The Alpha
twenty
*ROSEA*
I’ve never felt secure or safe. I can’t quite remember the last time I just walked somewhere and could do so without throwing a peek over my shoulder; I can’t remember the last time I went to bed and could just close my eyes without being afraid of Jordan—
“Rosea!”
My eyes snap open, and I startle awake. My eyes instantly fall to the side, but Forest isn’t there. Maybe he got up and went for a run, or he has early training. Just how late – or early – is it? What happened?
“Rosea,“ A voice snarls, and before I can grasp what’s going on, someone grabs me by my hair, tugging me out of bed.
I try to fight against his grip, but he is strong. Jordan is so fucking strong. It doesn’t matter what I try to tell myself, how much I despise him or how awful of an alpha and mate he is, it doesn’t take away the fact that he is so strong.
He easily tosses me around the room, stomping down hard on my hand until I can hear the bones break, the pain so blinding that it’s beginning to dull everything down around me. I try to scramble away, screaming for help—
“Rosea!”
A hand grips my shoulder.
Goddess, don’t let him get away with this! I know I shouldn’t put up a fight, but I just can’t help it. I don’t want him to force himself on me again. He does whatever he wants anyway, and he was finally having fun with other women and barely touching me, why does he have to do so now?!
I scramble to my feet, running out of my room, just to get knocked over by a chair in my way.
“Rosea!” A voice yells. “Rosea, it’s me! Forest. It’s just me!”
“Forest…” I breathe out.
“You are safe, Rose. It’s just me.”
No one calls me Rose, but Forest. Jordan always called me Rosy in this condescending tone of his. I blink a couple of times, noticing I am sitting on the floor, in a corridor that is not my home. This is not the pack house I grew up in.
It’s Forest’s suite, and it’s dark outside. It’s probably still the middle of the night. Jordan is nowhere to be seen. He probably doesn’t even know I am here.
A warm blanket is wrapped around me. “Can I touch you?” Forest asks quietly, sitting down next to me.
No one can see me weak.
Dignity is all I have.
Yet I can only nod.
Forest wraps his strong arms around me, and instead of hurting me like Jordan would, with his strength, he is so gentle. Like he is scared of breaking me. He puts a hand against my head, his thumb gently caressing my neck.
“I am sorry,” I mutter. “I was just dreaming. I… It’s nothing…”
“I will never let that asshole come near you,” Forest says, the tone of his voice angry. “Never! And if he even looks at you the wrong way, I will rip his head off his shoulders. Not like anyone would miss him anyway. And when I am done with him, I will dismember that backstabbing loser of a beta.”
“Clemmens?”
“Yes, and then, whoever else you want me to get rid of,” he says.
“I am not joking, Rose. You are here to help me, and in two days, you have already done more than I could have done in years. But I swear I am not taking advantage of you. You are here, and you are under my protection, and I don’t give a flying fuck if you only play the part of my luna or if you are here as a friend or ally or just to use me; I don’t care. If Jordan makes a move—“
“And we know he will once he knows I survived,” I add, finally voicing out what we both know, and what I am terrified of.
“If he makes a move,” Forest repeats. “He will need to get past me. And he won’t. I will rip his dick off so that he can hurt no other woman ever again.”
I can’t help but smile a little. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“I absolutely would,” he says, sounding so serious it surprises me. “I will protect you against Jordan no matter what.”
“I know you will,” I say quietly. “You are the only one I can trust, Forest. I have no one else.”
“That’s not true. Griffin is on your side. He and I would have never made up without you.”
“You would have been fine without me,” I say. “Maybe it would have taken you longer, but—“
“Bullshit!” he says. “I was caught up so deep in my parents’ shenanigans that it would have been too late for me to get out of this myself.
You literally saved me and my pack, and I will never forget that you did.
I won’t disappoint you,” he says with so much confidence and finality in his voice that it both startles me and puts my mind at ease.
“Your parents are fools,” I say. “You are a great alpha. Strong, loyal, and you always have the interest of those around you in mind.”
He is quiet for a while before I feel him rest his chin against my head. “I don’t know if I am any good, Rose,” he mutters. “But I know now that my parents were terrible, and that my father was a failure as an alpha. I will prove to my pack that I am different.”
“You are fine the way you are,” I say. “Being yourself is enough. Actually, being you is your strength.”
“Look at you,” he mutters. “Now, you are suddenly comforting me.”
“It’s a give and take,” I say.
“It was fate,” Forest says, tightening his grip slightly and rocking me in his arms. I shouldn’t enjoy this gesture, but I can’t help it.
It’s been so long since someone just held me.
“I believe it was fate. On the day I felt like I’d lost everything, the goddess led me to you. And you changed everything.”
Something in the pit of my stomach feels warm all of a sudden.
I am used to feeling empty and cold; this is the first hint of warmth I can feel blooming inside me in a long while.
Like a little fire that just got lit. “Maybe it is,” I say.
“I was prepared to die to get away from Jordan. I wanted to fight, I wanted to have my revenge, but I was ready to just pass on if it meant never to return to him. That’s when you appeared, and I woke up in that old cottage, with a kind alpha who apologized for seeing me naked. ”
I don’t need to see him to know he blushes. “I didn’t want you to feel like I was taking advantage of the situation.”
“I know,” I say. “I also know that back then I took a major risk by telling you my story, but now I am glad I did.”
“Me, too,” he says.
I finally move back a little to look in his eyes. They are gentle and warm, like everything about him. “I won’t let anyone hurt you either,” I say. “I will make sure everyone sees you for the man you are.”
He smiles. “We are in this together.”
*FOREST*
I am so pissed when I walk to my training the next day. Jordan, that fucking psycho! Rosea always looks well put together and calm, but on these rare occasions, I can see what he did to her and how he tried to break her.
I did not expect to see Rose break down the way she did, and it was an eye-opener for me to see firsthand how terrible that fucker Jordan was.
“Forest!”
I did not expect to hear her voice, my skin instantly crawling. How could I ever think she was my friend? “What’s the problem, Lissa?” I ask, trying not to sound too rude. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about her, but I still have to pretend. I don’t want her to get suspicious.
When Lissa runs towards me, not stopping, I take a step to the side, making her run past me. “What are you doing?” I ask, stunned.
She takes a few breaths, grabbing my arm while doing so. “It’s just… I missed you…”
I pry her fingers off my arm. “Lissa, I have a mate.”
“But how can you toss away what we had?” she exclaims.
“We were never a couple,” I say.
“You kissed me.”
I stare at her. “No, I didn’t. What makes you say that?” Lissa glances at something behind me, smiling when she notices me looking at her.
Yeah, right. I have had enough experience with my loving family by now to know when there is something shitty going on.
“We were just friends, and you know that. I would never kiss a woman just like that, especially not someone from my pack. Whereas,”—I make sure to talk extra-loudly.
I am not sure if she or someone else is recording me, or maybe filming me, but going by her bizarre questions, I take a wild guess they want me to confess to something—“you’ve had various boyfriends during the last couple of years. ”
“What?” she exclaims. “That’s—“
“It’s fine,” I assure her. “You were a single woman. You are free to do as you please. I never cared about that.”
“It’s not true,” she argues. “I never dated anyone.”
“Really?” I keep my tone light as if we are having a normal conversation. “I have heard other things… from friends.”
“What did that red-haired bastard tell you?” she snarls.
“Bastard?!” I growl. “Griffin is going to be my future gamma. Show him some fucking respect!” I move back from her, putting more distance between us. “Besides, it wasn't him who told me anything. You weren’t exactly subtle.”
That’s a lie. I had no clue what she was doing, but then it was probably more on me being a dunce than on her not being subtle. Now, however, the fog from my mind has cleared, and I am done with all the bullshit. I wonder why I never saw it before. It’s all so crystal clear now.
Lissa seems to waver, her eyes darting around before she forces a smile to her lips. “They didn’t mean anything to me.”
I can’t believe she admitted to it!
Suddenly, I wish I could go right to Rose and tell her about this little win.
“Whatever, Lissa. You were free to do as you wanted, and you still are. But I have a mate, and I respect and value her very much.” Even to my own ears, my voice sounds gentle.
I narrow my eyes to a glare, feeling the tension around me rising, as if the air is sizzling. “And I won’t let anyone hurt her.”
There must be something in my eyes, because Lissa looks scared for a split second. She tries to put on an aloof facade, but I can see how her hands tremble slightly.
I turn away from her. “If that’s all,” I say. “I wish you a pleasant day.”