Alpha Eyes (Alpha Eyes: Book 1)

Chapter 10

Fair warning: this is a longer chapter. I tend to write until the thought finishes, and it's hard to break it up somewhere in the middle. Please hang with me until the end!

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News of Daddy's death slowly spread around the pack. Thankfully, no one came to the pack house to ask "how are you?" ten thousand times. Jaxon handled as many questions and problems as he could, allowing Adrian and me to adjust to our new reality. We would announce our split alpha role when we were ready. Even after several days, I wasn't ready to open the door for a tidal wave of responsibilities and pressure.

Ada gawked when I walked into the boxing hall. Her gaze locked on my eyes and her jaw dropped. "So it's true."

I dropped my bag on the floor and dragged her to the back corner of the hall. "Can we not talk about this, please? I came here to focus on anything else, especially since I'm not fully trained yet." I hated the hint of a growl in my voice. She didn't deserve my edgy attitude, but controlling it proved difficult.

Ada nodded and swallowed anything other non-helpful comments. We lightly sparred for a couple minutes, barely putting effort into the moves. A little vein of heat pulsed through my body with every motion, and it threw me off. In the second I focused on that heat, Ada landed a kick to my stomach that laid me flat on my back.

"Hey!" Our instructor jogged over to us and hovered over me. "Are you okay?"

I reached for his offered hand. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He grasped my hand to pull me up and froze, suddenly seeing the color of my eyes. For a moment, he simply stared at me. I braced myself for just about anything.

"What are you doing here?"

...except that. Was he seriously surprised to see me in training? Really? He knew my skill level, so he should be proud that I was continuing to push myself. Why was he flipping out about me being there?

He hauled me to my feet and pressed a hand to his heart. "You should be at the pack house, Alpha. With your new strengths, you don't need to worry about training. You have more important things to do."

My wolf growled loudly. She really didn't like being patronized or undermined. I didn't like it either, but I had a little more self-control. Yet, I stiffened before my snarling response escaped through my tight lips. A bit of heat building in my chest.

"You don't get to tell me what I can and cannot do."

The heat whooshed out of me like a deep breath. I could see his wolf slowly drop to its belly in submission. The authoritative spark in his eyes faded out. He bowed his head and took a step back. "Of course not, Alpha."

My wolf sat up straight and stuck her nose in the air. I staggered backwards as my chest tightened and a chill crept up my spine. No... No way did I just pull alpha rank on my teacher!

Ada squeaked, snapping me out of my flash of shock. I gulped and bolted from the hall, unable to face what I'd just done. I hadn't meant to! Even if I didn't have these freak alpha powers, I would have reacted the same to someone telling me what to do. Yet, when I growled back at him, my wolf somehow got involved and used her alpha tone to make him submit. That's not what I wanted. Adrian was acting alpha, so I had no right to pull rank!

I ran into the pack house, hardly pausing to push the door open. Adrian looked up from where he lounged on the couch as I flew up the stairs. I ignored his calls and kept running. My skin itched with some invisible grim, and I had to get it off.