The Alpha's True Love

Alpha Julian

I leaped backward, dodging the punch my Beta attempted to land to my face. He lunged at me again, prompting me to bob to the left of him. I smirked. As an Alpha, I had the upper hand in terms of strength, speed, and agility. But I had learned a long time ago not to underestimate my opponent. In the case of my Beta Brett, he was good at finding the weak points of a person and using them to his advantage. And being a Beta did give him more strength and power than other lesser-ranked wolves in our pack.

"I'm gonna knock that sorry smirk off that pretty boy face of yours," Brett growled. 

"I'd like to see you try," I scoffed, my smirk deepening. Drawing back my fist, I let it connect with his left shoulder. Brett jerked back with a grunt. I took advantage of his position, landing a swift kick to his right hip that sent him sprawling. I wasted no time leaping on his back and pinning him to the floor. Unbeknownst to me, Brett's arm snaked down toward my calf. I quickly became aware of what he was doing when I felt the sting of his claws digging into my Achilles. I hissed in pain as I rolled off of him. He'd found my weakness this time. Inattention. Inattention to my surrounding, to my body as a whole. Inattention to what my opponent was doing with his free limbs. 

Brett quickly pounced on me, pinning my arms to the ground with his knees, while one of his hands pulled my head back gruffly by the hair, and his other grasped my neck; gradually tightening. "Not so confident now are we?" Brett spat. I could feel my face starting to turn red from lack of oxygen, but still, I let out a raspy chuckle. "Not...quite," I grunted. Bending my leg, I kneed Brett in the butt with enough force to knock him forward. His chest landed on my face. I swiftly flipped us over, and pinned him to the ground, making sure he could not move his legs and trapping his arms with my hands. I held him there until he let out a low howl, signaling he was giving up. Getting off Brett, I offered him a hand up. He took it and shook himself slightly as he stood. 

"Not bad man," he huffed, his breath coming out in heavy wheezes. Grabbing the towels that were hung in a tree nearby, he handed me one and began drying off his sweat-soaked face with the other. "But you're slipping again. You need to pay attention to everything your opponent is doing. Not just the immediate area you are targeting."

"I know," I grumbled, grabbing my water bottle and guzzling the ice-cold beverage. "I just...my thoughts get ahead of themselves. I anticipate something specific happening next and get burned when my opponent does something different."

Brett nodded. "Anticipation is good. But you can't laser focus your anticipation on one thing. Don't try to predict what the enemy is doing. Just anticipate that they will do something."

I nodded. Brett was a good Beta. His knowledge of war games, battle tactics, and strategy came in useful when defending the territory from rogue attacks and rival packs.

Brett and I started to walk, following our familiar path through the woods back to the packhouse. We would often hold scrimmage fights deep in the woods as a way to get more practice, talk things out, and blow off steam. I'd come here by myself too if Brett or my Gamma were unavailable. I'd bob and weave in front of a tree, landing blow after blow against its bark until I'd beat down to the light-colored wood underneath. I often came to the woods alone, during the night, when the familiar sadness and depression that clouded my thoughts regularly showed up. Lately, those depressing thoughts have centered around a familiar longing that all wolves without mates feel. I'd be lying if I said jealousy didn't flare up inside me every time I saw Brett with his mate or heard of another one of my pack members finding the one.

Brett's baritone voice broke my thoughts. "You gonna be around when our guests arrive?"

"Guests?" I frowned. This was the first time I'd heard of this.

Brett rolled his eyes, a gesture I would never tolerate from anyone else except my Beta and Gamma. "I reminded you about them yesterday. Have you forgotten about the brawl you almost had with the Sheriff over this?"

I nodded, remembering what he was talking about now. Our packhouse was to house a therapist or a medical student, something like that, for three months as part of a deal we had with the town that our pack territory resided in. When I say we have a deal, I mean the Sheriff's deal that he had with a woman he was particularly interested in that worked for an outpatient care facility in Gearhart, Oregon. Sheriff Wade was one of the few humans in Gearhart that knew of werewolves and their existence. He used that knowledge to his advantage often. In this situation, the woman he was constantly trying to woo had complained to him of having nowhere to board the new hire she'd signed on as part of some holistic movement trend thing. Wade had explained it in detail, but if I was being honest, I barely heard a word he was saying. The Sheriff had practically begged me to board the new hire. Of course, he'd spin it so that he was responsible for getting the new hire lodgings and not me. More brownie points with his lady I guess. I'd been resistant at first, arguing that having a human who is unaware of werewolves living in a werewolf home is not only dangerous for us if they find out, but also makes it extremely difficult for us to be comfortable in our own home. And second, werewolves and humans don't mix that well. From a distance, yes, we can live quietly and peacefully together. But under the same roof? Absolutely not!

Brett and Gamma Michael had been the ones to get me to come around to the idea. My mother as well. She and my father, the former Alpha and Luna, still lived in the packhouse and advised me from time to time. The three of them, Brett, Mike, and my mother convinced me to at least try it. For Sheriff Wade. He'd been fair to us for the most part and never shared our secret even though he'd had several opportunities to do so and benefit. My mother had further guilted me into it by asking me to consider the new hire that was coming from a different state to a foreign area, who knows no one and has nowhere to go. "How would you feel if it were you in this situation Julian?" she'd asked. I'd groaned when the question left her mouth. There was no point in arguing at that point. I told Wade I'd allow the new hire to board at our packhouse with rules and conditions in place. And we'd try it for two weeks. After that, I reserved the right to ask them to leave and he'd have to tell the outpatient facility lady to board the new hire elsewhere.

Glancing at Brett, I shook my head. "I don't plan on being there. I figured you have the rules sheet that I made up. You can give it to them and give them the rundown. No need for me to be there."

Brett groaned. "Come on man! You're the Alpha. It's your responsibility to welcome a guest and make sure they understand what's what."

"And it's also my right to delegate certain responsibilities of mine to my Beta if I so choose," I growled. "I have no desire to see this new hire or to interact with them. If they break the rules then I will deal with them."

"You're just pissed because it's a human and you got coerced into this situation by another human," Brett spat, starting to chuckle. "Big Bad Alpha." He made air quotes as he talked.

"Shut up Brett," I snarled. He wasn't worth disciplining. He'd always been this way. He was very flippant when it came to authority but his loyalty was incomparable to any others. Therefore I gave him a pass on the disrespect in exchange for dedication to his Alpha.

Reaching the packhouse we slipped into the kitchen. I paused at the fridge, pulling out a new water bottle. Brett kept walking as I guzzled water. I almost choked as I heard his voice down the hall.

"She shows up at 3 o'clock if you change your mind."

She?