Unrivaled

Discovery

"One friend in a storm is worth more than a thousand friends in sunshine."
~Matshona Dhliwayo

Rey

I'd been sitting in the living room chatting with Lily when the door to the garage flew open. Spencer came striding in, but we were surprised to see the other kids behind him.

"Spencer, we're sorry," Scarlet said quietly.

"Whatever's going on, you can tell us," Gigi added kindly.

"Why didn't any of you listen to me?" Spencer demanded, his tone deceptively calm. Lily sensed her brother's attitude as well, sitting up straighter.

"Because she's annoying. She's a little know-it-all who thinks she superior to all of us," Fred said.

"And she insulted Callie," Isabelle piped up.

"She's a know-it-all because she's smarter than most of the people in her pack and ours. Not many people can pull off getting straight A's in AP Calc, let alone with straight A's in the rest of their classes. Her twin is the same way. And from what I heard, as much as I love Callie, she was a bitch to Elsa and her pack, so Elsa dished it right back. Are all of you just going to ignore the fact she just took your side in an argument when you all wanted to attack her? Hell, she even tried to help Jack up after he attacked her. Why do you keep picking fights with her when she's not looking for one?"

"Why do you keep defending her?" Grey snapped.

"Because I'm tired of fighting with the Laroches when I don't know why we are, and I'm sick of all of you trying to start something with them. Grow up. Do you want to be the superior pack? Then ignore them. Don't start anything with them. Don't attack unless they attack you first. Take the high road. That's how you'll be superior to them, but right now, the Laroches have a right to be the superior pack because they're acting like it. Not us. From now on, do not attack any of the Laroches, verbally or physically, unless attacked first. Do I make myself clear?"

The pack nodded their heads. Spencer dismissed them. Once they were gone, he grabbed a soda from the fridge and turned around. The surprised expression on his face told me he had just realized we were there.

"Spence, what happened at school?" Lily queried.

"I gave the pack orders, and they didn't listen to me. They needed a reprimanding."

"Exactly what was your reprimanding strategy, and why?"

"Jack tried to attack Elsa again, and I lost my temper. I pinned him to the ground."

"Physical force is not a good way to gain respect, you know."

"Then maybe you should be alpha," he snapped. "I'm going upstairs. I have work to do."

Lily seemed taken aback by his outburst but quickly said, "No, you're not. You've been in a pissy mood the past few days, and I won't have you taking it out on your pack or me. What has gotten into you?"

"I'm tired of everyone getting on my ass about being the future alpha, and I'm tired of everyone trying to force me to be with someone I don't want to be. So sorry if I'm 'pissy,' but I'm stressed, and no one is helping. I just want people to get off my back," he fired. Then all of a sudden, his anger dissipated, and in an exhausted voice, he said, "I'm tired."

"Then go for walks, listen to calming music, take a break from work, but don't take it out on the people who care about you," she told him firmly yet kindly.

My alpha rubbed the back of his head, appearing sheepish. "Sorry... I'm going upstairs. I have a lot of homework to do."

"Spencer, can I speak with you? It's about the hotel," I lied.

"Yeah, sure," he said. The two of us excused ourselves from the room. Once inside his bedroom, I shut the door and asked, "How did Elsa seem?"

"What?"

"I followed you the other night when you went to meet her," I confessed. "I just... I wanted to make sure she felt the same way about you the way you do for her, and they are."

"Oh yeah? What gave it away?"

"She started crying when you were out of earshot." Spencer's face fell. "I'm not sure how long she stayed there because I headed back to the compound, but she must've been there for a while because she sat down."

My alpha hung his head. "She warned me this would happen. That if we dated, we'd get more attached to each other than we already were just as friends, and we both tried to convince ourselves that us getting together would someday lead to the packs getting along... but we both knew. We didn't even have to say anything about it last night to know what we had to do."

"Maybe you two would've. I mean, if anyone in her pack would be on her side, it'd be her twin, and they both have quite a bit of influence, even if Elsa is the Omega. And from what I've heard, that new guy in their pack seems to like her a lot, so I think he'd be on her side. Dom and Lily wouldn't like it at first, but maybe if they got to know her, and maybe if they knew how important she was to you, they'd-"

"Dom, maybe. Lily, never. As much as she loves me, she would never forgive me if I dated a Laroche."

"Why?"

"She and Caleb had a massive rivalry thing going on. It was in chemistry, I think. That would be the last place I'd want those two to get in a fight with all those chemicals around. You don't remember that?"

"I hated high school, so I tried to suppress all the memories of it. I guess that memory was included."

"I kind of wish I'd met Elsa earlier on, so we could've at least been friends longer..."

"Have you talked to her at all since you two broke up?"

"No," he said dismally. "We sat right next to each other in physiology but didn't say a word. My heart was beating like crazy. I tried listening to hers to see if it was doing the same, but I couldn't hear anything over the sound of mine. In English, we weren't sitting next to each other, but I couldn't stop looking over at her. Not once did I find her looking at me. Maybe she's handling this better than I am... I don't know. But if this is how our breakup is going after just a few months of dating, I can't imagine what it would've been like if we'd gone on longer."

"What do you say we go for a walk?" I suggested. "Clear your head and help you de-stress?"

Spencer nodded, smiling gratefully at me. "That sounds good. Let's go."