The Mating Season (Chase Me, Dear Alpha REWRITE)

☽☾ Hotel Blues ☽☾

"I love you, Pops. Take care of Gray."

I disengaged myself from his arms and marched toward the idling white van. Just as I was approaching, Alpha Daniel was passing me and caught me by arm, pulling me close as he lowered his mouth to my ear.

"Don't forget what we talked about Marcel," He muttered lowly. "If you fuck with the reputation of this pack-,"

"The last I checked, Alpha Daniel," I snatched my arm forcefully from his hold. "I won't belong to your pack in three days. As far as I'm concerned, in three days, you can kiss my ass and I'll even hold up my dress for you!"

His eyes were aflame as I swept by him and boarded the van. What the hell was I saying?! If I did make it out of the Mating Season...this man was going to have my head on pike and dance with it. Inside the warm van, I took my seat next to Khadra who looked at me curiously.

"What was that all about?" Khadra inquired and I shook my head.

"Alpha Dickhead, being his usual dickheaded-ness."

I raised the thermos to my lips when Khadra suddenly snatched the thermos from me and I let out a cry of anguish as she tipped the cup back and took in a huge gulp before her chocolate brown eyes flew open and she grunted, thrust the thermos back at me before coughing and hissing.

"Hot! Hot!" She whimpered, nursing her aching mouth.

"What the fuck, Khadra!" I snapped, holding my thermos away from her as I glared at her with contempt. "You just committed a form of brutality, assault in the first degree, on my fucking coffee!"

"I'm a little on edge, Marcel, I thought you might have something in there that would help!" Khadra sniffed. I blanched.

"At six in the morning?! Are you crazy!?" I whisper yelled. "You've lost speaking rights until I've finished my coffee."

"Marce-," Khadra groaned but I raised my hand, lifting my thermos back to my mouth to savor my morning nectar. "Who even drinks it that sweet...psycho..."

"If you can't taste the diabetes, you aren't doing it right, now hush," I told her, closing my eyes as I felt the van jerk forward, commencing our journey to the neutral territory.

It was late when we finally hit the neutral territories and stopped for the evening in Illinois. According to the shuttle drivers, we were on a tight schedule and had made great timing, arriving at just past 11 pm in Chicago, making for over a 16-hour drive from Rhode Island. We had made very few, brief pit stops for refueling and were required to go to the bathroom.

We had reservations at a nice hotel in a big city (that wasn't Chicago.) Big cities gave me anxiety, and I was worried if all went wrong I would be mated off to somebody from Crimson Timber and possibly live in a big and busy state like California...however, I was curious to know what the West Coast looked like.

Being able to stretch my legs after the ridiculously long drive felt like heaven on my muscles as I exited the van and reached my hands toward the sky with a satisfying squeal. I felt Khadra groan behind me as she clambered out of the van to stand by me and withdrew her phone, the white light casting a glow over her face.

"I imagine when we hit Central Point we'll fall back an hour," Khadra mumbled, flicking through her social media quickly before locking her phone and facing me. "Let's get checked in. I'm sure you're going to want to talk to your dad and brother and let them know we stopped."

"Yeah," I sighed, watching as she slung her overnight back across her shoulder and breezed into the hotel.

It was almost hard to believe that the same girl that foamed at the mouth at the mere mention of the Mating Season was now...accepting defeat. It sickened me what this did to strong-willed women.