Page 1 of Alpha
CHAPTER ONE
Scarlett
I swung my fist toward my opponent’s face, but he ducked out of the way at the last moment. Sweat beaded my forehead. I raised my tightened fist, ready to deflect a blow as I stepped backward.
I didn’t watch his fists. I was taught to watch my opponent’s eyes to be able to anticipate their next move.
“Too slow, Scarlett,” my opponent teased with a challenge. I would make him eat that comment soon.
For a few moments I watched him carefully, studying his eyes, which flickered to his right, betraying his next move. This time I had more than enough time to move out of the way and attack with a well-placed kick to his side. My kick wasn’t hard enough to incapacitate him, but I heard a grunt of pain.
“Did that hurt?” I teased as I bounced lightly on my feet a safe distance away from him.
Instead of some cocky reply, he glared at me and I grinned.
His eyes narrowed as he planned his next line of attack and I watched him carefully as I anticipated his next move. Like before, his eyes flickered to the left and I ducked out of the way as his fist swung for my face. I stepped closer and landed a punch to his abdomen. The grimace on his face told me it had hurt.
“Now who is the slow one?” I teased.
If you compared my five-foot-seven lean frame to my opponent’s six-foot muscular build, you would think I’d be at a disadvantage, but I wasn’t. At the age of sixteen, I’d started to develop heightened senses and, along with that, my physical strength had also increased.
The changes had been subtle at first and as time passed they’d become stronger and stronger.
I got in a few more hits before my opponent threw up his hands in defeat.
“I’m done,” said Gary as he bent down and reached for a towel next to the gym mat. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with it.
“You’re showing your age,” I teased as I reached for a bottle of water beside the gym mat we were sparring on and took a couple of gulps from it.
He glared at me because of the reference to his age. He was no spring chicken, but at the age of thirty-seven, he didn’t consider himself old. To my seventeen years, he wasn’t exactly young.
He’d been my father’s best friend and I’d known him my whole life. After my parents died when I was ten, Gary had become my legal guardian. To me, he’d been the unofficial uncle who had become my only family. He loved me like a daughter and I loved him like a father.
At the age of sixteen, I’d made the decision to get emancipated. Gary had understood my need for independence and my wish to control my own affairs. When I’d sat him down and explained to him what I wanted to do, he hadn’t been surprised. In fact, he’d supported the idea.
Although I was now considered an adult and able to make my own decisions, Gary had remained an important part of my life. He was family—the only family I had.
“Come on, there are some boxes with your name on it,” said Gary as he turned to leave the gym. I followed him, wanting to do anything but unpack boxes. It was such a tedious task.
“I don’t want to,” I whined like a five-year-old. He shot me a warning look and I glared back at him playfully.
“The moving company unpacked everything, except your personal boxes,” he informed me as he left the gym and walked upstairs to the reception and the entrance of the house.
My house was quite big. I’d resorted to naming the lounges according to their use: game lounge, casual lounge, formal lounge and the upstairs lounge.
The house also had a gym with an indoor heated pool. It had its own tennis court and a huge landscaped garden. I had enough staff to run the house, though I rarely used the driver because I enjoyed driving.
“Has my new car been delivered yet?” I asked as I followed him up the stairs to the first floor.
“Not yet.” He turned to smile at me. I’d been driving him nuts, asking about the new car.
I returned his smile with a cheeky one.
“Go unpack some of your boxes and I’ll see you downstairs for lunch in an hour,” he instructed as he turned to the left into the hallway to his bedroom.
“See you in an hour,” I replied as I took a right and followed the hallway down past some of the guest bedrooms until I got to my bedroom, which was the main bedroom of the house. I opened the double doors.
I loved my new room. I’d hired someone to help me with the decorating and she’d really done a good job. I loved the colors purple and blue so my whole room, which was the size of two bedrooms, was decorated in those colors.
