Page 1 of The Alpha: Part One
Chapter one
TheAlphaPartOnebegins roughly two-ish years after the conclusion of The Beta Part Three
Desie
The dress spread across the foot of my bed is beautiful. It's a deep emerald green that's going to look so perfect on me, and the cut is going to hug and accentuate everything in the best possible way. I bought the dress a year ago in anticipation of this night, and now that it's here I don't want to put it on. I want to take it outside and set it on fire. Today was supposed to be exciting. Happy. I'm far from happy, though. I want to run as far as I can, as fast as I can.
My brothers have been too patient with me and my unique situation for me to run away. I could never do that to them, or to myself. I'll be at that meet and greet Omega Mixer tonight regardless of the misery it brings me. No matter the heartbreak. I've put it off long enough. I just hope the twins don't come. It will be so much worse if they're there watching. I was supposed to be theirs, but tonight will officially take me away from them. And take them away from me. I'm so, so angry. I'm angry with my brothers for forcing this on me, with the council for their heartless rules, and especially with my boys. Michael and Benny have had years,years, to find a third, but they haven't. And now I have to pay for it. That isn't entirely fair, they're going to be as miserable and wretched as I'm going to be. But they don't have to give themselves over to a pack of strangers they don't want. That's all me.
"It's just a dress, Desir'ee," my oldest brother says, walking into my room uninvited and sitting at my desk. "It's gorgeous, like you. You're going to look like a dream. Everyone there is going to be drooling over you."
I know Mateo isn't trying to be hurtful. He's only trying to be sweet and encouraging like he always is when things are hard for me. He’s been taking care of me since we lost our parents when I was a little girl and he always tries to show me the silver lining of things. He knows exactly how much I hate this, but he's just as trapped in the situation as I am. I can't smile at his compliment, though. I don't want anyone drooling over me. I don't want anyone looking at me at all. "Did you tell Benny and Michael not to come?"
Mateo sighs. "I've been telling them to leave you alone for years, mijita. They don't give a shit. You know that. Didyoutell them not to come?"
I shake my head. "I can't talk to them. Not today. It would hurt too much."
He gets up and comes to wrap his arms around me. Any other time a big hug from my brother would be such a comfort, but today it feels like nothing. "I'm so sorry this has to happen, Desir'ee. It isn't fair. I know it isn't. But you need to be with a good pack. A strong pack. A pack that can give you everything you need and all the things you want. If you don't go to the meets and find a pack in the next few months, the council will put you on the registry and then you won't get to choose. We've done everything we can to give you more time, but we're out of options now."
Just the mention of the West Coast Council and the rule of three alphas makes me simmer. The rule has been in place since I was a very little girl. Whatever the council was trying to accomplish when they instituted it couldn’t possibly be worth the situation it puts alphas like Ben and Michael in. Other territories don’t have the rule.
"Why couldn't they have just found a third?" I've been crying since last night, and my voice is thick with the tears I've been fighting all morning.
Mateo kisses the top of my head. "It's not as easy as just finding someone, mijita. It has to be right. It has to feel right."
I pull away from my brother's embrace and stomp to my window. "So, now we all suffer for it. Me most of all."
"They're going to suffer plenty, trust me. Seeing you with another pack is going to be fucking awful for them. I don't say that for you to feel bad or guilty. It's just how it is. If they had just left you alone this wouldn't have to hurt so much. They should have put distance between you when they knew they'd never find a third in time. We made enough deals and threats to last several lifetimes to give you, and them, more time. It's just shit luck that they couldn't find another alpha to complete their pack."
"It's such a stupid rule, Mateo."
He sighs again, much heavier this time. The rule of three that the West Coast Council has in place has been a constant discussion and argument in our family since I had my first heat cycle. I was fourteen, and the only thing you can do at that age is cry, be angry, and take suppressants until your system regulates itself. That's when the clock started on my future. From that first cycle, it was a constant worry that Benny and Michael wouldn't find a third by the time I turned eighteen. The pressure that worry put on the twins has been an intense weight for the past seven years. And for what? All that stress and worry, to just end up here, with me being taken from them anyway because no other alpha stood a chance against Rafe's memory.
"We can't change the rules, Desir'ee. We've been trying for years."
"I know. I'm sorry. I appreciate everything you have done for me. I'm just so sad. I don't want to go. The idea of letting other alphas touch me makes my skin crawl. I'm supposed to be with the twins. It isn't fair."
"No, it isn't. But you are going to look so beautiful. Try to concentrate on that. You can spend the whole day primping and fluffing and whatever else you do. Amber and Rose will come help you get ready. I'll order some food and wine and you ladies can have a day of it. Maybe it won't be so bad tonight."
"Maybe it won't be so bad if I'm black out drunk. That's the only way I'll be able to stand it." I mean that, too. I intend to drink way more than a bottle of wine before this evening.
"If I thought you meant that, I wouldn't send the wine. I need you to be at your best. It would kill me if you agreed to a pack that wasn't good for you because you weren't thinking straight."
Well, that is a good point. I don't want to make a fool of myself or allow myself to entertain a pack that would be a truly horrible fit because I'm intoxicated and emotional. "You don't need to send Rose and Amber. I'm not going to be good company. And get out of here with your common sense. I was prepared to get good and drunk for this meet until you came in here with all that. Leave me and my misery alone. I'll be ready to go by five, I won't make us late. I'm glad mi familia is going to escort me tonight. It might be better with the four of you there."
Mateo gives me another squeeze before he leaves me to sulk and stew. Every time I get too tempted to text one of the twins, I remind myself that sending that text will only perpetuate and compound our collective heartbreak. The rules about pack size and omega regulations don't have allowances for broken hearts, and we can't change those rules. As it is, we've bent them as far as they will go without breaking them.
I'm wrapping the last few tendrils of hair around the curling iron when there's a tap at my window and my heart plummets into my stomach. The only reason for there to be tapping at my window is if Benny or Michael are in the tree outside my room. I don't think I can stand seeing them, especially when I have to leave for the mixer in less than twenty minutes. I close my eyes and try not to hear the tapping become more insistent.
"Come on, Desie. I know you hear us out here. Come to the window."
I unwind my hair from the wand and turn off the iron when I put it down on my vanity, then start pinning back the front sections. I am not going to that window. If I see them, I'll start crying and ruin my makeup, and there's no time for me to redo it.
"Desie. We just want to see you." More tapping.
Refusing to even glance toward my window, I push the last pin into my hair a little too aggressively and give my scalp a nice little stab.
"Desir'ee."
