Rise of the Alpha -
Chapter 26
Magnolia
The whole plane ride, I’ve been sick to my stomach. Wylla wanted to accompany me to the airport, but I convinced her it was best for me to go alone, never knowing if someone was watching and reporting. My paranoia is on overload today.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are beginning our descent. Please, put your seats back in the full upright position and fasten your seat belts. We want to thank you for flying with Maltan Airlines today.” The airline attendant’s voice rings out through the cabin of the plane from where she stands with the intercom in hand.
F**k, I feel like I’m going to hurl those pretzels they gave us for the in-flight snack. Doing as directed, I fasten my belt, letting my head fall back against the seat’s headrest, and close my eyes. Taking deep breaths, I try to calm my nerves about seeing my father for the first time since leaving. I was able to cover everything but the nose ring. Wylla would have done a spell but she didn’t want my father or the Alpha to catch a scent of magic on me. Hopefully, he doesn’t flip his lid too badly or demand I take it out. Luckily, he won’t see the others, and they can stay safely intact if I need to remove the septum piercing to appease him. Instead of focusing on what’s to come, I let my mind drift to that k**s with Jude last night, then each of the guys’ and Wylla’s goodbyes to me today. Those memories of them are what’s going to get me through this trip. Thank Goddess, it’s only until Sunday.
After disembarking from the plane, I head straight to baggage claim to get my suitcase, stopping only long enough to use the restroom. I dig my phone out of my purse and power it on. It immediately begins buzzing, alerting me to messages. Opening it, I see a slew of messages from the guys and Wylla telling me how much they miss me and that everything’s going to be okay. They make my heart smile, and I even catch myself cradling my phone against my chest, pretending that it’s them. I make a group chat, including them all, and send them a message that I’m here and okay and I’ll text them later tonight.
I take my time reading their replies, knowing my lollygagging is going to piss my father off. Well, that is until I see his message.
Dad: I’m in a meeting with the Alpha. Get an UBER and head straight to the house. Your mother will be waiting for you. No stopping anywhere else.
Yes, sir! Guess it was too much for his f*****g a*s to come pick me up. Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t. It gives me more time before he sees the new me. Gathering up my suitcase when I see it come around the carousel, I head outside and order an Uber to come pick me up.
Once everything is confirmed, the app informs me that Han will be here in fifteen minutes. I open my texts and send one to the group chat for Mom and Dad, letting them know I’ve arrived and I’m waiting on my ride to get here. According to the app, I should be there in about forty minutes. I wonder if I could get there in wolf form faster, but then I have to worry about people who might see me as well as the struggle of having to carry a suitcase in my mouth. Nope, not happening. I’ll just wait for the ride, plus I’m in no hurry to get home, anyway.
I decide to spend my time doing this jigsaw puzzle app I downloaded as I lean against the column in front of the airport. Wylla suggested it last night to help calm my nerves, giving my brain something to focus on. At the moment, it’s working. Let’s see if it continues to distract and settle my nerves. True to the app’s notification, Han pulls up in front of me in his black 2020 Toyota Camry. He jumps out of the driver’s side, confirming who I am before taking my suitcase and putting it in the trunk. Opening the back passenger door, I slide into the car after thanking him. He’s not bad looking, about five-foot-eight, with shaggy black hair that’s falling into his eyes and dimples in each cheek when he smiles. If I had to guess, I would say he’s in his early twenties and apparently, by the looks he keeps sneaking in the rearview mirror, he likes what he sees. I mentally choke on a laugh, thinking how my guys would react to that. Wait, my guys? Where the hell did that come from?
“So, you from around here?” he casually asks, looking up into the mirror.
“Yeah, just here for the weekend, visiting my family.” I drop my phone in my lap and twiddle my fingers together nervously.
“Oh, do you have plans for the whole weekend? My friend is having a birthday bonfire tomorrow if you’d like to go. I could pick you up; I already got your address.” I wonder if he realizes how stalkerish his words sounded.
“Umm… Thanks, but I’m not sure what my family has planned. So I’d hate to say yes and not be able to,” I say, hoping this stops him from prodding any further.
Coming to a stop at the red light, he picks up his phone and types away. He no sooner returns it to the cradle on the dash, than my phone is pinging with a message. He grins at me mischievously in the mirror as I check the message. It’s f*****g him! What the hell!!
He must see the confusion etched on my face. “The app automatically gives us your number in case we need to message you for any reason. Now you have mine if your plans change, or, if you decide to go, just let me know.” He gives me a wide shit-a*s grin, putting his perfectly straight white teeth on display for me.
“Oh… thanks.” Shocked by his boldness and honestly, a little f*****g creeped out, I don’t know what else to say. He doesn’t smell of wolf, but with my senses not being as strong since I don’t have a designation, it’s harder to be able to detect supernatural beings due to the f*****g blocks on me. I can’t honestly say he’s a hundred percent human. If he is a wolf, my address would give off what pack I belong to.
He tries to make small talk for the rest of the ride, and I only nod or smile, giving short answers. For all I know, this is some kind of test from my father, and there is no way in hell I’m going to fail it. We finally make it to my house, and he pulls into the driveway, puts the car in park, and jumps out, heading to the trunk. I exit, pulling the strap of my purse onto my shoulder, and step to the back of the car, taking my suitcase from his hand.
“So just shoot me a text if you decide to go, or even if you just want to chat.” He winks and rushes back to the driver’s side of his car. I take a deep breath and turn, heading inside the prison I call home.
Opening the door, the house is quiet except for the faint sounds of music playing, coming from the kitchen. “Mom, I’m home,” I call out loudly, so she can hear me, something I wouldn’t have done if I knew my father was here.
I hear her scream of delight and the patter of her feet on the linoleum floor. “Magnolia, darling, I’ve missed you so.” She stops dead in her tracks when she sees me, all the color draining from her face as her eyes go large in fright. “Magnolia, no, you have to take that out right now. Your father will be furious when he sees it.”
“I know, Momma, but I can’t. Don’t worry about it. He probably won’t even notice it. What were you doing in the kitchen? Let me put my suitcase away, and I’ll come help.” I quickly try to change the subject, knowing she’s going to keep fretting over the nose piercing.
I head up the stairs, leaving my mom standing there, wringing the dish towel in her hands. Taking the steps two at a time, I make it to the second floor in no time. Moving swiftly down the hall, I take hold of the door handle to my room. I feel a war raging inside me. This was once my escape, the one place I could be by myself, even though I wasn’t who I wanted to be.
Once I step inside I shut the door behind me, taking a moment to look around, noticing everything is just as I had left it. Even my pillow is still lying askew on my bed. Moving over to my bed, I sit my suitcase down on top of it, deciding to unpack later, or maybe I’ll just live out of it for the weekend so that way I don’t have to repack it on Sunday. Yeah, that sounds like a plan!
What I really want to do is snatch my mom by the hand and run right back out that door and back to school, but I know I need to face the firing squad, and I’d rather have a few moments of quiet time visiting with my mom before he flips his f*****g lid. Heading back downstairs, I come up short, seeing my mom on her hands and knees on the kitchen floor scrubbing it with a f*****g sponge. I clear my throat, so she knows I’m there. “Got an extra sponge so I can help you?”
She smiles sweetly at me. “I’ve got this, but if you want to take out the trash, I’d appreciate it. I’m almost done here, anyway.”
“Okay.” I pull the bag out, tie it in a knot, and quickly replace it with a new one before heading outside.
I take a little longer, wanting to prolong having to step back into the house that sucks the life out of me. Opening the door, I hear my mom talking. She must be on the phone because I don’t hear another voice. “Yes, Alpha. I’ll do it now. Goodbye.” That’s all I catch of the actual conversation before she’s hanging up the phone.
“Who was that?” I ask, startling her. She turns to face me, and I see she’s ghost white.
“It was Alpha Johnson. He wants you at his office right away. Magnolia, baby, please take out the nose piercing. I’m begging you.” Tears begin to roll down her face, and if I was still that girl who left here just a couple of weeks ago, I would, but I’m stronger, and I refuse to go back to that person.
“It will be fine, Mom. Let me go. I don’t want to keep him waiting. Can I borrow the keys to your car, or do I need to ride my bicycle?”
“Magnolia, you know I can only use the car to run errands for your father and the home, nothing else,” she tells me like I don’t know.
“Yeah, but Alpha Johnson wants to see me, and I really don’t think he wants to be kept waiting. If they say anything, I’ll say I took the keys without you knowing.” She just stares at me for a minute before she walks over to where her purse is hanging on the hook and pulls her keys out, handing them to me.
“Please, Magnolia, take it out. Don’t bring their wrath down upon you,” she pleads with me. I know she cares for me. But I just wish she would find her own backbone, like Wylla and the guys are helping me find.
“It will be fine. I love you, but I need to go. We don’t want to keep him waiting.” I give her a smile as I turn and head out of the house.
The Alpha’s office is maybe twenty-five minutes from my house, but I take the long way, even stopping to fill Mom’s tank, so it ends up taking me a good forty minutes to get there.
Pulling into a vacant spot, I turn the car off and sit there for a moment, gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turn white as I build up the nerve to step inside. I know once I do, all hell’s going to break loose.
Exiting the car, I stand tall, pull my shoulders back, and head inside. Of course, being who he is, the Alpha’s office is on the top floor, so I head for the elevator. Once the doors open, I allow the people inside to step off, their lingering gazes and shocked faces when they see me almost break through the tough exterior I’ve built up around me. I won’t let them get to me. Keeping my face blank, I step inside and push the button for the top floor. I don’t worry about anyone getting off with me since his office is the only one on the floor.
The elevator dings and I take a deep breath, stepping off the elevator and making my way over to his receptionist’s desk. She’s a Beta, a busty one at that. Hell, her tits are popping out of the very low-cut tight shirt she’s wearing. She glares at me as I step up to her desk. “Magnolia Holloway, Alpha Johnson requested my presence.” She just leers at me as she gets an evil glint in her eyes as they slowly travel the length of my body.
She picks up her phone and hits a button. I hear someone’s muffled voice on the other end before she speaks. “Sorry for the intrusion, sir. There’s a Maolia Holloway here for you.”
“Magnolia,” I angrily growl at the cunt.
“My apologies, Sir, Magnolia. She didn’t speak clearly. It may be due to the hideous thing she has hanging from her nose, interfering with her speech.” She smiles wickedly at me as I hear a growl over the line before she hangs up.
Before she can say anything else, the door behind me flies open and heavy steps come pounding up behind me before I’m yanked backward by my hair. I’m dragged into the Alpha’s office, barely able to keep my body upright, and tossed down in a chair. My father stands angrily before me, as he glares at me. “What the f**k have you done to your face? It’s disgusting. You look like a f*****g whore with that shit in your nose,” my father spits out vilely to me.
I’m so distracted by my father I don’t even notice the person who steps up beside the chair until his fingers are trailing down the side of my face, allowing his fingers to flip my nose ring when he reaches it. “I don’t know, Beta Holloway, I find it sexy as hell. There’s just something about a bitch who doesn’t conform to the rules. It makes breaking them down to obedient little women that much sweeter. My c**k’s already hard thinking about it and all the dirty things I want to do to this body. Seems college life has been good to her. She’s filled out a little, nothing better than a bitch with some meat to grab onto while I’m ramming my d**k into her greedy a*s cunt,” Reid, the Alpha heir’s Beta croons. I want to vomit at his words.
I can’t f*****g mate with him; he’s psychotic. Wylla needs to come up with a plan to get these blocks off me, so I can get far away from this pack. Even if I have to leave them behind and go somewhere on my own where no one knows me.
“Reid, chill. We don’t want to scare our little mate before the bonding ceremony now, do we? Imagine how fun it’s going to be to break a f*****g virgin in, in front of the others.” I shoot my eyes to Max, the Alpha heir. What the hell is he talking about?
The Alpha, my father, Max, and Reid all start laughing outlandishly. The only one not seeming to take glee in my distress, though he’s good at covering it, is Jeremiah, my other intended mate. His face has a hardened look to it, void of emotion except for his eyes which are full of compassion.
“Oh, you didn’t know? Since you are to be mated to the Alpha heir, our bond will be completed in front of every male in the pack. It shows you belong to us and no one else is to touch you. So make sure you don’t gain any more weight. Reid may like them on the chunky side, but I don’t,” he whispers into my ear, leaning down. “If there are any other piercings on your body, I’m going to take great pleasure in ripping them out.”
I’m fuming, but I can’t show it. I keep my eyes down and sit there since I haven’t been excused as my father and the Alpha discuss the union between me and the three men in the room, laughing about memories of breaking in their own women.
I don’t look, but I know there are three sets of eyes burning a hole through me, my intended mates. It seems like forever, but the Alpha finally speaks to me.
“Magnolia. I strongly suggest you clean your act up and get rid of that disgusting jewelry on your face. You are to be the mate of the next Alpha of this pack, and you need to represent yourself as such. At the moment, you look like a trashy whore. There were stipulations to you attending school off pack lands, and at the moment, you are not living up to them.”
“But Alpha Johnson I am…” I start to say but I’m quickly cut off as Max, places his hands on my shoulders, digging his nails into my skin as his father starts to speak.
“Since when are you permitted to speak without permission? This is the unacceptable behavior you are learning at that school. Which brings me to why I called you here today to begin with. I have learned you’ve made adjustments to your schedule. You will correct it back to the way it was and if this rebelliousness continues, you will return and never leave again. Samuel, get her home, and I expect you to get better control of your daughter.” His voice is dark and powerful, sending waves of fear coursing through my body.
My father nods in reply, yanking me so hard by my arm it feels as if he is going to rip it off, as he drags me from the room in silence.
This isn’t going to be f*****g good for me!
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