THE MATE THE ALPHA NEVER CHOSE

TYLER

"Man, just apologise," said Johnny, crouching beside me on the porch. "Enid is a girl... they bitch all the time. It's their thing."

I took the cold beer from his hands. "I'm certain that's a sexist thing to say."

"All hail thee. All thine knowledge of equality and you still can't stay with a girl for more than a month." He took the beer back from me. "Man, I don't know. You probably need therapy or some shit like that."

You know what was funny? While no one could notice, I was fucking boiling inside as Johnny said all this. No, I wasn't pissed off... I could take a joke. What infuriated me wasn't what Johnny said to me. Come on. We had been friends since we were kids. We did everything together. It wasn't that.

What hurt me was that he was speaking the truth. Before I got with Enid, I dated Laurel. Before Laurel, I dated another girl who happened to be named Laurel too. Before the first Laurel, I had a thing with a girl called Windinya... and yes, that was her name. Before Windiya, there was Stacy. After Stacy was Susan, and then came the sassy Brooke. Sadly, the list went on and on till my time at high school.

Apart from Brooke, who was just a terrible person, the rest were pretty good. More than I deserved, if you asked me or anyone else with a functioning brain. What was quite sad on all their parts was that they liked me. Most of them cried when I told them it was over. Now, unlike what Johnny would have me believe, it wasn't just because of my looks. Like the last one said, "You're really hot but you're not all that." Then she proceeded to shed tears.

I knew why they all felt bad. It wasn't only because they were in love and didn't want to end what they thought we had. It was also because it didn't make any sense to them. It was as though one moment we were fine, and the next, I was telling them it was best we stopped seeing each other. It was a very unpleasant thing to witness. For real, it was. Though I was the perpetrator, even I couldn't deny that it wasn't the easiest thing to witness.

As Johnny would say, 'You're a kind man, but what you're lacking is a heart'. But he was wrong. At least, in a way, he was. I had a heart and it was as delicate as the next person you would see. Yes, I had a heart. Even if it was confused, sad, lonely, and hidden. It was a heart anyway.

"Come on, man. Pull yourself together and get your girl. Enid is a very good girl."

I shrugged, looking away from him. "Johnny, I don't know. I have never said she wasn't a decent girl. Besides, maybe that's the issue in itself. Maybe I don't need a good girl. Maybe I need someone who would rip me apart. Like to shreds or something."

"Oh, that's sexy. There's it right there! You're finally talking dirty... I love it. If Enid isn't giving you that, it's alright to dump her ass. You have my full support."

I shook my head at him. "No, Johnny. That's not what I meant. I mean, not even close. I don't know how you got there. When I said that, I meant it literally. I don't need a girl now, but if I'm getting one, then she better be the end of me."

Johnny didn't say anything for about a minute though he didn't take his stare from my face. "You see, sometimes I'm convinced you need to be seeing a therapist. Sorry, one is not sufficient. You need a dozen therapists 'cause something is wrong with that head of yours. I don't need a fucking degree to see it."

You wanna know what was funny? No one- now, I meant no fucking person- understood me. I always had this feeling that there was this hole inside of me that nothing and no one could ever fill. That no one could ever fill no matter how hard they tried. It was pointless talking to anyone about it. Whenever I tried talking to people about how I felt, they would say something like 'happened to me too', 'happens to me all the time', or the worst, 'it will get better'. So in other words, nothing helpful.

"Pick it up, man," Johnny said, pointing at my phone which was ringing. It was Enid.

My goodness. I didn't have the time for this. Not now, at least.

"Hey, babe," I heard myself saying.

"Hi, Tyler," she started. "Look, I don't want this to be us anymore. I know we can be more than this."

Enid's voice was lower than usual and it sounded like she had been crying.

She continued. "I'm sorry, Tyler. I think it's my fault. I always say or do the wrong thing and don't even realise when I do." She paused and drew in a deep breath. "I want us to be better. I swear I'm serious this time. You might not see it, but I'm trying. I try so hard."

"Maybe that's the problem."

"Tyler, what do you mean?"

Here it goes.

I didn't know why I was nervous. Breaking up with girls was my thing at this point being that it was pretty much all I did in the last two years.

"Enid, you're a very nice girl. Any guy would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend. But as you said, you're trying so hard. I see it too."

"Where are you going with this, Ty?"

"I mean, if it's meant to be you wouldn't have to try so hard. Look, what I'm saying is that I think we should end this. To save both of us quality time, let's end it now. I have made up my mind."

She hung up. Something about it felt permanent. I knew she really liked me, but something about that moment gave me a somewhat comforting assurance that we wouldn't be seeing much of each other. We were both better off without each other. The sex was great... no argument there. Everything else? Well, not so much.

Johnny smacked his lips, his head shaking as he looked at me. "You broke up with yet another girl for no reason. You are winning life."

"Johnny, I don't like that this always happens. It doesn't matter whether you believe me or not."

"You're a mess."

"You think I don't know?"

"Just a friendly reminder, brother."

My phone rang and it was Darrel Walters. Oh, dear.

As he spoke to me, it took me mustering every fiber of my being to not lose consciousness. You know, it was one of those times that I wondered whether I wasn't dreaming. Well, this time I did more than just wonder. I hoped I was dreaming.

"Who was it, Ty?" Johnny inquired. "You look like you just saw a naked old ghost."

"It was Darrel. Darrel fucking Walters."

"What did that old man have to say?"

I exhaled and left my face buried in my hands. "He said they have located another Green Eye."

"What? Like for real? Is that even possible? There can't be more than one Green Eye." Johnny looked at me more directly, his stare not leaving me for even a second. "I take it that he said a little more than that."

"Yes, he did. He said that there was a good chance that every werewolf will die and we don't have time on our side. You know Darrel just as much as I do. If he said that..."

"Then he meant it," Johnny said, finishing my sentence.

ADA

Alex said he loved me last night. It wasn't the first time he said it but something about the way he said it last night hit differently. He looked into my eyes, his hands dug deep in his pocket, as he said the three words people seemed to find magical.

"I love you," he said last night. "I have never said this to anyone before. Look, I know people see me as a fuck boy or whatever, but I would like... I would hope that you see me differently. I love you and I'm not saying it for you to say it back. I just wanted you to know that I love you."

I didn't say anything to him. But, really, was there anything to say? I mean, I did fancy him. Love? Man, I don't know.

Right now, we were at my parents' house. We came to stay for the weekend because they asked me to. Alex was a colleague at my workplace and we kinda had a thing for each other. We had worked together for almost a year before we started fucking and almost another year before it became official and not just a let's-fuck-in-my-apartment sort of thing.

He held on to my waist, his hands cupping my butt as we both laid on the bed. "I think this dress looks great on you. For real, I do."

"Hmm. Where is this going?"

"But I'm certain you will look better without it."

I brushed his hands off my waist, chuckling. "We're at my parents' place, remember? You can't be banging me when my room is just next to theirs."

"Well, they better be happy I'm taking care of their 'little angel' who's surprisingly a lot to handle."

"Hello," I let out after picking up Danielle's call.

"Hey, girl. I didn't want to call you but I had to," she said, her voice was shaky and quavering and I struggled to make sense of the words she spewed.

"Are you sure you're alright? You sound unwell. Is everything okay?"

She paused before speaking. "Okay, this is what... this is what happened. Some three men came looking for you at my apartment. I don't know why, but they thought you lived with me. Ada..." Her voice seemed to be even lower than usual and that was saying something. "They wanted to hurt you. I swear, I could see it in their eyes."

I took a deep breath. "Danielle, it will be fine. Have you been drinking? Look, even if this happened, it's probably that bitch at work who didn't like that I got promoted. I told you Linda was desperate. I feel sad for her."

"Shut the hell up," Danielle yelled out. "It's not Linda. These people weren't normal at all. They were... their eyes were red."

"Oh, so they weren't sleeping well? So dangerous."

"Sorry. They were black, not red. I promise they were red. No, I mean black. Definitely black."

I look down at Alex who was looking at me in a way I knew just too well. "You know what, Danielle? I will call you back, girl. Just chill out. You know you shouldn't be drinking after all you went through in the past year."

I hung up before her drunk ass said anything else. Danielle was my favourite person in the world, but she had issues with drinking. One more drunk and driving strike and she would be in prison.

"Is Danielle okay?" Alex asked as soon as I got off the phone.

"I wish I could say it was all good. I think she has had one too many glasses of white wine. As always."

Alex's left hand slowly made its way between my thighs and into my panties. "I think it's best we take our mind off things. I have an idea."

"You say this every time, and somehow, this idea ends with both of us butt naked."

He shrugged. "My Dad used to say that when the idea is good enough, one is all you need."

"Now I see why your Dad had ten kids."

I let out a moan as Alex slipped two fingers inside me. He brought his lips to my stomach and started kissing me there, slowly going upward.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered in my ears, two of his fingers still inside me.

I tried to say something but no words could come out. How could I when his gentle fingers did everything right?

"Say it. Say you want me."

I wrapped my legs around his waist, exhaling as he sucked on my nipples. "I want you. I want you now."

I craved that feeling, you know. That feeling of being dominated. Of course, I loved it only in the bedroom. I loved when he dominated me. His lean body pushed its weight down on me and his hardened penis drove into me. You couldn't convince me there was a better feeling than that.

"Damn. You're so tight down there." Alex said after pulling out.

I let out a chuckle. "Alex, you say this all the time."

"It's the truth, babe."

"Ada!" Mum called out from her room. "Your Dad and I need to speak with you. Come right now."

Alex had a goofy smile on his face. "They must have heard us banging."

I shook my head. "No way. Even if they did, they wouldn't give a little f*ck."

As I walked into the room, I noticed Mum and Dad seemed very worried. For some reason, it made me think about my time in high school. You see, my Mum and Dad loved me, but I was a constant source of worry to them as a kid. Right from my childhood, I had been a pain in both of her asses and I did cause them a great load of sadness. Now that I was all grown up, I wished I didn't do a lot of the things I did. I mean, if I wasn't fighting in class, I was vandalising school property, or setting my wardrobe on fire, or setting theirs too ablaze. Puncturing car tyres, being rude in the name of growing up- the list was very long. So, yes. I was quite a stubborn kid.

Still, I had a great relationship with my parents. It had always been the three of us. As a little family of three, we did everything together. I remember how we celebrated Thanksgiving or Valentine's day- for other celebrations, we would often invite other people. But for those two, we would always be alone and I cherished those little memories of Mum and I cracking up at Dad's jokes- which were, mind you, the most basic 'dad' jokes you could ever hear.

Now looking at them with worry written all over their faces, everything just came back. It was as though I hadn't just walked into their room, but into the past too.

"Dad. Mum. Is everything alright?"

Mum forced out a smile, leading me to sit on the bed with them. "Darling, it's all good. At least, it will be."

Dad turned to Mum, barely able to look at me. "Do you want to tell her, or should I?"

I couldn't take my eyes off them. I have never seen them this worried and that spoke volumes because my teenage years weren't the best. "Tell me what? I'm getting really worried now. What's it?"

Mum rubbed her left eyebrow, her other hand fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "I don't know how to say this, Ada. We should have told you earlier, but the truth is, we hoped we never got to tell you. We hoped... you know, that you would live a life without knowing this part of yourself. This part of the world."

I held her right hand and gave it a soft squeeze. "I'm twenty-four years old, not fourteen. I can take anything you have to say. Just tell me what's wrong."

Mum looked at Dad and they both held my hands. "You see," she started, "my darling, I want you to take a deep breath. Good. Darling, you're a werewolf."

My parents were the very best. There was nothing they couldn't do. I held my stomach as I laughed. I couldn't get the image of Mum saying those words out of my head. Damn. She was hilarious.

When I looked up, I saw that Dad had his face buried in his hands and Mum was shedding tears.

Mum held my hands in hers, which were both trembling. "Sweetie, it wasn't a joke. I wish it was. Just like us, you're a werewolf."

I didn't laugh this time because they were acting weird. I knew there could be only two things happening. It was either they were suddenly very good at pulling pranks, or I really needed to get them the help they so badly needed.

TYLER

My mother died while giving birth to me. The doctors managed to save me but my mother wasn't as fortunate. My grandparents told me that my parents had been super excited when my Mum took in. Grandma said it was all they ever spoke about. They even threw parties to celebrate their unborn child. Little did they know that my birth would end both of their lives.

My Dad lived much longer. He kept his distance from me and never really communicated. After Mum died, I guess he gave up on life too. A part of me always knew that he hated me. He never said anything but I knew he blamed me for her death. To him the math was quite simple; I came into the world and the love of his life left. He died a week after my thirteenth birthday. From what I heard, he shot himself in the mouth with a silver bullet.

Apart from my grandparents, Darrel was one of the people I looked up to when I was little.

Darrel Walters was eighty-nine years old. Three years older than my grandfather, making Darrel the oldest werewolf I knew. Probably the oldest in the world. Who could say?

Johnny and I were sitting across the table, facing Darrel. The man had a brown cotton vest on, a cigar in his mouth, and a big pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose.

"It's been a while since we came here," Johnny said, breaking the rather awkward silence. Even that didn't stop Darrel from staring at both of us like someone who had seen something weird in the fridge.

He did something that was either a quick shrug, or he was just shaking his head. "I don't expect young men like you to grace an old boring man with your time. It's good to see you, Tyler. Johnson, you too."

Johnny made a funny face at Darrel. "The name is Johnny."

Darrel dropped his cigar on the table. "Boy, I was there when you were born and when your parents named you. My memory serves me well too."

I beamed a smile at him, happy to see that Darrel was looking strong and healthy. "Don't say that, Darrel. I love seeing you. I don't find you boring at all."

Johnny chipped in. "Yeah. Sometimes I even forget that you're like two hundred years old."

Darrel laughed at that. "You know what, Johnson? I will take that as a compliment." He looked down at his hands and every trace of that bright smile he had on his face seemed to have vanished and something that looked like fear took its place. "Tyler, we have a problem. A very big one, if I'm being honest. A terrifying one."

Johnny sat back, his hands crossed across his chest. "What is it, Mr. Walters? It's hard to see you this way. If I didn't know you better, I would say you were scared."

Darrel nodded, rubbing his hands against each other as he exhaled noisily. "I am scared, Johnson. You should be too. You see, I was paid a visit by Acelia a few days before I called Tyler."

"Acelia? Isn't she like the most powerful witch there is?"

Darrel nodded. "Some say she is the most powerful witch there have ever been. I know Acelia. As you must have heard, she is not the nicest person you will meet. Most supernatural beings she comes across hardly ever live to tell the story."

"You seem alive to me," Johnny jested, laughing all by himself. "Sorry. I should learn to read the room."

Darrel continued. "Acelia was my great-great-grandfather's wife. At least, for a while, she was. Because of that, she is somewhat lenient to my family."

"Wait... did you just say she was your great-great-grandfather's wife?" I asked. "How old is this woman?"

"She uses her magic to stay young. I don't know, but she has lived for over two hundred years. Now, I didn't call you to tell you about Acelia's powers. I called you here to tell you that we are all going to die if we don't do the needful. Acelia had a vision and her visions are as real and certain as me and you."

Darrel told us that Acelia saw that there were Xirays in the human world. Xirays were demons that had only one mission- to kill werewolves. Xirays, from what Darrel told me, were black-eyed demons. The good thing was that no more than twenty Xirays could exist in the world at a time.

Johnny took a sip of the tea Darrel offered us. "Tastes horrible."

"It's very good for you," Darrel said.

Johnny wiped his lips with the back of his palm. "Let me be the judge of that."

"I don't see the issue here. From what I heard Xirays were strong, but we have the numbers. Five or six werewolves can take down one Xiray. If twenty of them are together, all we have to do is make some phone call and I gather more than two hundred werewolves." I slapped my knees. "The only issue now is to find them."

Darrel raised a hand in the air. "Even that will not be an issue. Acelia gave me a ring. This ring will lead you to the Xirays."

Johnny suddenly had a quizzical expression on his face as he stared squarely at Darrel. "If that's the case, then all we need is one week at most. We will find every one of them, end them and put this behind us."

Darrel tossed the little metal ring to me. "If only there wasn't another green eye. And if either of you dies at the hand of a Xiray, then every werewolf will die too at that same moment."

"There is another green eye? I thought Tyler was pulling my legs when he mentioned it earlier." Johnny stated. "Wow. This just got more confusing."

"Yes, there is," Darrel said. "Her name is Ada Katherine Miller. I told her parents about Ada's visit days before I told you."

Darrel told me I had to go and find this Ada girl and I had to go as soon as possible. Everything was simply too much to take in at once.

"This is crazy," Johnny said as we drove to my grandparents' home. "Now we have to go look for Ada."

"No, we don't. I do."

Johnny turned to look at me. "You have got to be kidding me. We do everything together. No way I'm leaving your side at a time like this."

"I think that's exactly what you have to do. Look, there's a fucking target on my head. Trust me, you don't want to be around me now. This is something I have to do alone."

"Shut the fuck up. I will go with you, Ty. No way I'm letting you do this alone. Now drive because there's no arguing this."

I knew Johnny wasn't going to listen anyway. I just had to try.

I dropped Johnny off before heading to my grandparent's. When I got to my grandparent's house, I explained everything to them. Darrel had already given them a call, but I explained more clearly to them.

"Acelia," Grandpa said aloud like a teacher explaining the elements to little kids. "That woman is never to be trusted. She's evil. She can never be up to any good."

I let out a sigh, wishing I could breathe out all my troubles away. "Now all I have to do is find the other Green Eye. We can make a plan after that."

Grandma was quiet. She just looked at anyone whose mouth was running but didn't say anything. I watched as she rubbed her hands in between her knees. It was a little weird thing she did whenever she was nervous.

Grandpa and Johnny continued to chat as Grandma signalled for me to step out.

When I got to the porch, she was already sitting, still rubbing her hands together.

"Is everything alright?"

She chuckled and that look of worry left for a moment. "Come on, boy. You know everything isn't alright. I'm scared for you and every werewolf on this planet."

"It will be fine. It wouldn't be easy; I know this isn't the easiest situation to handle. But aren't you the one who always said there's nothing we can't do together as a family?"

"Tyler, I hate to be the one saying this, but this is different. This isn't like anything we have ever faced before." Her voice broke and I could see how hard she struggled to hide that she was holding back tears. "There is something else."

"What?"

"A prophecy," she said.

"You can't be serious. There's no such thing as a prophecy."

Grandma held both of my hands and smile at me the way she always has done since I was a toddler. "Tyler, there are people who would swear on their mother's life that werewolves don't exist. But I see you right here, alive and whole. You see me, too, don't you?" She let go of my hands. "You should be careful what you say exists and what doesn't."

"Okay. What does this prophecy say?"

Grandma told me that about sixty years ago, a witch just giving up the ghost, said that there will be a time when two green eyes will exist at the same time. One will kill the other, and end the entire werewolf race.

Well, this just got way more interesting.