The Wolf's Prey

Alpha Lennox
Hall

Alpha Lennox Hall
stood in our living room taking in our scents and listening to my
father. He never smiled and rarely spoke. When he did speak, the
timbre of his voice shook my chest. The Blue Shore Pack is the
largest in North America and Alpha Hall is said to be the
strongest, he's never been beaten and is rarely ever challenged.
It’s not unheard of for an alpha to greet new pack members. We live
in an upper middle class community backed into privately owned
forest that spans for miles. The nearest city, where most wolves
work and shop, is only 40 minutes away.

My mother ushers
us to the sofa to sit until we were called on. I glanced at Alpha
Hall under my eyelashes noticing how big he is. Burly doesn't
describe him. He's around six foot seven inches or taller. It's
hard to tell because at five foot tall myself, big is big. His
shoulders are wide with thick corded muscles. Every inch of him is
sculpted to perfection and flowing with power. In one word I am
terrified of him. I don't see him as a protector, as many would. I
see him as someone that could kill me with a single
touch.

I glance at my
twin sister Marta with wide eyes. She looks back at me, but instead
of being afraid like me, she looks intrigued and smitten. I make a
face at her, letting her know I think she's crazy and she shrugs.
Marta and I are complete opposites. We are fraternal twins, not
identical twins. She got everything that I didn't. Long legs,
perfectly curly brown hair and dark brown eyes. Like my mother, she
is striking. When I say opposite, I mean opposite. I'm short, with
light blonde almost white hair down to my waist and pin straight,
the only thing that I like about myself are my violet eyes. Every
time I look in the mirror I remember my grandfather who I inherited
them from. He was the most amazing man in the world and last year
when he passed of old age, I felt my whole world shift and the only
comfort I have are my eyes.

I hear my name
being called and glance up. I notice they must have said my name
more than once because my dad looks annoyed. "Sorry, I was thinking
about granddad." I explain, knowing my dad expects an explanation.
I zone out a lot and it always irritates him.

"This is Jocelyn,
she and Marta are twins. Stand up and address your alpha." Dad
orders.

I stand up and
bow my head in a sign of submission and obedience, but most of all
respect. "Alpha Hall."

"Look up." Alpha
orders and my head snaps up. His eyes narrow on my face; I can feel
it even as I avert mine, to avoid eye contact.

He nods to my
parents and walks out of the house without saying another word.
"What is wrong with you? You can't pull it together for fifteen
minutes!"

"Chill out, dad.
He didn't care." Marta states, defending me as always.

"Sorry." I say
again and finally my father relaxes.

"You need to try
harder to be part of the present. It looks bad and reflects
negatively on us." I nod and excuse myself.

I know I'm not
normal. I am easily distracted and rather be alone than in a group
of people. I wish I could be more like Marta. She's outspoken and
makes friends easily. Everyone loves her. There's a knock on my
door. "Come in."

"Hey, let’s go
for a run."

"Nah, I'll stay
here."

"Please?" Marta
begs and I cave instantly.

"Okay, but not
too far. I don't want to be late for dinner after that screw up
with the alpha."

"Alright. Let's
go." She agrees, pulling me off the bed. I walk behind her to the
edge of the woods. Just as I'm about to take my clothes off, a
figure steps in front of me. I feel his authority and automatically
lower my head.

"You’re not
allowed in the woods without supervision and clearance."

"I'm here with my
sister."

"You'll need
Alpha or me with you at all times. I will also need notice, so the
woods are cleared."

"What? Cleared?"
I ask confused.

"Cleared of other
wolves." He informs me.

"I can’t run with
anyone but you or the alpha? Not even my sister?"

"No."

I know I'm not
supposed to ask questions. So, I wait. Thinking maybe he'll
explain, but he doesn't.

Marta comes
towards us having heard the conversation. "Why? That doesn't make
any sense." She says upset.

"Because it was
ordered." He replies gruffly and turns to walk away. Before he
leaves he orders me to go back home.

We walk in the
back door seeing my parents and tell them about the incident in the
woods. My father seems to think it’s all my fault. "It’s how you
were acting. The alpha is probably suspicious of you, or wants to
punish you for your insolence."

I stare at my
plate as my dad lists all the things wrong with me and how I need
to make more of an effort to be like Marta. She rolls her eyes
while my dad rants. When she starts to mimic him, my mom and I
suppress our giggles as best as we can. After dinner I'm excused to
go to bed. Tomorrow we have school, which I'm not excited about. I
know it won't be too bad having Marta there, but I hate having to
lean on her when she's trying to make new friends.

My alarm clock
goes off at 7:00 a.m. and I get out of bed to take a shower. I
knock on the bathroom door, hearing Marta is brushing her
teeth.

"Come in." I walk
in and after a quick good morning, I get in the shower. Once I'm
done I leave Marta in the bathroom applying her makeup and get
dressed in my room. I choose a long simple dark green dress with a
brown belt at the waist and brown sandals. I brush my hair and let
it air dry. I take a bobby pin and pin back the front layer on each
side of my part. This is what my father calls my hippy look, I call
it my look. Walking to the mirror above my dresser I apply mascara
and lip gloss and go to the kitchen. I pour a bowl of cheerios and
eat quickly. Marta comes down as I'm going back up to brush my
teeth.

"Meet me outside.
We're going to be late."

"Two minutes." I
say, running to the bathroom. I brush my teeth and grab my bag from
the floor sprinting out the back door to our lime green
Beetle.

We share a car,
but Marta claims it’s hers, so she drives everywhere. I rarely ever
go anywhere unless it’s to work; even then I usually take my mom’s
car. We arrive ten minutes before the first bell. I wait for Marta
who is smiling and waving to everyone she passes. I chuckle and
turn back to the door taking a step, I hit something. No, I hit
him.

"Sorry, Alpha." I
apologize immediately.

He grunts. "This
is your schedule." I take the papers he's holding out and he walks
away.

"Thanks." I say,
to his departing back.

I look over the
papers. Math, History, English, lunch, gym, ethics and Biology. I
didn't get art history or wood shop, which are the two classes I
really wanted.

"What's that?"
Marta asks, coming up behind me.

"My
schedule."

"You already got
yours?"

"Yeah, Alpha Hall
gave it to me." I explain.

"Well let’s go
get mine and compare." She skips ahead. I follow her to the office
and wait for her to get her papers. I hand her mine and she
compares them. "We don't have anything together. Even our lockers
are on opposite ends of the building!"

"You’re joking.
Let me see that." I grab the schedules and sure enough we have
nothing together. Marta even got art history and wood shop. "You
got the two electives I wanted."

"This sucks.
Excuse me Mrs. Leech, is there any way we can switch
classes?"

"No, dear." She
replies, turning to the people behind her. I sigh and we
leave.

"See you at the
end of school?"

"Yep, hang in
there. Make friends." She orders and hugs me.

I smile and walk
to my locker which is the last one in a deserted hallway. After
finding my locker I go to my first class, Math. As soon as I walk
in the room I notice everyone is quiet and it’s almost like they
avoid looking my way. I don't know whether to be grateful or
offended. Class starts and we get our books and go over the first
lesson. The bell rings, the halls are crowed yet people go out of
their way to walk around me or stop altogether to let me pass. They
whole day ends up being like this. No one talks to me or touches
me, even my gym teacher Mrs. Rubo, makes sure not to brush my
fingers with hers when she hands me my gym uniform.

The last bell
rings and I sprint to the parking lot, feeling irritated and
confused. I lean against our car waiting for Marta. I don't
understand this place. I made one bad impression with the alpha and
I'm singled out as a freak. I feel like crying, I know my dad will
find out about this and complain about how humiliating I am. I'm
lost in thoughts of how to make it better when I hear Marta scream,
"Earth to Jocelyn!"

"What?" I ask,
snapping out of it.

"How was your
first day?" I can see by her face she knows all about my first
day.

"Fine. How about
you?"

"Don't give me
that crap! I know what he did."

I shrug like it’s
no big deal and get in the car. "What exactly did he tell everyone?
No one will talk to, look at, or touch me. It’s like I have the
plague."

"From what I
heard he warned everyone to stay away from you. He didn't give a
reason. Maybe he likes you?" She says, wiggling her eyes brows
suggestively. "He's so hot all the girls want him, he hasn't chosen
yet."

I huff. "If he
liked me he wouldn't want people treating me like I was diseased.
No, this is punishment. Did I really make that bad of an
impression?"

"I didn't think
so, but yeah I guess you’re right. He won't even let you run with
the rest of the pack. He's singling you out and it doesn't look
good."

"Maybe I should
talk to him. What do you think?" I ask.

"Yeah, you
should. This is what we'll do. We'll dress you up nice and pretty
and you can go to his office and beg him on your knees to take your
virginity as a penance for your behavior. Spanking
included."

"I'm not going to
ask the alpha to spank me-"

"Get out of the
car." I hear the deep rumble of his voice. Oh, shit. Tell me he
didn't hear that.

"We were just
leaving." Marta replies, looking just as startled.

He opens my door.
I look at Marta knowing there's nothing she can do. I get out,
leaving my book bag and am careful not to touch him. I don't want
to make him even angrier.

"Follow me." He
orders, walking to a big black truck with huge tires. He opens the
passenger side door and picks me up by my waist and places me on
the seat. He slams the door shut and walks to the driver’s side. I
feel my nervousness spike as I watch him get in. The flexing of his
arm muscles as he turns the key and grips the wheel makes me sit at
full alert. We drive for about a minute before he speaks. "Did
anyone speak to you? Hit on you?" His voice rumbles through the
truck.

"No." I answer
truthfully.

"Did anyone look
at you?"

"No."

"Touch
you?"

"No, look I'm
really sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to zone out, I can't
seem to control it."

"It’s fine." He
replies automatically.

"And we were
joking about that whole spanking thing."

I know he's
watching me, but I keep my eyes averted looking out the window. I
don't want to get into any more trouble with him and eye contact is
a big no-no.

"What are you
talking about?" He asks, pulling up to my house.

"Earlier at
school. Marta was joking about the whole thing with the spanking.
She was just trying to make me feel better."

I glance at him
quickly his face is passive, controlled and completely blank. I
can't tell what he's thinking and he's not talking. Do I get out of
the car or wait to be dismissed?

"Why would she
have to make you feel better?"