Alpha Gray by C.J. Primer
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Fallon
Wednesday night rolls around and I’m assigned to patrol again. I worry that things will be a little awkward with Vienna since I took her out of the tournament this afternoon, but she doesn’t hold a grudge. She’s a fucking delight, as usual, which somehow makes my victory even more hollow.
The tournament has been awesome so far. Everyone got their first match in over the past two afternoons and the victors are moving on to the next round tomorrow. Davis wound up losing his matchup against Judd, but since there was an odd number of victors advancing the alphas threw us all a curveball and chose one of the losers to move on, too. Davis got the wildcard vote from them, which he totally deserved- he put up a hell of a fight against Judd.
Boyd’s advancing, too- he gave Connor a lot of shit for losing his matchup against Shay yesterday, but now he’s shaking in his boots a little because he’s slated to go up against Shay tomorrow. I totally believe in Boyd, but Shay is a formidable opponent, especially in wolf form. I would never tell him, but I think he’s fucked.
I’ll be going up against Brennan tomorrow. He was pretty good in his matchup today against Hannah, but I’m still confident that I can beat him. Secretly, I was hoping that Hannah would win the matchup today so I could take her on tomorrow. I know it’s horrible to say, considering our history, but I kinda wanted another shot at her in a sanctioned match so I could teach that bitch a lesson.
I wish I could be as forgiving as Vienna. We head down the familiar path in the forest with Casey and Brock at dusk for patrol, and I apologize to her for what feels like the hundredth time. Vienna just shakes her head, laughing and waving me off.
“Don’t sweat it, Fallon. Honestly. I knew I didn’t have a prayer of advancing in that tournament, anyways.” She reaches out and grabs my arm, linking it with hers.
“How do you just let everything roll off your back?” I chuckle. “Teach me your ways!”
Vienna giggles, flipping her wavy dark hair over her shoulder. “Girl, I just give zero fucks.”
We both laugh, but quiet down when Brock shoots us an annoyed look over his shoulder.
Vienna lowers her voice when she speaks again. “You still pissed at Hannah?”
“Yeah.” I hate carrying around a grudge, but I honestly thought Hannah was my friend up until a few days ago. That fact made her betrayal sting so much more.
“I don’t blame you,” Vienna quips. “She told me what she said, that was so fucking cruel and out of line.”
“Right?!” I throw my eyes wide, shaking my head. “I just don’t understand why she suddenly has an issue with me. I thought we were friends.”
Vienna sighs, keeping her voice low. “She’s just jealous.”
“Then she should work harder, like I did. I don’t assign the damn rankings.”
“I don’t think that’s the only thing she’s jealous of.” Vienna looks over at me, raising her brows.
I want to tell Vienna everything about me and Gray- she has been such a good friend to me, I’m sure she’d keep my secret- but there isn’t really anything to tell, not anymore. From her expression, it seems like she already knows, so I decide to just keep it vague.
“That’s over, anyways,” I sigh.
Vienna’s eyes fly wide and she squeezes my arm with hers excitedly. “So it was a thing? I knew it!”
Her reaction makes me chuckle. “Barely.”
“Why’s it over?” She looks at me, wide-eyed, and I feel the now-familiar stab in the pit of my stomach that manifests whenever I think of Gray and how things ended.
“Because of the Hannah thing, I guess. Guess he realized I’m nothing but trouble.” The words sound more bitter than I intended.
“And here I thought that was part of your appeal,” Vienna smirks.
I grin. “Yeah, every guy wants a girl who can’t control her temper.”
We’re getting closer to the clearing now, and Casey and Brock have been quiet ahead of us on the walk. I hope they aren’t eavesdropping. Then again, things are over with Gray, so it doesn’t really matter anymore. Nothing does, except making the squad.
Vienna peers over at me again. “You okay?” she asks, and I’m knocked a little bit off-kilter by the question. The past couple days, I’ve been dealing with this all on my own, internalizing everything. I haven’t even told Brooke.
I just shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t expect to care, but…” My voice breaks a little bit, and I just shake my head.
Brock darts a glance in my direction over his shoulder, and now I know he’s been eavesdropping. Fucking great. The last thing I need is him telling Gray that I went ahead and caught feelings for him.
Honestly, I don’t know if I’m more sad or pissed off at this point. The more I think about it, the madder I get, because Gray has basically been toying with me from the moment I stepped off the bus at the squad complex. He ended things the other night, but he’s still been staring me down every day at practice like he wants something more. He clearly doesn’t know me- I’m not just going to sit around and wait until the guy figures out what he wants. I know my worth, and if he wants to play games, he doesn’t fucking deserve me.
Before Vienna can ask me anything else, we reach the break in the path where we always stop to shift. I’m relieved to go off on my own for a while, wandering the forest in wolf form and keeping an eye on the perimeter. I’m not going to spend all night thinking about Gray again- he has taken up way too much real estate in my mind these past couple weeks. Instead, I think about the tournament tomorrow and start to develop a strategy in my mind for my matchup against Brennan.
I’m so focused on thinking of various defensive and offensive maneuvers that I’m irritated each time I’m interrupted as Brock checks in over the mind-link. The hours slip by and I continue obsessing over tomorrow’s matchup. At one point I pretend that a fallen log is Brennan’s wolf and try out a couple moves on it- since I’m on patrol in wolf form, I can at least put my time to good use.
I’m so distracted that I don’t even see him coming.
By the time the foul smell hits my nose, it’s too late. I look up to see a big silver wolf leaping at me, onto me. When my body hits the dirt, it knocks the wind out of me, but I manage to twist quickly out from underneath my attacker. I try to focus in on the mind-link to alert the others, but I can’t get a word out before I feel a searing pain on top of my left shoulder. I yelp as the other wolf clamps his jaws down, pulling back, trying to tear flesh from bone.
He’s big, but I’m not going down that easy. I wrench my body sideways, as hard as I can, rolling. The momentum takes his feet out from under him and he hits the dirt, releasing his grip on my shoulder. I leap away and the reprieve gives me a chance to snap into the mind-link.
‘He’s back!’ I call, right as he prepares to leap at me again. My speed has always been my greatest advantage, and I’m able to jump out of the way right before he can tackle me again. I hear a sharp howl in the distance- Brock must be alerting the pack- and the other wolf abruptly stops, perking up at the sound.
Just like that, he’s gone- he turns around and tears across the clearing, heading back for the trees on the other side where he disappeared the other night. Right as he disappears into the thick brush, I see Brock and Casey’s wolves dart out into the clearing to follow. I just watch, holding my breath, praying that they catch him this time.
I start to feel a little lightheaded as my adrenaline tapers off, the sharp burn of the pain in my shoulder increasing. I feel like I can smell the other wolf all over me, his putrid scent making me queasy. I just have to sit and rest for a little while…
I hear Brock’s voice- he’s standing over me in his human form. He tells me to shift, putting alpha command behind his voice, and I feel my wolf recede as my body tingles and shifts back. My brain is foggy- I’m sure it’s from blood loss, but I force myself to focus, stay present.
I bring my hand up to my shoulder- it’s wet and sticky and my slight touch brings another harsh wave of pain. I cry out, craning my neck to try to look down at the top of my shoulder. All I see is red.
“Can you stand?” Casey asks, crouching down beside me. She places a palm on my back, looking into my eyes. I focus on her, start to feel less delirious. My body is on fire, working overtime to heal itself.
“Yeah,” I say through gritted teeth. Casey stands on one side of me and Brock comes to the other, both of them helping me to my feet. I’m a little unsteady, but I can feel myself getting stronger, my faculties returning. The forest starts to come back into focus. Vienna’s standing a few feet away from me, tears staining her cheeks.
“Did he get away?” I ask hoarsely. I wobble a little bit, stepping backwards, and my foot lands in something sticky and warm. Casey steadies me with an arm as I look down to see what I’ve stepped in- realizing that it’s my own blood. There’s a lot of it. That other wolf must’ve gotten a bigger bite of me than I thought he had.
“He won’t get far, don’t worry,” Brock growls. “We’ve got four trackers on him.” He steps in front of me, looking into my eyes. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” I answer, almost compulsory.
Brock looks to my wounded shoulder, then back to me. Even though he keeps his expression steady, I can see a glint of concern behind his eyes.
I move my hand to my shoulder again, touching it gently with my fingertips. It’s smoother- less like hamburger meat- so my skin must be knitting itself back together. “It’s already healing,” I say, wincing a little.
“Let’s get you back to the complex,” Casey says, slipping an arm around my waist. I don’t think I need the help walking, but I allow her to lead me back to the path. The four of us make our way there, finding our clothes. Casey offers to help me dress, but I insist I can do it on my own.
I keep glancing at my shoulder to make sure it’s healing. I use my yoga pants to wipe some of the blood away and find that it just looks like road rash at this point, which is a relief. Despite the blood loss, my body’s healing itself fast. Even so, Brock and Casey insist on walking Vienna and I back to the squad complex after we’re dressed.
Vienna looks like a goddamn wreck. She’s like a zombie as she walks beside me, and I ask her if she’s okay. She tearfully explains that she was the one that found me passed out in the dirt and thought I was dead. She called Casey and Brock back to help, which is apparently when I came to.
I fill Brock and Casey in on what happened with the other wolf- though I leave out the part about me being distracted when he snuck up on me. When we reach the gate of the squad complex, Brock tells Casey to take Vienna in, asking me to hang back. I start to panic a little bit that I’m in trouble, but once the other girls start to walk away, he turns to me with a look of concern.
“How’s the shoulder?” Brock asks. “Be honest.”
I reach up to pull the collar of my t-shirt over to show him. “It’s healing.”
Brock nods. “You’re lucky. Not many trainees could go up against a rogue and live to tell the tale.”
I blow out a breath, nodding back. “Yeah. Wish he didn’t get away, though.”
“We’ll get him. But Gray’s gonna want to hear about this tomorrow. You’re the only one who got a good look at the guy, so you’ll need to fill him in.”
I bite my lip, staring down at the ground. “Yeah, okay.”
Brock nods again. “Go ahead and get some rest, and report to his office after breakfast.”
“Will do.”
I start off in the direction of the barracks, passing Casey as she’s coming back out to join Brock.
“At this rate, you girls will never get a full night of patrol in,” Casey jokes.
“No kidding,” I laugh. “Hate to miss all the excitement.” I toss Casey a wink, then head inside to the barracks.
I change and get ready for bed in the dark, and while my shoulder is stiff, I’m confident that it’ll be good as new by morning. I sure wish my heart would heal as fast.
