Alpha Loren

October 11th

I could hear Leo downstairs cooking but he'd left me locked in the bedroom. Apparently, he was still pissed about the whole trying to escape thing.

He said when it was ready he would let me free but by that I don't think he meant free, he just meant slightly less not free.

I was having none of that. Leo had locked the door from the outside and after he had left I locked it from the inside and laid down happily on the bed with a book I had found in his nightstand.

When I heard him try to unlock it I looked up and smiled to myself complacently.

"Ella, open the door,” He said warily bumping his fist on the wood.

"No thanks," I answered.

"You know that I could break it down, right?"

"But then you won't have a door," I said with a grin.

I had the upper hand and we both knew it.

"That's not going to stop me and if I do have to, when I get in there I won't exactly be fucking delighted,” He replied.

"You aren't scaring me," I sung looking back down at the book which was about 12th century France and was oddly fascinating.

"Do you want me to make your life a living nightmare?" he snarled.

"Two can play at that game, Leo," I replied. "You're easily irritated and I can be pretty fucking irritating, case in point: right now.”

"I made spaghetti for dinner,” he said. "You must be hungry.”

I snapped my head up at the mention of the most gorgeous invention of man.

"Fine," I said closing the book. "I'll open the door."

I walked up to the door but paused when I heard the heaviness of his breath on the other side of the wood

"Can you just take a few steps back?" I asked.

"Why? Are you scared of me?" he asked, no doubt with a smirk.

"No," I said as surely as possible. "But if I open this door, you won't be mad...will you?"

There was no reply.

"Leo?"

"I'm getting impatient, Ella," he said.

"Just say 'l promise not to be mad when Ella opens the door," I replied.

"I promise not to be mad when Ella opens the door," He repeated monotonously.

I undid the lock and slowly inched the door open. I saw his incredibly angry facial expression and the tried to slam it closed again. Unfortunately, he placed one hand on the door and effortlessly pushed it open whilst on the overside I heaved with all my might to close it.

"You said you wouldn't be mad!" I shouted as he grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me down the stairs.

"I had my fingers crossed,” He grunted.

"Why are you so angry? I opened it didn't I? And you locked me in there in the first place?!” I protested trying to fight his grip on my wrist.

"Because I have had enough of you doing everything you can to be difficult. I already have an entire pack to control. The last thing I need is a mate that acts like a toddler,” he said wrestling with me as I fought him on the stairs.

"Then let me go," I spat. "Then you won't have to deal with me.”

He let out a deep grumbling grow! before he lost his patience with my struggle and threw me over his shoulder once again.

"You know I really haven't enjoyed today," I announced as he carried me into the kitchen.

"Great to know. Now eat,” He replied shortly and about as apathetically as possible before he forced me to sit in a chair.

"You know what I really hate? Being controlled,” I began. "I hate being controlled. I hate this entire situation because you are trying to control me. I hate it and I hate you. Or maybe I don't hate you. I want to hate you and I really really should hate you. But still, out of all the people in the world, why did my mate have to be you? I don't know what the Moon Goddess was thinking when she paired us because our personalities don't match in the slightest.” I said.

"Don't worry. As soon as I've got that attitude out of you we'll be compatible,” he replied.

I glared up at him and stood up.

"Sit down,” he ordered deeply.

I scoffed and just continued to walk away from him

With that, I heard his chair scrape back and his footsteps pound towards me. Before I could even think about running he had lifted my feet off the ground and carried me kicking and screaming at the top of my lungs back towards the table.

He threw me back down into the chair but in the corner of my eye, I spotted a knife on the table. With his hands squeezing my wrists as he snarled over me, on instinct I grabbed it and pointed it directly at him.

He raised an eyebrow whilst sarcastically raising his hands and stepping back from me. I put on my scariest face and gripped the knife tighter.

"Do not manhandle me, Leonardo," I hissed.

He wore an amused yet irritated expression.

"And what are you going to do with that? Stab me?" He teased looking down at the knife. I stayed quiet my hand trembling. "Go on then. Do it," He dared, stepping closer again.

I had to lean back as he came closer, nervously adjusting my hold on the handle of the knife.

His heart was millimetres from the blade but I couldn't do it. Killing him would solve so many problems but I just couldn't.

"That's what I thought,” He growled taking it out my hand.

He then brought his hand to my throat and lightly ran the tip of the knife down my cheek to my lips where he pushed them apart.

His eyes then slowly trailed back up to my eyes.

"Don't ever pull a knife on me again,” he said.

I swallowed and nodded before he lower his lips agonisingly slowly to mine and left a firm, dominant kiss.

"So let's try this again. Sit down and eat your food," he said.

As soon as he let go of me, I dropped into my chair and watched intently as he walked back around the table to his place.

"I'm not hungry anymore, Leo," I said quietly as I prodded the spaghetti around my plate.

"You have to eat," he said, "Just try."

"You can last up to 2 weeks without food. I think I'll survive,” I answered putting my fork down.

He then took a deep breath and looked at me and said in a relatively calm voice, "Pick your fork up and eat, Ella.”

I lifted my feet up onto my chair and hugged my knees, "No."

He clenched his jaw.

"Why do you care?" I asked, "You don't give a shit about my emotional wellbeing but I refuse to eat one meal and then you get all uncomfortable?”

"I know its been hard on you so far. But everything will work out in the end," he said.

"Hard on me? You dragged me away from my family, friends and education, Leo!"

"I plucked you from a perfect happy life, huh?" he asked

"Don't," I warned.

"Your family was already broken, you're 17 years old and were working almost every day just to pay your bills, you were never going to be able to afford college anyway and you were a wolf living in a human world," he continued, his fist on the table.

I felt my stomach squeeze in anger.

"So you're saying you didn't fuck up my entire life because it was already fucked up?" I hissed, "Go to hell, Leonardo."

I then shoved my plate across the table towards him and folding my arms before staring out the window, taking a few deep breaths.

"I'm not eating your fucking food.”

With that, he clenched his jaw and picked up my plate.

"Fine. Whatever," he said walking to the sink. "Starve."

"Happily," I remarked slinking further into the chair.

A couple of hours later, Leo told me to find my shoes.

"Why?" I questioned.

"Because you've been sulking for hours,” he said, "Time to do something."

I narrowed my eyes.

"You also don't have a choice in the matter. Just put your fucking shoes on.”

A few minutes later, I was back in the front seat of his car.

"Where are we going?" I asked as he drove down the long drive that led away from the house.

"My mom is desperate to meet you," he said, "And I thought she'd probably be able to cheer you up more than me."

I scoffed, "At least you're self aware of how much of a dick you are.”

It had been dark when I arrived here the previous night and in the last streaks of evening light, this was my first time getting a proper look of his pack. We followed a small track surrounded both sides by tall pine trees. Their trunks were branchless and spiny but when you looked above, up to the far reaches of their height, there were bushy masses of green spindles branching out into a thick canopy. Still, the orange hue of sunset filtered through, creating flickering patterns dancing at the tip of the wind, giving each wildflower that littered the undergrowth the occasional burst of glorious sunshine.

Then there were the lakes. We drove for only a short time but passed countless. Each was as blue and glimmering as the last and despite, the coldness of these October days, they enticed me to imagine the cool refreshment a dip in their waters would provide me.

Before long the setting sun brought dusk and with it, the orange turned to grey and the green to black. It was strange how only the absence of a little light could transform what was a peaceful forest to one that's stillness brought an eerie sense of gloom rather than any kind of comfort.

"Why do you speak Italian?" I asked diverting my eyes away from the darkness of the trees.

He laughed, presumably at the abruptness of my question.

"And Latin, don't forget,” he replied. "The roots of this pack are in Italy. It is believed that thousands of years ago, the Goddess of the stars, Astraea, and the Goddess of Neptune, Ennosigaeus, brought a wolf named Potestas Loren to this land and gave him extraordinary power. The legend goes that he used his power to form this pack and named it Stella in honour of Astraea and the factions that divide the people are named after Neptune's 14 moons in honour of Ennosigaeus.”

"Factions?" I asked.

"The pack quickly became huge so Potestas set out to divide the people into 14 smaller groups where each has its own Megestanis (Latin for leader) that governs and keeps the peace whilst carrying out the Alphas orders. It makes my job far less laborious. There's also a hierarchy within the factions. Triton, named after Neptune's biggest moon, is the most prosperous and considered the best to live in whilst Lissauer, Neptune's smallest moon, is the opposite. Promotion and demotion help the Alpha motivate his people to have loyalty, bravery and provide good service.”

"What happens if you get demoted from the bottom?"

"You get kicked out the pack," I asked,

"Has that ever happened?” I asked.

He paused for a second.

"Not whilst I've been Alpha,” He replied. "I don't tend to use demotion as a punishment.” "Right...you just skip straight to death,” I murmured.

"Yeh..something like that."

Quiet soon returned to the car and I took to looking back out the window. It was now almost completely dark and I found staring into the gloom amongst the trees a little unnerving.

A few minutes later, I noticed how tense Leo had become.

I opened my lips to speak but he quickly brought his hand to my mouth to stop me and slowly brought the car to a silent stop.

He sat silently for a few moments before he got out the car without a word, leaving me in a huge amount of confusion which only grew with the clicking of the door locks as he walked away with the keys.

With the knowledge that it would be a pointless action, I brought my hand to the silver handle and pulled it. But little to my surprise, it didn't open. Instead, I just sat in the car, waiting for Leo's return and pondering why a) he just got up and left and b) he locked me in.

He'd disappeared into the trees and five or so minutes later reappeared and got back in the car with as much explanation as he had left it.

I examined him. His face gave little clue but he carried the odd and greatly unpleasant scent of another wolf on his clothes and a slight trickle of blood dripped down the top of his right hand but there was to my knowledge no wound.

"There's been a change of plan,” he said as he drove again. "I'll drop you off at my parents’ but I can't stay...I have to clear something up.”

"Are you going to tell me what just happened?" I asked.

"No," he said bluntly. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask.”

"About why you just got out the car without a noise and walked into the forest? Or whose scent that is on you? Or why there's blood on your hand?" I questioned.

"I've got to make a phone call," he said completely adverting the questions

Judging by the voice, I would guess that he called Blair but they spoke in Italian and I didn't understand a single word.

"I might be gone a few hours," he said.

"Can you not just call Luca to stay with me?" I asked.

I was anxious to just be dumped at the doorstep of Leo's parents. I'd never met them but they were the two responsible for producing the monster next to me.

"I tried that yesterday and it ended in disaster remember?" he replied.

"So you're just going to leave me alone with people I've never met?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Leo-"

"It isn't a choice. You are going whether you like it or not.”

"In case you were wondering I don't really like it."

"Really?" he asked sarcastically.

We soon were making our way along another long drive with a large house at the end. It stood tall and intimidating with the emerging moon glowing behind it.

I slowly got out of the car and rested my arms on the frame of the half-open door and looked upon the house. It seemed quiet and far too still to have any inhabitants. I doubted for a second that Leo had brought us to the right place before I noticed a face in one of the upstairs bedrooms looking down on me with a curious expression. When it noticed me looking back, it darted behind the curtain and I heard a faint giggle.

"Don't get too spooked,” Leo said with amusement. "That was just one of my sisters.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"They're the scariest things you'll find in this house," he added. "Come on.”

He led me up to the steps to the large front door and lifted the large brass knocker with a wolf's face carved into it up and the brought it back down on the wood.