Being powerful is like addiction. You thrive at the fear of others who shiver like a leaf in front of you. The surge one gets when others bow in front of you. Valerie was used to all this, being a powerful alpha of a strong pack. What she was not used to was someone else taking charge and making decisions for her.

Being the Alpha she was the doer but the incident in the morning left her stunned and astounded. The way Cayden took control of the situation was both overwhelming and arousing for her. She was restless for the whole morning and hence decided to cool it down by doing vigorous work out and sweating.

Her morning was chaotic and tensed. The matter with the killing of one of her best tracker by the hunters was a major pressing issue. And now the fact that Cayden took charge of the decisions of her pack was also bothering her.

She was running on the treadmill with earphones plugged. She did not hear the footsteps of intruder that was walking towards her. The person who entered the gym tried to gain her attention by calling her name but due to high volume of the songs that were playing she was unable to hear him despite her werewolf hearing.

So the person decided to stand in front of her to gain her attention. Valerie gasped when she saw Ryder standing in front of her. She stopped playing the music.

"When did you come?" She asked irritated with herself for being so reckless.

"Can we talk?" Ryder asked.

Valerie did not like the tone with which he was talking with her. She stopped the treadmill and descended from it. She grabbed the towel to wipe the sweat and drank water from her bottle.

She then looked towards Ryder unimpressed. "I don't like the way you talk with me. I am an Alpha of this pack and you are a beta and I expect respect. Learn your position."

Ryder just nodded and made no effort to apologise. Valerie's pride was wounded due to the morning incident and her beast was also feeling restless but she curbed her desire to punch Ryder in the face.

"What is it?" She asked irately.

"Look Valerie...." He started but Valerie growled in warning.

"It is Alpha for you. You will respect me. You are standing on the land that I own."

But Ryder did not deter from the way he was looking at her and neither did he make any effort to rectify his mistake. That irritated her and she grinded her teeth in anger. She moved aside and started walking towards exit.

"I wanted to talk with you." Ryder spoke from behind.

"When you will learn to give proper respect to me I will take some time out to listen to you." She retaliated.

"You are not my alpha." Ryder said.

"And Cayden is not Jason's alpha yet he pays his respects." Valerie replied still not looking towards him.

"My alpha is one of the toughest Alphas out there. He is not someone like you, who allowed my alpha to take decisions for her own pack like it happened this morning."

That did the trick and Valerie spun around and looked towards him with fire in her eyes. She was in front of him in a flick of an eye.

"Behind you is a sparing corner. If you have enough guts to beat me in a fight then come and show me what you have got to boast like this."

Ryder scoffed and took a step ahead. "I don't beat weaker sex."

Valerie growled and grasped his neck in vise grip. "You are forgetting your place." She spat.

Ryder tried to knee her in the gut but she blocked the attack and scoffed. "Like I said you are forgetting your place."

She let go of his neck and said. "You are a petty beta. I can kill you in a second. Don't cross me again."

"I am sorry for showing pettiness. I just wanted to see with my own eyes the fire that everyone is talking about." Ryder replied.

"You did it on purpose?"

"Yes and I am sorry alpha."

Valerie looked unimpressed towards him and asked. "Who are you to test my capabilities? I will let go of this for this time. After all you are a guest here." When Ryder did not say anything she continued "You wanted to say something to me?"

"Yes I do."

And that is how Ryder explained everything to Valerie about Scarlet and how he forced Cayden to take Scarlett as his partner to make Valerie jealous.

When Valerie did not say anything Ryder coaxed her for a reply but she took a step back spun around and exit the gym leaving a confused Ryder behind.

When she reached her pack house she was fuming in anger. She climbed the stairs to enter her room and took a shower to cool herself down. After showering when she descended stairs to enter the hall, she found her mother conversing with a female who was oozing authority. She was in her late forties and was beaming happily. They were sitting on the couch conversing while sipping coffee. Genesis was sitting beside them engrossed in her phone.

"Mum?" She called her mother to gain her attention. Both the ladies looked towards her at same time.

"Is that her?" The other woman asked merrily. Valerie looked confused from her mother to the lady. When she looked towards Genesis, she found her smirking.

"Yes she is." Her mother replied proudly.

From out of corner a girl came rushing by and looked excitedly towards the women and asked. "Is she Valerie, mum?"

When the woman nodded her head, the girl squealed excitedly and took Valerie in a bone crushing hug. Genesis laughed looking at her sister's horrorstruck features and Valerie groaned. She pushed the girl back to put some distance between them. She ignored the girl and asked her mother.

"Can you explain what is going on?"

Her mother sighed at her lack of enthusiasm and stood up to walk in front of Valerie. "The woman here is Cristina Smith, former luna of Mystic Moon pack and mother of Cayden. This sweet girl is Michelle Smith, Cayden Smith's younger sister. They just arrived here few hours ago. The former alpha Jack Smith has gone out to look at the progress of the construction with Cayden."

Valerie nodded. "Welcome to Stalwart Warriors pack. I am Valerie Jackson, alpha of this pack."

Cristina got up from her seat and embraced Valerie. She let go of her and said. "I know that but the important thing is you are also my son's mate."

Valerie did not reply to that and looked towards her mother. "Have you seen Dmitri or Alexei?"

Cristina looked confused towards Jennifer with raised eyebrows and Jennifer just shook her head in disappointment and sighed.

Before Jennifer could reply anything a male with powerful aura entered the hall that was the spitting image of Cayden just some years older to him. When he saw Valerie standing, he reached to her and took his hand out for a shake.

"Jack Smith former Alpha of Mystic Moon. You must be Valerie Jackson the alpha and my son's mate."

Valerie nodded and said. "Welcome here. I hope you are settling well. If you all will excuse me, I have some pack business to see to."

"I would like to join you." Cayden said.

"You can Alpha but refrain from making decisions for my pack. Don't repeat what you did today morning. You were way out of line."

"I was trying to protect you." He snapped.

"How? If I may ask?" Valerie retaliated back.

Cayden's family looked confused towards the quarreling couple. They expected to see a couple madly in love with each other but instead they saw two alphas at each other's throat.

"You are taking potion to weaken your wolf. Autumn informed me. That was not a wise decision." Cayden raised his voice in frustration.

Valerie got irritated and angry at Autumn. She looked in anger towards Cayden. "I would not have taken it, if you would not have played games with me like for example taking Scarlett as your fake partner to make me jealous. That was real immature of you Cayden."

She stormed out in anger leaving confused people behind. Cayden groaned and then looked towards Jennifer in frustration.

"Why is she so stubborn?" Jennifer did not reply anything and avoided looking towards him. "I am telling you Mrs. Jackson someday I will mark her as mine whether she likes it or not. My wolf is losing control and I am losing my mind"

Saying that he too left the pack house and ran behind Valerie to stop her and talk some sense into her.

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