Page 9 of Wilde Beta

“I don't do any of those things," Adam admitted.

“That makes it hard to explain what I do," Mel offered. “That also shows me how very different we are.”

“I can learn just as you are going to have to learn how to get along in my world," Adam explained. “Now, I need to teach you more about defending yourself. Using the elements of surprise as you did on me yesterday is good. But once they see what you can do, they will be more careful when they come after you and may even use helpers to come at you from all sides. That will be hard to overcome. You will need to learn ways to hit them where it hurts. That is what I will try to teach you. It is about doing things they don't think you can. You will use their size against them.”

He began to show her what she could do when attacked by someone larger. She could use their weight and gravity against them, and they would fly, possibly even into others attacking her. They didn't have that long to learn, so she needed things that could be quickly learned and used against the larger attackers. Adam continued showing her different ways to take down anyone who opposed her. Over and over, he worked with her to show her what to do. By the time they quit to go to supper, she was exhausted.

Mel felt more confident in her ability to take on someone that was trying to kidnap her. She also thought she could hide if she got a big enough head start on them. Coming here was the right thing to do. Tomorrow, Adam would work with her again. She was sure he would teach her as aggressively as he had today. When Damon suggested joining a group to learn self-defense, she should have done it. She hoped the fact that she hadn't wouldn't be the reason someone could capture her.

While she had found the day exhausting, she couldn't deny that she had enjoyed working with Adam, and every once in a while, she had gotten in a hit on him. The look on his face when she had was something she could laugh about. Tomorrow, she intended to take a break to finish some office work. The schedule she and Janie had discussed was one day of office work and one day of training. Training every other day would be enough. She would remember what she was learning. It would help her build her muscles and get in better shape.

She hoped the alpha's mercenaries wouldn't find her, but she wasn't naive. They probably would. That was why she was preparing in every way that she could. She even had a gun in her room in case they found her and entered her room. As many white wolves were, she was a crack shot, and she would not hesitate once she was sure that whoever entered her room did not belong there. Mel followed Adam to supper, and the scent was amazing. It was Italian night. There were several marvelous pasta dishes and even pizza, a rare find in the area.

She took a bit of every pasta dish and got two pieces of her favorite pizza. Then she grabbed a breadstick and a small slice of Italian cream cake. Mel intended to eat every bite and enjoy it. The meal was almost worth all the exercise she had done. The exercise might even work off all the calories in this marvelous meal.

“See, our cook is as good as Joey’s, maybe even better, depending on what she's like," Janie observed.

“My compliments to the chef. This meal is outstanding," Mel said, taking another bite. “I'm probably going to gain weight.”

“Wolves rarely do," Trev observed.

“You won't after the workout we did," Adam added.

He was probably right. Mel's wolf yipped in agreement. Mel was slowly getting used to having that wolf inside her. It was weird to have a voice inside that she didn't recognize. Her wolf had been good, mostly. She'd not interfered much like she'd heard some other wolves had. Mel looked at her more like a friend, and her wolf gave her advice from time to time. Adam had told her she didn’t act like a wolf. How did a wolf act? For that matter, how did a mate act? From what she had seen from her cousins, she wasn't sure exactly what a mate was. They had told her it was like a husband and wife and yet different. She wasn't sure how it was different. Some had told her it was like a soul mate, but she had never seen anyone who had a soul mate. It was only recently that she had seen her cousins become mates.

Mel finished eating, cleaned her space, and took her plates to a bin for cleaning. It was time for her to do some work. Advertising appealed to her. It was mainly verbal, but Mel was also an artist. She could draw or paint and also do graphics. Her job was often double-checking and ensuring others' work was as good as possible. Joey had told her she was very skilled, but she didn't believe in herself.

Mel worked on some of their jobs because there were certain things she could do better than most. She liked to make cartoons, and sometimes, they made perfect ads.

Doing those could be fun and relaxing, especially when she did funny ones. Couldn't everybody use a good laugh? Mel knew she could, and it helped relax her. Joey had recently had her do a whole ad for a child's toy. It turned out very well. She had gotten the big bonus, which she had squirreled away in her savings account for a rainy day. Her savings account was significant because she was careful about spending her money. Her house in Chicago was rented, and she had let it go when she moved in with Joey in Wilde. She'd been living there quite a while and hadn't had to pay any rent or utilities. That only gave her more money to save. Eventually, she planned to buy a house. With all this mate stuff happening, it was good she hadn't purchased a home. Who knew where she might end up?

Mel wasn't even sure who she might end up with. Adam seemed all right, but was that a good enough reason to mate with him? That was hard to say, and she would keep her options open because that was what she usually did. Hopefully, no one would try to take those options away from her. If they did, she would fight with everything in her, and they would know exactly how unhappy she was.

Chapter 3

Who is Adam?

"Just be yourself," Trev said.

What kind of advice was that? He'd been a pack alpha, but now he wasn't. So, who was he? His father had abandoned him, and his mother had been so stricken with grief that she had faded away and abandoned him, too. While it was true that he had been an adult, that had still hurt, and he didn't believe he would ever get over it. The only one he had left was his grandpa, who blamed him for his father leaving. He also clung to his position as pack alpha even though the pack was spiraling from his poor decisions and the health problems that interfered with him being the strong alpha they needed.

His grandpa's biggest concern was preventing anyone from taking his position. While he had mental issues, his ability to fight had never diminished, and Adam knew that if he tried to take him on, his grandfather would kill him. It didn't matter because once he had taken over the pack, he had made poor and selfish decisions that had caused them to spiral even lower. Even though bad things happened in their area and a powerful pack had stripped them bit by bit of people and land, that did not absolve him of his mistakes. Just be yourself? Why would anyone want him after all he had done?

Mel, his fated mate, must have been born under an unlucky star to end up with him. She'd even been able to take him down when he was trying to train her to fight. His fighting skills were not on par with those of his brothers. His father had begun to train him, or he would have no fighting skills because his grandfather refused to let him learn anything. He had not taught him to fight, and he'd not taught him to be a pack alpha, even though he was the only one available to take over if he died. Gramps had died unexpectedly. Many assumed it was poisoning, but Adam had not done it, and he didn't know anyone brave enough to try.

His grandpa's illness was previously unknown to wolves, but it had become more common in pack alphas in recent years. It differed from the one caused by inbreeding. This one resembled Alzheimer's in humans. The wardens had come, secured his grandfather's body, and taken it to a lab for testing. They found no signs of poisoning. It didn't mean it hadn't happened, only that none of the common poisons were used. If someone had poisoned his Gramps, they would have been disappointed when he became pack alpha because he had been even worse. Many had hoped his grandpa would die because they thought things couldn't get worse, but he had shown them that wasn't true.

He was learning now–not only to fight but also to run a pack properly. Adam didn't understand why his brothers would teach him this. Wasn't this something that he could use against them later? Were they thinking he would never be good enough to overcome them, or were they telling him they trusted him? If it was trust, how could they be so sure? With his past, he wasn't used to anyone trusting him and wasn't sure he could trust anyone in return. Adam hoped their trust was not misplaced.

He had learned much about family, which differed from what he had learned growing up. Adam knew his father had been disappointed because his mother had not given him more children. Now, he knew it hadn't made any real difference. It just delayed him leaving, but he would have gone anyway. How could he do what he did? He'd had many children with many women but had always left them behind. No, that wasn't true. He had taken one of Naqi’s brothers with him, but only because the boy looked so much like him. Did he love himself so much that only a mirror image was worth his time? Adam was sure that they would never know.

Was it his past that made him unattractive to Mel? Was this something he could overcome if he tried hard enough? It was breakfast time, and he needed to stop worrying about something he could do nothing about. Adam knew it was almost time to eat and that he and Mel would train and help her learn to protect herself afterward.

“Hey, come sit over here," Janie yelled as he filled his plate.

Hurrying over, he sat between Mel and Janie. Mel didn't say anything, and that was an improvement from before when he sat by her. Maybe she was getting used to him? Eventually, she would have to, wouldn't she? He was sure that she was warming up to him. The issue was that it was slow, and he was not a patient male. They finished their meal, and everyone began to head in the direction they needed to go. Mel and he went downstairs to the room where they usually trained. First, they warmed up. It was too soon to see if she had built up any strength, but Adam knew she would if she kept up with the program. Once she had done what he required, it was time to train in self-defense. That's what she would do first. He would also consider teaching her offensive moves when she got good at that.

It was true that most females did not want to fight. That didn't mean that his mate might not want to. She obviously liked to spar verbally and was very good at it. His mate could have a sharp tongue at times. It was something he had struggled to get used to. Neither Joey nor Janie was like that. Someone said most white wolves were sweet and charming. He'd only met three, so he wondered if that was true. Adam might not ever meet anymore, but he would like to. If Mel agreed to become his mate, he might be able to meet many of her family. She met all of his family he had any contact with. His mother's family line had ended except for him. His father seemed to have more children than he knew what to do with, but he didn't care for them. All he cared about was creating more children with different females.

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