Rise of the Alpha
Chapter 9

Magnolia

I’m just dozing off when I hear the dinging of the elevator doors as they open. Lifting my head and glancing to the right, I see Wylla stepping out. Her eyes are down-turned as she bites her l*p. She still hasn’t noticed me as she turns and makes her way to our room. I just sit here, my throat tight, afraid to make a sound. I don’t know why, other than she probably thinks I’m a fool from the way I acted earlier.

It doesn’t help that whenever I’m around this goddess of a woman, I can’t f*****g think straight. In my head, I can be big and bad, expressing how I feel. But that’s the thing, I could never be that way at home; I had to suppress my emotions and be the dutiful daughter who follows all the rules. In other words, be meek and not be heard. I don’t want to be that way anymore. I want the powerful person inside of me to be set free.

She takes a moment to look up, her eyes laser-focused on me. “What the f**k are you doing out here?” she whispers-shouts at me, no doubt trying not to wake anyone who may be in their rooms.

Standing slowly, I look at her and let out a laugh. “Well, let’s see, you have the room key and I don’t know how to pick locks. So the hallway it was. I haven’t been here too long, maybe thirty minutes or so. What are you doing here? I thought you’d still be with the neighbor.” She moves to the door, pulls the key from her pocket, and places it in the lock, opening it.

“Bish, please. You’re my girl. Chicks before dicks,” comes from her with a wink as she steps inside the room.

“Aww, I feel so loved,” I tell her, placing my hand over my heart in fake adoration.

“You are,” Wylla says so softly, if not for my wolf’s hearing, I never would have heard it.

This woman has me so confused with her comments. It’s bad enough I don’t even know how to process what I’m feeling for all these people I’ve met today. F**k, is it possible to be drawn to different people, so intensely you want all of them with every fiber of your being?

I close the door behind me as I step inside the room. Turning around, I catch Wylla mid-change. Her bare back is to me. Her shorts drop to the floor as she stands there in her fuschia-colored thong. She has her juicy a*s on full display for me. I bite down on my l*p, needing to hold back the g***n that wants to escape my mouth.

She turns around as she slips her nightgown over her head, exposing her rose-colored nipples that had been covered by her clothing. After a minute I look up and catch her staring at me with curiosity filling her eyes. F**k, did she catch me staring? Is she upset about it? Does she hate me? She’s gonna want a new roommate.

So many thoughts are racing through my mind that I can’t focus on one long enough to plan an answer.

“Magz, are you okay? Is the shit that happened earlier still bothering you?”

“Umm…” I stammer out, not sure what to say or how she’ll react.

“No! Stop right da f**k there,” she orders, stomping her foot on the ground before making her way over to me, taking my hand in hers, leading me over to her bed, and sitting me down.

F**k, her hands are so f*****g soft, and when she touches me, I swear it feels like a heat wave rolling across my skin.

“Now spill it, or I’m gonna make you.”

“F**k, I don’t even know how to start. It’s just that everything has been so much. New place, new people. Meeting that wolf who says he’s my mate, and as much as I hate it, my wolf felt the pull to him and he’s so f*****g hot. Then there’s this mystery guy I ran into by the bathroom and there’s a pull to him. Then, when I was dancing with you and the hot guy upstairs, all I could think about was being between the two of you as we made out. F**k, how can I be attracted to you and them? And now all I’m worried about is how this is going to affect us.” Looking over at Wylla, I see her frozen with a blank expression on her face.

“You were worried about how this would affect me and you. You’re attracted to me and them?” Her voice is husky as she speaks and scoots closer to me.

The impact of her question comes barreling into me like a wrecking ball. See, this is what I get for opening my mouth when I’m so emotionally overwhelmed.

“Oh my goddess, Wylla. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have word vomited that out to you. It’s just I know you don’t feel the same way. I heard how you were talking about Jude and the way you two were tonight; I could tell there’s tension between the two of you.” She just stares at me. Nothing, not a word or even a noise comes out of her. F**k, I’ve ruined this friendship before it flourished.

She scoots even closer to me, our thighs now grazing each other as she angles her body toward me. She reaches up, takes the strands of hair that have fallen into my face, and pushes them behind my ear before placing her hand on the side of my head, pulling me into her as she places her lips on mine and k****s me softly. Her tongue dances along the seam of my lips, begging for me to open them, which I do. She deepens the k**s as her tongue caresses mine.

My hand instinctively moves up, cradling the side of her face as we continue to k**s like we are starved for each other until she slowly pulls away. She moves her hand down the side of my face so that she can glide the pad of her thumb over my lips.

“Does that feel like I don’t feel the same? I’ve been attracted to you since the moment you stepped into this room.”

I’m awestruck. She leans back into me, wrapping her arms around me as she gives me a passionate k**s. My arms go around her, and we fall back onto the bed. I can’t get over how amazing she feels in my arms and how great she tastes.

I’m so lost in her mango scent. My legs wrap around her as she moves on top of me in between my thighs. Her hand moves down, cupping my tit, and I’m immediately rocketed back to reality and what’s happening between us.

I push her away and jump up from the bed. Hurt is written all over Wylla’s face at my abrupt change in behavior, and my heart and my wolf both want me to run back to her. But I fight them both. This can’t go further. My father would never approve of it. Gosh dammit, I need to shake this daddy won’t like it shit.

“I’m so sorry, Wylla. I shouldn’t have. I need to go run.” It’s all I can manage to get out before I turn, running across the room to the door, grabbing the handle, and rushing out. Never once looking back because the hurt I saw on her face at my rejection will be forever etched in my memory.

I race past the elevator, straight for the stairs, and rush down them. The only thought running through my mind is how my stupid emotions have f****d up everything. Pushing open the door, I run into the night, straight to the woods. Tossing my head over my shoulder, I look back, but no one follows, and I’m struck with both happiness and sadness for it. I make my way deeper into the woods until I find a tree with an opening in the trunk’s bottom small enough to hide my clothes that I was still wearing from the party tonight before I shift, allowing my wolf to take over.

We run for hours as I replay all the events that happened since I left home this morning over and over in my head. My wolf whines for me to quit being a bitch and shut up. Begging to be with her mates, and hoping that what my father doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Mates! What the hell is this crazy wolf of mine talking about? We have one mate. One that we can’t even be with as it breaks all our pack rules.

My wolf runs until she is exhausted, finally finding a large pile of leaves by the base of a tree and curling up in them. We lay there, exhausted as sleep overtakes us, and I dream of the three men I’ve met here and my gorgeous roommate.

Waking with the bright sun beaming down on me, I realize I’m still in my wolf form. I know I need to get back to my room and deal with the fallout from last night. My wolf, the f*****g bitch, is perfectly content to lie here in the pile of leaves and bask in the sun’s warmth. She never cared for the pack rules and longed to be free of them, so she sees this as the perfect opportunity to do it.

“We need to head back now!”I command her.

“To be with mates?”

“No, we can’t be with him. Father would never allow it. If he caught wind of it, he’d have us on the first plane back to him, and we’d never be allowed to leave pack lands again.”

She lets out a low growl of defiance, but slowly complies, getting up onto all four legs and leaning back, so her front paws are extended out as she stretches. Finally, feeling loose, she takes off at a slow pace back to the tree that houses our clothing.

What must be about forty minutes later, we reach the tree. F**k, I didn’t realize we’d run that far. Releasing her control, I call forth the shift. For me, the transition never hurt the way others described it. To me, it was an enjoyable change, almost euphoric, a special bond shared between me and my wolf.

I take my time walking back to my dorm. When I ran last night, I didn’t take the time to put shoes back on, so my feet are now riddled with tiny cuts as I step on the twigs and branches. They’re irritating as f**k, but once I shift, they’ll be healed. So the minor burning tingle they have right now is just that, an annoyance.

As I walk, I decide to turn my phone back on, and I’m shockingly surprised when it pings with notifications. There are over ten voicemails and twenty texts all from Wylla, worrying about me. Needing to know if I was okay. Apologizing if she was too forward.

Could this woman be any better? F**k me for being born into the Exodus Pack.

I ran out of the room like a raving lunatic, and she was worried about me. Allowing my fingers to fly across the screen, I shoot a text out to her.

Me: I’m fine, shifted, ran, and fell asleep. Coming up to the dorms now.

I’ve barely sent the text when I see tiny little bubbles popping up by her name, letting me know she’s replying.

Wylla: Thank f**k! My a*s has worried non-stop about you all night. We need to talk. I’m at the library right now looking into that matter we talked about. I’ll message when I’m done.

Wylla: I’m sorry too if I came on to hard for you and you’re not ready for it. If you have second thoughts, not interested, just know I’m here for you. I’d rather have you as a friend than not at all.

I move my fingers to type a message, then erase it, over and over, as I walk across the grounds between the woods and the building. I want to say so much, but the words aren’t right. My heart and my head are disputing what the other wants, or feels, is right.

I’m so lost in my own ramblings with my eyes on my phone I’m not aware of my surroundings and for the second time in less than twelve hours, I run into a brick wall.

One that smells of musky citrus. Looking up, I see him, the guy from the bathroom, the deliciously hot jerk.

“Oh… it’s you again. I’m so sorry for the second time, I’m not watching where I’m going.” A light giggle comes from me like a silly little schoolgirl.

He just looks at me, his chocolate eyes scanning the length of my body from top to bottom, stopping at my bare feet.

“Where are your shoes?” comes gruffly from him, but it’s mixed with what sounds like concern.

“Oh, I… well… ummm, I ran out of the building last night and forgot them, I guess,” I confess, not knowing why I feel this overwhelming need to tell him everything.

He reaches out, taking my hair and skimming it behind my ear before quickly pulling his hand away. “You should be careful; you could’ve cut them by stepping on something.”

I’m drawn back to those eyes, ones that look so familiar to me, more than just being on the man I’m lusting over.

“Umm… I’m okay, just a few scratches on the bottom. They’ll heal.” Why the hell am I so nervous around him? “About last night, I really am sorry for running into you like that.”

He looks at me, stunned, his dark hair falling over his eyes. Ones that I don’t want to be covered.

“I should apologize for acting like a d**k. I… It’s not an excuse, but I have a lot on my mind. Shit I need to figure out.”

He tilts his head down, and I don’t know what comes over me, but I reach out, hesitantly pushing the hair out of his eyes. He pulls away, which causes me to jump. F**k, he’s pissed. I shouldn’t have touched him.

“Sorry, it’s just you look so familiar like I know you, but I know I don’t. Your eyes…” I don’t even get to finish what I’m saying before he’s cutting me off.

“Sorry, I got to go,” he takes off in a sprint around the building.

My heart plummets because I feel like a piece of me has been ripped away. What is it about him that seems so familiar? Those eyes are all I can think about.

Looking up to make sure no one is in my path, I climb up the steps to the back door of the dorms, open it, and step inside. It’s only when I get upstairs, I f*****g realize I don’t have my key yet again. I go to message Wylla but notice there is a message from her I haven’t read.

Wylla: I know you didn’t take the key when you left last night, so I left the door unlocked.

She is truly an angel because I didn’t want to go back down those stairs, praying that by chance someone was at the front desk. Opening our door, I step inside, walk over to the desk by my bed and grab my shower caddy, towel, and robe. I stink and desperately need a shower. I stop only long enough to grab my key off my nightstand before heading down to the communal bathrooms.