The Alpha and the Oracle (The Belesone Pack #1)

Chapter 6

Katarina wiped away her tears as she left the house and made the slow walk home. She felt ridiculous and terrible and even more of a burden than she had ever felt before.

Why did the Elders choose her? The Alpha's mate was supposed to be his equal, someone who could help him lead the pack and who would fight by his side in times of trouble. She couldn't do that.

She couldn't deny that the Alpha was beautiful. He was the Alpha after all. Tall, strong, brave. All the things she wasn't. Well, she was tall, she supposed. But she was intelligent and emotional, where he was composed and impersonal. He oozed authority and even justice sometimes. All she oozed was crazy.

She wasn't exactly ugly. She wouldn't say that. That was like insulting her parents, by saying that. But she wasn't typically attractive either, like Josanna was.

Josanna had the family traits: blond hair, blue eyes, sparkling personality, loveable, kind, sweet, but also strong, fast and smooth with conversation.

Katarina had no shame in admitting to what she was: socially awkward, quiet, mousy, tall and skinny, with over emphasized hips and chest. Her hands were not small and dainty like Josanna, but they weren't big and fat either. She had dark hair, like ebony, with mint chocolate eyes. Even her wolf was different.

Where all the others of her pack were big burly things, with dark to tan fur, she was small, skinny, lost looking and a strange grey colour unlike any other she had seen. She had a wider call range than the other shifters of her community did. She changed more often too. Not just for running and hunting, but sometimes to sleep, sometimes just to walk late at night as a wolf. She was more comfortable as a wolf than as a human, with steady paws and sure footing. Her human was clumsy and awkward.

"Katarina!" The Alpha called as he ran to catch up to her.

She glanced back and blushed. He really was quite beautiful. Taller than her, dark hair, dark midnight blue eyes, big muscles, great abs.

Oh yeah, she had been checking him out over the years. They weren't shifters without getting bare sometimes. Their clothes tended to disappear when they shifted, into fine shreds of various fabrics. They weren't supposed to be shy about their bodies, but Katarina was. She had never made a public shift back into human form her whole life. And she didn't plan to.

Shifting from human to wolf was fine; no-one saw anything, but the other way around was too embarrassing. She was different even in that simple thing.

Milo slowed to a walk as he caught up with her and buried his hands in his pockets, not talking.

Katarina thought about the possibility of being mates. A shifter was supposed to recognize their mate from the age of sixteen, over any distance. It was usually only when they came face to face that they recognized each other for what they were. By rights, if they were meant to be mates, they should have felt something akin to an intense infatuation for each other. But she didn't need to delve into Milo's mind to know he didn't feel a thing for her.

Katarina felt it. She had her intense infatuation with Milo and had known it since she was around ten years old. But that didn't change anything. She wouldn't allow him, an Alpha now, to be with her. Not even if he loved her back.

"Alpha,"

Milo turned and looked at her as she spoke.

"What should I call you when we're at school?" She wondered, glancing up at him only to look away again. She hated seeing that utter hatred he had for her written all over his face.

"What?"

"Well...we don't normally talk at school. If I'm to sit next to you in class and at lunch, then I should know what to call you. Do I call you Alpha or Milo or something else?" She asked, surprising him into stopping and staring at her. She stopped as well and from the look in his eyes, she realised that he was confused and caught off guard. "I'm sorry...I thought you knew."

"Knew what? Were you eavesdropping?" He asked angrily.

"No. I...I can...I can hear your thoughts. When you're feeling something intense or when you're distracted. I can choose when to switch off, unless you project. Earlier, in the house...you projected when you were mad at me." Katarina felt stupid for having to say it. Reading another persons thoughts was not something that was normal for her people either. Big surprise there.

For a moment Milo looked shocked, then worried, then absolutely furious.

"It wasn't by choice." She protested in a rush.

"How do I stop myself projecting around you?" Milo asked with a bite.

Obviously he didn't want her hearing his thoughts, so all Katarina could do was sigh and shrug. "Not get mad at me? But that's about as likely as us being mated." She laughed and started walking again.

***

Milo was confused.

She seemed like she didn't want to be mated to him. Which was weird. It wasn't normal at all. Girls loved him.

Being a shifter helped because the animal magnetism hit them right off, but the fact that he was tall, attractive, strong and fairly smart made him the ideal catch. Being an Alpha only multiplied that attraction ten-fold. Especially at school around human girls. Human girls didn't know or understand how he had so much power and respect from the shifter kids, but it was better that they kept their lives a secret.

Technically, Milo was too old to be at school, but he had missed two years when he had first been made Alpha and a good leader knew not to give up. So he had stayed at school to complete his education. There was no point even thinking of doing it by correspondence because he was too easily distracted at home. A school setting was just what he needed.

"Milo." He decided that he had better answer her question, before he drifted off into projecting his thoughts again. "You can call me Milo. And I guess if we're to be mated, you can use it outside school too."

He realised it was pointless fighting the Elders. No matter what Katarina thought, they weren't going to just let her run off and leave him without a mate. And he had no expectation of finding his true mate before his birthday. One week, with all the promises he had to keep about Katarina, was not long enough. Who was he kidding? Two years hadn't been long enough.

"You will find her, you know. And once I disappear, they won't be able to agree on anyone else for a while. The Elders are only agreed on me because they think I'm special somehow. That I'm unique and Queenly." She giggled to herself.

Although he was angry that he was 'projecting' again, or else she was snooping in his brain, he did appreciate the confidence. Knowing someone else believed he would find his true mate was a relief. No-one else had ever even indulged that thought before, never mind trusted his instincts about it.

"You'll have some time once I disappear." She nodded, before skipping up the path of her house and turning round with a smile.

"I'm sorry this came so out of the blue." Milo found himself apologising when he didn't mean to.

Katarina shrugged it off. "No-one can control the Elders. They have a will of their own. But that doesn't mean they can't be manipulated." Katarina winked at him before she realised she had done it. She slipped into her house with an embarrassed wave.

Milo took a step back from the doorway, a little surprised by Katarina's words and the implication behind them.

She really did intend to let him find his true mate and disappear from the pack so that the Elders wouldn't think it was his fault. She was willing to sacrifice her place in the pack for him...and his happiness.

As Milo, he was immensely happy, but as the Alpha of the pack she belonged to, he wasn't sure how he felt about that. She had blatantly told him she was going to desert her pack. Then again, he wasn't sure anyone would care except her father and sister. She was weak, slow and different to the others. They had never accepted her and, even in the human world, she was an outcast.

Maybe it would be the best, for the pack and for Katarina, if she did run away?

Milo shrugged. He had a week to figure out the different sides of his personality. After all, spending a week with the girl couldn't be all that bad, could it?