The Possessive Alpha
Chapter 16

ELLE POV

It’s been two days since Damon kissed me in my room, and I still cannot get the thought from my mind. I am not saying I have imagined what a k**s to Damon would feel like, but if I had, the k**s we shared far exceeded my expectations. Damon’s lips were powerful yet soft, commanding yet delicate and the mixture between the two left me deliriously weak in the knees. The entire time my mind was in a fog of pleasure as electricity spread throughout my body from where our lips connected. Now, whenever someone mentions Damon’s name or I see him, I am instantly reminded of a k**s romance writers write about. Those k****s with passion and l**t almost seemed impossible in anything other than the great love stories, but it was. Making that the most disturbing aspect of this whole situation.

“Hello? Earth to Elle,” says Charity Conrad from the lawn chair next to me. Charity is a sophomore, cousins to the twins, and slowly becoming one of my favorite people with her bubbly, free-spirited personality. With Damon with his parents away on pack business for the weekend, I figured I might as well take advantage of him out of the house and have a girls’ weekend. “Are you okay, Elle?

You’ve been distracted the last few days,” Charity continues with a concerned look.

“I’m okay, guys. I promise,” I reply unconvincingly based on the look on Charity’s facial expression.

“Bullshit, Elle,” replied Taylor, the more candid one of the twins says, from the diving board on the opposite side of the pool and where Charity and I were sitting. Sometimes I hated being a werewolf with its heightened senses.

“We might not have known each other long, but it’s obvious something is bothering you,” Emma added from the pool steps where she was cooling off her feet.

“It’s nothing,” I say again, not wanting to burden them with my Damon problems and, frankly, a little embarrassed that Damon and I kissed. I don’t want my new friends to think of me as some ladder climber, a she-wolf who seduces higher-ranking wolves to advance in the pack hierarchy.

“Does this have something to do with Alpha Damon?” Taylor asks from the poolside, where she popped up after diving into the pool.

“Taylor!” Charity and Emma admonish her in high-pitched screeches, and my eyes snap to her face, a knowing smirk plastered there. The knowing look Taylor is returning causes my stomach to sink lower until I feel nauseous.

“What? It’s not like the whole pack doesn’t know he dumped Melanie Simmons for Elle,” Taylor explains casually with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Damon did NOT dump Melanie for me,” I mutter with a roll of my eyes, “and I’d appreciate it if everyone would stop assuming he did.” I thought my answer would have been enough to quiet their accusations, but it caused the three of them to burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“What’s so funny?” I question, annoyed they’re not taking my word on the matter.

“The way his eyes stalk you whenever you’re in the same room suggests differently,” Emma comments in a docile tone as if she is trying not to upset me.

“Yeah, girl, dude can never take his eyes off of you. He thinks no one notices, but it’s been a running topic among the teenagers since you stepped foot here,” Taylor says casually, as if this is common knowledge known among everyone else but me.

“That’s because Damon is a deranged, paranoid control freak who was convinced a twelve- year old orphan came here to destroy his pack,” I snort, rolling my eyes at the absurdity of their statements. Closing my eyes, I lean my head back to try and calm the anxiety slowly rising in my gut.

“Well, I wish I had an Alpha who is crazily obsessed with me,” Taylor sighs. “A man who beats up other guys who think about asking me out as Damon has done for you.” My eyes snap open upon hearing that last bit. I have always suspected Damon was doing something like that, but this is the first time someone has confirmed my suspicions.

“He did WHAT?!” I practically yell at Taylor, who looks like she realized she put her whole damn foot in her mouth. I glance at Charity and Emma for confirmation that Taylor is telling the truth. Neither of them will meet my eye and look like they would rather be tortured in a Hunter’s silver cage than have this conversation.

“Taylor?” I say, looking at her expecting an explanation and fast as my patience runs thin. How dare Damon think he has the right to dictate every aspect of my life!

“Well….uhmm….see….a few years ago…Emma?” Taylor stutters around awkwardly, looking anywhere else but my face.

“Oh, hell no b***h, you’re the one who opened your mouth; you can explain it,” Emma shakes her head in an unwillingness to explain further.

“I don’t give a f**k who tells me but somebody, but explain what the f**k Taylor meant,” I say, getting up from my chair to pace back and forth, my anger rolling off of me in tidal waves, causing the other girls to wince anytime I get close to them.

“When you were a freshman, Nick had a class with you-” Charity starts but is interrupted by Taylor, who finally finds the courage to dig herself out of the hole she dug herself in.

“Nick and you had a class together your freshmen year. Remember?”

“Yeah, it was a photography class,” I say, thinking back to that time. Nick and I sat at the same table. He was always nice to me, and we had a lot of fun joking around until one Monday, he asked to be transferred to another table. I never knew why, and when I asked him, he didn’t even acknowledge my presence, and we hadn’t spoken since then until recently.

“Well,” Taylor continues, “Nick had the biggest crush on you and still does, I think. Anyways, he was talking about asking you out, and I guess Damon found out and beat him to a pulp. I warned him never to talk to you again and to spread it around the school that you are persona non grata. From then on, all the boys have just avoided you.” Taylor finishes, her voice more steady and confident, but I see the confidence waver when she looks at me to see how I am reacting.

“That’s not romantic, Taylor. It’s psychotic!” I bluster, my anger steadily rising, knowing Nick had to suffer because of me. I cannot believe Damon thought he had any right to interfere in who I do or don’t date!

“I don’t know,” Emma adds as if she is going to defend Taylor’s opinion. Are all my friends crazy? Can they not see how wrong that is? “I mean, you know how possessive Alphas can get about things they deem theirs. Deep down, Damon must view you as his and has for a long time. I think there is something romantic in that.”

“I agree with Elle,” Charity jumps into the conversation. Finally, another person can see sense and reason in this situation. “It’s unsettling to see an Alpha so obsessed with another who is not his mate.”

“Exactly!” I add, “Also, I am not some possession to be taken off the shelf for another person’s enjoyment. I am a whole person with my thoughts and feelings. I should have been able to make that decision for myself. Also, Damon was so wrapped in Melanie at that time. So he doesn’t want me but doesn’t want anyone else to have me, either? What kind of one-sided bullshit is that?”

“No, you’re right,” Emma comments, “I guess I never saw it from a realistic point of view. Only the romanticized fairytale of an Alpha wanting me. I am sorry I was so misunderstanding of your situation.”

“I don’t know, I still like the idea of some man defending my honor,” Taylor says with a wistful sigh and a dreamy look.

“A man defending my honor isn’t the problem when it’s warranted. But beating a man senseless for wanting to ask me on a date isn’t honorable. It’s despicable!” I practically screech the ending. I always knew Damon had blacklisted me among the pack members but to ruthlessly fight other boys unjustly was deranged. He needs to stop thinking he can control my life.

After spending a few more minutes silently stewing over Damon’s constant involvement in my life, a brilliantly diabolical plan comes to mind. I’ll probably get a small scolding from Alpha Charles over this, but I have never done anything like this before, so I might get off the hook. Plus, he and the Luna has been bugging me to make more friends, and this is how you do it. As an added benefit, I get to teach Damon a long-overdue lesson about interfering in my love life.

“Girls,” I say, looking at Charity, Taylor, and Emma, all of whom have wary looks on their faces at the sudden change in my demeanor. “Call the guys over.”

“Why? Isn’t tonight girls’ night?” Charity asks but doesn’t waste any time texting our group chat.

“We can do that tomorrow. Tonight we are having a party!” As soon as the words left my mouth, my eardrums nearly exploded from the deafening squeals and excitement. Hopefully, this teaches Damon that he cannot control me, my body, or who I date.