Wretched Alpha

Altercation

Everything was happening so fast, I could hardly keep my head from spinning. Angelo stormed up and within seconds, Austin was on the floor with a nasty bruise to the cheek. He was out cold! The sheer power to be able to knock him out in one blow was.. scary.

But it wasn't enough for Angelo.

A growl was forming in his throat, getting louder with the angrier he got just looking at him. His light, honey brown eyes were darkening.. His wolf must be trying to come forward!

"Angelo!" I blurted out, throwing myself in front of him as a distraction. It seemed to work, because his eyes immediately focused on me. Suddenly, I had stage fright.

"He wasn't going to hurt me. Someone needs to bring him to the infirmary." I placed my hands on his chest, the slight touch sending sparks through my hands. Unfortunately, it seemed like the wrong choice of words.

"He will be punished. He knows he is not allowed to touch you. No one can touch you," His hands gripped onto my wrists tightly, and my heart began to race. There was a lump in my throat from the sheer anxiety of making things worse.

"My mate," He growled, his arms making their way around my waist. I was stiff in his arms, however I did not attempt to push him away. I was not submitting to him, I was just afraid of what the consequences of poking the bear might be. He smelled like a warm summer's day in the midst of a field of flowers, and I found myself beginning to relax after a while. I knew he wouldn't hurt me, but the same could not be said for Austin. I had to be smart about this.

It felt as though the embrace would never end, but eventually he loosened his hold on me, his arms still lightly holding me to him.

"That's the first time you've said my name," He hummed, obviously content with himself. Was this guy serious? I was about a second away from having a heart attack and now he wants to act like this is some romantic moment?

My silence must've spoken for itself, because he sighed as he pulled away, taking a look at Austin.

"He wasn't going to hurt me," I repeated, my hands balling up into fists. I was getting exponentially more frustrated the longer this went on.

"He shouldn't have acted that way, regardless."

"He-! You shouldn't have acted the way you did!" I threw my hands up in the air, "you set all of this up! You knew they were mates! You knew it would cause us to fight! You caused it!" The tears were returning, I could barely catch my breath.

"The only person that intentionally hurt me here today was you," I spat with as much venom as I could muster, before turning my gaze back to Austin.

If Angelo wasn't going to bring him to the infirmary, I'd do it myself.

"What are you doing?" Angelo snapped as I attempted to lift Austin, struggling quite a bit. I wasn't going to call myself a weakling, but I definitely wasn't built to haul all of this muscle by myself.

"He needs to go to the infirmary. I told you this already," I rolled my eyes and continued with the task of lugging my now ex-boyfriend halfway across the estate.

"Stop that. You're going to hurt yourself," Angelo seemed to effortlessly lift Austin's limp body over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, looking me over with a hint of distaste.

"You will take a bath and wait for me in our bedroom,"

The hell I will. As soon as Angelo was out of sight, I wandered aimlessly through the field, hoping the Goddess herself would come down with some much needed advice.

Of course, no such luck.

If I reject him, my whole family will suffer..

I stopped walking, looking up at the starry night sky. Did my family deserve to suffer because of me?

Do I deserve to suffer for the sake of my family?

I shook my head, exhausted from everything that happened in such a short span of time.

For the moment, I decided to just suck it up and do as I was told. Avoiding any further conflict would give me time to give the whole situation some thought.

I picked clothes that looked cozy enough from the wardrobe I'd looked through for my dinner outfit, and set off to shower. There was no way in hell I'd be spending the night with the Alpha, and I wasn't going to budge on that.

For the duration of the shower, I hummed any song I could think of to drown the internal dread working it's way in my system. I'm not sure how long I spent just standing there letting the water wash over me, but I'm glad I did it. It was almost therapeutic.

Exhausted from the day's events, I tousled my hair in the towel to at least semi-dry it before tossing myself into a random vacant bedroom.

The pillows and comforter were like heavenly clouds, lulling me to sleep within moments.

Tomorrow would be a new day.