In The Shadows (Re-written)

-TWO-

Despite all of the female attention, and male attention for that matter, that he received, I'd never heard of Coda taking a partner. I knew he never would take an interest in any of the younger females who were young enough to be his daughter, they were too annoying and immature for him.

Everyone annoyed Coda though, so I guess maybe that was a void argument.

I myself held no interest in the beta, the other females could fight amongst themselves for his non-existent attention and favor all they wanted. I was absolutely petrified of Coda which is why I avoided him as much as possible.

Sometimes he'd come to the house late at night for my father if something happened, but I would always stay in my room because being near him turned me into a bundle of nerves.

Usually the beta wouldn't pay any attention to me and we didn't actually cross paths often despite him being around my father most of the time. I wasn't ever really around my father either, if I was being honest with myself.

Coda's eyes narrowed at me when our gazes connected through the bleachers, but I was too terrified to look away from him. I felt like if I so much as blinked he would have crossed the wide distance between us and ripped out my throat before I had the chance to scream.

I wasn't even sure I was breathing as Coda stared me down like he was peeling back the very layers of everything that made me who I was. He was examining me as if I were a strange, confusing, species.

Perhaps in his eyes I was. A mere human was nothing like the powerful alpha he was. We were the furthest things from each other. Even a real wolf would be able to understand Coda better than I ever could.

I wondered why he was staring at me for so long. Usually Coda wouldn't spare most people more than a glance before his expression said they were beneath him and not worth his time or interest.

Yet here he was, holding my eyes as the seconds passed. His stance was the exact opposite of my rigid posture. Coda appeared relaxed, his arms crossed, and his shoulder pushed against the wall of the shed set behind the bleachers for storing training equipment.

The beta's finger tapped his own bicep slowly and methodically. His heavy brows were pinched together, his jaw tensed.

"Beta." A voice distracted me, and I unfroze, my eyes darting away from Coda and over to the werewolf and his apprentice trotting at his heels, walking around the bleachers over to him. I scrambled to my own feet, not even bothering to dust myself off.

My eyes flicked immediately back over to Coda, wondering why he hadn't responded yet only to see he had never looked away from me.

I took a step back on instinct.

Only after that movement did the beta finally pull his gaze away from me and turn his attention momentarily on the other werewolf and his glowing but obviously nervous apprentice, who was shifting his feet at the sight of his idol.

Coda looked them both up and down, sizing them up in one glance before pushing off of the shed, turning on his heel and leaving without a word.

The werewolf sputtered behind the retreating form of the beta, not expecting to be completely ignored.

My legs trembled violently, and I stumbled back several steps, my one knee buckling and sending me to the ground. I landed on my backside, my hands catching me.

"What in the name of the Moon was that?" I breathed to myself.

I didn't understand in the slightest what had just happened. Coda's very presence didn't even make sense. These sparring rings were the older ones, only ever used when the other ones were full. They were stationed at the edge of our community, right at the tree line unlike the new ones that had been built closer to the center.