The Trouble with the Alpha
Sam POV
My paws pounded the soft forest floor, claws digging into the moss covered ground. I dodged around trees shrubs and underbrush. I tried to keep my mind blank to Paul and Jared, the other two in my pack. As Alpha I was more cursed than the rest. While we were all doomed to forever reside on the reservation, turn into a wolf shape shifter when we were angry or upset, share a body and mind with an ancient spirit warrior, we also shared a mind link when we were in our wolf forms. The council said that this was to help us hunt our greatest enemy, vampires, which as a cosmic fuck all, we weren't even allowed to hunt due to the treaty set in motion by the great cheiftain Ephraim Black with the veggie vamps the Cullens back in the day. While my mind was an open book for both of them, Paul and Jared were able to shield parts of their minds from the mind link, mainly their home life or their imprints.
Uggggg imprinting, yet another fuck you to the life of Sam Uley. Back when we thought imprinting was just another legend, we should have known better we were shape shifting wolves after all, I had a girlfriend. Leah was my high school sweetheart, I thought she was my forever, we had been together for 2 years. We started dating when I was 16 and she was 15.
I would be senior in high school and had been taking a few online classes towards my architecture degree while working my ass off getting ready for lacrosse season. I was the team captain this year and we were expected to win the state championships and be invited to the east coast championship tournament. I had been playing lacrosse my whole life, and like any other Native American it was in my blood.
I had the fever for weeks, always hot and clammy, Leah constantly worrying over me and generally driving me up the wall. One day I had been on my way home from summer classes in Port Angeles when I finally turned my phone back on from it dying before class. My phone immediately started vibrating off the car stand notifying me of the 15 texts and 4 voicemails from Leah worrying and freaking out over where I was. Since this fever started I was more volatile and began to stay away from Leah, trying to avoid fighting with her, of course this just caused her to accuse me of having an affair with some woman in PA. I began to shake violently, my hands blurring on the steering wheel. I pulled the truck over onto a pull out, and stepped out slamming the door behind me. I watched as my phone lit up telling me Leah was calling, again. This pushed my anger even further.
I burned, it was a slow simmering pain that flowed through my veins setting my body alight before I was consumed by the inferno. I bent over at the waist as razor sharp claws broke the skin at the tips of my fingers. Millions of tiny pinpricks shot through my skin as my spine lengthened.I could hear and feel as my bones reshaped and dropped me to all fours. I watched as coal black fur took over my russet skin and my hands pulled into paws. My face stretched and morphed into what I instinctively knew as a muzzle. I had heard the tribal legends growing up, but I had never imagined that they had a chance of being true. Once I had control over my new body, I jumped the guardrail at the side of the road needing to get out of sight.
Run, run, run. I could hear it in my mind, not an actual voice but an urge. So I decided to test this new form, I ran, I jumped, I crawled, stretched, clawed, snapped, growled, howled and rolled. Everything was brighter sharper clearer, I could hear things I never thought I would have, see things way beyond my normal reach and the smells were ridiculous. Knowing I needed to get back to my truck and back to my human form I began to trot back towards the highway. I sat at the edge of the trees that lined the road and wondered how to get back to my human form. I could feel the wolf lay down and relax, I began thinking about how badly I needed to get home and eat. Little did I know, thinking human was exactly what I needed. I felt my body shrink back down into my normal, now naked, human body.
Except it was not normal anymore, I had hit a growth spurt again when the fever started but nothing like what I was now. I now registered somewhere around 6'7" and my muscles bulged and stretched with every graceful powerful step. I was a big boy before, but nothing compared to how I looked and felt now. I looked my body over, seeing ripped 8 pack abs, bulging pecs, an extreme V and what hung between my legs was much bigger than I had before. I hopped over the guardrail and walked quickly to my truck, reaching in my gym bag and pulling on a pair of basketball short, that had once been baggy but now bordered on too tight.
I hopped into the driver's seat and called Leah. She picked up the phone almost frantic, I tried to soothe her telling her my phone died right before classes and I just now got it charged enough to call. She calmed down, before commenting on my now much deeper voice. I told her that my growth spurt must have finally ended. She just laughed and joked about my balls finally dropping. Back then I had thought we might have a chance in hell to make it through this unscathed.
That all changed when Paul phased. His inherent anger sparked a quick change that almost none of the council saw coming. My wolf knew, he had been anxious for days, always pushing me to run by Pauls house. I began to trust his instincts more, while I could pick up the signals and smells, he was the one who knew how to interpret them. He wasn't thrilled with Leah, I should have seen that and broke it off knowing that I could never make it work with half of myself fighting her. But I didn't, I was anxious to hold on to what seemed like the last part of my human life that I had a choice over. I had been forced to take over Alpha, which meant I would be in control of any future wolves that phased, I now held a seat on the council of elders, and I would one day become chief of the tribe. So I fought to keep the one thing that Sam the human had chosen for himself.
I fought Paul to change back for days, his anger quickly erased what little progress we may have made towards getting him to phase back. Together we fought, ate, and slept wolf. I had become more in tune with my wolf during these days, being astutely able to recognize when I was feeling his feelings or if they were my own. I came to recognize his wants and needs were much simpler than my own, but what he did want or feel, was at a depth much greater than I had any understand for. I realized the man could want one thing while the wolf craved another. In this case Leah.
It took weeks for Paul to finally change back, after growing tired of having to hunt and eat raw food, the man inside clamored for something hot fried and greasy. I took him to my Ma's house to order from the local diner, walking through the door and heading for Leah who happened to be cooking with my Ma. After putting my wolf to the back, I gave her a kiss and a hug before introducing her to Paul. Like one of the cruelest jokes I've ever heard I had one played on me. Except it was not a joke. I stood by and watched as Paul and Leah's eyes locked on to each other as they drank each other in. The look on Paul's face was one of a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. He was lost in her, and I got lost period. I took off out the door, it cracking on the hinges from the force of my escape. I knew exactly what just happened, though I had been told it was rare. Paul had just imprinted on Leah, my Leah. Not your Leah, Paul's Mate now. Pack, she is pack.
Helpful but not wanted, the wolf guided us to the cliffs that night, and any night after that I felt turmoil. It had become a sanctuary for me. A place the rest of the pack never dared to come.
My pack had grown by one the next week, Jared Thompkins phasing after Lacrosse practice one hot smoky summer night. We had been at the local diner when he imprinted on the shy but pretty waitress Kim. Once again the wolf said Ours, pack, Jared's Mate.
That was last month. My world finally crumbled around me, when my drunkered of a father came home while I was out in patrol. He had came home to beg my mother's forgiveness for leaving her and the affairs, but my mother had finally become strong enough to tell him no. When she stood up to him, he tried to beat the submissive back into her. She managed to get to the phone and dial 911 but the damage had already been done. She was rushed to the hospital with broken bones, a punctured lung and internal bleeding. She didn't make it through the surgery. I felt as if I was destined to be alone, though Leah tried to comfort me and I pushed her away at every turn. Not mate, not mate. The wolf cried, need our mate. We searched and searched but with no avail. No woman would hold his interest.
But here I was pounding through the forest with two wolves trying to ignore my inner ramblings because I couldn't shut them out. We were searching for a lost girl. The Forks PD Cheifs daughter. Bella Swan, she had been seeing Edward Cullen, so one could only wonder if she was still alive. The Cullen's were the local vampire population, and had claimed Bella as Edwards mate, though the wolves could tell something was not quite right.
I finally caught the scent of burnt sugar and veered off following the trail, I could faintly smell something altogether feminine and the wolf was enraptured. It smelled like expensive perfume, but that's not what we liked, its what was hidden underneath it all. It was apples and a few flowers that I couldn't even begin to name. It was light and not overpowering like the disgusting perfume.
We ran until the smell of the girl stopped, the wolf paced the cluttered forest floor searching for her, what he found immediately set him ablaze in anger and brought his urge to fight to the forefront. There under the boughs or a pine tree huddled behind some shrubs was a tiny frail female. She was clothed in designer clothing that was not suited for the cold damp of the night in the Olympic Peninsula. The wolf slowly took in the hand print bruises on her arm and the distinct shape of a hand across her face. Even more alarming was the cut in her neck. A clean slice just above the juncture of her shoulder. The wolf inside screamed, knowing that this was no coincidence. This was the work of a vampire, not wanting to be caught by telltale puncture holes he cut and drank from her, quite a lot if her heartbeat was any sign. The wound no longer bled, which meant he had to have sealed it before leaving her out here to die.
I sent Paul and Jared to trace the scent before moving closer. The wolf snuggled at her shoes, impractical flats, one of which was no longer on her frozen feet. Tight jeans that offered some protection, moving up to a shimmery thin tank top that did absolutely nothing. Her hair was laid around her pale face in a halo making the hand print stand out grossly against her alabaster skin. And still the wolf continued to explore her with his nose occasionally prodding or licking. The licking helped warm her skin and encourage the blood flow. He could hear her heart beats increase and the wolf purred proud. Slipping back into his human form Sam pulled a pair of basketball shorts on before kneeling to pick her up gently. Beginning to walk towards Cheif Swans home he murmured sweet nothings to her. His wolf content for the first time in a long time. The small female curled into his warm chest her hand over his heart before blinking open her eyes. What Sam had believed to be impossible for himself had just occurred. He imprinted.