Page 7 of Cruel Alpha Beast
I turn my head and see two older men near my father’s age pushing each other’s shoulders as they argue on the other side of the street. Bruce’s long, graying beard shakes in anger. Jerry’s receding hairline reveals a throbbing vein in his forehead. Things are going to get really bad if I don’t step in.
“Hey!” I call out, running across the street. “Both of you, calm down.”
But neither of the two men does. They merely keep pushing each other, and I fear their fists are going to come out soon.
“Listen to me!” I hiss, coming to stand between them. “I will lock you both up in the hall’s basement if you don’t stop this bullshit right now.”
With my hands grasping the front of each of their shirts and my words sinking in, they both gradually calm down. Bruce returns to his kinder self, spending his Friday afternoons reading to our small children in the library. And Jerry, the kind of cook who says the secret ingredient in all of his dishes is love, looks down at his shoes.
“I don’t know what came over me,” he mumbles. “I do chew gum. I didn’t even know the gum wrapper fell from my pocket. I should have just picked it up when you told me.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Bruce says, swatting a hand. “I was a real dickhead about it. I should have been nicer.”
“Much better.” I sigh and let go of their shirts.
“Sorry, Sawyer,” Bruce murmurs. “Things got too heated between us. We didn’t handle this like we should have.”
I eye both of them carefully and step out from between them. “It’s fine. Just don’t let it happen again. Things have been tough, but we’ve gotta stick together.”
“It won’t happen again,” Jerry assures me. “I don’t like seeing that side of myself.”
“Me either.” Bruce shivers, then looks back at Jerry with guilt in his eyes. “And, uh, your wife isn’t coming onto me. I just said that to… Well, all I wanted to do was hurt your feelings for a second there.”
“My breath smells fine?” Jerry asks in a wounded voice.
Bruce pats his shoulder. “Your breath smells fine, buddy.”
Taking a deep breath, I carry on back toward the meeting hall. That’s the third argument I’ve had to break up in the last two weeks, and I don’t think it’s going to stop any time soon.
I find the hall seated directly between the three towns that make up our valley. The oldest building of all, it stands high, somewhat foreboding, even in times of peace. I open the front doors and step inside.
The lobby is dimly lit, but I can still see the framed photographs and portraits hanging on the walls. Old pictures of alphas in our valley’s history. A family tree of sorts, for Jasper, Ellis, and me. My father, my grandfather, and their fathers all stare back at me from the eastern wall.
There’s no denying it; I was groomed for this position my whole life. My father started preparing me for leadership before I could even confidently read, and I loved it. My father, Lucas, is my hero, and always has been.
Still, he never had to deal with any of the problems cropping up for me.
I find my great-grandfather’s picture, seeing his warm smile coming through the picture. He was old for the short time I knew him, but that smile never faded. I don’t remember much else of him, other than the fact that he gave the most loving hugs. And he used to say this one line that has stuck with me ever since he died.
“When the willow is afire, wash it down with your desire.”
To this day, I’ve never figured out what that saying means. He promised to tell me one day. A week later, he died in his sleep. I’ve even asked my father, but he has no idea either. Our only clue lies in a faded tapestry hanging in the middle of the wall across from the front door.
I know I should turn right and climb the stairs up to our meeting room, but much like that one spot on the outskirts of town, my feet drag me to the tapestry. The pull is even stronger; I’ve felt it my whole life.
Sitting over a dark teal background is an image of a large willow tree with huge bulbs of orange fire illuminating its drooping branches, smoke pluming behind. Beside the tree is a naked human woman with flowing dark hair. Facing her, standing on its hind legs, is a brown wolf. Behind both the woman and the wolf, a large wave of water crests toward the tree.
I remember asking my mother about the tapestry, but she always shielded my eyes from the images—looking back, she must have thought I was curious about the woman’s body, but her shapely figure never drew my attention until I started sprouting hair under my arms.
My father was equally unhelpful. And the older I got, the more he would sigh and tell me that my great-grandfather must have been losing his mind. The saying was just the ramblings of a senile old man. I have my doubts about that, though. I just think my dad is embarrassed that he has no idea what his grandfather was talking about in the first place.
I take in the tapestry’s details for just a moment longer, waiting until I hear another buzz from my phone. I glance down at the screen and find a text from Jasper, asking me what’s taking so long. Typing quickly, I say I’ll be right up and leave the tapestry in my wake.
The stairway smells as musty as ever, but it’s never felt like a priority to fix. It’s always fallen on the wayside—“We can deal with that later. Let’s just have another beer.”The fluorescent lights above flicker every twenty seconds, another chore that has yet to be completed.
With everything going on in the valley, it feels like we’ll never have time to fix this dingy room.
I push open the door that leads to a long hallway. Many rooms lie abandoned; once areas where betas would train, and where omegas would compile or research old forgotten histories. Now, the only room whose lights regularly turn on is the large, expansive one that takes up half of the floor. I step through the open doors and find Jasper kicking his feet up on the long meeting table. A few seats down from him, Ellis cleans the dirt from under his fingernails with a multipurpose knife.
