by Regan Ure
ALPHA
REGAN URE
Kindle Edition
Copyright © 2015 Regan Ure
All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design: © L.J. Anderson, Mayhem Cover Creations
Formatting by Mayhem Cover Creations
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ISBN: 978-0-9932864-1-4
This book is dedicated to my mom. Thank you for believing in me.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
Scarlett
I swung my fist toward my opponent’s face, but he ducked out of the way at the last moment. Sweat beaded my forehead. I raised my tightened fist, ready to deflect a blow as I stepped backward.
I didn’t watch his fists. I was taught to watch my opponent’s eyes to be able to anticipate their next move.
“Too slow, Scarlett,” my opponent teased with a challenge. I would make him eat that comment soon.
For a few moments I watched him carefully, studying his eyes, which flickered to his right, betraying his next move. This time I had more than enough time to move out of the way and attack with a well-placed kick to his side. My kick wasn’t hard enough to incapacitate him, but I heard a grunt of pain.
“Did that hurt?” I teased as I bounced lightly on my feet a safe distance away from him.
Instead of some cocky reply, he glared at me and I grinned.
His eyes narrowed as he planned his next line of attack and I watched him carefully as I anticipated his next move. Like before, his eyes flickered to the left and I ducked out of the way as his fist swung for my face. I stepped closer and landed a punch to his abdomen. The grimace on his face told me it had hurt.
“Now who is the slow one?” I teased.
If you compared my five-foot-seven lean frame to my opponent’s six-foot muscular build, you would think I’d be at a disadvantage, but I wasn’t. At the age of sixteen, I’d started to develop heightened senses and, along with that, my physical strength had also increased.
The changes had been subtle at first and as time passed they’d become stronger and stronger.
I got in a few more hits before my opponent threw up his hands in defeat.
“I’m done,” said Gary as he bent down and reached for a towel next to the gym mat. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with it.
“You’re showing your age,” I teased as I reached for a bottle of water beside the gym mat we were sparring on and took a couple of gulps from it.
He glared at me because of the reference to his age. He was no spring chicken, but at the age of thirty-seven, he didn’t consider himself old. To my seventeen years, he wasn’t exactly young.
He’d been my father’s best friend and I’d known him my whole life. After my parents died when I was ten, Gary had become my legal guardian. To me, he’d been the unofficial uncle who had become my only family. He loved me like a daughter and I loved him like a father.
At the age of sixteen, I’d made the decision to get emancipated. Gary had understood my need for independence and my wish to control my own affairs. When I’d sat him down and explained to him what I wanted to do, he hadn’t been surprised. In fact, he’d supported the idea.
Although I was now considered an adult and able to make my own decisions, Gary had remained an important part of my life. He was family—the only family I had.
“Come on, there are some boxes with your name on it,” said Gary as he turned to leave the gym. I followed him, wanting to do anything but unpack boxes. It was such a tedious task.
“I don’t want to,” I whined like a five-year-old. He shot me a warning look and I glared back at him playfully.
“The moving company unpacked everything, except your personal boxes,” he informed me as he left the gym and walked upstairs to the reception and the entrance of the house.
My house was quite big. I’d resorted to naming the lounges according to their use: game lounge, casual lounge, formal lounge and the upstairs lounge.
The house also had a gym with an indoor heated pool. It had its own tennis court and a huge landscaped garden. I had enough staff to run the house, though I rarely used the driver because I enjoyed driving.
“Has my new car been delivered yet?” I asked as I followed him up the stairs to the first floor.
“Not yet.” He turned to smile at me. I’d been driving him nuts, asking about the new car.
I returned his smile with a cheeky one.
“Go unpack some of your boxes and I’ll see you downstairs for lunch in an hour,” he instructed as he turned to the left into the hallway to his bedroom.
“See you in an hour,” I replied as I took a right and followed the hallway down past some of the guest bedrooms until I got to my bedroom, which was the main bedroom of the house. I opened the double doors.
I loved my new room. I’d hired someone to help me with the decorating and she’d really done a good job. I loved the colors purple and blue so my whole room, which was the size of two bedrooms, was decorated in those colors.
As I stepped into my room, I felt calmness settle over me.
The only things that stood out in my bedroom were the four boxes at the foot of my bed. It would take me forever to get through them all.
We’d just moved into the house a couple of weeks before. The movers had sorted through all the other boxes. Initially, I’d been left with ten personal boxes and I’d only managed to unpack six of them in the last two weeks.
I decided to shower before I punished myself with the task of unpacking the remaining boxes. Normally, I would have gotten the movers to do it but the fact that they contained my personal items made it hands-off to anyone but me.
As I walked into my adjoining bathroom, I stripped off my gym clothes and threw them into the laundry basket. I turned on the shower and adjusted the water temperature as I got in.
I closed my eyes and savored the feel of the water running down my body. I was stalling, but the boxes wouldn’t unpack themselves.
Once I’d finished showering, I got out, determined to finish the unpacking in the next hour.
I changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt before I walked over to the boxes. There was another reason I’d been putting it off. Inside these boxes
were memories of my parents.
Although they’d been gone for seven years, it still hurt to think about them, and how much of my life they’d missed. I swallowed hard, trying to keep memories of my grief at bay.
I still remembered the last time I’d seen them alive. They’d planned an evening out, leaving me home with the babysitter.
My mom had kissed me goodnight as she’d tucked me into bed. I closed my eyes for a moment as I remembered her warm and loving smell. God, I missed her.
My father had stood in the doorway.
“We’re going to be late,” he’d informed my mom as he’d walked into my room and stopped beside my bed.
“Night, princess,” he’d whispered gently as he’d kissed my forehead. I could still feel his lips on my face.
The thickness in my throat grew. My dad had given me the nickname princess.
As I’d clutched my childhood teddy, Norman, I’d watched them leave. That had been the last time I’d seen them alive. They’d gone out that night and they’d never returned.
The truth was that they hadn’t just died, they’d been murdered. And now, seven years later, their murder was still unsolved. Initially, the coroner had ruled it an animal attack but later it had been changed to unknown.
At a young age, I’d learned that life wasn’t guaranteed and that anyone could be taken away at any moment. This had pushed me to live my life to the fullest. It had also made me fiercely independent, and my need for control had grown.
It was one of the reasons I trained so hard, to keep fit and to be able to protect myself. I didn’t want to meet with the same fate that my parents had.
It also made me keep people at a distance. By being standoffish and cold, I kept people from wanting to get closer to me and kept myself from getting hurt.
I let myself wallow in the memories of my parents and their deaths for a few more minutes. Then I took a deep breath and released it as I opened the first box.
It contained photo albums of my parents. I didn't open any of them because it hurt too much to look at the photos and be reminded of what I was missing in my life.
All the big portraits of my parents, I had put into the attic. Someday, I hoped that I'd be able to display them in the house and look at them without feeling the heartbreaking loss of their deaths.
I was relieved when I finished unpacking the albums and I moved on to the next one. I was determined to finish by lunchtime. The next couple of boxes were filled with my personal books, which took forever to get through. By the last box—which was filled with clothes, like underwear and pajamas—I was tired and hungry.
All the boxes were now empty, although there were still items on my bed when I heard a knock on my door.
"Time for food," Gary announced through my closed door.
"I'm nearly done. I'll see you downstairs as soon as I'm finished," I replied, folding my silk pajama top.
"You’d better hurry up or there may not be any food left," he teased.
I just laughed in response.
I turned my concentration back to finishing up my unpacking. Once I was done, I felt relieved as I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. There was a massive dining room but I liked to eat at the table in the kitchen; it had a more casual atmosphere.
Gary had already started to eat when I dropped into the chair next to him.
“You unpacked all four boxes?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yes, all four boxes,” I confirmed triumphantly as I surveyed the food in front of me. On the kitchen table, spread out in front of us, was a variety of sandwiches and salad. I selected one and placed it on my plate.
“Wow, that was quick,” he murmured as he took a bite of his sandwich.
“I hate moving,” I muttered as I dished up some salad onto my plate.
“At least everything is done,” he reminded me. He was right. Everything had been unpacked. The only thing I was still waiting for was my new car.
“And I don’t know why you’re complaining about moving. This was your idea, remember?” he reminded me.
It had been my idea. From the time I’d turned sixteen, I’d begun to develop a need for nature and the wilderness. This had coincided with my senses becoming more powerful.
So, here we were.
“When is my new car arriving?” I asked as I took a bottle of water from the table and opened it to pour into a glass.
“I phoned to check and they said it was on its way. They guaranteed it would be here before the end of today.”
I was so excited, I was like a little child on Christmas Eve and I couldn’t wait to open my presents.
“Are you looking forward to starting your senior year tomorrow?” Gary questioned.
I shrugged.
“Not really.”
I wasn’t excited about my senior year or starting a new school. It was simply a task that had to be completed. I hadn’t quite thought about what exactly I wanted to do once I graduated.
The thing was, I had more money than I could probably spend in a lifetime, so I had the time and money to take my time deciding.
When I’d gotten emancipated, I’d started learning about finances from Gary. It was crucial to keep track of how my inheritance was being invested and I’d learned a lot. Initially, Gary had sat in on the meetings with my financial advisors, but nowadays I held those meetings without him.
I’d spent most of my life going to private schools and I’d decided with my move to attend a public school for the first time. I might not have wanted to go, but I had no doubt it was going to be interesting.
I’d been told many times that I was attractive, and I had money, so most girls didn’t like me much. Guys tended to be intimidated by me and there weren’t a lot of guys who would take on someone who was as strong-willed as I was.
It didn’t matter to me. I didn’t need a man to define who I was.
I spent the rest of the day waiting anxiously for my new car to arrive as I flipped through the channels on my flat-screen in my room. There was nothing to watch.
I finally heard the faint sound of an engine and I bounced off my bed in excitement. My new car had arrived. I ran to the window in the upstairs lounge, but I couldn’t see anything from the window. I knew the truck was near. Like I said, I had really good senses.
I only had to wait for about five minutes before I saw the truck drive down the driveway headed to the house. It was still early enough to take it for a drive.
Gary was already waiting outside the front door when I joined him.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a girl get this excited about a car,” he remarked with a smile.
“Not every girl gets to drive a Maserati,” I shot back with a grin and he laughed.
“You going to take it for a drive now?” he asked.
“You even have to ask?” I replied as the truck pulled up in front of us.
The driver got out of the truck and gave me some documents to sign while another guy reversed my car out of the back.
Beautiful.
I’d opted for a sleek, silver-gray color. Once I signed the necessary documentation, the driver handed me the keys to my new baby.
I only had one final question before I got in my new car.
“Insured?” I asked, to which Gary replied, “Of course.”
Not that it really mattered, but I didn’t want to waste money if I did total it. I was a little bit of a speed freak and battled to keep to the speed limit.
There was no way I was going to be sticking to the speed limit in my new car. I slid into the driver’s seat as the truck left. The car smelled like expensive leather and I took a deep breath.
I started the car up and revved it. Gary just shook his head at me.
He knew me too well. Thankfully, through the years and since I got emancipated, he had begun to let me make my own decisions even though he didn’t always agree with them.
I pulled out of the driveway with a screech. I didn’t know the town very well but I had GP
S so I couldn’t really get that lost. I took a right and pressed my foot down, loving the thrill of the car purring beneath my hands.
I had probably an hour before sunset and I was going to make good use of every minute of it as I began to drive around the new town. The residential areas around the town were sparsely populated. There were a few properties similarly sized to mine but, other than that, it was forests and fresh air.
Putting down the window, I took a deep breath of the fresh air. I felt free.
I loved every minute of getting to know my new car as I drove around for nearly half an hour. I was on my way back when I spotted a red Porsche tailing me. It accelerated until it pulled up alongside me. The darkened windows on my car made it impossible for the driver to see me, but I could see him.
He obviously wanted to race and I smiled as I sped up, ready to kick his ass. I was used to driving fast cars and Gary had made me take an additional driving course to make sure I was equipped to handle them.
I pulled ahead of the Porsche as I pressed down on the accelerator. The Porsche lost some ground, but after a sharp right corner it accelerated and pulled up beside me again. Shaking my head at his attempts to keep up with me, I pushed down on the accelerator again as the road straightened up in front of us.
My Maserati was faster. I pulled away from him, leaving him unable to overtake me so he pulled in behind me. I smiled triumphantly.
Playtime was over. I could see my house coming up and I was done racing. I slowed down a few feet from my driveway with the Porsche still hot on my tail, but before he could make another attempt to overtake me, I pulled hard on the steering wheel and turned into my driveway without slowing down any further.
The tires screeched on the surface but my baby stuck to the road without losing traction and I slowed down as I entered my property. In my side mirror, I saw the Porsche hit the brakes just outside just outside the wrought-iron gate that stood at the driveway’s entrance
Still high on the thrill of the race, I pulled up in front of the house.
CHAPTER TWO
Scarlett
One thing I hated most about school was waking up early. Why did school have to start so early? I loved to sleep in and I rarely got out of bed before eleven most mornings when I didn’t have to wake up for school.
