Page 6 of Alpha's Claim

Of course I had packed well. I always packed well. I was good at this sort of thing, but it didn’t stop me from just frowning down at the bag for a few more minutes as though it had some kind of secret I expected it to give up. I stood up and picked the bag up. That was all I needed and I wouldn’t ever be more ready than I was in that moment.

I barely took a look around at the scenery as I walked. Sometimes I thought that was insane, to live in a place like this and just not notice it. Most people who walked through these halls either were impressed by the decadence of the place or worked here and likely admired the architecture but not the people. I kind of felt that way sometimes. That day, though, was one of the days that it was just a house to me. It was just a place where I kept my things and lived for most of the time. Just a big, old house with big, old rules that all the little people inside were meant to follow.

My steps never faltered as I moved until I began to approach my father’s office. Any normal day he would be in there and I wasn’t certain yet if I wanted to say goodbye or not. It was the polite thing to do, but the past few days had not been very kind to me and thus I wasn’t feeling very vocal with my plans.

As I drew nearer to the office I heard the sounds of a discussion droning on in the background. That wasn’t surprising. He had been vague, but he had informed her that he would be having a meeting that day- with the new pack’s Alpha if I remembered correctly. I sighed softly, already feeling the real world dragging me down. It was now of the utmost importance that I get away from this place and out to my studio as soon as I possibly could.

As I passed my father’s office I noticed that my father was out on his balcony with a stranger I couldn’t fully see. I could hear well enough what was going on. He was out there intimidating and extorting that poor new Alpha. I rolled my eyes in annoyance at the ridiculousness of the scene. This was what I hated so much about this place- that our whole lives were built on the subjugation of others. That we couldn’t just leave the new pack that moved in alone and let their Alpha have a good day. It was absurd. We had all the money we would ever need and we had no intention of using our money and power to do anything good. I hated it.

It was actually a massive problem for me as a person, because I loved my father. He raised me. He was a kind and loving father to me, especially when I was little. Our relationship as father and daughter was close and in spite of my morals I couldn’t find it in me to feel anger at my father for long.

Even in the capacity of politics and power he never treated me as anything less than capable, and I caught the pride in his eyes when he saw me go toe to toe with the other members of the pack. He was proud of me that I could handle myself in the face of these other people. In spite of riding me hardest to succeed and get better he also championed me more than anyone else ever had done. It was a very strange relationship, I thought, but also very normal without the extraordinary circumstances of running the area’s largest pack.

“I bet you can’t wait to be the one in that seat calling all the shots.” Preston had snuck up on me. I whipped around and glared at him for daring to sneak up on me. For once his face seemed to be just… blank. As if he were asking a genuine question, not some kind of trap he set up to catch me out in something.

“Yeah, you’re right. I can’t wait until I call the shots and we stop extorting these people and just build a community.” I retorted. Before he had a chance to respond I turned back away from him and strode with my bag out of the mansion. It took them a moment to bring me my car, probably because I had arrived so recently and they didn’t expect to have to fetch it so fast. But it had been a while since I went out for a full weekend, so I didn’t exactly feel ashamed or anything.

It wasn’t like this was the first time I had done this either. It was rare, but I had done it when I went to Philadelphia and forgot something. This time I just forgot that I needed more time for myself than I had taken in the past several months. I took my keys from the valet and thanked him before I made the drive back out to my apartment so I could just get away from the politics and the politicians.

Near the beginning of my drive I couldn’t help but mull over the day in my head. I loved my father so much, but I hated what he did with his power. I wanted so badly for him to understand where I was coming from, but I knew he wouldn’t. I had spent my younger years pleading with him to stop being mean to others and he’d spent years telling me I was idealistic and didn’t have a grasp of what being a real leader meant. So I stopped. I turned my attention fully toward taking over control of our pack when he passed.

It suddenly occurred to me that I was still just spending time in my head, so I drove on to my studio, I cranked the radio in the hopes of drowning out my negative thoughts. Too much close proximity to all that I found antithetical to my own set of morals had thrust me into a very annoyed state and I wanted to be out of that state as soon as I could be. I turned the music down as I pulled into the parking garage so it wouldn’t blow me out of the car the next time I got in and pulled into my parking spot. I basically fled from the car as I got the chance, heading straight for the elevators that would take me up to my studio.

The elevator ride to my floor was just about the longest I could go without some kind of background noise at this point. I quickly made my way into the apartment with my bag, tossing it on the bed carelessly. I put some music on my phone and set about getting ready.

My makeup routine was interrupted a few times as I would lose concentration for a brief second or so and then have to restart my eyeliner once again. That, to me, was proof enough that I needed this time away. Even though it took longer than usual, I felt flawless when it was on and set. My reflection smiled back at me and I slid into my clothes quickly.

I put on my calling card outfit- something tight, short, and made entirely of something that shined. I went a little more subdued this time, the dress black instead of gold but no less shimmering in the light. It took me a few minutes of fidgeting with it to get it to sit on me just the way I liked it.

Once that was done I spent some time just trying to decide on the perfect accessories. I wanted to be more comfortable than I had been the previous night so I went with a better pair of shoes. They were probably the most comfortable heels I owned- that was a big part of why I’d chosen the dress I had. I liked to look as perfect as possible when I went out on a night like this.

By the time I finished getting ready I was already feeling much better. My plan was to head straight to the basement club where I knew everyone and they all knew me. This place had a bouncer and a few bartenders who were shifters like me. They had my back and that meant a lot to me. Tonight I wanted that. It would be such a relief to be able to fully relax and dance like I really needed to without having to worry about anything. Plus they knew me well enough to know that I would tip big, so I always got the best in return. Not that I meant to get drunk tonight- I really didn’t. I meant to simply get a little buzz and go home. That’s all I wanted.

I had my pick of dance partners that night. There was a whole buffet of different guys I could choose from, and I filled up my dance card very quickly. I didn’t feel a single connection with any of them and something just kind of kept nagging at the back of my mind. It felt like I was supposed to be finding someone- as though that was the point of the night. I couldn’t even begin to explain why. Maybe it was just the smell of the night? Or maybe it was because I was here, dressed up, having fun, alone at a club with other shifters in it. Sometimes our senses worked in mysterious ways, so although I danced and had fun I just kept glancing around as if I were expecting to meet someone.

None of this interfered with my ability to relax. My senses seemed to be heightened in a way I wasn’t used to that night. The disco ball up by the ceiling was reflecting the lasers from the DJ booth around the room in the most fascinating patterns. Maybe I had just never noticed before. There was a delicious smell in the air- I wanted to know what that cologne was so I could get myself a bottle. The air itself felt like it carried more weight. More scent and volume and oxygen than it normally did. It mimicked being high.

I just felt so good and so free and so light that night. So full of life and vitality. My blood ran fiercer than it ever had before, and I knew it was important that I remember the sensation, although I wasn’t sure exactly why, yet. Once a few hours passed all of it would click into place, but at that moment, it barely even registered to me.

It didn’t even feel like I needed a break or a rest like I usually would. At some point during a night out I tended to find my way to a seat of some kind just to catch my breath. Realizing that I probably desperately needed water. I made my way over to the bar, fighting against the current of people around me until there was a brief moment of recognition. I had picked the exact correct time to decide I needed water.

Even from this distance, I knew. It was him. This was the man I’d waited my whole life for. This was my mate, and he was beautiful.

Chapter seven

Weston

Ifoundmyselfina dive bar when I made it out to Philadelphia. One of those places where the floor is sticky and you have absolutely no interest in sitting down on the couches that lined the outside of the room. The place was absolutely packed. It was a Saturday night, so I thought that was probably to be expected. I made my way to the bar and shoved myself in between people to make an order. Tonight was a liquor night, not a beer night. I didn’t want to have to drink half a dozen drinks to get a buzz, I just wanted to down two or three shots and make my way to the next place.

This was more of a way for me to get to know the city, after all. It was more of a bar crawl- I wanted to experience the different places in town. For me, half the fun was in finding the diamond in the rough- the place where I could see why it would have a one-star review but it was so perfect for me specifically that I would make it a second home. This place was a very good start, if only for the pure volume of band stickers everywhere.

The bartender slid over the shots one at a time as I ordered them, keeping my credit card in the back so he could guarantee I paid. Seeing this place, I thought they probably had a few runners in their day; people who would order drinks and take off without paying. The clientele seemed to be on the less economically gifted side of the spectrum. I fit in nicely in this place, I thought. These were my kind of people. The only problem I could find was that there were no other wolves around. I was alone here in spite of being surrounded by the blue collar workers I could identify with.

My whole life our family had been hard workers doing hard work. It made sense for us living out in the smaller city with just a few of us pursuing a college education. We’d worked more menial and physical jobs which had been fine with us. We had enough money to live comfortably as a pack. We didn’t need more.

I couldn’t quite set aside my anger about the earlier meeting yet. Such people living in such opulence never seemed to use any of their resources to build others up, but it really did irritate me that it was so easy for Henry Onyxian to just dismiss me as nothing but a peon. In his eyes I wasn’t worth anything but the money I could give him. That was insane to me. I didn’t understand that. Maybe it was just because I had been raised in an entirely different kind of family. People who grew up in such a rich family must have a totally different set of ethics, I thought. Either way, we would have to pay. We would have to get some kind of income coming in pretty quickly. I knew a lot of us had jobs already, having procured them before the move in preparation. That might be enough for now- just a portion of the earnings of the pack. I’d have to hammer out the deal and speak to the rest of the pack before any plans were put into motion. That was easy enough but standing in front of my pack and saying I failed, I was wrong, and the first thing I did was move us into the wrong town was going to be a bitter pill to swallow. Logically I knew that it was just a quick move that Yari and I just didn’t put as much thought into the move as we thought they did. Once we had made sure our territory wouldn’t overlap with any other pack we had assumed we were in the clear to make our home there.

After the second shot I made it a point to try to set aside these problems. As Alpha, I wouldn’t get a lot of time off so really I should be making the most of that night. I paid and got my card back, standing and making my way to the door. It was time to make my way to the next place.

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