Three Alphas, Three Mates

Chapter 2 - There's A Line

"Mom said no curse words!" Megan announces again quite loudly in her commander voice.

"Forget this cereal, they're about to lynch our..." he whisper-screams through clenched teeth.

"What does—" Charlie starts.

"Don't worry about it," I hush him, rubbing circles on the back of his hand. "And that's not true Michael, a lot of them are... they're not all... Well, it doesn't matter. We're not leaving the cereal. Let's just hurry up, like I said."

"Yeah, yeah," he picks Charlie up and gestures for me to walk in front of him. "Come on then."

I nod and tug Megan along with me.

"Are we in immediate danger?" she asks me.

I shake my head. "Of course not. We're just going to go home, that's all."

She nods. Her grip on my hand tightens.

We go to stand in the line at self-checkout which, for some reason beyond my comprehension, is insanely long. Michael taps his foot and readjusts the two cereal boxes under his right arm.

"Legos!" Charlie cries from his left side. "We forgot the legos!"

"We'll get them next time buddy," Michael says and rocks him a little. Charlie's crying adds looks to the already present stares from the crowd.

"I knew you wouldn't get them. You said so." Tears start welling up in Charlie's little brown eyes.

Michael looks at me for support. I don't know how to give it to him.

"I could go get them?" I offer.

He looks at me like I'm crazy. "Alone?"

I look down at Megan. She narrows her eyes. "I'm not going to die for legos, Mia."

Charlie cries harder.

"I could go, I guess," Michael starts.

"And leave us here?" Megan gasps. I think she's about to faint.

This situation is overwhelming.

"Fine, if you stop crying, Char, I'll play with you for two hours when we get home."

The waterworks stop momentarily. "Three hours?"

"I said two."

Waterworks.

"Three. Fine!"

"Four hours?" Charlie smiles at him.

This boy. He must get it from me.

Michael groans. "Fine, four hours but not all at once."

"One break," Charlie smiles.

"Two."

Charlie gives him a look.

From the corner of my eyes I see a figure walk into the store. Two more figures appear beside him. They're tall, unnaturally fit like most of the people around here too. They look like they're finishing high school or beginning college. All eyes finally turn away from us and go to them.

"Hopefully they'll deal with them," someone whispers from the crowd. "Nearly running over Mrs. Jinkens like that."

"A danger to the pack."

"We don't even know them. We don't know anything about them."

I turn to them and they look away quickly, quieting down. Was that about us? Who else could it have been about. They're not even being quiet about it anymore. They're trash-talking us right behind our backs, literally. I knew it.

The three guys, who look really, really similar, grab a few snacks from the front lanes, soda, chips, junk food basically, and then they head straight for the self-checkout. I don't really care what they're doing, until they start walking past the entire line. For some reason, everyone moves out of the way for them automatically.

Michael gives me a look, and like him, I don't move not a damn inch. I don't know who they are or who they think they're going to cut today but it's not us. We're just as ready to go as they are.

They walk straight past us though, and Michael says under his breath, "You've gotta be kidding me."

Heads. Snap. In our direction.

People's jaws are hanging open. Women are clutching their pearls. Men are checking their pocket watches to make sure time is still a factor. Okay, not literally, but you get what I mean. People are losing their shit.

"Now they'll definitely deal with them." The person directly behind us says.

The three guys, who I can now see are triplets with jet black hair and golden eyes, look back at Michael like he's nothing and it pisses me off. The one closest to us asks, "Excuse me?"

Michael looks at the two of us at his side and Charlie in his arms and decides to bite his tongue.

"Excuse me?" Another one of them asks.

I'll say what he's unwilling to. "You're excused. There's a line," I say in my commander voice. "You could try standing in it."

They look at me as though this is the first time they've registered I was even there. It's a stare unlike all of the other stares before. I think they're looking into my soul, and I don't know how to feel about it. I'm at a loss for words. I feel like I'm standing there naked in front of them, like they can see... everything. Megan tightens her grip on my hand. Their eyes go to her and I push her beside me, on the far side away from them.

Their eyes go back towards me and they say, "There is. Sorry."

They turn around and stand behind us. The people in front of us, even the cashiers, assure them that it's fine, they even try to let us go ahead so that they can too, but the mysterious triplets shake their heads and the conversation's over.

"We're not the only people you skipped, though," Michael says, getting ahead of himself.

They growl at him. Like, I know it's probably not possible, but I think they literally growled at him.

Michael jerks back. "Jesus Christ. What's wrong with these people?"