprising, murky green, but swirled with black, barely controlled rage. He only held my gaze for about a second, before the wolf in me had me baring my neck to him in submission. 

This guy was freaking scary…

“I thought I made myself clear, Dylan,” the alpha growled low, and the pure menace in his voice sent shivers down my back. “When I said I never wanted to see you again, I meant I NEVER wanted to see you again!”

I couldn’t help but glance up at my brother. He’d exposed his neck as well, but that just barely phased Alpha Stone, who seemed to tower over my brother at the moment. Heck, he looked like he was barely restraining himself from tearing out a chunk of Dylan’s neck with the way his fingers flexed and gripped the doorframe loud enough to make it creak and groan in the quiet night. My heart was beating a million miles a minute as I quickly scanned the area. The forest didn’t seem that far away, but---

Nobody outran an alpha…

“Please, alpha,” Dylan begged in his most aggravating and whiny voice that never failed to get on my nerves. I’d heard Dylan use this tone a million times before. In front of social workers, loan sharks, and heck, even me! It was his “pity me, I’m the victim here”-tone. And the worst part? It always worked! Like a freaking charm, and he even knew how to force a tear down his cheek to do with the pleading kicked-puppy look that went along with it. It had taken me some time, but I finally became immune to his act. Funny enough, but it was also around that time he started to get physical with me…

And now he was using it on our alpha!

I almost scoffed out loud in disgust!

And accidentally, I did just that, but lucky for me it was too low for my brother to notice. The alpha did though, and while he didn’t comment, he did seem to pick up on the irritation and borderline revulsion I felt toward my brother at the moment.

“Please, just two minutes of your time, that’s all I’m asking for?” Dylan continued and, for a split second, I almost wished the alpha would turn us away. At least that way I could pretend this hadn’t happened and leave with my own dignity intact.

No such luck…

The alpha let out a small annoyed growl, rubbing the brim of his nose.

“Make it quick!” he growled and moved aside for us to enter. Dylan instantly jumped on the invitation, but I hesitated. I had no idea what Dylan was doing and, honestly, I didn’t want to get involved. And if it involved our alpha, I DEFINITELY didn’t want to be involved! But I’d barely separated my lips when the alpha’s green gaze stunned me silent. I guess I’d never really listened to most of the gossip about our alpha, but girls in the pack were practically tripping over themselves to get on his radar. Apparently, he was something of a player and with a body like that, I wasn’t going to judge.

But those eyes…

They looked like the eyes of someone who had to grow up too fast. Of someone who - behind the anger boiling there - hid an enormous amount of pain and suffering. Someone who was shouldering too much responsibility yet didn’t want to burden anyone else with it, because---

He didn’t feel worthy...

I was jerked out of my thoughts when the alpha motioned for me to get inside. Not wanting to piss him off, I ducked inside, trying to avoid eye contact. Instead, I took a look around. There was no light - which I thought was strange - but not nearly as strange as the plain, sparsely furnished living room. The couch looked like half a set of a 2-3 sofa set. There was no table, and the TV hanger on the wall was missing its TV. There were no pictures or any decorative ornaments anywhere, but the gray patches all over the walls were keeping things interesting! Of course, those were there to cover up what I could only assume were holes from an unknown origin (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it because the alternative had me practically crapping my pants!). Not to mention that half of the railing of the stairs was missing…

Nope!

Not thinking about how that happened!

Dylan signaled for me to stay there while he and Alpha Stone disappeared into the kitchen. They closed the door like I was some sort of child and needed to be kept out of the grown-ups’ conversation. I rolled my eyes at that and was just about to sit down on the worn-out sofa when I noticed that the door to the kitchen hadn’t completely closed. I tiptoed closer and although they were talking in hushed voices, I managed to pick up their conversation.

“Please, Levi,” Dylan begged, making my wolf want to growl at his pitiful attempt to earn some sympathy. “I’m in way over my head!”

How about sucking it up and owning your mistakes? I mentally snorted, wishing that my brother wasn’t my brother at all. Because I was slowly coming to the conclusion that Dylan was never going to change. He’d been a troubled teen when my parents had still been alive, but they’d always been able to keep a lid on him. Now, without them around, he was out of control. He would never learn to take responsibility for anything, least of all his own actions. And I was scared that one day, I was going to have to choose between him and my own mental health. Because seriously, hearing my brother beg in front of the alpha, made my gut twist and I felt a rush of shame wash over me. Which in turn made my wolf pace and growl in anger. She felt the same, but kept it at bay for the simple reason that he was our brother…

“And I already told you 5 years ago,” the alpha answered, unaffected. “That’s not my problem anymore!”

I shouldn’t have been delighted that someone was telling my brother to fuck-off. But I was! Served him right to learn some humility. At least from someone he couldn’t smack around or manipulate.

I hoped…

“I just need somewhere to lie low. Just for a little while,” he continued--- now really catching my interest. 

He-just--- WHAT?!

Was he expecting us to stay here?!

“Please?” he quickly continued as I could only guess that the alpha’s expression mirrored my own.

Utter shock and disbelief!

“I’ll-I’ll fix this somehow, I promise.”

It was the “somehow” part that had me worried…

“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?” the alpha scoffed and the humor in his voice sounded almost deadly. “Dylan! You made your own bed. Now fucking lie in it!”

Amen to that, brother, my wolf chuckled, and yeah, I might be grinning a little too. But if I wasn’t staying here, where would I be staying? And I would be lying if I said that that thought didn’t terrify me slightly.

“But my sister is---” Dylan started, but was cut off by a loud growl that instantly made him shut up.

“Do NOT use your sister against me,” Alpha Stone growled between clenched teeth, remembering only at the last second to keep his voice low. Again, thank you, Alpha Stone! I knew I wasn’t worth much to my brother but a bargaining tool?

“You prefer that we’d go someplace else? Some other place?” Dylan continued anyway. And the way he said “other” had a bad feeling crawling down my spine. “The only places I know are---”

“Oh, fuck you, Dylan!” the alpha roared, giving up any pretense that this was a private conversation. “You’re going to threaten to take your sister to a clan of vampires if I don’t take her in? That’s how you’re going to play it?”

My heart sank and even my wolf whimpered a little at the mere mention of vampires. Vampires were our natural enemies and were probably the only supernaturals out there that could seriously hurt or even kill a werewolf. Luckily, we didn’t wage wars with each other like in the old times. But with modern times came the modern ways of war: money! Vampires and werewolves both used human businesses to sustain their packs or clans. And in the world of the supernatural, you couldn’t call the police if a mate or a beloved went missing. It was a dirty, tricky, and bloody business. This was why every pack and clan wanted the strongest to lead, so their families and loved ones were protected. And ever since Alpha Stone took over the pack some 4 or 5 years ago, there hadn’t been a single vampire abduction of a Black Lunar member…

“I told you,” Dylan whined, pulling out all the stops to obtain whatever sympathy he could get. And for once, I was hoping it would work. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the situation, but if it was vampires Dylan was going to run to next, I was all about kissing up to the big guy! Vampires weren’t necessarily bad people---

But to meet them you had to NOT be a werewolf!

Heck, some rumors said that the Vampire King had a nasty habit of experimenting and torturing wolves to the point of madness!

“I’m in deep and I’m worried about her,” Dylan continued, jumping on the possibility that the alpha didn’t seem to want me to be associated with vampires. “I might be a lot of fucked-up things, but I do care about my sister.”

Silence fell after that load of BS. Dylan didn’t care about me. If he did, he wouldn’t be doing this. My wolf whimpered, knowing it was true, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. All I could do now was hope that whatever it was that Dylan had done this time, was at least somewhat redeemable…

And wait.

It was up to the alpha now…

“Fine,” he finally groaned, but before Dylan got around to a victory dance, he continued: “But only her! Whatever shit you’re in, you’re on your own!”

“What?!” Dylan gaped, practically taking the words out of my mouth. Because--- “But you’re unmated!”

Yeah. That!

Because while the alpha was allowed to date and sleep with whoever he wanted, he NEVER took his ladies home. Heck, in all the time he’d been alpha, I don’t remember hearing about him ever being serious with a single she-wolf.

Let alone have a woman living in his house!

I wanted to protest. Because not only would that spark a lot of interesting rumors, but damn it! I was made of flesh and blood! And the freaking alpha was hot as caramel apples.

BOB was going to have to work for it now, that’s for sure…

But on the other hand, I didn’t really know what to feel. I guess I was relieved that I wasn’t going to be living with vampires. But staying here?

And without Dylan?

Honestly, I didn't know if I was relieved at the prospect of not having to worry about my idiot brother or worried about what the future with a player alpha might hold.

Rita was definitely going to have a field day---

“I’ll hire her as my maid.” 

For a second, the world seemed to stop spinning. Even my wolf seemed confused, rolling over the alpha’s words over and over. Trying to understand the meaning of them.

“Maid?” I muttered, testing the word on my lips before I finally realized.

Wait--- WHAT?!