The Pack’s Alpha Chapter 8: Piper

After breakfast, Yorick grabs our trays and throws them away before taking my hand as we wait for our new… are they friends? I’ve never had friends before. Being an Alpha female isn’t exactly conducive to having friends unless they are other Alphas. Women are either intimidated by your status or want to use it to help themselves. It’s hard to find someone who genuinely wants to befriend you because of the person you are. My exposure to other Alphas was limited to Stellan and his family, and he doesn’t have any sisters.

Yorick, on the other hand, seems to have accepted our new friends easily. Maybe it’s because he comes from such a large family, or maybe it’s just different for Alpha males, but he seems willing to accept all three of our classmates at face value. We start our tour with the classroom area. Here, there is an auditorium that looks like it can seat more than the students who attend school here.

“Maybe this is where they hold graduation ceremonies?” Landon says.

“Does anyone know if they do expos? Maybe they invite others in to showcase our skills. Maybe headhunters or others looking for warriors,” Zach says.

“That’s a good thought. An elite academy like this would want to make sure that their students were all well placed after graduation.”

“And not everyone goes all four years. Most don’t make it that long. I’m pretty sure there are only thirty upperclassmen at the Academy,” Piper says.

“I wonder if that’s a choice or if they weren’t hired by someone on the outside,” Yorick says as we look around.

Beyond the auditorium, there are much smaller classrooms. This is what I was expecting to find, and since there are only twenty of us, we’ll all be in classes together.

“Have you met any of the others?” Piper asks me.

“No. We saw some when we were jogging this morning, but I have no idea if they are first years, upperclassmen, or even professors.”

“Hey, um, I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I know for me, as an Alpha female, I never really had any friends. I’m the only female in my family, and honestly, I’ve spent enough time with Alpha males to never want to spend any more time with one. I don’t know if it was the same for you, but maybe we could be friends?” she asks.

“It is the same for me. So I’ll tell you, I don’t really know much about being a good friend, but I’d love to be your friend.”

“We can learn together, and I’d say friends eat together, study together, maybe go out to bars together? I’d say we could go searching for hot guys, but you’ve already found your own Alpha hottie, so that’s off the table,” she says.

“We could still go, but I’m guessing Yorick won’t want me to go without him since I’m not wearing his mark,” I tell her. He’s already leaving marks on me just being around the others on campus. I can’t imagine how he’d feel about me going to a bar with Piper, where there were lots of unmated males and alcohol.

“And maybe when you and I start developing that bond, you can tell me what’s so complicated about letting Alpha Hottie mark you.”

I look over at Yorick, who smiles and winks at me. It’s not hard to see that I’m the hold out, not him.

“Ever heard of an alliance bond?” I ask her.

She sucks in air. “Oh, fuck me! Are you serious?”

“Yep. My father signed it a year ago. I applied here to give myself more time, but… that’s the complication.”

“And you don’t think your dad would reconsider now that you’ve found your mate? Why am I asking stupid questions? If he cared about you finding your mate, he wouldn’t have signed the agreement before you were old enough to have found him.”

“Ding, ding, ding!” I say.

“I can’t stand this misogynistic culture that we live in. I mean, why do only sons get to take over packs? Why are we expected to give up our titles when we mate with an Alpha, or any ranked member? And goddess forbid that OUR mates aren’t ranked. Even a Gamma for me would have been deemed too low for my family, but my brothers could be mated to an omega and that is perfectly fine,” she says.

I turn and stare at her.

“What? I said too much, didn’t I? I’m sorry. I have a terrible inability to filter what comes out of my mouth. And I have a horrible potty mouth too. It comes from being around a house full of boys my whole life.”

I begin to smile as I listen to her.

“I think you and I are going to get along great,” I tell her.

“Really?”

“Yeah. You’re exactly right about our culture and I love someone who is honest.”

“Honest to a fault,” she says, self-deprecatingly.

“Is it a fault when it’s honesty?” I ask her.

She smiles a big smile that brightens her entire face. She’s a beauty in the way that all Alpha females are. Males aren’t the only ones who are extremely attractive in our society. The females are considered gorgeous as well. I’ve never really looked at myself that way, but it’s hard not to see it in Piper. She has long red hair and blue eyes. Her coloring is striking and easily makes her stand out in a crowd.

As we move to the next building, she links arms with me, and we let the guys walk ahead of us as we talk. I notice that Yorick keeps his eye on me, making sure I’m okay, which is really sweet. I can’t ever remember a time when Stellan was this in-tune with me.

“So, do you even like the guy that you’re being forced into a mate bond with?” she whispers to me as we walk into the next building.

I look at her. “I wouldn’t be here if I thought he was for me.”

“A good point,” she says as both of us stop and gasp.

“What is this?” she asks, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I’m guessing this is the indoor training facility,” Zach says, as he climbs into what looks like a boxing ring in the middle of the room. Everywhere around us there are weights and weight benches, punching bags, speed bags, and every possible piece of equipment you could use to build someone’s strength.

I pull away from Piper, looking over all of the equipment.

“Uh, is this level of equipment an Alpha thing, because I didn’t have this available to me back home,” Landon says.

We all look at each other, shaking our heads. This is the crème de la crème of a training facility.

As I watch, Yorick jumps up, grabbing a pull up bar and begins doing pull ups. I feel my mouth go dry and my panties dampen as he lifts his legs at a ninety-degree angle and then easily continues doing pull ups. I can’t tear my eyes away as I watch the muscles in his back and arms ripple with his movements.

“You might want to look away. This room isn’t conducive to hiding the scent of arousal, if you know what I mean,” Piper whispers to me as she walks by.

“Thanks,” she says.

“But for—yeah, he is,” Piper says. He’s just reinforcing the Alpha Hottie title.

I walk through the room, looking around and find another door. I look through the glass window, then open the door and step in.

“What’s in that room, Cyra?” Zach calls out.

“It looks like a stretching room,” I say, seeing that one whole wall has a ballet bar. As I walk through the room, there is once again a myriad of machines, bands, inversion chairs, and other equipment that can be used to help someone stretch. Most of the floor in the center of the room is covered with mats.

Because there is space here, I lean over, kicking my legs in the air in a one-handed handstand. I hold the pose for a moment, then let my legs split wide, slowly lowering myself to the floor in a split.

I hear a low growl behind me and turn to see Yorick staring at me from the doorway, his eyes much darker than usual. “That was sexy as fuck,” he says.