The Alpha's Surrogate [The Alpha's #1]

Chapter 9

ALPHA MARCELLUS STORM

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked in a quiet murmur, not bothering to glance up from his laptop screen.

Beta Dalton chuckled lightly before adjusting himself in his seat, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared expectantly with Marcellus.

"There's something you're not telling me." Dalton simply stated the fact, not leaving any room for question or discussion. "What are you keeping from me, Mars? You know you can tell me anything. I'm your Beta for a reason."

"You picked up on that, huh?" He chuckled lowly, though he wasn't laughing.

"I think everyone in the pack has picked up on the fact that you're going through some stuff right now." Dalton mentioned, thinking back to the few wolves and even one of the chefs that had mentioned to them that Alpha Marcellus had been acting out of character lately.

"Yeah." Marcellus sighed and reached a hand up to brush his fingers through his hair. "This past week has been really difficult for me but things should be back to normal soon."

Dalton hummed, the sound far from convinced.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked quietly, aware that his friend had always struggled to be open and honest about his feelings, usually keeping them bottled up.

"Not particularly, no." Marcellus denied with a gentle shake of his head, just as Dalton had expected.

The Beta frowned and pursed his lips at that. "How do you expect to be able to deal with the situation and move on if you never want to talk about it?" He asked, these being the exact words which he had asked the Alpha numerous times over the years.

"I'm dealing with it." He insisted but his words fell on deaf ears.

"You're clearly not."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Marcellus asked, finally glancing up at his Beta and friend from under dark, hooded eyes. His wolf rose to the surface, now staring at Dalton as if he was a threat, not at all appreciative of his words or tone of voice. "What are you insinuating, Dalton?"

"What I'm saying is that you've been acting completely out of character lately and everyone knows it."

"I haven't been acting all that out of character." Marcellus murmured quietly, pressing his hands into his desk as he tried to keep a lid on his temper, reminding himself that he was speaking to his best friend right now. "Like I said, I've just been going through some stuff. It's just temporary. Everything will be back to normal very soon."

"What kind of stuff, Mars?" Dalton asked but when Marcellus refused to comment, he continued. "You need to let me in, Mars. If not me, then you need to let someone else in. It's not healthy taking on all of this responsibility and having no one to talk to when things get rough."

"I have you to talk to, Dal." Marcellus avoided his eyes, not yet ready to spill his big secret about having finally met his mate.

"But that's the thing, Mars. You have me but you don't talk to me about this stuff and that's okay." His friend insisted with a small frown on his face. "You don't have to talk to me about it, but you do need to talk to someone else about it."

"Everything is so complicated." Marcellus released an aggravated sigh and ran a hand through his hair and then down his face. "I have no idea where to start."

"How about from the beginning?" Dalton suggested quietly in a small voice, very aware that he was treading on foreign territory right now.

"Maybe another time but I really need to get back to work now." Marcellus expertly deflected before turning his attention back to his laptop even though his mind wasn't focused on work anymore.