The Chosen Alpha (Prequel to The Female Alpha)

Chapter 16: Realization Mikalya's P.O.V

"Where did you get this?" I asked Abhay as I took a sip of the alcohol and felt the sting right down to my stomach. Damn, this was potent!

"Some locals were sipping on it and I got interested." Abhay shrugged broad shoulders, his eyes a bit unfocused as he looked at the fire burning in front of us. "I was pretty sure I got riffed off but that's alright, I guess."

Yup. He was hammered. But I found out that it was a good thing. His speech was more continuous now and he was no longer stuttering nervously in front of me.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I'd lived almost a hundred years, seen and experienced several lovers, but there was just something about Abhay that I couldn't shake. He was adorable yet masculine; nervous yet brave and shy yet forward. He was a mix of contrasting characters and yet, they all seem to come together very nicely. Was I feeling this way because he was my mate?

"Sooo...what's bothering you?"

I looked up into his golden-brown eyes in surprise and found him looking at me intensely. Probably for the first time in my life, I felt a bit self-conscious. "What makes you think something is bothering me?"

"I don't know," he shrugged again as he took a gulp of his wine and winced. "Gut feeling I guess. But when I looked at you just now, you seemed to be lost deep in thought. Like you were miles away even though you're sitting right next to me."

Was the pull of the mating bond affecting him or was he just good at gut feelings? I couldn't tell.

"Yeah," I sighed and turned away from his piercing eyes. "Just some trivial matters...nothing important."

"You can tell me if it's troubling you." His voice came out a little slurred. "What was that saying? Two heads are better than one?" He scratched his head in confusion and I couldn't help but laugh at the scene. "You're drunk." I told him, still smiling.

Abhay looked at the bottle in his hand before screwing the lid back on and putting it inside the bag. Then he lifted his hands up as if in surrender and gave me an adorable smile. It made me smile wider.

"It's better if you don't get involved with me." I finished my bottle of 'wine' and put it aside to dispose later. "But seeing that you're dead drunk, I'm pretty sure you won't remember any of this tomorrow." "Oh?" he scratched the back of his neck once more before giving me a sheepish smile. "I guess I am a bit drunk..."

"Remember when we had to leave in a hurry yesterday? At the restaurant?" I asked because I wasn't sure his memory was any good in this state.

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"You mean when you ditched me?" He looked at me with puppy dog eyes and as his lips puffed out in a pout. "Everyone thought I was some kind of creep since I drove you both away. The waiters kept giving me weird looks when I told them to take back the order and they even charged me extra!"

"Wow..." I stared at Abhay in awe as he continued to pout. I didn't know if I should be feeling guilty or amused but I've never had anyone be this frank to me even while drunk. I guess it was really true when they say that drunken people always speak the truth; at least for Abhay it's true. He seems to be living up to his name, fearless.

"Oh, shoot!" He covered his mouth with his hand a second later, his eyes turning as big as saucers. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that."

This time, I couldn't hold back my laughter. Clutching my stomach, I fell back onto the sand as I laughed like I never had before. For the first time, I felt free and alive. I had never imagined I could laugh like this. I didn't care that I was getting sand in my hair; I didn't care that my dress was getting dirty and I didn't care whoever was looking. Had I ever laughed this freely before in my life? I couldn't remember.

When I finally got my laughter under control and looked at Abhay, he was looking down at me with a grin on his face. The light from the fire illuminated one half of his face, making him look even more attractive.

"You look beautiful when you laugh." He too fell back on the sand beside me. "You looked so tense when I met you a while ago...like you were angry. But you don't look like that now."

"I was angry." I told him, looking up at the starry sky instead of his face because it was a distraction. “As I was saying earlier... the reason I had to leave yesterday was because of an emergency. We encountered a runaway girl and her child who had nowhere to go and we helped her get a room at our hotel and new clothes. We're taking care of her for now but I think she expects us to do so forever."

"Oh?" Abhay's voice sounded confused. "How old is she?"

"Seventeen."

"Wha-and she has a kid!" His cat's eyes looked at me in astonishment. "That's illegal! What happened to her?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "She won't tell but from the way she speaks, I could tell she had never witnessed any hardships in life until now."

"Or maybe she's good at hiding it." It was Abhay's turn to shrug. "Maybe she thinks you'll take care of her because of your nature. I don't know what it is but you feel like the protector kind of person. Not everyone would trust a seventeen year old with a child and give her a place to stay and food and clothing. You did all that and that's why she trusts you to protect her."

Shit! Why hadn't I taken that into consideration before?

Listening to Abhay now made me feel like a fool to not have noticed it before! And even though Abhay didn't know who or what I was, he was able to depict the situation clearly and had instantly pointed out what I had been missing right from the start.

Kashmira wasn't acting like an entitled brat! She was regarding me as her Alpha.

Alphas were supposed to look after their pack; they were supposed to nurture and protect those under them! In all my years of living, I had tried my best to avoid the facts that everybody else could see. Wherever I had gone, people both under and above me had followed my lead. Everyone had either been too scared or weary to get involved with me or just tried to win the power play.

My Alpha side had always pushed against both humans and supernatural alive. It was the main reason the Falcon flock had called me out as soon as we had arrived, because they were afraid of the bigger predator in the area. And this was my first time encountering a runaway wolf who had voluntarily left her pack. There was no doubt in my mind as to what was going on.

I was starting to attract a pack, lone wolves that didn't belong to anyone...and I had to leave before this became serious.