The Terms of an Alpha ✔️

t w e n t y - s e v e n

Saint hated this. This being a whole culmination of things. He hated being a... He couldn't even think the words. Everything he had learned in school suddenly seemed irrelevant. At UCLA, he had some of the top scholars in their fields, but were they even aware werewolves existed? Sophia was a student there. How many others were like her? Saint also hated staying at Ender's house. Slowly, he was regaining his strength, which meant he could leave the hospital, but according to Alpha Ender he didn't know how to control his wolf yet, so he wasn't allowed to leave. And Saint hated Alpha Ender too. Well, not really— he was confused. At the moment, he truly disliked him, but he didn't know if he could ever hate him. He hated how things felt between them. He felt betrayed and lied to. Despite only being a few doors down from Ender's room, it felt like a mile had grown between them. But what Saint really, really hated, was how much his new, inner being seemed to be enamored by Ender. He felt conflicted on almost every level. The sight of him made him want to forget he was mad at him and jump into bed together, and the thought of him made it hard to focus on school work.

Saint mostly kept to himself, huddled in the corner desk, keeping up with lessons he had missed. Ender would bring him meals and try to make small talk, but he consistently failed. Saint wasn't making it easy for him either. He would refer to him as Alpha Ender to emphasize how cut off they were from each other. Ender desperately tried talking about anything, but Saint only wanted his burning questions answered, like why the hell hadn't he told Saint sooner? Ender gave some bullshit answer about how his duty was to protect his pack and how humans learning about werewolves could be dangerous. Saint took that as Ender believing Saint was dangerous, which led to a full blown fight, so he wasn't surprised when Sophia entered after a light knock on the door.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" she asked, placing the plate of medium rare steak on his desk. Saint grunted in response.

Taking a seat at the foot of his bed, she added, "I know this must be tough." She was clearly trying to get Saint to talk, but Saint had been feeling terribly irritable lately.

"I mean you don't really know, no offense." Typically, Saint had a much better ability to control his tongue, but recently he was finding that incredibly difficult. "Unless of course your life has been flipped upside down." He flashed her a charming smile in a poor attempt to dissipate some of the tension. He was already fighting with Ender, and there was really no point in making his stay here anymore lonely.

"No, I can't say it has been," she joked.

"I'm sorry, Sophia, but I have to ask. Do you plan on telling Perez?" He needed to know. Perez deserved to know.

"Honestly, I haven't given it much thought."

"He should know," he said, growing annoyed that even after what had happened to him she hadn't thought about telling Perez.

"Look, Perez and I aren't that serious."

"It's not fair to him," Saint protested. "What if something happens to him like it did to me?" Sophia seemed to think about this for a little.

Lying down on the bed, she looked up at the ceiling fan spinning in circles and said quietly, "Maybe you're right. But we're really not supposed to tell humans unless we're positive they're going to stay in our lives for awhile. I mean I'm sure Ender already told you about hunters and whatnot."

Saint stopped eating and dropped his hands to his knees. "No, he didn't."

"Oh, okay. Let me do the honors then," she grimaced. "What if I do tell Perez I'm a werewolf? Let's say he's cool with it, and he accepts me for who I am. Then, a couple months down the line I realize we're not fit for each other or maybe I even do something so shitty that we break up. And, then let's pretend he hates me so much that he starts hunting werewolves, starting with my pack because he knows how much it'll affect all of us."