The Alpha Selection

♔ Chapter 8 ♔

I smile when Liam pulls up to Calvin's Diner. He knew it was my favorite spot, which was why I felt like Liam was buttering me up for something. As he sat quietly and looked over the menu, I couldn't help but notice how tense his jaw was.

There was something that he was hiding from me. Maybe he had brought me to my favorite place because he wanted to tell me that we were about to leave for war. Then I could freak out and eat as much comfort food as I could handle while we were here at the Diner.

"What are you thinking about?" I ask.

Liam looks up and tilts his head.

"What I'm going to order. I was thinking of trying something new."

"Feeling courageous are we?" I say with a gentle smile. Liam shrugs and sets down his menu just as Espen walks towards us.

"Hey guys! What can I get for you today?" She asks.

"I'll have the usual, except no onions this time." I answer. Espen scribbles it down and looks back up at Liam.

"I'll have the beef stew." He answers.

I watch as he takes our menus and hands it to Espen. When she walks away Liam looks down at his fingers and stares at them for a moment.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

His head shoots up and his eyes widen a fraction before he relaxes his shoulders.

"There are a lot of things I want to tell you. It's just hard to find the words sometimes." He shrugs.

I sigh and prop my hand up by the palm of my hand.

"Just tell me what's eating at you. You were fine an hour ago, now you're all...weird."

Liam laughs, which annoyed me a little because I was being serious.

"Stop laughing at me! I'm being serious Liam."

"I'm sorry. I just don't see how I'm acting any different than the way I usually do."

"You're too quiet and I can see how tense you are. I can tell by the way your jaw tightens and you keep looking almost everywhere else but at me." I explain.

Liam shrugs again and I find myself ready to slap him.

"I've got a lot on my mind Nira, and before you ask me to tell you I'm going to give you my answer. No. I don't want to talk about it. All I want to do is have a normal dinner with my girl." He gives me a smile, one that I almost felt was genuine.

I wished in that moment that I could just read his mind. I hated that he was keeping things from me when we should have an open relationship.

I hated that the males could feel a female's emotion easily, and even have a way to pinpoint her exact location if their Bond was strong enough. While us girls had to constantly guess what our partners were feeling.

"Liam I'm done with the secrets. I don't like being kept in the dark about anything. If you can't be open with me then this isn't going to work." I cross my arms and lean back against the plush booth cushions.

Liam's eyebrows point downward towards his nose, and his eyes narrow in a way that I found almost intimidating.

"You're just going to have to learn to deal with it." He says darkly.

My jaw drops at his hard response. I mean, instead of trying to reason with me or be open and honest with me, he sits there and tells me to deal with it.

"Excuse me?"

"Deianira, you know who I am. There are going to be a lot of times when I have to keep things from you. Either because it's highly classified information or because it might put you in danger. So you're just going to have to be a big girl and deal with it."

"No."

Liam's jaw tightens and his body stiffens as he gives me a mean look I've never seen before.

"No?"

"I'm not going to put up you keeping secrets from me. So you tell me right here and now, whether or not our relationship is worth you keeping secrets. Because I am telling you, I am not going to be with someone that can't trust me enough to be open and honest."

Liam releases a deep breath and I know it's because he's trying to control his temper.

"You don't get to give me ultimatums Deianira."

I stand up and reach into my pocket to grab a ten dollar bill that had been in my pocket.

"Watch me." I slam the money onto the table, earning looks from the few other people who had been enjoying their meals.

Liam growls and jumps to his feet, but by the time he reached for me I had already reached the door.

I throw open the door and walk outside feeling like crap again. I didn't want to fight with Liam but I knew that I had just started one.

He grabs my arm and turns me towards him. His face, which was usually calm, was twisted in anger. His eyes look darker and I could see his fangs elongating.

He was so furious that he was about to shift.

I had seen on several occasions how some Alpha's would get so pissed off that they'd shift on the spot and pounce on whoever had made them angry. In this case, I knew he was hurting.

My ultimatum was bordering on rejection, which was one thing that could hurt an Alpha the most.

"Let go of me." I growl.

"No, you are going to listen to me. You are my mate Deianira and I love you. I won't let you walk away from me, even if that means I have to claim you right here and now." He growls back.

I try to get out of his grip, but it only tightened. "This whole possessive Alpha shit is really cliché Liam. What I'm asking for is not negotiable. If you want me, then this is my price."

I looked directly into his hard eyes without shame. I wasn't going to let Liam bully me and he wasn't about to force me into a relationship that I didn't want to be in.

Before I could ask him to let me go again, he pulls me into him and kisses me.

Right in the middle of the sidewalk.

The kiss was so raw, so intense, that my mind goes blank. The way his arms wrap around my waist and hold me against him only intensifies my need for him.

In that moment there were no boundaries, nothing between us and this was what I wanted. I wrap my arms around his neck, causing him to growl once more.

When he pulls away from me, I feel slightly dizzy. I wish that I could have slapped him and told him to hit the road, but I wanted him to take me completely. I wanted him to possess me.

And this bastard knew it.

"The next time you threaten to break us apart I'm going to take you. I don't care where we are or who's watching."

I was so drained that I didn't respond. I didn't know how he managed to subdue my fury with and replace it with an overwhelming lust with just a few kisses.

I guess it was some ancient Alpha secret.

"Our food is getting cold. Let's go back inside and enjoy our fucking meal." Liam says as he forces his fangs to retract.

"No, Liam...I'm going home." I yank my arm away, which made Liam inhale sharply.

"Deianira."

"I'm going home. If you touch me I'm going to scream bloody murder and punch you in your fucking throat."

I could tell Liam wasn't at all intimidated by my threat, but he knew that I was on the edge of a cliff that he didn't want to push me over.

Because once he did, there was no coming back from it.