Heart of the Alpha

Chapter 2

I slowly made my way down the dark street. I glanced around a few times, hoping I'd be lucky enough to hitchhike a ride or get hit by a car but there was no one in sight. After walking for ten minutes I saw the little liquor store Diego was talking about. As I got closer, I could see a group of people gathered out front in the parking lot.

"You lost?" asked a man when I stepped up on the curb. I shook my head and stepped around him to grab the door. "What's the magic word?" he asked jokingly as he grabbed the door.

"Excuse me please," I said softly. He nodded and winked at his friends before opening the door. It was obvious to him and his friends that I didn't belong here. I rushed inside, hoping to find a clerk stocking shelves or something but no such luck. The store looked deserted. "Hello?" I called out. I walked to the front of the store and called out one more time. "Hello? I need to buy a drink please."

"Yeah, just a sec!" called a voice from somewhere in the store. I patiently waited for a few more moments when two guys came out from a storage room.

"Can I help-" said one of the guys as he stopped and stared at me.

"Can we help you?" asked his friend, nudging him.

"Yes..Um, can I have a bottle of Blue Bane?" I placed the twenty dollar bill on the counter as they stared at me in shock.

"Why would you want to drink that?" asked the guy who forgot how to speak before.

"Oh, sorry...my um..Diego? He said to tell you it was for him."

"Sorry, I don't know who that is," said the other guy. "Jacob and me...we're just filling in. Kind of like a internship."

"Shut up Paul! Who's Diego?" growled the guy his friend called Jacob.

"Um...he's my mom's boyfriend...please...just sell me the bottle," I asked quickly. "I don't have a lot of time."

"You're not old enough to buy it," Jacob said to me nonchalantly. "Whoever wants it can buy it themselves."

My heart sank when he said that. "Look...You don't understand, I need that bottle." I pushed the twenty a few inches closer to Paul and Jacob with my bad arm as they stared at me. "You can even keep the change," I pleaded. I felt a wave of relief when I saw Jacob reach for the money but flinched when he grabbed my arm instead.

"What happened to your arm?" he asked angrily.

"N-nothing," I stammered. I yanked my arm back, trying to rub away the pain and tingles I felt shoot up my arm. I took a step back as he hopped over the counter and stalked towards me. "Please...I just need to buy that and go home," I whispered. I squeezed my eyes closed and flinched as I felt him brush my hair from my neck.

"Who. Did. This?" he gritted through clenched teeth. When I didn't move, I felt his fingers cup my chin and lift my face upward. "Please open your eyes...I promise I won't hurt you." When I still didn't obey him, I felt his other hand stroke my cheek. "Please?"

Slowly, I opened my eyes to see Jacob's deep brown eyes staring at me. "I-" was all I could manage to say before a voice interrupted me.

"Addison, Diego sent me to see what's taking so long." I looked away from Jacob to see Diego's pale skinned friend at the door.

"I, uh...sorry." I quickly pulled away from Jacob. The man glared at Jacob as he grabbed my arm and pulled me to his side.

"Is there a problem?" he asked looking back and forth between Paul and Jacob.

"Yeah, there is," interrupted Paul. "She's not old enough to buy liquor...and someone like her shouldn't be buying Blue Bane."

"Fine, I'll buy it." The man rolled his eyes. I watched as Paul grabbed the bottle and handed it to him. Someone like me? What is that supposed to mean? "Thank you boys," he said before turning around, dragging me with him. He pulled me towards his car and opened the passenger door. "I wouldn't mention any of this to Diego," the man said to me as he slid into the driver seat. "I will tell him that you had to wait for the kids to call the owner."

My head snapped in his direction. "W-why would you lie for me? I don't even know you." Not too long ago, this man looked at me like a piece of meat and now he was going to lie for me.

"My name is Banner. Now you know me.  And because I made Diego a deal, and in order for it to work, I need you in one piece," was all he said to me with a smirk before pulling out of the parking lot.

Jacob's POV

"Dude, what the hell was that?" Paul asked me. "Since when do you care if some underage human buys our kind of drinks? It never bothered you before when they stopped." Paul followed me around the counter and paused. "Oh dude! Wait! Was that...? Is she?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes," I growled out as I turned around to push past him trying to memorize her beautiful scent as it disappeared.

"And you let her leave with a vampire? Are you serious?"

"Come on, you know me better than that. I linked the guys out front to tail the car." I groaned internally. Paul was right, I shouldn't have let my mate leave with a vampire but this store was on neutral land and judging by the way she interacted with us...she didn't know about our kind or our world.

"Do you think he's the one who hurt her?" Paul asked me.

"No...he would've done it here and in the parking lot if it was him but she's afraid of someone," I responded, "and I want to know who." I pulled my phone out and sent a text to my dad. He was going to be mad that me and Paul wouldn't be sticking around for our lesson at working but I'm sure he'd understand. "Okay, I just texted dad and told him we had to leave. Lock up," I ordered Paul and walked out of the store.

"Hey handsome, I've been waiting for your shift to end," said Tiffany as she leaned against my car. "I was thinking we could-"

"No," I interrupted her coldly. "Get off my car." I rolled my eyes at her as she tried to think of something to say to me. Even though we did make plans to hang out, that was before I met my mate.

She stood up straight and looked around at everyone as she blushed with embarrassment. "Sorry Jake-"

"Jacob," I corrected her. I glanced at my phone impatiently. "Come on Paul, let's go!" I yelled as I got into my car, ignoring Tiffany's glare.

"Sorry, I forgot the code to the alarm," laughed Paul as he slid in next to me.

"Finally," I breathed. I peeled out of the parking lot before Paul got his door closed. "The trackers said they're outside her house...in our territory."

"That means she's living with a pack member," Paul said to me.

The drive to the house was short. To avoid being seen, I parked a few blocks away and walked to a line of trees across the way from her house.

"Report," I ordered to the trackers.

"The girl stays here with her mother and her mother's boyfriend." The guard's gaze faltered a bit making my wolf growl. A falter in someone's gaze normally means they're lying or hiding something. He gulped as he continued. "The girl and her mother are humans...but he is surprisingly abusive to his mate and her daughter. When the vampire brought her home, he handed her off to her mother's boyfriend who beat her."

"What!?" I growled. Just as I stood up, I saw the front door open and jumped back behind a tree.

"How long until I can collect her?" I heard a voice ask. I peeked around the tree to see the same vampire from the store talking to a man.

"At the next poker party."

"Remember our deal, she is not to be harmed anymore after tonight."

"I promise that after midnight, she will be left completely untouched. What are you going to do with her anyway?"

"I don't know. Either make her my meal or my mate. I haven't decided yet."

My wolf growled. Meal? Mate? How could he think to claim my rightful mate as his? I watched the men say their goodbyes before calling it a night. Once everyone was gone, I stood up.

"Find out everything about who lives in this house," I ordered. "Follow anyone who leaves at a distance and report back to me or my father.  And when the girl leaves....let me know where she goes."