Chapter 9: Marking Territory

I’m still not sure what the deal was with that guy, but I have a few theories. Mainly, I think he’s an omega. An omega could lead a pack of betas, but if even one alpha joined, they’d take over. I think that makes sense.

I want to think about the rest of what we talked about, though, and my stomach is reminding me that while I did sleep well, I did not have much for breakfast. It’s time for lunch, and my werewolf metabolism is starting to scream at me.

I head toward the banquet rooms, where lunch is going to be served, and start looking for my new friends. I’m not exactly tall, so I don’t stick out in the crowd. Greg might, though; he’s kind of tall. I scan the crowd, looking for him, for Freddy, and for Helliot.

I do find Greg first. He’s standing in line, and his posture tells me something is wrong. There’s someone in front of him, facing him, who seems to be the source of his discomfort. At first, I wonder if maybe the other person is just trying too hard to be friendly; his face has a big smile on it, and he seems to be stretching out in the space around them. A little too close to Greg for comfort, but unlikely to be a problem.

Then I see the man reach out and put his hand on Greg’s shoulder. Only it doesn’t look like a friendly gesture. It looks like he’s trying to control Greg. Or push him. It almost looks like a push.

My inner wolf growls at the display. I don’t like what I’m seeing. And as I get closer, I start to understand why. Someone else steps into the line, and while Greg seems to be trying to object, the man’s hand on his shoulder stops him.

I don’t want to say that I run over, but I get there pretty quickly. “Hey there,” I say, stepping in between them, looking entirely at Greg and ignoring the other man beyond gently nudging his arm off my friend’s shoulder. “How was your morning?”

He looks nervously past me, then looks at me and smiles. It’s like some of the stress just drops off his face as I hold his eye contact.

“Uh, excuse me, little lady. But my friend and I here were in the middle of a–”

He stops talking when I turn to look at him. I make eye contact, and immediately a soft growl comes out of the back of my throat. I feel my hands clench into fists and feel myself balance my weight forward on my toes.

“He is not your friend,” I say, my voice a full octave deeper than normal. “And he doesn’t want to let your friends cut in line. Now get to the back of the line.”

“But you just–”

I step forward. He holds his hands up and steps back, out of line. Then he and three other people all head to the back of the line.

As soon as they walk away, I feel tension rush out of my body. My posture softens, my hands relax, and the smile I give Greg comes very naturally.

His eyes are wide, I’m pretty sure because he’s impressed. He’s definitely smiling at me. “That was amazing,” he said. “It seemed like you were ready to beat the sh*t out of that guy.”

I was. I mean, I know I wanted to. I’m not sure I could have, but I know I wanted to. “It’s this weird thing,” I tell him. “I think I’m an alpha.”

He laughs. “Oh, you’re definitely an alpha,” he says. “I mean, so was that jerk, but not to the same extent. I swear, I could almost see his wolf bare its belly at you.”

There are different levels of alpha. Some alphas are more powerful than others. That makes sense. I think I already knew that. And now I know that I’m on the more powerful end than some, at least.

“Just to be clear. He was bullying you, right?”

Greg nods. “He was pushing to make sure I was okay with his friends cutting in line. I wasn’t okay with it, but I was pretty much just going to deal with it and call him a jerk to anyone who would listen. I wasn’t going to actually do anything.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not a violent man,” he says. “I’m a healer. It was a mistake for me to be turned. I’m a terrible wolf. I have no desire to hunt, no urge for violence. I just want to help people. I almost want that more than before, which makes it all a special hell.”

I’m about to ask what he means when Helliot spots us. I can see the moment she does, as I saw her first. I watch as her scrunched-up brow and frown both dissolve into a bright smile. Helliot is one of those women with a resting plain face.

That’s like resting b*tch face (which I’m told I have), only it means that she looks very plain when she isn’t paying attention. But then she smiles, and her smile shifts her whole face, lights up the whole room, and makes her absolutely beautiful.

She gives us an excited wave that reminds me that she’s quite a bit younger than I am and hurries over to join us. No one in the line says anything, and even I start to forget what a hypocrite I am for cutting in line with my people after tossing someone else out of line for doing the same thing.

“I had no idea there were so many alphas,” Helliot says as she comes close. “And every single one of them is a man. Did you notice that?”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Greg said. “Though now that you mention it, I think you’re the only female alpha I’ve met, Emily.”

Helliot looks at me. “Hell yeah, boss b*tch,” she says.

I smile, but it’s a worried smile. Am I the only female alpha? What does that mean?