The Possessive Alpha
Chapter 25

Elle POV

I’ve been pacing in my room for the last two hours, occasionally listening at the door for Charles or Damon to walk up the steps, but I’ve heard nothing. I even try reaching Damon via the link and get nothing; running out of options, I make a choice I never thought I would have to.

‘Beta, are you there?’ I ask tentatively, and I’ve only ever used the link with the Alpha and Charles. Until recently, I didn’t talk to Damon through the link, but things in the pack concerning me are shifting, and it’s becoming more apparent the Ledger family knows more about my history than they’re letting on. The longer I sit here and stew, the more I realize nothing about my life makes sense.

After a few minutes of silence, I hear the silky smooth voice of Andrew ringing through my head, ‘Yes, Luna?’ Luna? What the hell does he mean by Luna?

‘Uh, no, it’s not the Luna, Beta….it’s Elle,’ I say, ‘Why do you think I am the Luna?’ I question him, curious how he thinks I can be the Luna. We sound nothing alike.

‘Sorry, Elle,’ He says, ‘I’ve just been talking to the Luna a lot in the last few hours.’ Andrew says it, but I don’t fully believe him. He has always been the easiest of the three friends to read, and right now, it feels like he is hiding something. I don’t press the issue, though, unwilling to get distracted from the real reason I reached out to him.

‘Do you know where Damon is?’ I ask, worried because I still cannot get a hold of him, and I haven’t heard from him. I am starting to get concerned about where he could be.

‘Yes, Matt and I are with him right now,’ Andrew responds. I don’t think twice, jamming my feet into my converse and grabbing the keys to my jeep.

‘No, Elle,’ Andrew says, sounding a little torn at telling me no. ‘Matt and I are with him. He’ll be okay.’

‘This isn’t up for discussion, Beta. I need to know he is okay,’ I respond, an edge in my voice to let him know that I am not backing down in this.

‘Elle.’ I hear the deep rumble of Damon’s honey-liquid voice in my head, immediately turning my knees to jelly and my stomach into knots. ‘I am fine. I’ll be back in time for the dinner.’ He finishes closing the mind link tight. I also tried reaching out to Andrew and Matt but got the same response.

Just as I am about to take my shoes off and crawl into my bed, I hear a knock on the door, causing my whole body to tense. I am scared of who might be on the other side. What if it’s the Alpha? To yell at me for my part in whatever happened between him and Damon this afternoon. But frankly, I don’t even know what that whole mess was about. How could I be to blame for a problem I didn’t even start?

“Coming,” I yell, walking to the door, deciding it’s better to get this over with now. Delaying the problem will only prolong the shitty feeling consuming my body. Preparing myself for the first scolding since I have been here, I fling the door open ready for what must come next.

Opening the door, I am so relieved to find my friends standing in the hallway with curious looks. By the looks on their faces, they have heard about what happened in the school today. As soon as that relief came, it went right back out again. I see Theo about to open his mouth and ask me the questions to get the answers they are all dying to know. Nosy little shits. Before he can get a word out of his mouth, I put my hand up, stopping him.

“Before you enter my room, let’s set some ground rules,” I say, giving them a hard look to show I mean business because I am not in the mood to rehash things I don’t even know or understand. “Off-limit topics are what happened today or anything Damon-related. I don’t have the heart to listen. Can you all agree to those terms?” I ask, looking at all eight of my friends. All nod in agreement, except one, who won’t look me in the eye.

“Taylor? Can you agree to this or not?” I let those who nodded over the threshold step in front of her blocking her entrance.

“Look, I can agree to the whole Damon thing, but can we please talk about Melanie becoming a LUNA?” Taylor says in overdramatic fashion, her hands clasped together and a look of desperation on her face. I should have known Taylor would want to know everything about Melanie finding her mate; she is such a gossip and a hardcore romantic. She’d walk miles to hear a mate story.

“Of course we can,” I tell her, a big smile on my face as I drop an arm over her shoulder and lead her into the room.

***********************************

After an hour of gossiping about everything under the sun that isn’t Damon-related, I finally got the mindlink from Luna to join the evening celebrations for Alpha Stephen and his new mate, Melanie. It’s mindboggling to think of Melanie as a Luna, but if she is no longer tormenting me, I’ll quickly come to terms with the whole situation.

“Hello, Luna,” Victor says through the open door he is trying to exit on his way down to the party.

“Hello, Victor,” comes the voice of someone I am not expecting. What could she be doing here? In my room? “Do you mind if I speak to Elle for a moment, guys?” She asks in a harmonious tone I’ve never heard from her before. What happened to the woman promising to make my life hell a couple of weeks ago? Because this is not her. Victor and the rest of the gang look to me for approval, which I give because I am more curious than a cat; they allow the surprise guest to enter, slowly filtering out, giving us space to talk.

“Luna Melanie,” I say, the skepticism apparent in my tone. “To what do I owe the pleasure of you being in my room?” I ask as she walks around and looks at the trinkets on my wall, the math equation, the coding problems on my white outboard, and the bookshelf containing my hearty collection.

“I didn’t realize how smart you are,” She says, her tone still sweet and calm, which puts me on edge. Melanie was only friendly to me when she had something genuinely heinous planned and wanted to catch me off guard.

“I am sure there are many things you don’t know about me. We were never friends,” I say, crossing my arms and tapping my foot, my impatience growing. “Why are you here, Melanie?” I plead, desperately wanting to get down to the party and finally see if Damon is okay.

“Look, I came to apologize, okay?” She says, slamming her body down into one of my armchairs, “I realize that I treated you terribly all of these years, and you never deserved any of it.”

“Oh,” I scoff, rolling my eyes, “you’re just now realizing this?”

“No, I have known for years,” she says, her eyes meeting my own, and I am taken aback by her willingness to admit the truth. Maybe a mate really can change a person? “I was in love with Damon for years before you came to town. I knew he never felt the same, but I desperately wanted him to love me. I was sure we were mates, and he was a stupid boy who didn’t want to admit he felt the same.”

“Okay….” I say, “I still don’t see what this all has to do with your treatment of me?”

“Damon wanted nothing to do with me, but the Monday after you moved into the packhouse, he finally asked me out. But it was obvious that he only dated me to distract himself from you.”

I laugh at the audacity of her words. Damon hated me initially, and he didn’t need a distraction to keep himself from me. He had no problem doing that.

“You laugh, but I am not kidding. I used to be so jealous that he would watch you from across the room when he thought no one was looking. He was obsessed with you the moment you stepped foot on this territory. He never looked at me the way he looks at you,” Melanie says, a sad look on her face as she recalls these painful memories.

“Melanie, Damon is not obsessed with me and never has been,” I tell her, trying to make her believe that Damon never felt that way about me back then. I can’t say the same for lately because of how things have changed with us since he got home from Alpha training.

This time it was her turn to laugh at me, “Oh, Elle, the whole pack can see how Damon feels about you. Even Stephen thought it in the short time he met you. The only people who refuse to see it are you and Damon.” She says, giving me a small smile of reassurance, or is it pity? Just like that, she is gone, leaving me speechless in the armchair, trying to make sense of her words.