Did some beta reading in between chapters for an old acquaintance who has an amazing power to hook me with things I know nothing about, as in, fandoms I'm not part of, but damn it I love how they write.
Alana is a side stripped jackal, I was between that and an African wild dog, but the jackal won.
18. Φόντο
Alana thought it was odd that Jared Kleinman had approached her about the abandoned orchard, but upon questioning he had become quiet, almost shy even, and said the words 'it's not for me'.
Maybe it was a gifts, some sort of apology, a way to get back the attention of someone that he had clearly taken for granted; she only decided to help him with the orchard because it was a good thing to do, and because she knew it would make no difference. After all, she had far more reason to side with Evan on this, she knew what it was like to be in his position, and she was glad he had taken action over it, particularly when she saw the results.
Alana had always had an eye out for Connor, ever since they were partnered up on an English project and she discovered just how different he was from the person everyone made him out to be; he made jokes with wordplay, crass commentary on certain lines, and was reluctant to show any will to do things despite doing his half of the work and a little extra. Alana had seen him furious too, as if suddenly burning, pupils slit and fangs bared, lighting every instinct inside her that screamed to run away from danger, though she tried her hardest not to listen.
She wasn't the only one to notice when him and Evan started hovering around each other, sharing space almost constantly, with the telltale tentativeness of something barely begun; it was hard to ignore when the resident ticking time bomb - and here Alana sent a quick apology to Connor - started directing his anger into keeping the quietest boy in school safe.
Meeting with the two in the supermarket was unexpected, particularly seeing them with a little girl; Alana will admit that there was a brief moment where she legitimately though her to be their kid, but she reasoned how that made no sense on the fact that she would've noticed Evan absent for that long - or any other signs of a pregnancy, Alana liked to think she was well informed enough -. No, Tera being Evan's half sibling made more sense; and Connor getting along with her only added to the evidence of the alpha wanting something with Evan.
The two are very different at a simple glance, but Alana can see the similitudes, small as they are, they both probably take more to their non-shared parent though, but they do look related. Tera smells like Connor, even more so than Evan, and though Alana truly believes her to be Evan's sibling, she can tell neither the omega nor Connor see her like that, not really; and that's why she had thought her to be theirs.
There has to be a reason for it, but she doesn't dare ask, simply files away the information and makes a reminder to herself to seek out Evan later and warn him against letting her meet Jared; she didn't think the alpha would give him time to explain, and doubted Evan would be able to put up much of a fight being a fox. It would probably be better to tell him alone though, if Evan wanted to tell Connor then that was his call, but Alana would prefer not to rile him up over it; she had a feeling he wouldn0t take kindly to anyone threatening Tera.
- .. - . / ... -.- .. .-. / .-. .-.. ..- ... / .-. - ...- / -.-. ... .- -. -. .
Jared was a little surprised at how many people had shown up to help with their 'project'. Apparently, the orchard was a bit of a childhood relic to about half their school, who would've known?
The most surprising to see join them was one Zoe Murphy, who couldn't have known Jared's true motives, because if she had she wouldn't be. See, since the thing in the orchard, Evan and Murphy had become practically inseparable; which meant of course, that for this first time in years Murphy was attending regularly, and keeping out of trouble, glaring at people in the halls at most.
The change was probably a breath of fresh air for the Murphy family, and Zoe - who definitely had seen the two - would probably have more reason to keep it that way than not.
Jared has to make sure not to make the wrong move around her, he already had one beta keeping an eye on him; he wasn't stupid and Alana wasn't subtle, but she had yet to stop things, so she could do whatever she wanted.
Seeing Murphy around constantly might have been enough to distract other people, but Jared saw more than just that, and he didn't like it one bit. Every alpha instinct within him liked to roar up in jealousy whenever he caught them 'having a moment'.
He knew the plan would take time when he made it, and he accepted that, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Evan looked so at ease around Murphy, still quiet and awkward in all the right places, but now instead of curling on himself he had the option of hiding behind the alpha, and he did; when this happened a few things would follow in motion, Murphy would look at him, turn to glare at anyone watching in the vicinity, and angle himself back towards the omega with a gentleness improper of him.
It was obvious that there was something stopping them from moving forward, and Jared had to thank whoever was in charge up there for whatever it was, because he needed them to take time; none of his efforts would matter if they mated, in fact, it would be plain disaster, because without the ash…
Mating was irreversible; it made it so the omega could only be satisfied by the alpha that had marked them, and vice versa. It was supposed to be the end result of courting, of seduction, of a mutual agreement to tie themselves to one another.
There were cases where it didn't happen like that, where an alpha took an unwilling omega for his own, trapping them; sometimes it happened accidentally, an alpha going on rut close to an omega and them being helpless to stop it, or an omega going into heat close to an alpha and them being unable to stop themselves, or a tragic combination of both. Matings like these rarely had a good outcome, and at least one in the pair grew bitter over the connection; and Jared couldn't risk it being Murphy, alphas were incredibly dangerous when angered.
So Jared promised himself he would step in if he saw them growing close to that, for Evan's sake.
