Chapter 4 - "We Are Alpha."

Tatum didn't know how much time had passed. It felt like it could've been ten minutes or ten hours, but Tatum couldn't tell the difference. It seemed like she was immobile, frozen in time as she reveled in the shocking realization she'd arrived at.

Her anchor to her sanity was Angier.

Tatum couldn't seem to get over the fact.

And the more she thought about it, the more she felt like crying. Fresh tears slid down her cheeks and she swiped at them furiously, raging at herself for whimpering pathetically when something so good had happened to her best friend in the whole world.

She should be happy, she should be out there with the rest of them cheering and exclaiming about it. But no matter how much she tried to convince herself to just put a stop to this seemingly never-ending flood of tears, the nagging thought that her anchor is soon going to go away from her didn't leave. It was like once the poisonous little thought had taken root in her mind, it just refused to go.

'Would you just stop? You're hurting my head!' Tatum's Wolf snapped at her, seething in anger as she paced back and forth in irritation. The angry voice in her head was like a bucket of cold water, a rude awakening to just snap Tatum out of this limbo she was stuck in.

Suffice to say, Tatum was stupefied.

It was the second time in a short while that her Wolf had made an appearance, and Tatum almost felt uncomfortable for a second at the sudden intrusion in her head. For the past eight years, her Wolf had been nothing but a quiet shadow in her head. She never really bothered to talk to Tatum often like she used to, and after a while of missing her, Tatum had just gotten used to the lack of barking in the back of her mind. If her depressing thoughts were going to be her only companions in her solitary existence, then so be it. Tatum had forced herself to make peace with that.

'You don't know how it feels like to lose the one thing that was keeping you alive.' Tatum snapped back, concentrating on the sudden wave of anger, instead of her despair.

'I know that feeling better than you ever will.' Her Wolf replied calmly, and Tatum cringed in utter shame. It was true because the whole concept of Mates was based on their inner animal. The Wolf is the one that recognizes its Mate, and the human part of it is just an added bonus. So, it was her Wolf who'd taken the brunt of their loss the hardest, withdrawing completely and losing interest in life.

'Now, you listen to me,' Her Wolf started, pulling Tatum's attention in surprise, 'We survived the loss of a part of us. A part of our soul. We breathe knowing that we'll only ever be a half. We lived through the pain and the knowledge that we will have to rule a Pack alone. We live every day, seeing everyone we know find the other half of their souls. We lived through it all because we are strong. Because we are Alpha. And we don't let anything stop us from taking care of what belongs to us. So, stop this right now.'

'But—'

'No buts. You might think now that the only reason we lived through it all was because of him. But no, that's not the only one. Yes, he was there to help us, and yes, you love him more than anyone in this world but remember, we also love our parents. We also love our Pack. And we chose to live because it's in our blood to lead. To take charge and to not abandon.'

'Yes.' Tatum agreed, reluctantly.

'There. Now, stop crying. So, he found his Mate. Big deal. For a while he's gonna be stuck in the honeymoon phase, swooning and grinning like a fool. But after that, he'll come around and be the good Beta he's meant to be. Remember, that's all he'll ever be.'

Just like every single incident that's happened before, Tatum's Wolf was always right.

Sometimes, Tatum wondered if their human selves were so foolish because all their wiseness was concentrated on the Wolf part of their personality.

'Yeah, enough wondering. Would you wipe your tears already?' Her Wolf sniped, reminding Tatum that she was stuck in a strange room in a house that wasn't hers, crying over something she knew was going to happen all along. She took a deep breath and pushed herself up, dusting the back of her way too expensive jeans with a few pats.

Not a single tear more, Tatum promised herself. Crying isn't gonna make anything right. You got through what people thought would literally kill you. You can get through this. You're a fighter.

Another rebellious tear fell out of her eyes despite her pep talk. Tatum squeezed her eyes shut. trying to detract her train of thoughts in another direction. She should probably leave right now.

Tatum fished her phone out of her pocket, shooting a quick text to Angier for formality's sake, asking him if she should stick around to give him a ride.

As expected, there was no reply.

She made her way to the en-suite bathroom, washing her face clean of the smudged make-up and running her fingers through her hair to make sure nothing was out of place.

After some adjustments, Tatum looked impeccable, but sans make-up.

No one would've guessed that she spent the last hour bawling her eyes out.

Perfect. Now, it was time to face the world.

She sighed out loud.

~ * ~

The next day, Tatum managed to avoid Angier successfully for a whole morning. Afternoon rolled around, and Tatum had no choice but to go to the cafeteria because she didn't want to starve for the rest of the evening. She considered going to the deli near the college but quickly dismissed that thought because that seemed like way too much.

"There you are!" Angier appeared out of nowhere, falling into step beside her on the way to the lunchroom. Tatum hid her surprise quickly, throwing him a slight nod as she continued walking, not fazing Angier in the least by her non-verbal reply.

He was practically bouncing with excitement, obviously waiting for her to ask just one question so that he can start his story from the beginning. She sighed internally, knowing that there was no way she could get out of hearing about every intricate detail of his evening, and moreover, she would just be a bad friend if she avoided him.

"So . . ." She began, bracing herself tightly, "What was it like? Meeting your Soulmate?"

"It was fine," Angier shrugged, shoving both of his hands in the pockets of his faded jeans, "It's just like meeting any other girl, you know? It's not all that they're cracking it up to be."

Wow, that was a first. Usually, Angier was just dying to tell her about the stuff he found out. Be it something like a random fact, or something about one of his other friends, Angier loved to tell her about everything. But now, he was trying to be considerate of her feelings and not to tell her all about his amazing Francesca Blythe because he didn't want her to feel bad.

Tatum didn't know whether to hug the idiot or slap the back of his head. "C'mon, Angier. You can stop trying to spare my feelings. You know you want to tell me."

"Nope." Angier shook his head, pulling an imaginary zipper close over his lips, "Nothing even happened. We just talked for a while."

"Oh." Tatum was kind of disappointed now. Yeah, that made her sound like the biggest hypocrite ever, but she wanted to know something about this girl who was literally made for Angier by the Goddess Herself.

"Wasn't she just perfect, though?" She prompted him, leaning closer to his face as they walked past the air-shuttered entryway of the cafeteria, "Didn't she seem like everything you never knew you wanted?"

"Oh, c'mon! Stop goading me!" Angier laughed, shoving her away playfully, "I'm telling you, you'll get the same jitters when you fall for someone the human way. I really didn't see anything special about it."

"Uh huh, then why are you smiling so hard?" She raised a brow in question, grabbing a tray as they took their places in the short queue.

Angier considered his answer for a moment, his smile turning soft as his eyes lost focus and he got a faraway look as if he was dreaming—and to her, that was just a thousand times worse than the Cheshire grin he was sporting a while ago, "Because, I know she's it."

Tatum ignored the way her stomach clenched, smiling her best salacious smile at her lovestruck best friend as she paid the lady behind the counter, receiving both their food, "Ohhhh, now we're talking."

"Anyways," Angier cleared his throat, controlling the grin that was threatening to erupt on his face, "She's gonna come here to HillBridge."

Tatum stumbled for a second as she stopped to place Angier's drink and food on his tray, completely taken aback by this turn of events, "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, since it's only been a week since the year started. And as you know, Alpha Blythe Senior was a big deal around here since he did that youngest doctorate thing back in his days, so he can easily get her in, even if it's sophomore year."

Yeah, 'cause meeting each other on weekends isn't enough.

"Oh." Tatum was appalled at herself for those stray thoughts. Careful, now. She chided herself, Before people start calling you the bitter old lady, "Ohhh, that's . . . awesome!"

Before Angier could comment on how fake that sounded, Tatum hurried forward, walking to the table that was always vacant for them by one of the huge windows with a view of the garden, "Hurry up, someone might take our table!"

Angier didn't bring up the topic of his Mate for the rest of their lunch.

~ * ~

The week it took for Alpha Blythe to get the formalities done and out of the way for Francesca Blythe to finally move here to HillBridge was quite uneventful. Tatum was unsure how to feel about her conflicting thoughts on the subject and decided to just go with the flow. After all, nothing exciting was happening in her life. It wasn't her Mate who was uprooting her whole life just to be able to spend time with her.

Sigh. These days, Tatum felt like a side character in her own life, while Angier and Francesca Blythe seemed to be the hero and heroine who were going to be off in some fairyland falling madly in love.

Goddess, Tatum needed to get a life before some of those thoughts came spilling out.

"Only 24 hours moooore." Angier hummed in a sing-song manner, chuckling quietly under his breath as he sat on his desk on the other side of her room and continued to take notes for his report.

Yes, Angier had his own desk in her room 'cause that's how much time he spent with her.

"So, I guess I'll finally get to move that congesting extra desk and chair to the attic," Tatum commented casually without looking up from her book, leaning back in her own chair and putting her bare-footed legs on the edge of her desk.

"What?" Angier froze, and the genuine shock on his face told her that he hadn't yet considered how his Mate moving here was going to affect their time together, "But—seriously, don't. No, you can't do that!"

"You're telling me that you're still gonna be hanging out around my humble abode, after your Soulmate is moving a coupla hundred miles just for you?" Tatum lifted a challenging brow as she finally lowered her book, letting her head hang against the chair's backrest as she looked at him upside-down.

Angier looked conflicted, "Uh, when you put it like that it sure sounds like I don't care . . ."

"Mm-hm,"

"But—"

"But, what?"

"I've been spending my evenings doing homework here forever! How can you tell me to stop that?"

"Angier." Tatum sat up properly, swinging her legs to the floor as she twisted around, facing him. She now felt bad and cursed her stupid mouth for bringing it up and making him all guilty for when he might probably ditch her, "I was just kidding. Obviously, you can hang out here as long as you want."

Angier looked slightly relieved, and Tatum nodded, turning back to her book. After a few minutes, she subtly looked up the top of her book to check if he was alright and felt even more remorseful when she noticed that small wrinkle in his forehead now marring his always happy features.

"Tell you what, I'll even put an extra cupboard for your things and even a table in my new place when I finally become Alpha and move out next year. Oh wait, I could just give you your own room!" She announced, finally grinning when Angier looked up with a reluctant grin of his own.

"You better." He shook his head, waving his pen at her in a mock-threatening manner. "Oh, speaking of titles, I can't believe you told all those Alphas that I'm gonna be challenging for Beta!"

Tatum raised her eyebrows, looking at him with a clear 'so what' written on her face.

"Tatum!" Angier groused, putting his pen down and rubbing his palms across his face in clear frustration. "I don't want you telling everyone we meet, about it. I promised I'll challenge and yes, that's true. But, I'm not comfortable telling people until I accept the actual title."

Tatum groaned, aggravated as hell as she looked heavenwards, "My Goddess, Angier! How many times should I point it out? You're gonna win that fight even if you were pushed in with your eyes tied!"

"Whatever," He gave her a stubborn look, "I'll proudly announce the whole world that I'm the Beta of Alpha Tatum Karas after I succeed and it actually happens."

"Fine."

"Fine."

There was silence for a while as they both studiously ignored the other person, pretending to be immersed in their work. Tatum felt like chuckling at their childishness and then immediately felt nostalgic as the thought that this might be one of their last few stupid fights, occurred. She looked up, taking in the uncompromising tilt of his jaw for a quick second and looked away. She heard the sounds of pen scratching paper as he wrote down whatever he was writing with way too much vigor than necessary, and Tatum was reminiscing about all the stupid things they partook in as kids, when suddenly, the sound of her mom exclaiming loudly in surprise downstairs jerked her out of her thoughts.

Angier met her eyes in confusion, since there weren't many visitors to the Alpha's house at this time of the evening.

"Alpha Blythe! Come on in!" Her mom said the next moment and Angier jumped up with a huge grin. It took a second for Tatum in denial, to accept what was going on.

It seemed like Angier didn't have to wait for those 24 hours, after all.

Francesca Blythe was here.

~ * ~ 

since internet will only be back on 28th may according to the news, I'm updating early.

cheers. 

thanks for reading! xx

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