I had been a werewolf for over three years and I had never had to report to Alpha's house or headquarters since registering for pack membership. Sam was with me then but now, I was on my own.
Thirty minutes later, I sat in the cozy but large lobby-ish room after telling the receptionist that I was here. She didn't hide her disapproval as she perused me from head to toe.
"Long day at work." I explained as I smoothed down my wayward hair and groaned at the run in my pantyhose. She gave no response other than pursed lips. "Yeah, my company was just bought out by another company. It's such a pain. We had to re-interview, if you can believe that insanity...as if we didn't have enough on our plates already. Upper administration...you gotta love em', right?" Her face finally softened and she gave a small tilted smile.
"Always seems to work out in their favor, though." She offered.
I snorted in an unlady-like manner. "Yeah, at our expense."
Rita told me to wait in the waiting room, brought me coffee, and assured me that the Alpha would be with me very soon. I wanted to ask her if she knew what he wanted to see me about but I decided that if she knew she would have told me, based on our newfound rapport. Ten minutes later, we walked to the Alpha's office and knocked on the door. I was ushered inside and presented a comfortable chair that faced the Alpha's large cherrywood desk.
If I was nervous before, I was terrified at that moment. I read and heard about this Alpha. He looked so young and unsuspecting. He had rectangular shaped, black horn rimmed glasses. His black,silky, curly hair was cut short. His cafe au lait complexion was as smooth as a baby's bottom and after six o'clock in the evening, his five o'clock shadow was barely noticeable. In a word...he looked like a young college nerd. I was almost tempted to check for a 'kick me' sign on the back of his leather jacket...or place one there myself.
He silently smiled at me with straight white teeth. I guess my gawking was apparent. I willed my mouth to close. It wasn't as if I hadn't seen pictures of him. Sam took me to the council library and the Alpha's picture was in many of the books I glanced through, looking for any celebrities who I thought could be werewolves.
In one of the pictures, he was surrounded by many men---males. He did indeed look young but that picture did not do him justice at all. The person in front of me looked sweet, wholesome, and innocent.
HE was the Alpha? No...way. I took an extraordinary amount of time studying him to the point of awkwardness. The book I thumbed through, three years ago, said that he single handedly decimated a whole pack when they tried to overtake his pack in a matter of minutes. He was only sixteen years old at the time... And this took place over a hundred years ago, I might add. Either he had a major pair of balls or that little story was just that...a good little story.
His patience must have run its course because he cleared his throat. I tensed, though, I tried to appear relaxed...even smiling back at him. I doubt I pulled it off. My reflection in the bay window behind him proved that the maniacal look I was showcasing was all wrong. I tried to tone it down.
"You are permitted to breathe, Miss Trenton." He said.
My eyes widened more. I know I looked creepy but I couldn't help it. His voice. It was if it shot out of his mouth and wrapped itself around my body...intimately, if you know what I mean. His voice was deep...freakishly deep. Barry White would have turned over in his grave and James Earl Jones would have cried like a girl from envy. I wondered what he sounded like as a kid before puberty slammed his vocal cords with everything it had.
He began to laugh and I know it was from my facial expression. Even his laugh had a peculiar effect on me. It felt like someone was caressing my whole body in pizzicato movements and I began to squirm in my seat. I felt my face heat up from embarrassment.
"Something wrong, Miss Trenton?" The Alpha asked. He tilted his head a bit and subtly sniffed the air. I squeezed my thighs shut and gripped the arms of the chair tightly.
"N-no." I swallowed and shook my head. I looked away when I saw his lips curl into a knowing smile.
"Well, let's get to the reason you are here then, shall we?" Oh...that, I thought to myself. I watched him fold his hands, placing them onto his desk. I noticed how long and graceful his fingers were. Those did not look like the fingers of a dangerous male...nothing on him did.
"I have been searching for my mate, Miss Trenton, for a long time now. I have traveled all around the world with no luck. Years ago, I had some of my employees do interviews with several females that were registered with my pack. I wanted to find the most compatible females without them knowing what they were being interviewed for. I gathered most of the females for consideration here at headquarters under the disguise of a kind of census for the pack. You didn't have to participate because at that time, you were registering for the first time. I did have you interviewed at your place of employment."
He pushed a sealed envelope toward me and though, I was in a clouded state from his voice, I took it and opened it. I pulled out copies of my birth certificate and social security card and various other important, personal documents. I also pulled out several pictures of myself. Some, I saw, were taken while on my lunch break at work. Some were taken inside and outside of my apartment. There were even pictures of me with Sam and his two daughters, my best friends. I began to feel a little more than uncomfortable. The photographs were recently taken. I should have been aware...
"I have members of my pack that are trained to mask their scent and to be virtually invisible." He explained. I didn't feel any better. What I WAS beginning to feel was pissed off but there was no way in hell that I was going to say so...not to him. I kept my silence as it was safer.
"I just wanted to get an idea of who you were before we met face to face. Your scent already had me hooked and I---"
"Wait a minute. I don't understand. Are you saying that you think I'M your mate?" I blurted, cutting him off. The idea was preposterous. I was just a junior copy editor for Mega Woman Magazine. I was NOT the mate of an Alpha, especially one that was reputed for being one of the most dangerous alphas in the world!
"I do, actually, and you are the undisputed winner of the title." He smiled, showing more teeth this time.
"Sorry, but I can't accept the honor. You'll have to give my crown to the next runner up and I wish you both a long prosperous life together." I again blurted out. The Alpha silently stared at me as he slowly leaned back into his massive chair. With his average height, the chair seemed to swallow him. He folded his hands again but this time both of his pointer fingers rested in the clef of his chin.
The silence and the tension in the room stretched on for ages but I was stubborn enough, or insane enough, to hold my head high. In my mind, I was picturing myself cowering under the chair I was sitting in.
We had to have been sitting there, that way, "challenging" each other for several minutes...or hours. He sat like a statue with focus that unnerved me. I, on the other hand, found everything in his office, except for his piercing hazel eyes, to be of extreme interest to me. Avoiding his eye contact was a means to survival. Eventually, I began to pick at the cuticle on my thumb nail, ignoring him entirely. When that became a bore, I rubbed the outer part of my thighs, repetitiously. Then, I shamefully began to scratch my arm pits. They itch something awful whenever I'm feeling anxious; it was a miracle that I held off for as long as I had. He had to have thought I was insane. He looked like a nerd and I was acting like a weirdo.
Pit scratching must have been his limit because he took a deep breath before he spoke. "I have already sent some people to your apartment to pack everything for you. Your belongings will be brought here and your furniture will be put in our storage units. We will be married tonight in a private ceremony but I won't introduce you as my mate, to the pack, until we are actually mated."
Though he stated this in a nonchalant manner, his voice still made me tingle from the vibrations. I gripped my chair harder and my toes turned inward. My knees were sweating from the lack of air between them. If he had said anything more, I would have melted on the spot. My panties were completely soaked and I couldn't even find the strength to be incensed. I should have been outraged! Instead, I wanted to close my eyes and let his voice take me there; push me right over that sweet edge. I was practically panting, for goodness sakes! This was so unfair. How was he doing this to me?
