Alpha (Wolves Creek Book 1)

by Samantha Horne

  I coughed loudly, causing them both to turn around and look as me, as Jackson pulled in next to a building and turned off the engine.

  “Can you please not talk about me like I’m invisible? Isaac, I’m sorry but I’ve known you for about five minutes and I’ve got to say, I don’t like you. At all. How dare you judge me so quickly, when all I’ve done is trek to the nearest place for help when I was stranded. Would you rather me have stayed in my car, freezing to death and waiting for a rescue? All I want is a few hours’ sleep, my little car back and then I promise I will be on my way. Now, if you boys don’t mind, I need to get out of these wet jeans and in to a hot bath, so I’ll hopefully not be seeing you again.” Feeling immensely satisfied with the stunned looks on their faces, I hopped out of the car and walked up to the steps of what looked like a cosy, and welcoming hotel. The outside looked like a beautiful cottage, with pink and blue flowers over the entrance and large, welcoming doors with candles to light the way. Smiling to myself as I walked in, I realised that maybe all of my prayers had been answered. I’d wanted something different. I’d wanted an adventure. I’d wanted to get away from it all. Maybe this would be the perfect place to have my fresh start?

  As I approached the front desk, I looked around and noticed how homely the quaint cottage was. There was an old fashioned fireplace with a roaring fire, and a few vacant armchairs placed in front of it. A wooden, winding staircase led upstairs and there was a door heading to the back behind where the reception desk was placed. I heard the door open behind me, and rolled my eyes as I spun to see Jackson walking in, with that stern look still on his face.

  “Okay, so we deserved that.” He said, walking in with a small smile appearing on his face, which I was oddly proud to have put there. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who smiled all that often.

  Walking up to me, he leaned against the reception desk and hit a bell to announce our arrival. The door heading out to the back opened, and the most beautiful woman I had ever seen stepped through and smiled broadly at the two of us. With long, blonde hair flowing down her back, she was petite but with curves at her hips and brilliant blue eyes. A man was following behind her, and he was very clearly related to both Jackson and Isaac. They each had the same prominent cheek bones, and ruggedly handsome good looks with bodies that men would happily kill for. His hair was slightly longer and dark, and he too had a smile on his face as he saw us waiting at the desk.

  “Jackson!” The man said. Standing behind the desk he threw his arm around the woman, whom I presumed to be his wife. “How can I help you this evening?”

  “Noah, this is Laura. She needs a place to stay for the night as her car broke down.”

  “Yes, thank you Jackson, I am capable of speaking for myself.” I said, slightly annoyed with how much he was treating me like a child. I looked towards the couple and smiled in relief to see no hostile looks being thrown my way, just amused glances between Jackson and me as they tried to figure out what had happened.

  “Never said you couldn’t, Laura. My apologies for any offence caused.”

  Sarcastic bastard. The beautiful woman laughed, and walked around the desk, holding her hand out for me to shake.

  “Hey Laura! My name’s Jasmine, and that’s my husband, Noah. We’d love to have you for the evening and hope you’ll be comfortable here.” Her smile was infectious and I couldn’t help but return it.

  “Thank you for having me. You really do have a beautiful place.”

  “Well, we love it. Is there anything else you need, Jackson, or can I show Laura upstairs?”

  “Of course.” He reached a hand in to his jeans pocket, and pulled out a card which he handed to me. “Just in case you need anything, my numbers on the card. Your car should be waiting outside for you when you wake up. It was a…well, it was interesting to meet you Laura.”

  “Yeah, you too.” I said, before shoving the card in my bag without even looking at it. I know it probably seemed quite rude but to be honest, all I was thinking about right then was getting in to a warm cosy bed, and forgetting about the strange night. Jasmine smiled at me again, before leading the way up the winding staircase which definitely had a certain charm to it. As we reached the top of the stairs, I noticed beautiful windows overlooking the large woods surrounding the cottage, and a wooden hallway covered with thick, plush rugs which gave it a cosy feel. Jasmine approached a door on the right, and opened it with a large, old fashioned key. She showed me in to a gorgeous room with cream, luscious rugs on the floor, a large four poster bed, a desk with a large mirror and a door that led in to an en-suite. My heart rejoiced as I glimpsed the size of the bath tub through the door, and I could not wait to get out of my wet clothes and take a long, relaxing soak.

  “Wow, this room is beautiful.” I said, as I dropped my handbag on to the bed.

  “Thank you. It’s rare we have anyone from out of town, so I’m so excited to be able to help you.”

  I grinned, as for the first time since arriving in the strange place, I actually felt welcome. After explaining that breakfast started at 7am, Jasmine gave me a small wave and left the room, closing the door softly behind her. The first thing I did once the door shut, was head towards the bathroom, kicking off my shoes as I went. All I could think about was spending a good hour in that tub, and I left my clothes hanging near the radiator to dry, as they were the only clothes I would have in the morning. As I started to run the bath, I kept thinking about my situation and how I had come to end up in this town. A month ago I’d believed that my life was pretty much over. Just one week after the best day of my life - my wedding day - I’d walked in to my own bedroom to find my new husband in bed with my best friend, who had been maid of honour at the wedding! I’d gone from the happiest woman in the world, to wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now. Oh, he’d tried to grovel and told me it was just one time but I knew that if I forgave him once, he would just do it again. It just proved to me that I didn’t know the man at all, and that scared me. My trust had been broken by not just my husband, but also my best friend, and I knew it would take me a while before I got over it. Hence my desire to get away somewhere else. I didn’t have any family, so the only thing that was tying me to my house was him, and he was no longer an issue anymore. It hurt more than I thought possible, but I knew if I stayed I would just be lying to myself, and I respected myself more than that.

  As I sank down in to the hot water, and sighed loudly at finally being able to relax, I thought back to how the evening turned out so oddly. Although most of the people seemed hostile towards me, there was also a sense of mystery about this place, and my heart was telling me to find out more. I clearly had some kind of attraction to Jackson, but then who wouldn’t? Not only was he gorgeous, but he had that whole brooding thing going on, which I never realised I was in to until then. I decided to see how I felt in the morning and choose what I was going to do, but at the moment my heart was definitely swinging towards staying in this unfamiliar place, and discovering why the town was so wary of strangers. I left the tub with a heavy heart as I could have stayed in there forever, no problem, and threw on my underwear before getting in to the bed. Holy shit, it was the most amazing bed I had ever slept on. I pretty much just ended up lost in a mountain of sheets and warm blankets, and I drifted off in to the most comfortable and peaceful night’s sleep I’d had in a long time.

  JACKSON

  “Fuck, she’s beautiful.”

  “Don’t even think about it. She’s a human.” Okay, so I’d like to think I was warning my brother away from the stranger because I thought she was dangerous, or I got a bad feeling about her. The truth of the matter was that I thought she was beautiful too. I’d only met the woman for five minutes and I was already having thoughts of jealousy towards my brother. Of course, Isaac despised humans more than anyone else I know, so I knew that he would never actually go there with her. Well, nothing more than a night in bed together, anyway.

  “I know she’s a human.” Is
aac curled his lip in disgust as we sat in the car, having just said goodbye to my other brother. “It doesn’t mean she wouldn’t be fun for one night though, right?”

  “Urgh, can you think with your head instead of your dick for one minute?”

  “Please, like you weren’t thinking the exact same thing!” Isaac laughed, before I pulled away from the curb and started heading towards his place.

  “Okay, I’ll admit, she’s beautiful. But where the fuck did she come from?” In a close-knit town like ours, any newcomers stuck out like a sore thumb. It was my job to make sure they never hung around, and disappeared before finding out our secrets.

  “Jackson, I do believe I just saw a smile cross your face!” Shit, I thought I’d hidden that.

  “Whatever.” I wasn’t normally such a grumpy guy, but sometimes the responsibilities I had, laid heavily on my shoulders. Thoughts of the pretty new girl kept hitting me, before I remembered that I didn’t have time to think about women, let alone hook up with them. Humans were bad news, and I decided to make it my mission to find out exactly what the beautiful Laura was doing here; wondering why it was I was secretly hoping that she was going to stick around.

  “For whatever reason, she managed to find us. I don’t trust her though, so I’m going to help you keep an eye on her.”

  I laughed at Isaac’s clear negativity about my capabilities.

  “I think I can handle one human woman all by myself.”

  “I don’t know, Jackson. She seemed quite fiery.”

  “Oh please, if I tell her she needs to leave then she will.”

  “If you say so.” Isaac’s smirk pissed me off, but I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. I let all thoughts of Laura leave my brain when my phone chimed alerting us to trouble in the town centre. Just a normal day, then.

  LAURA

  Okay, so when I woke the next morning, I honestly had every intention of making the most of the day and figuring out where I was going to head to next. When I woke however, all my positive energy had deserted me. Totally. Relaxing had - it seemed - allowed my facade to dim, and the brutal emotion of all my ex's betrayal was hitting me full force. Questions circulated endlessly in my mind; "Why me?" "What did I do?" "What do I do now?" And my personal favourite "What else did I miss?” I relived every second of what I had perceived to be a happy relationship and found in hindsight signs of trouble everywhere. I didn't know if the signs really existed, or my memory had altered somehow to put them there - taunting me. Perhaps I could have saved myself a lot of embarrassment and heartache if I'd paid more attention? Perhaps love really was blind, either way I was feeling all kinds of shitty. I tried to shake it off and give myself a hypothetical kick up the ass - but the effort was too great so I decided to indulge myself and allow myself to grieve for all I had lost. I called down to reception and said I was feeling under the weather, before continuing my pity party for one.

  It was around midday when I was pulled from my thoughts by a knock on the door. I called out to whoever it was to come in, and felt oddly lifted when I saw Jasmine walking through with a warm smile on her face and a tray piled high with food. I hadn’t even realised I was hungry until I saw the tray full of food, at which point my belly let out the biggest rumble, making Jasmine giggle as she heard it.

  “I thought you might like something to eat,” she said. She popped the tray down on my lap, and sat down on the bed next to me.

  “Jackson tells me the guys were a bit hostile towards you yesterday, I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Oh, please,” I said, whilst tucking in to the delicious soup Jasmine had bought. “It was a bit weird, but I understand. In close-knit towns like this, any stranger is a novelty, I guess.”

  “Well, just don’t take it personally. Do you know where you want to head once you leave?”

  “Oh, shit!” I said, and Jasmine moved back slightly startled. “God, I’m sorry. I totally forgot this is a B&B, have I missed the check-out time? Does someone else need the room?”

  Jasmine laughed, and relaxed again. “No, no! Honestly, we don’t get many guests this far out of town. I’m just curious as to where you were heading? We’d be really happy for you to stay a couple of days while you decide?”

  “Thanks, I’m really not sure where I’m heading to be honest. I was kind of running away from crap at home, so just got in my car and drove. Stupid car gave up on me though, and I ended up here.”

  “Jackson called, and your car is ready whenever you are.”

  “Wow, that was quick.”

  “Yeah, if you ever need anything done quickly, Jackson’s your man. He has a lot of sway around here.”

  “Right, well I’ll keep that in mind.” I smiled, and moved on to the fruit that Jasmine had popped on to the tray. She regarded me with a delighted look, as if ecstatic that I was enjoying the food she had prepared and clearly intended to scoff the lot.

  “That soup was amazing, thank you so much.” Seriously, the way her eyes lit up, it was like I’d given her the best compliment in the world or something.

  “It’s no problem! I understand you want to spend some time alone, but if you do fancy eating with us later we have dinner about 7pm. You are more than welcome to join us.”

  As she left, she turned to me and said simply "the behaviour of others does not define our worth, nor is it evidence of it" before softly closing the door and leaving me to disappear back into my world of personal self-torture.

  I didn’t end up joining anyone for dinner, which I did feel quite bad about afterwards. Jasmine popped up again with another tray of food, and by the end of the night I was getting bored of my own moping. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how much my life had changed in such a short period of time. I thought I had had everything figured out, and that I knew exactly where I would be in five years’ time. Turns out that sometimes when you think everything is going perfectly, that’s when fate decides to kick you really hard in the balls. I had managed to stay pretty positive recently, but it seemed like the events of the previous couple of days had hit me pretty hard, and all I could think about was how shit everything was. By nine o’clock, I was already getting ready to go back to sleep, and just hoped that I felt more like myself in the morning. The parting words from Jasmine floated into my mind, and feeling like I had been hugged by a sister, I switched off the bedside light.

  ****

  I woke up to the sound of the alarm on my phone at 7am, to find a pair of bright blue eyes staring right at me. Jumping up disorientated and confused, I rubbed my eyes and tried to remember where I was, looking around the room to try and get my bearings. Recent events came crashing back and I laid down and tried to get back in a comfortable position. It’s only then that I remember I wasn’t alone in the room, and I looked toward the foot of the bed where a child sat, just staring at me and smiling. The girl was tiny, looking no older than 5, with curly blonde hair and angelic features.

  “Erm, hello.” I said, whilst keeping the sheets held firmly to my body as I remember I was only wearing my underwear, and my clothes were still all the way on the other side of the room.

  “What’s your name?” I asked her, when her smile became slightly unnerving.

  “My names Annabelle.” She said in a sweet voice, before clamouring up the bed to sit cross-legged next to me. Reaching over, she placed her tiny hand against my cheek and smiled a toothy grin, which I couldn’t help but return.

  “You’re a pretty human.”

  I laughed and her smile widened. “Not as pretty a human as you, though.”

  “I’m not a human!” She shouted, before giggling and running out of the door. I followed slowly, feeling bemused by the child as I grabbed my clothes from the day before and threw them on. I debated with myself whether to have my shower first, but the thought of eating some food took over all other thoughts and my tummy rumbled in response. I had woken feeling a positivity which seemed to be non-existent yesterday, and felt a strength which seemed to go through my wh
ole body. Just because my ex-husband had been a total prick, didn’t mean than my life was ruined. In fact, it was even more reason to get out and do something for myself. I wasn’t going to wallow, because then he had won. No, super-strong and positive Laura began from today! As I turned to leave the room, Jasmine rushed in looking scared and when I smiled at her she slumped as if in relief.

  “I’m so sorry about my daughter.” She said, as I looked at her in confusion.

  “The young girl, who is far too curious for her own good. My daughter is unfortunately very skilled at vanishing and when she found out we had a visitor staying, she just had to come and see you. I do hope she wasn’t too intrusive?”

  I laughed and waved my hand. “Oh no! She’s a very sweet girl, she made me laugh. Did give me a bit of a fright to wake up to her small face hovering over me though.”

  Jasmine laughed and it just made her look even more beautiful. “I can imagine. You look brighter today and I’m glad. Breakfast is ready whenever you are.”

  Remarking mentally at how much more positive I felt, I replied, “Oh, fab! I’ll just follow you down.”

  Jasmine led the way and before I knew it, I was sat down at a large dining table, tucking in to the best cooked breakfast I had ever had. Bacon, eggs, toast, beans and even more bacon! Seriously, I always said that if I was ever given a choice between giving up sex or food it would be food every time, but after eating this I think I’ve changed my mind. I wasn’t even embarrassed to grab seconds, and Jasmine looked elated at the way I was enjoying her food so I didn’t feel bad at all about scoffing it all in my face. Noah and Jasmine were also eating breakfast, with Annabelle sat down the end happily munching on some toast and joining in the conversation with random comments every now and then. She really was very sweet and I enjoyed just making small talk with the family, whilst we ate our breakfast.

  “So, Laura. Where are you heading to?” Noah asked, tucking in to his bacon like a starving man in a desert.