ANASTASIA MULBERRY

Anastasia frowned and dropped her eyes, unable to look at him any longer. With his dark brown hair that appeared darker under the low dimmed lights of the den, his deep hazel eyes and strong jaw, she had a hard time paying attention to what he had to say as his looks were far too distracting.

Too bad he was a total asshole.

Despite her informing him of the fact that she was rightfully on pack lands with prior permission from the Beta, it appeared that Alpha Storm wasn't in a very agreeable mood, choosing to bark at her rather than speak to her. As if she was some sort of animal that didn't understand basic instructions.

She couldn't help but snort at the thought as he was far more animal than her.

"What's so funny?" Alpha Storm asked in a deep, throat voice, the sound of it quiet yet forceful as he questioned her, watching her every move and expression.

"Nothing." Anastasia lied quickly, not wanting to anger him anymore than he already was.

If she continued at this rate, she wouldn't be able to live long enough to meet the child she was bringing into the world, especially since she was aware of the short-tempers and anger issues that most Alpha's seemed to suffer from. Not that she would know as this was the first Alpha wolf that she had ever met but rather, this was something her father had mentioned to her a few times.

"What's your name?"

"Human." She rolled her eyes and when he growled at her, she gulped and regretted the attitude immediately.

Now was not the time to crack jokes, not when her life was being threatened by a very angry Alpha who looked like he would be able to squeeze the life out of her with just one arm.

"Don't act smart with me." He warned her with a growl, taking a threatening step closer which caused her take a step back yet lift her chin higher, confusing even herself with her conflictive actions.

"I'm not acting." She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, but immediately uncrossed them as she feared she would resemble a petulant child. "Anastasia."

A moment of silence passed, lasting so long that she had to glance up to make sure that the Alpha had heard her. Much to her surprise, he was staring intently at her, his eyes not even wavering when she stared back at him and held his gaze; not the least bit ashamed for being caught staring so blatantly.

She spied Raphael and Justas watching the exchange with wide eyes, but she was quick to turn her gaze back to the Alpha; still watching her with a neutral, slightly strained expression on his face. Almost as if he was battling his inner self or in this case his wolf.

"Anastasia what?" He mumbled quietly.

"Anastasia Mulberry." She replied in a slight daze, a pleasurable shiver running down her spine and her body tingling at the sound of her name rolling off his tongue, wrapping around each syllable perfectly.

"Anastasia Mulberry." Alpha Storm murmured quietly, reaching a hand up to rub against the underside of his jaw and over his mouth, almost as if he was trying to hide something.

She frowned at that but before she could question him about it, Justas chose that exact moment to inject Raphael and himself into the conversation.

"Alpha." Justas dared to take a step forward as he addressed the Alpha, pausing to clear his throat before he continued. "I asked permission from Beta Dalton before about Anastasia being on pack lands."

"But you didn't ask me." Alpha Storm snapped back almost immediately, glancing back at the two from over his shoulder, his hard, defined body still facing her.

Anastasia took the moment to shake such thirsty thoughts from her mind and instead, turned her focus on her friends. She couldn't help but frown at Justas' words as she was a firm believer of only taking the fall if they had done something wrong whereas in this situation, it was a simple case of miscommunication. Also, it wasn't as if her presence in the pack was causing any issues so she didn't understand why the Alpha had chosen to make it his business when they were so many other things that he could turn his attention to. Like leading the pack.

"Sorry, Alpha." Justas bowed his head with a grim look on his face, his cheeks heating slightly for the shortcoming on his part. "This is my fault. I should have run this by you instead of going to the Beta."

"Yes, you should have." His lips stretched into a thin like as he turned his head to face her again, looking down at her from under hooded eyes as he towered over her modest height of five-foot-six by at least eight or nine inches, putting him at around six-foot-three.

He was tall, even by werewolf standards.

"If you still want me to leave then I can leave, even though I do have permission from Beta Dalton." Anastasia pursed her lips and resisted the urge to roll her eyes even though that was all what she wanted to do as well as cuss him out for such a foul attitude.

Instead, she kept her less than pleasant thoughts to herself in hopes of cutting this moment short and getting away from the big bad wolf. Even if a small part of her wanted nothing more than to press herself as close to him as possible.

She had to shake her head to rid herself of such thoughts, almost fearful that he would somehow be able to tap into what she was thinking even though she knew it was impossible, even for supernatural creatures.

"Well, do you want me to leave or not?" Anastasia groaned as she threw her hands up in the air in frustration, already tired of what this back and forth was.

When he didn't answer her but instead chose to assess her silently with a strange glint in his eyes and a slight twitch at the corners of his lips, she was sure that he was laughing at her despite looking as if he wanted to personally throw her out of the pack a few moments ago, pregnant or not.

"It's unfortunate that Beta Dalton doesn't run the Lupum Griseo pack, isn't it?" A sarcastic chuckled passed his lips, his hazel eyes turned into a dark ember colour, bordering on gold, the longer he assessed her as if she was some sort of code which he couldn't crack.

She took great satisfaction in that but refused to show it.

"Yes, very unfortunate."

Alpha Storm growled loudly at the same time Raphael gasped and Justas took another daring step forward, followed by a few more timid ones until finally, he was stood between both her and the Alpha.

"Alpha, I apologise on Anastasia's behalf. Her hormones have been all over the place lately so she's not really thinking straight. She's usually not this rude." Justas apologised quietly, silently begging the Alpha to go easy on them all.

Her jaw threatened to drop over with what she was hearing but before she could jump to defend herself and deny those silly accusations, Raphael shook his head frantically, silently begging her to keep quiet. However, it was too late for that now.

"My hormones are perfectly fine, thank you!" She huffed and rolled her eyes, this time not bothering to hide how annoyed and frustrated she was with the situation. "And there's also nothing wrong with my manner of thinking."

Justas gulped but didn't bother to spare her a glance back and instead, continued addressing the Alpha in a respectful tone.

"I'm sorry, Alpha. She doesn't mean that." He chuckled awkwardly. "But would it be okay if Anastasia stuck around for a while? You see-" He tried to explain but he was cut off before he could continue.

Anastasia snorted and shook her head before bracing her hands on her hips, her position mirroring that of the Alpha's.

As if she would want to stick around now!

"I'll leave, but you don't have to be rude about it or put up this big charade." She craned her head to glance at the Alpha from over Justas' shoulder, only an inch or two shorter from the glowering wolf.

"There's no charade." Alpha Storm stated simply, a bored expression on his face though his lips continued tugging at the corners which confused her immensely; unable to decipher whether he was bored of the conversation or was poking fun at her.

Her money was on the latter.

"I would appreciate a heads-up next time you decide to let a stranger onto pack lands." Alpha Storm pursed his lips as he informed them, making a point of turning his pointed gaze on the wolf and ignoring the human.

"I'll keep that in mind, Alpha. Sorry about that. It won't happen again. I give you my word." Justas exhaled in relief, his shoulders relaxing as the Alpha appeared to have calmed down now, though the same could not be said about Anastasia who was absolutely fuming, almost certain that she had turned red in the face.

The Alpha hummed in response, evidently satisfied with his response however, Anastasia was nowhere near done.

"Why did the Beta not inform you of this?" She huffed as she moved to the side so Justas was no longer standing between them both, choosing to fight her own battles since it was evident that neither Justas or Raphael were able to stand their ground the Alpha – especially since the latter had barely spoke a word this whole time. However, that was expected as they were both pack wolves and this was simply the dynamics of a pack.

"What did you say?" Alpha Storm asked in a quiet yet equally menacing voice.

"You heard what I said."

"I've decided to let you stay, so don't push your luck."

"After the way you've treated me, there's no way that I'm sticking around." She snarled at him, her lip curling up in a mixture of distaste and pure rage.

"Very well, then." The Alpha announced in a dark voice. "I'll see you out myself." He moved back and held his arm out, gesturing for her to lead the way.

Anastasia rolled her eyes, grabbed her jacket and stormed past him. Once she reached the stairs, she glanced over her shoulder to find that he was following from a safe distance. As she glanced behind him, Raphael and Justas watched her closely, both with a mixture of apologetic and unsure expressions on their faces.

While she wasn't explicitly mad at them as she understood how things worked at the pack – the Alpha sat on his shiny throne at the top while all the pack members bent over backwards to tend to his every need, want and desire – she knew that she was only annoyed in the moment. After a cup of hot chocolate and some time spent in front of her laptop working on her book, she would make sure to give them both a call to ensure them that everything was fine and she wasn't mad at them but for now, she needed both time and space to let off some steam.

"Changed your mind?"

"You wish." She snorted before turning back to face away from him and continue storming out of the den, through the living and finally, out of the pack house.

It was only when she reached her car that Anastasia turned around. Now without Raphael and Justas watching her every move and trying to censor her, she was free to get everything off her chest.

While she may regret this in the morning, in the moment, she didn't care. All that mattered was that she gave the pompous Alpha Storm a piece of her mind and put him in his place by letting him know exactly what she thought of him; that he was a jackass with a foul attitude and an even fouler mouth.

"You know, Justas and Raphael are always saying so many good things about you. They painted you to be this perfect Alpha who treats the pack with respect and cares for everyone but looking at you right now, I don't see any of that. You're really made yourself look like a complete asshole!" She paused to take a breath, her chest moving up and down rapidly with how worked up she had become but still he remained silently, opting to watch her silently instead as if she was both the most interesting and the most annoying person in the world.

"If you continue on with this horrible, foul attitude of yours, you will soon lose the respect of your pack members so for your sake, I hope you can change. And fast."

"And what makes you think that I care about what you have to say?"

Anastasia huffed. "I don't care if you care or not. I've said my piece and now I'll be on my way."

"Is that all?"

"Yes." She answered but then quickly changed her mind. "Why are you so prejudiced against humans anyway?"

"I'm not prejudiced against humans." Alpha Storm denied as a deep frown settled on his face.

"It sure seems like you are."

"Well, then I suggest you best be going. You don't want to run into any creatures on your way home now, do you?"

"Is that a threat?"

The Alpha only hummed in response before he began slipping off his jogging bottoms. She barely had time to recognise what he was doing before she turned her back on him, very quickly realising he wasn't wearing any underwear.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She screeched loudly, her hands fisted tight around her car keys, unsure of what to do next.

"Making sure you leave." He followed up his words with the cracking of his bones and when she finally turned around to face him, she was met with a wolf instead of the human that had previously been towering over her, not that the wolf wasn't big enough to intimidate her with his height, size and general ferocity.

The fact that she could tell her was glaring at her even in wolf form didn't help matters.

When the wolf howled at her, Anastasia huffed before she turned around again but this time, she slipped into her car and started on the engine. She didn't waste any time as she peeled out of the parking space and began driving out of the pack, making sure to glance out of the corner of her eyes every few seconds as the Alpha ran alongside her, more than capable of speeding past her car if he wished to but instead, opting to mock her by keeping up; never allowing himself to wonder out of her line of sight.

The longer she stared at him, the more she realised that she had seen this wolf before, him being the very same wolf that had been standing outside her kitchen window that very morning.

A shiver ran down her spine and she couldn't help but shudder in response, not sure if she should be scared, worried or angry. Gulping in hopes of swallowing the rock in her throat, Anastasia forced herself to stare ahead a she continued driving.

It was only when she was finally off pack lands that she allowed herself to glance back, locking eyes with the Alpha wolf who sat on the borders of the pack, watching her carefully, almost as if he expected her to go back on her word and turn the car around.

She rolled her eyes at the thought and continued driving, eager to get home after the day she had just had.

Anastasia had never met such an infuriating man in her life and if she never saw him again, it would be far too soon.

-

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Layla Knight

12.10.2020