The Alpha and the Exile

I stared at the laptop screen, frowning. Alpha Steven was skyping me again. I could only imagine what it was he'd want to talk to me about. The childish part of me just wanted to ignore it and go about my day, but instead I pulled up my big girl pants and hit the 'answer call' button. "Alpha Steven," I said as if his call just made my day. "How's the morning treating you? What can I do for you, today?"

He didn't look fooled by my cheeriness. "I heard you found your mate and that it was Mike Howe," Alpha Steven said, sounding almost suspicious.

"Well it seems people just love to gossip," I said, keeping the cheery facade. "Yes, Michael Howe is my mate."

The alpha pinched the bridge of his nose, looking slightly exasperated. "Really, Alice?" he asked.

I frowned, at him more than a little confused. "Really what?"

"The mate bond isn't something to be played with, Alice. Do not think for a second that you're fooling anyone claiming that...person is your mate, especially when he's not made his claim on you after all this time. I would've thought your father taught you better than this."

The condescending tone of his voice made me tense in anger. "You are a friend of my fathers and I have given you the leniencies of such, but do not ever accuse me of lying, especially about my mate! I don't care if you think Michael can't be my mate because he has more self-control than you could possibly have by deciding to wait to announce his claim. I don't care at all, but next time those accusations will be met accordingly. Understood?"

"You can't really blame me, Alice," Steven said in reply. "You're under so much pressure for being unmated then suddenly you have a mate and not just any mate, but Mike Howe. He's feared almost as much as his father is. It's just all too convenient and smells of a cheap ploy to keep your pack in your control."

He sounded unsettled as he spoke and it helped me regain some control on my anger. My threat had shaken him and it was probably the only reason I wasn't smashing the laptop imagining it was Steven's face. "Steven, as I said I don't care what you think is going on. Michael is my mate, end of the story. Now did you have something else you wish to address?"

The alpha opened his mouth then closed it before saying anything. "No, that will be all. Be careful and take care of yourself," he said and ended the call.

I stared at the screen, frowning. He looked disappointed and almost upset when he ended the call. I let out a quiet, dry laugh. Steven must have been betting hard that I had somehow convinced Michael to pretend to be my mate. Was Steven that desperate to get my pack he'd think I would sink so low as to lie about something so sacred? I would probably feel sorry for him if it wasn't the fact he wanted to take my pack from me.

That's when it hit me. Just like in the cartoons, I had the figurative light bulb moment. If the alpha was so desperate to think I'd lie about who was my mate, what was stopping him from hiring rouges to make me look like a weak leader, or convince someone to sabotage the security equipment and blame it on Flinn. I would have to talk to Mario and Koreyon, get their take on it.

I didn't see Mario but I found Koreyon was in the gym with Michael, reminding me that we had a scheduled training session. One that I was now nearly an hour late for. "Sorry, I got a call from Alpha Stevens," I told them apologetically which sounded a lot better than I forgot.

My chief of security grimaced. "That must have been fun," he said.

"Whose alpha Stevens?" Michael asked, Koreyon quickly, and almost obediently told him of the neighboring alpha/pain in my ass. "So what did he want?" he asked again, but before I could even so much as take a breath to reply he added, "You tell me not to worry about it and I will make you train until you can't feel your arms."

I gave Koreyon a dismissive wave as he started to snicker at me. "Alpha Steven didn't believe the rumors that you are my mate. He thought it was a cheap ploy and told me so," I explained then turned to Koreyon. "It got me thinking. What if all the rogue attacks and the sabotage was fabricated by Steven since he hasn't be able to convince me to give it to him."

Koreyon frowned and shook his head. "I don't know Luna, that's a risky move. If it came to light, he'd risk losing his own pack."

"What kind of man is this alpha?" Michael asked, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Ambitious," the other replied.

"Very ambitious," I jumped in and explained how quickly Steven had grown and practically tripled his territory. "He and my father were friends, or at least that what I'd believed. He's been playing the family of the friend card really hard since my parents died."

"Sounds like he's a strong suspect," Michael replied, uncrossing his arms and picking up a dumbbell weight.

"You sound doubtful though," I said, noticing that he didn't seem to think Alpha Steven was a problem.

"I sound like I'm ready to get this training started," he told me and tossed the weight at me.

My pulse slammed into hummingbird speed at the surprise, but I caught the thirty pound weight, though not very gracefully. "Training? I told you an alpha could be gunning for the pack using dirty methods and all you think about is training?"

Michael smirked at me with that smug smirk of his as he grabbed another weight. "Yes. If this alpha is playing dirty then all the more reason for you to protect yourself," he told me just before he tossed the second dumbbell my way. Again, I caught it awkwardly, but caught it all the same. "You can't do anything about him right now, Alice so we keep working," Michael finished then turned to Koreyon. "You can leave, I'll do the fighting part too, today."

I frowned as I watched Koreyon dip his chin, his eyes lowered, and left the room. Since when did Michael start giving orders and when did Koreyon start listening? "I thought you said fighting me was a bad idea," I said, still looking at the doorway.

"That was before, but now things have changed," Michael said. "Let's get started, I want you to do a hundred curls. Come on."

"A hundred," I complained, only slightly whining.

"Don't be a baby," he shot back.

"I am not a baby!"

"You kinda sound like one. Now get started or I'll make it one-fifty," Michael threatened.

"Fine," I snapped and started curling up my arms until my forearm rested against my bicep. As I slowly released I asked, "When did you get to be so bossy?" Michael just smirked at me again.

When I was finished with the strength training, every muscle in my body was an exhausted, trembling mass of jello. It was a wonder that I was still able to stand. With a towel I cleaned the sweat from my face when Michael called me back out into the center of the room.

"Now for the real work," he told me. "I'm coming for you and I'm not going to stop unless you make me stop." Michael stretched his neck to the side and then to the other side. Without a word of warning, he came at me just like he said he would. My heart jumped to my throat as I dodged as I could or at least blocked his attacks, though blocking wasn't a good idea. His hits, jabs, and kicks felt like I was being hit by a brick wall and I could feel the strike vibrate through my whole tired body. Michael sneered and jeered at me, the whole time, daring me to take the offensive, but I couldn't. He was too fast and too strong, but more than anything he fought like a wild animal - wild and unpredictable.

With a snarl he knocked my feet from out under me. My back slapped against the padded mat and the breath gushed out of me. Michael crashed down on top of me, his hand tight around my throat, but I could still breathe when I managed to gasp air back into my lungs.

"You're dead," Michael growled at me. "Tighten my grip and you'll suffocate. A quick jerk, and I can break your neck. A hard jab to your ribs, I can puncture a lung and watch you drown on your own blood. Slamming my palm into your face, I can send the fractured bones around your nose into your brain or a knee to your chest and I could send bone into your heart. That all of course, doesn't include what I could do if armed."

I gave him an angry glare, though I wasn't so much angry at him as myself. "Yeah, and?"

"And you really suck at this," Michael replied, the smirk reappearing on his face.

"I am not that bad," I snapped back, feeling a little offended now. It wasn't my fault Michael fought like some caged beast.

"I think I might just apologize to the security guy. I thought it was his fault," he replied, his tone super smug.

"Shut up," I barked at him, cheeks warming from the embarrassment. "And you can get up at any time, you know. Your point has been made."

"Why would I do that? I like where I'm at," Michael said, the smugness nor the smirk ever leaving his face. His hand released my neck and his fingers grazed up along its length until he could brush my cheek with his thumb. "You know you smell really good."

I rolled my eyes at him, but nothing could be done to stop the smile on my lips. I didn't know why I was so stupidly pleased with such a compliment. "Yeah? Well you're not so bad yourself," I replied playfully.

His smirk morphed into a grin and I think he was feeling the same stupid pleasure that I was feeling. Michael started to lower his face towards mine when I heard Mario say, "Luna, I have to speak with you now." He didn't sound happy. "Now? You really don't learn do you?" Michael asked him, making no moves to get up and glaring at him with a dark look that made me feel a little nervous for Mario.

Mario ignored him. "Alice, we need to talk."

That got Michael moving. He was up off me and had Mario against the wall with between one blink and the next. Eyes wide, Mario struggled to get Michael off him, but Michael had pinned him so well that he could barely move. "Since you don't seem to get it I'll explain it to you."

"Go screw yourself. You are nothing to me and I'm not listening to you. Now let me go, you son of a..." Mario started to demand when Michael slammed his forearm against the beta's neck cutting off his words and his ability to breathe.

"If you want to breathe again you will. Alice is the luna. You're the beta. She gives orders and you listen. Not the other way around and I am your luna's mate, so you will listen to me or I'll just take care of you right now," Michael told him. He looked so deadly serious that I had no doubt he would do it. I scrambled to my feet to grab Michael's arm. "It's okay Michael. He didn't mean it as an order. Mario and I don't hold to the strict protocol of things. What you thought was an order was him simply telling me that there is something important he needs to tell me."

Michael eased the pressure on Mario's neck. The beta sucking in air in big gulps. Michael shook his head as he looked at me. "It's not okay, Alice. He's a dominant wolf. Too dominant for you to allow him to talk to you like that." "Mario has been a friend of the family since before I was born," I told him, trying to gently get him to release the beta. The last I needed was for Michael to flip out.

"Don't be stupid, Alice. When it comes to pack and dominance there is no family friends or shit like that. He's a threat and if you can't deal with him, then let me do it," Michael snapped at me, his voice a rough growl.

I tried to not let his bitter attitude get to me, but I did feel a spark of hurt at his insult. "You're wrong, Michael," I said, putting as much authority in my voice as I could muster. "Mario is not a threat to me. He is my beta. Mario isn't like your father's beta. You can trust him. I do." When he didn't move I added. "Let him go now, Michael."

Emotion flashed across Michael's face too quickly for me to read. "That's what you think? I'm enacting some stupid revenge for what my father's beta taking over the pack instead of giving me the alphaship?" He scowled at me and stepped away from Mario, looking furious. "You're a goddamn idiot, Alice."

I sucked in a breath at the insult, watching him leave. My own anger burned through me.

"What the hell is his problem," Mario said, his voice gruff, echoing my own thoughts.

I scowled at the now empty doorway. "I don't know what did you have to talk to me about?"

"Flinn," he said, rubbing his neck gingerly. "We should call the council together and pass judgement on him. I don't know why we haven't done so yet."

"Because I haven't decided too. I'm not satisfied with the evidence we have. Koreyon is going over it thoroughly. I don't want any mistakes," I told him then turned to him. "That was your important news. That could've waited, Mario." "No, it couldn't. Alice, the pack is uneasy. First Michael and now Flinn. You need to settle them. You need to show them that they are safe and you are in control," he explained, his expression worried.

I sighed, feeling all the anger drain out of me. Now I only felt tired and sore. "You're right. Alright, meet me in my office and we'll see if we can't come up with something."

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