Alpha Zander
Chapter 12

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. The look in her eyes absolutely killed me. The pain of betrayal flashed through her eyes. I never wanted to cause her that pain.

Jace was furious, thrashing around inside me as I tried to get him under control. She turns around and walks away into the school grounds, following Oliver and her brother.

“Baby, is everything okay? We can skip first class. I have study hall,” Grace’s voice rang through my ears as she tried to reach for me.

“Don’t,”I growled back at her. I knew Jace was showing in my eyes with the amount of command that radiated off me.

She looked back at me startled, her eyes blinking up at me wide in fear. “I.. I’m sorry, Alpha,” she whispered and bowed her head in submission.

I took another step back, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to try and get Jace under control, and said to Grace. “We’re done, you need to replace your own way home and to school from now on.”

“But, but why? What did I do?” she whispered. Her voice was barely audible.

“This isn’t working anymore,” I said as she started to sob. I moved away and started to walk towards the school gates.

“But, I thought you loved me,” she murmured through her sobs.

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned back around to face her. I was f*****g furious. f**k, Danni was right. I completely lost control of Jace. He pushed forward and growled.

“Don’t be stupid. He has never shown you anything more than a good f**k. If you have caught feelings then it is on you and you should have backed off. Zander was always explicit in his intentions. It is your own stupid fault if you fell in love. You knew the rules.”

I sighed, ‘Did you have to be an a-ss to her?’

‘How else will she learn to back off’ Jace growled.

‘We have a mate. I told you time and time again this s**t will happen if its a regular occurence.’

l internally rolled my eyes to Jace and looked back at Grace. Yes, I felt guilty doing this to her, she wasn’t a bad person, but I did also understand where Jace was coming from and he was somewhat right.

I would rather she hated me and backed off, so I could move on and try to be with Ashleigh. Trying to figure that s**t out and not have any more issues with an already messy situation.

After contemplating the situation for about thirty seconds, my priority was my mate. I was already in s**t for what happened. I didn’t want to make it worse, so I just turned and walked away, ignoring the hysterical sobs growing louder from Grace.

All throughout the day, Ashleigh avoided me. We didn’t have another class together until Monday. I couldn’t wait that long. I was sick of her avoiding me. I saw her once or twice walking along the hall between my classes only for her to turn around and go the other way.

Jace was constantly pacing in my mind, every time he picked up her scent he would go berserk, pushing forward trying to get me to replace her

“We have to be smart about this, we can’t just go up and claim her’ | told him for what seemed like the fifth time today.

‘Yes we can, she is your mate, my mate. I get to claim her’ he grumbled back, frustrated about the whole thing. I sighed again, it was no use explaining the situation, he knew it. He’s just being a stubborn a-ss.

“It could start a war no one wants Jace. I know you want her, but you need to calm down. You are scaring people.’I tried to reason with him “We will see her at lunch, they will sit in their normal place. Just please calm down.’

‘Fine, she had better be there, I just need to be in the same room as her.’ he mumbled. I sighed, I knew he would become weak if he stayed away from her for too long, since our bond had snapped in place, being away from her would make us both weaker even without our marking.

The lesson before lunch was running overtime. My Maths teacher was an old bag and she just took so long explaining everything and answering everyone’s questions. So, of course, it ran ten minutes longer.

Jace was fuming by the end of the lesson. He just wanted to get to the cafeteria where he knew Ashleigh would (hopefully) be. Once the teacher had called the class to an end, Jace tried to move forward again, frantically trying to get to the cafeteria. ‘Dude please chill out, people are noticing’. I tried to calm him down.

‘Don’t f*****g tell me to chill, I will chill when we see our mate!’He growled.

I sighed it was no use in trying to settle him down until he saw Ashleigh was okay. He’d been pissed off all morning that she had somehow managed to avoid us all day.

I arrived at the cafeteria. It was buzzing around as usual, crazy busy, everyone was already lining up to get the food that was going to take forever. I gr0aned to myself.

‘Who cares! Findmate. NOW! Jace demanded.

“Well, is she here? Can you smell her?’I snapped back.

He pushed forward, trying to seek her out. As her beautiful scent came through, Jace immediately settled down.

‘She’s here. ‘he whispered.

I sighed ‘

We need to play it cool Jace, we need to figure this out without causing suspicion or issues.”‘

‘I know, I just want to see her, to be close to her ‘he mumbled. I can feel his pain through our bond. He hates what I did to her. I hate it, too, but I can’t take it back. I can olny try to fix it, help her realize l’Il try to be worthy of her … to be a good mate.

I looked around slowly to see where she was amongst the crowd, and spotted her with Oliver, her brother, two other females and a few other pack members.

f**k, she looked amazing in that dress, it fit her perfectly. The color is amazing. It just complemented her beautifully, her hair was done so well, showing off her gorgeous curls. f**k, when have l ever noticed this type of stuff?

I must have been staring too long because she looked up from what she was doing, her eyes on landed mine widening, panicking. s**t, why is she panicked?

I gave her a small smile, trying to reassure her I wouldn’t do anything stupid here, I just wanted to see her.

‘We need to talk to her, Jace said.

‘She probably hates us,’ I frowned back, ‘How can we talk to her without anyone noticing?

‘Just anything to be close to he, I need to be close to her’ he pleaded.

I “ll try to figure it out, I just need to get some food and we’ll mull over it, okay?’ I tried bargaining with him.

We lined up for lunch and walked over to the rest of our pack members. Grace was on the other side with some random people avoiding me also, giving me a few death glares here and there. Honestly, she had better watch herself and how she acts, I’m her damn Alpha.

I sat at the table next to Danni. Across are Eric, Billy, and Annie. Eric and Billy are in the same year as me.

Both their parents are warriors and they, too, enlisted to be warriors as well.

We chatted amongst ourselves, making small talk about our weekend plans. Jace was getting restless, pacing again. I sighed and asked him ‘ what’s wrong?

‘She’s gone Jace said, frustrated.

“We can’t be around her all the time’

Yes we can, she is our Mate!’ Jace insisted.

“What do you want me to do?’ He demanded.

‘Find her, make an excuse, anything!’

I finished up my lunch quickly and told the guys I’m headed off to do some final stuff before the next class. I walked down the hallways trying to replace Ashleigh’s scent again.

I know I’ve gone full on stalker mode. Don’t blame me, this is all Jace. I’m just about to give up, thinking she must be on the other side of school or in a classroom.

Jace suddenly picks up her scent and she comes quickly around the bend, slamming into me and falling backwards on the floor. All of her books fell and scattered on the ground around us. Sparks flew through me like fireworks with our contact.

I frown, surely she knows it’s me, right? Jace is going crazy with the contact. I can feel him pushing forward again. Make sure she’s all right dumba-ss!’

“Offt, sorry,” she mumbles, looking down, trying to gather her things quickly.

“Are you okay?” I asked. Bending down to help her. I knew it was a loaded question, but I had to ask. My heart was pounding in my chest about to explode from just being so close to her. s**t, was this what it was like with the bond? I felt alive.

Besides the fact that Jace was pissed off at me and the situation, it still felt amazing that I could be near her.

It took all of my strength not to reach out and touch her face, to k!ss her, to hold her and be close to her.

People around us stopped suddenly watching cautiously. I glared back at them, making them start walking past quickly with heads down. Good, no one needed to see this interaction between us.

“I’m fine,” she whispered.

“Can we talk?” I asked.

Her eyes snapped up to mine, “lf you want to reject me, just do it here.” she demanded.

I frowned again, “wait, what? No, can we just talk, please.”

She nodded and I looked around. The hallway we were in had become completely deserted.

I guess Jace pushed out more aura than I anticipated. I saw a small supply closet that was on the corner of the hallway, not too far away from where we were. It probably wasn’t the best place to have this conversation but we needed to have it, and this was the safest option. The bathrooms and classrooms are always occupied. At least with this there will be minimal interruptions if any at all.

“Over here,” I mumbled and went to help her up.

“Don’t,” she said coldly and moved away. s**t, I wasn’t getting out of anything that easily.

‘No, we f*****g aren’t, you had better pray that she doesn’t reject us,’ Jace growled.

I looked around to make sure the coast was clear.

Everyone was either already in class or quickly moving to be in class in the next 3 minutes. I guess neither of us were taking the next class.