My Possessive Alpha (Alpha Outlaws Club #3)

Chapter 1 - Lydia

The gentle scratch of bristles dragging across my scalp and hair filled the otherwise quiet room as Mom stood behind me, carefully removing knots and imperfections.

I looked at her through the vanity mirror I sat in front of, catching the pleased smile on her lips.

She seemed relaxed and at peace, entertaining some sort of bliss in her mind at the simple gesture.

While the bristles against my head made my skin tingle, I was more confused than anything and a bit suspicious of her actions.

We have always been close; she and Dad were all I had, but I was just a kid the last time she asked to brush my hair. Even if it was nice to receive affection from her, I didn't understand where it came from.

Mom hummed to herself as she pulled the brush through a section of my thick brown hair before letting it gently fall back into place.

"How does it feel to be eighteen, honey?" she asked, tone light and casual.

"Not much different from seventeen," I admitted, mirroring her faint smile. "I guess I feel a little stronger than last year."

"You know, you're at the perfect age to better understand your options now," she hummed, eyes gleaming with those thoughts hidden away in her mind.

I glanced at her curiously. "My options?"

"Mhm," she replied, letting my hair cascade over my shoulder. "Who you'd like to spend the rest of your life with. The available contenders in our pack might be more interested in you, but you should focus your attention on the only one who really matters."

"Who?"

Mom chuckled to herself as if it were obvious. "Our alpha, of course. He still needs a Luna, as well as an heir."

The implications brought immediate warmth to my cheeks, and I averted my eyes, embarrassed by the topic as it stirred discomfort in my chest. "I—I don't know..."

"No need to be bashful, Lydia. I heard he's taken an interest in you already," she said with a smile, more than pleased by the idea. "It would be the greatest honor for him to desire you as his mate. If he moves in that direction, you'd be wise to accept his advances."

The thought alone was enough to make my stomach twist, shaken by the idea.

Even if my parents followed his leadership closely, and I found myself doing the same, all while receiving our praise for being the ideal alpha, I've only ever seen him as exactly that.

Jack was near my parents’ ages, and while his shifter blood visibly slowed signs of his aging, that fact was enough to make me grimace. Knowing that he was old enough to be my parent.

To make matters worse, it triggered a familiar, almost painful response in me—the same feeling I used to get when I was younger every time I was around him alone. The creeping discomfort that put me on edge.

He was the figure who guided and taught me the ways of our world, and I couldn’t see him in a different kind of way.

I had no longing for Jack, even if Mom wanted me to.

My throat went dry as I glanced at Mom through the mirror, feeling my skin prickle with uneasiness. "Do I have to?"

There was something almost juvenile in my tone—an unideal question from a recent child turned adult. Yet, my doubt lingered in those words anyway, stomach clenching at the thought of becoming his in a way beyond being a follower in his pack.

I didn’t like how he looked at me even since I was younger, and I certainly didn’t want to keep enduring that any longer than I had to.

"It would be ideal, yes. An honor, really," Mom answered, eyes full of empathy despite how her words seemed to be the opposite. "Your father and I have been hoping this would happen for a while. To see you with him, as the pack's Luna, would make us happier than anything else."

Even if her smile was supposed to be a comfort, I felt anything but.

"I..." my sentence trailed off as I let go of a breath and tried to gather my tumultuous thoughts. "I respect him as a leader, but only that. It would feel too strange."

"Change can be uncomfortable but essential. I want to see you flourish and become something in this pack, my dear. You never know, you might find yourself being more receptive to his advances than you thought possible."

Blinking back at her as I struggled to understand her suggestion, I tried to envision the idea for myself: finding myself alone with Jack, accepting his physical advances and enjoying his attention, becoming his mate and Luna, and making my parents happy at the same time.

But the longer I considered it, the more my stomach turned. The more I wanted to crawl out of my skin.

It felt like a betrayal to myself to accept something that was never for me in the first place, to force an interest that didn't exist. To push me towards the man who already unnerved me.

As I looked at myself in the mirror then, those tumultuous thoughts drifted to a better place—a safe comfort I often returned to whenever I needed to breathe again.

Sebastian had been an anchor for me from a young age, even if he didn't know it. Instead, he saw me as his kid sister's best friend.

Every time I went to Zoe's house, I'd freeze up whenever I saw him walking through the house, and the moment he acknowledged me with a simple greeting, I'd blush to my ears.

There was something so striking yet natural about his beauty. He didn't even have to try, which only frustrated me more.

Even then, those deep brown eyes and the casual sweep of his dark locks away from his perfectly sculpted face often lingered in my mind. I may not have seen him for years, but his image was easy enough to conjure in my head.

Thinking about him back then never failed to leave a tenderness in my heart, but the cold reality always set in quickly after.

Even if I had a crush on him as a young girl, I had to keep it in the past. He and his family weren't the people I thought they were, and I needed to focus on what was in front of me, like my future and how I might begin to stomach the thought of being with Jack.

Recalling my parents' stories about Sebastian after we defected from our old pack left a sour taste in my mouth and shattered the illusion I once had of him.

He wasn't the good guy I thought he was, and I needed to leave it at that.

Letting go of a sigh, I looked toward Mom for help, still at a loss for how I ended up in this position. My eyes filled with silent pleading. "Why should I be the Luna? What do I have to offer, Jack?"

"What don't you have to offer?"

Gaze shifting to the open doorway, I caught as Dad stepped into the room with the same easy-going smile as Mom.

It took a moment for his words to sink in, and I didn't have an answer for him.

"I don't see how anyone else might be more deserving of being the pack's Luna," Dad began, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. "You're young and bright and more than capable of capturing the alpha's eyes. It would be foolish not to step up to opportunity."

As his words lingered in the air, my resistance started to falter. Glancing between the two of them, aware of their expectant expressions, I couldn't think of a reason not to accept Jack's advances other than my stomach sinking.

Swallowing against the dryness in my throat, I forced a slight smile for them and nodded. "Okay...I'll try."

Their grins stretched with almost imperceptible relief at my cooperation, and Mom continued brushing through my hair.

"That's good to hear, honey. I have no doubt you'll make us proud," Mom said, humming gently.

Despite their visual appeasement, my inner wolf tried to fight from within, causing my stomach to turn. But I could only push it back down and pretend I wasn't prepared to jump out of my skin.

"I knew you'd see things clearly," Dad murmured before slipping out of the room and leaving me with Mom.

"You'll need to get ready for tonight then, Lydia. Jack will likely come by to spend time with you," Mom advised me, letting my hair gently land against my shoulder. "If he decides to...get close to you, there's no need to resist him. Soon enough, you'll be his mate and look back on this moment as a fond memory. He requested you personally, and I couldn’t be happier.”

I continued to press that subdued smile, more to stop the conversation than to bear that difficult reality.

I would do as they asked of me, even if I felt sick at the mere thought. Even if it made me feel faint to imagine being alone with him again.

***

A cool breeze swept by me as I closed the front door behind me. I was wearing a billowy white dress Mom said he would like. I didn’t like how it resembled a dress I used to wear when I was younger.

Dusk had already set in, and that darkness was fast approaching, leaving me to look down the road toward Jack's place.

My hands trembled as I willed my legs to move—to take those first steps and meet him as he’d requested. Mom was so excited when she received his message earlier in the day, reminding me everything would change for me.

But I could barely keep my dinner down.

I tried to remember what my parents said and understand where they came from, but I wasn't ready.

I wasn't ready to be anyone's mate, let alone the alpha's. The very alpha I had known since I was an early teenager, and the one who sent chills up my spine just by pulling that usual smile.

The thought of lying beside him, marked as his mate and serving as the pack Luna, was enough to make my skin grow cold and to put a rock in the pit of my stomach.

At once, I pictured him putting his hand on my shoulder when I was only thirteen. How his touch made me squirm away, but it returned as his fingers latched around my wrist. The way his eyes—matured with age far beyond my own—willed me to not move so that he could look at me a bit longer.

He wanted me to be his mate. He asked for me, specifically. Even though he knew me as a girl, he still wanted me as a woman.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't.

As the panic filled me to the brim and the shaking of my body didn't stop, I saw only two options ahead of me: give in or run.

Giving in suddenly didn't feel like an option.

Rippling with anxiety, I tore away from the street and ran straight for the woods. That fear triggered my shift, forcing me into wolf form as the idea of being trapped as Jack's mate grew too heavy to bear.

My paws hammered against the ground as I moved quickly, hoping nobody saw me run. Hoping I could get away before Jack or my parents realized I was gone.

I didn't know where I was going or what my plan was, but I just needed to get away. I needed to make that decision for myself, even if my parents didn't like it—even if I didn't know what that decision was.

My direction was unclear as the forest continued to fly by me, but something almost primal within me led the way. I allowed pure instinct to take over and to guide me, regardless of how reckless it may have been.

Even if I turned my brain off for the most part, I eventually couldn't ignore the roaring pain within me and the exhaustion that seeped into my legs.

I stumbled out of the woods and continued through a field somewhere, catching sight of a glowing establishment in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.

A road stretched for miles from one end to the other, but I had no grasp of where I was or what I planned to do there.

Instead, I began to slow, dragging myself along, using the building as a guide.

But before I could reach it, my legs slipped out from under me, only to land in the grass as my heart raced.

Exhaustion lulled my mind to a strange place where nothing made sense, but one constant thought lingered.

Stay away from Jack.