Alessia Stocklin and Ezra Withers are polar opposites, but they can certainly agree on one thing: their mutual hate for each other.
He's an Alpha deadset on killing every rogue he comes across, while she's a vigilante - known as Nightshade - intent...
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Ezra, you're going to kill me, I gushed over the mind link.
Alessia, Ezra warned, but I could tell he was holding back a smile. What did you do this time?
Well, I tried to soften the blow. It's not so much what I've done as opposed to what has been done to me?
Alessia, Ezra's voice hardened. While we had been living together for over a month, I still could manage to trip him up with my antics.
Mentally preparing myself, I explained in a rush, We've adopted a cat.
We?
Yes — you and me — we, I clarified as I stroked the black blob of fur that weaved in and out of my legs.
No.
I told you, my voice taunted. You were going to kill me.
I'm not going to kill you, he sighed, but I might kill it.
Don't say that about Beans! I exclaimed, scooping up the stray kitten in my hands, rocking it back and forth gently. The kitten purred enthusiastically in my arms.
Beans?
Beans, the cat, I said, like it was a no-brainer.
You named the cat Beans? He scrutinized.
Yes, I named our cat Beans, I rolled my eyes and scratched Bean's chin.
Alessia, he whined.
Ezra, I mimicked his tone of voice.
Ezra, you won't regret it, I enforced with a smile.
I didn't know it at the time, but he did end up regretting the cat. While Beans, who I found wandering the forest all alone, warmed up to me the minute I laid eyes on him, Ezra didn't quite have the same experience. Beans could sense the tension between the two, and he was not afraid to show his dislike with a scratch or a hiss.
There were times when Beans would tolerate a short-lived pet from Ezra, but Ezra knew better than to test the waters more than that. They co-existed together, but after the first few days of Beans being with us, Ezra no longer complained about the putrid — his words, not mine –— smell of cats.
And so, we had created a small family together: me, Ezra, and Beans.
But our friends had become our family, too. Link moved to Solaris once I became co-Alpha of Solaris. He was my right-hand man. He did take a lot of convincing and eventually even some bribing, but he accepted the position as my Beta.
While he was not physically the strongest member of the pack, he more than enough made up for it with his mental strength. He approached most occasions with a hint of apprehension, which aided the pack from making any spur-of-the-moment decisions.
Alpha Apollo of the West's pack was soon able to recover from the recent depletion of pack members. Apollo had been successful in beginning to build his pack from the ground up. In the short time he had been Alpha, he already had several transfers to his pack, and I had been informed he even had a nationwide tour to find his potential mate in the works.
With all that said, Apollo's climb to success was an easier affair than mine. Even though I had been made co-Alpha of Solaris, I had not yet begun any Alpha training. Ezra had a few matters to settle regarding the Ferals before he could jump in head first to my training. In the meantime, though, he had somehow managed to convince Elias to help teach me a thing or two about being an Alpha.
Somehow, I did not have faith in our abilities to keep Solaris from burning down, but at least we'd burn down together.
THE END.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I want to thank everyone who has made it to the end of Alessia and Ezra's journey. I've had this idea in my head for years so bringing this idea to life has been a long time coming. While I did ultimately write this story for myself (I'm a sucker for an enemies to lovers romance), I'm happy you've also enjoyed the story enough to make it this far. Thank you.
