The Captured Alpha

Chapter Four

For the next week, I avoided Alistair at every turn.  The moment he entered the dining hall, I would make an excuse to leave; the moment he came outside to the training ground, I would return inside to the safety of my room.  But even in the few moments where we shared the same room, his gaze sent my heart racing and my brain whirling with memories of what had happened.

I even dreamed of him, though I would never have admitted such a fact to anyone.  In my dreams, we were at the same table in the dining hall, only there was no one else in the room except for the two of us.  Each time I awoke, desperate for the touch of his hand and disgusted with sleeping mind for the dreams it brought me.

But I awoke on the morning of my eighteenth birthday with a clear head and a hopeful smile.  Today was the day I could ask another man to be mated to me, or a man could ask my father for his blessing.  Some men had even taken to asking the women directly, but I knew no one would dare approach me without my father's consent for fear of being thrown out of the clan.

Once I am mated, I told myself that morning, He won't have any control over me at all.  I will belong to my mate, my mate will belong to me, and no one will be able to interfere.

The thought made me positively giddy.

I met Emilia in the dining hall that morning; the chairs and tables from the feast had long been cleared away, and we sat on the floor as per the clan's typical customs.  Alistair was, thankfully, nowhere to be seen.

"What a joyous day it is," Emilia said, her eyes shining brightly with excitement.  "Perhaps we should have a little celebration, just the two of us, like we did when we were little?"

I laughed and nodded as I bit down on the sweetbread I had nabbed for breakfast.  "I haven't had a birthday celebration in years," I replied with a smile.  "Though don't make a fuss about it, I don't want anyone saying that we're little children."

As a Shifter, turning eighteen was not a cause for celebration, for children rarely celebrated their birthdays after they turned eight or nine.  It merely meant that I could court and have my mating ceremony, which would then be a celebration in itself.  But it would be fun, I realized, to have a bit of a fun last day with Emilia.  It would almost certainly be the last time we would celebrate such a day together; Emilia was eighteen now as well, and it was likely that we would both be mated by the next year.  We might even be mated to men in different clans, and be miles apart from each other.

The thought made me a bit sad, but Emilia hadn't noticed.  She was impossible to bring down once she was excited.

"So," she prodded, "have you thought about if there is anyone in our clan that you would want to be mated to?"

Oh, I realized.  She is thinking about if I would go off to a different clan somewhere.

I shrugged, popping the last bite of sweetbread in my mouth.  "I haven't thought about it, to be honest.  I suppose that there hasn't been anyone brave enough to try to chase after me before now, given that my father would've murdered them.  But, hey, when is Tristan going to make it official and ask you?"

Emilia blushed and stammered, staring down at her hands as though they had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the room.  "Oh, I don't know," she muttered.  "Tristan is nice, of course, but I don't know if I..."  She buried her face in her hands.

"You don't... You don't want to be mated to him?"  I couldn't even process the thought.  I had always assumed that the two of them would be mated.  Tristan was one of the finest young Shifters in the clan, a powerful beast of a jaguar when he was shifted into his animal form, and certain to become a leader in the army.  But no girls ever bothered approaching him, for they knew that he was in love with Emilia.