Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
“I’m training,” I say, standing up and brushing my leggings off.
Everyone stops their sparring, and all eyes turn to us. To me.
“You’re done.”
“Like hell I am,” I say. “I’m just getting started. And I’m allowed to join this training session two times a week.”
“You just proved you’re not ready to be training with this group,” Dominic says, crossing his arms. “He had you pinned in no time at all.”
I throw my arms up in the air. “He’s the top-ranked warrior! And I wasn’t pinned. I hadn’t tapped out yet! I was about to roll us over, but you overstepped and didn’t let us finish!”
“It doesn’t matter, Taryn. I say you’re done, so you’re done. I’ll see you at your correct training. Later.”
“I’m not leaving. The rules say I am allowed at this training twice a week, and I am within my rights to be here.”
He growls again, his eyes narrow, and he inhales through his nose. His alpha aura, which had only been leaking from him before, was now being pushed out with deliberate intent and focused on me. I clench my teeth and bare my neck to him, but I don’t lower my eyes.
He can have my submission but not my respect. Not right now.
“Taryn,” he says, his voice low and laced with his alpha command. “I forbid you from training with the warriors.”
Tears prick my eyes as he turns and stalks away, back towards Dawson and Conor, but I don’t let them fall. I swallow and blink them back and form fists with my hands, drawing myself up to my full height and squaring my shoulders.
I have to do this now, in front of everybody, in front of witnesses, or it won’t be valid. It’s the only reason I didn’t do it yesterday when I ran into him in the hallway after having tea with his mom.
“Alpha Dominic Rivers!” He turns and stares at me, his chest heaving and his hands in fists too, mirroring me. “I, Taryn Mackenzie Campbell, demand you follow the laws set forth by our ancestors and allow me to take part in an official pack warrior challenge!”
TARYNThe silence that settles over the pack grounds after my declaration is heavy and pressing. Everyone on the training field freezes, their eyes locked on us, their breath held, their bodies frozen as they wait for him to react.
“Excuse me?” Dominic asks, taking a step towards me again, blinking and shaking his head. “What did you say?”
“You heard me,” I say.
He scoffs and storms back over to me, his gray eyes flashing. “You can’t do that. You can’t make demands like that.”
“I can, actually. I am well within my rights to demand a warrior challenge.”
“Says who?”
“WL-176.59. Section B. As long as they have gone through a complete warrior training program, a pack transfer can compete in an official warrior challenge at their new pack to be granted warrior status. Once initiated, the challenge must take place within two weeks, or the challenging werewolf will automatically be granted a position among the warriors of the pack.”
“You’re lying,” he growls, glaring at me.
“She’s not,” Dawson says, coming up behind him, his phone in hand. “Look.”
Dominic whirls around and snatches the phone from Dawson. He scans over the screen several times as he reads and rereads the words. His eyes darken and his jaw clenches as he looks at me again, and he tosses the phone back to Dawson without a glance. “My office. Now.”
He doesn’t wait for me to reply or follow. He storms away towards the packhouse, the warriors parting like the Red Sea to stay out of his path and away from his stifling aura.
I follow him, remaining several steps behind him since his aura is still rolling off him in waves. Everyone’s eyes are on us as we walk to the packhouse.
“Training isn’t over just because the alpha is leaving!” Delta Conor yells. “Get your asses moving! Pair up!”
“Good luck,”
Blake mindlinks me, giving me a small wave as she jogs to rejoin the training.
Dawson strides up next to me, his hands in his sweatpants pockets, but he doesn’t say a word as we follow Dominic. He stood up for me, though. Sort of. He told Dominic I wasn’t lying, showed him the law. So I can only hope he’ll stay on my side through this meeting.
Not that Dominic can deny me. The council wrote the law in such a way that it’s impossible for an alpha to deny the challenger either the challenge or the position. But it will still be nice to know someone besides Reid is in my court. On my side.
Dominic leads us into the house and through the kitchen and then the sitting room—thank the Goddess it’s not tea party day, and Luna Merina and her friends are nowhere in sight—and then around the corner and into his office on the main floor.
I’ve spent my fair share of time in this office. Back when Dominic and I were an item. It’s a small space, with bookcases on three of the four walls and enough room for the large, dark wooden desk and the two chairs for guests in front of it.
But even though it’s small, it is not cozy. There are no personal touches—no photographs, trophies, or trinkets to designate this space as Dominic’s space. Just generic books and office supplies you’d see in any office.
Dominic stomps around the desk to the bookshelf on the back wall, scanning the shelves for the book containing the laws of our kingdom—the laws enforced by King Malachi and his council. He turns and sets the book on the desk, sitting in his large, luxurious, black leather chair, his hands rubbing the armrests as he does.
I make a point to look right at him as I take a seat in the chair nearest the door, the chair directly across from him. I haven’t been in this office since the night I ended things with him, and before, I would always sit in his lap or on his desk, facing him, my feet pushing the arms of the chair to spin it and distract him from whatever he worked on.
His jaw clenches and he tears his eyes from me and leans forward, brow furrowing as he opens the book and flips the pages, searching for the law I referred to on the training field. Dawson leans against the wall, arms crossed and one foot up, chewing on his bottom lip.
I know what page it’s on, and I am sure Dawson does too, since he looked it up on his phone, but neither of us wants to be the one to open our mouths and break the silence in the office. Neither of us wants to anger our already volatile alpha.
Dominic halts his page-turning. His eyes scan the book, his finger tracing under the words on the page. I fold my hands in my lap, squeezing them together to keep them from shaking, to keep myself from tapping them against my thighs or the edge of the wooden chair while I wait for Dominic to talk.
He at last looks up, his upper body tense, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath he takes. “All right. You’ve initiated this… challenge. But who is going to train you? To get you ready for the trial?”
“I have a friend who is going to help me.”
“Blake?” He scoffs. “She can’t help. I alpha commanded everyone in the pack through the mindlink. None of them can help you.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?