The Alpha's First Choice

6. The mirror that shows ugliness

Liam:

There was never a wolf born who didn't have a sleepless night the day before his 16th birthday. I was no exception. My father had found my mother the day he turned 16. They have been together from that day on. Every wolf wants that, to not have to pine for his mate even for a day.

As the first night of my 16th year went by, I knew I wasn't as lucky as my father. But I was still hopeful; hopeful the next day, the next month, the next year and the years that followed.

I watched people move in unison with their mates as if they were one being. I watched them watch me with pity and move away, lest they upset their future alpha with their happiness.

I knew what they thought of me 'the uptight loner who thinks he is above everyone else'. They were not wrong. My social skills were never worth the first page of my CV and I liked routines. I don't like chaos. That's the way I am; why is it so hard for people to accept that?

It's not like I didn't have friends, I did. But that didn't mean I had to spend every walking seconds of my life with them. My friends did do a lot of silly teenage things that I had no interest in. So I separated myself at those times and did productive stuffs.

Reading gave me a perspective of what the world beyond the pack was, how humans were no less of a mystery, and how I could run my pack in the changing equations with the outside world. I was going to be a doctor, healing was an important part of our everyday lives since we had immense speed and were reckless. I wasn't as cold as my people thought; it's just that I had more sensible ways of showing my concern.

It did however occur to me once in a while that maybe I was not doing the right thing by only focusing on the bigger goal, maybe I was missing out on the smaller prized moments.

*****

It was the first day of my med school, the day I met Maya, my soon-to-be wife. She took the seat next to me when no one else dared to sit by the 'beefed up dude with a permanent scowl'.

She smiled at me every time I glared, dragged me along when I refused to attend the stupid welcome party. She talked to me about the world that I learned from my books. So I closed my books and started looking at her instead, she was my book now.

She soon turned from being a bother to someone I enjoyed being with and then to someone I couldn't do without.

I was thinking less and less about my mate and more and more about her. Her honey brown eyes complementing her dark tresses, her smile lighting up her face as she showered random stranger with her kindness, wasn't that my idea of an ideal mate?

I was standing in the sidelines watching her one day; she was making faces at a baby as the baby giggled away. My heart warmed up and a sense of peace settled in me. That was when I realized that I felt more than I should feel for her.

I tried keeping my distance. My wolf had by then realized my intensions; he burned me from within every time I went close to her. He wasn't happy to say the least.

I was confused at the intense emotions I felt every time I looked at her. This wasn't how I was supposed to feel for someone who wasn't my mate, yet I couldn't look away.

She made me do the first stupid thing in my life, she made me territorial. I kissed her in front of the entire college when she tried to flirt with a senior. I had taken a step forward and I couldn't take it back.

My wolf had gone silent, I felt the emptiness more and more but when she was around I was truly happy. So I made it a point to keep her with me as much as I could. She was the medicine for my loneliness.