49. True Alpha

Kyle's words kept replaying in Marley's head throughout the evening. The more she thought about them, the more she felt trapped between the two choices. The burden of so many lives lay on her one decision, and it was frightening. Neither of the option was remotely reassuring. Both involved destruction and chaos.

Why did she have to be the one to carry this burden?

The bedroom door opened, pulling Marley out of her thoughts. Eden walked in and plopped down on her bed tiredly.

"Can I spend the night here?" He asked, looking at his mate who was sitting on the study chair.

Marley noted how exhausted Eden looked, and tried to let go of her dilemma at least for a night. He too had a lot going on at the moment. Things weren't easier for any of them.

"What's the point of asking? You're already half-asleep on my bed." She shook her head.

The werewolf just responded with a smile and got more comfortable on the duvet. After lying down on one side, he gazed at Marley, silently asking her to join him.

"You go to sleep. I'll join you later." She waved her book. "I have to finish this one topic by tonight."

"This nerd," Eden muttered to himself before getting up to sit. Marley watched him suspiciously, but soon realized what was going on when he took off his shirt and tossed at her. She caught it and looked at the boy in amusement. "Changed your mind yet." He flexed his muscles.

"Do you hate your shirts?" Marley chuckled, but also shamelessly stared at his naked torso. With time the human had learned to appreciate her eye-candy without turning fire truck red. Now, she only turned light pink.

"Yes." Eden smirked. "You know what else I hate?... My trousers."

Marley threw back the shirt, which he caught effortlessly. "If you don't want me to kick you out of this room then you better keep them on." Her cheeks turned darker shade.

Eden laughed, discarding his shirt on the bedside table. "Don't worry, you'll be the one to take them off. I won't have it any other way."

She groaned at his comeback, and did her hardest to fight back the imminent heat that spread throughout her body--which was in vain. The idea of taking off (or ripping off) his trousers seemed pleasantly tempting, not that she was going to admit that to him. This boy was awakening some dormant wild side of hers.

"Let me study."

Eden rolled his eyes. "What you're so busy studying? I also have exams. You don't see my nose poked inside books. You literally studied ten times more than I did. I trust you and all those lessons you gave me throughout the months. So why is my tutor busting her ass?"

To be honest, he was right. She really was fussing over exams for nothing, *or using them as a distraction to escape much harsher reality*. Marley, with a tired sigh, closed her book, and proceeded to join her mate--who watched her with amusement.

As she lay down beside him, his arms wrapped around her waist, enveloping her in loving warmth. Eden gave a small peck on her lips before looking at her seriously. Marley recalled the last time when they had been in same position, his same prodding look when he had confronted her. And she knew that whatever he was going to ask her, she had to reply with a lie.

"What's going on inside your head?" He asked. "Ever since I came back from the run, you've been spacing out a lot. Everything's alright?"

"Yeah," Marley lied, moving her eyes down.

Eden had noticed how at dinner and other times Marley was too silent and engrossed in her own mind. While others had brushed away her silence owing to her shy nature, he suspected something unusual about it.

"Don't lie. Is it about this lycans and knights situation?"

To hide the real truth, she decided to go along with it and nodded. Her insides clenched with guilt when Eden looked at her with the softest eyes and kissed her forehead.

"You shouldn't be overthinking about it. Trust me, everything is going to be alright." He comforted. "We will defeat that vampire king and his minions. We will."

"I'm scared." Scared of making a wrong choice and costing hundreds of people their lives.

"Don't be. I'll always be here to protect you. I won't let it repeat, I swear I won't let anyone ever take you away from me again."

Marley frowned and hugged him tightly. "Protect yourself too."

"I will." He returned her embrace with a small smile.

She hummed in approval before moving her head to face him. "When are your parents leaving to meet lycans?" She asked. Eden had told her earlier his parents would be leaving for the mansion to look into the matters of lycans which Kyle had informed them about.

"On Thursday morning. I would have joined them too if not for these midterms." He huffed, remembering the excuse his mother had given for not letting him join them. "Apparently, my exams are more important." The Alpha shook his head. "Does nobody give a shit that I'm the Alpha?"

Marley laughed. "I'm not sure about others, but I'm certain that I don't," she teased, but gently pulled Eden by his neck and kissed him when he glared at her. His glare wasn't threatening, more like resembling a childish annoyance.

As she was about to let go, he deepened the kiss, biting her lips, and invading her mouth with his tongue when she gave out a moaning gasp.

Few seconds later, Marley found herself trapped under his body as he supported himself over her on his elbows. Her fingers were lost in his silky strands of hair, as her lips hungrily stroked his. But when Eden moved to kiss her jaw, she immediately tugged at his locks and pulled his head away from hers. She knew where this was going to lead.

The werewolf looked at her perplexed, wondering if he did anything wrong. It took everything inside Marley to not to let him continue his ministration as her eyes locked with his.

"Eden, my neck is already covered with hickeys. I don't need others to add to the showcase." She explained, easing his confusion. "I'm already having trouble to hide them. I guess I've to wear my turtle necks for a month."

Eden relaxed, but then looked offended as he processed her words. "Why do you want to hide my marks?" His eyes moved down to her exposed neck which was covered with his love bites, evoking lustful desires in him. "They look beautiful, and also let everyone know that you're mine."

Marley almost rolled her eyes at his statement. "My neck is not going to be exposed to your teeths, until I say so," she said with finality, and a sadist chuckle slip past her seeing Eden's face fall into a most disheartening frown.

"At least, don't hide them," he requested.

In reply, Marley held his cheeks and brought his lips on hers to continue their previous task. It was her way of saying: I'm going to hide them, move on.

********

"I ruined my paper. I'm going to fail," Rachel said, slurping her drink. Her eyes impatiently moving back and forth between her two friends.

Kiara glared at the brunette. "You say that after every fucking exam, and end up passing in all of them. If anyone who's actually going to fail, it's me." She snatched the fries from Rachel's tray and shoved them inside her mouth, making the latter glare back.

They both turned to Marley who was drinking her shake nonchalantly. "I think I did pretty good." The oblivious girl said honestly, but the narrowed eyes of the other two quickly made her take back her words. "I did really bad, I think I'm going to fail too." She blurted out, joining their misery.

Rachel pouted and Kiara sighed, rolling her eyes.

The whole class was in nearby diner, wolfing down the entire week's stock of the place. Marley had learned that it was some sort of tradition that their entire year ate at this place after their first examination. No one knew why it began in the first place, but nobody resisted it either. After all, it involved food and friends.

"Why you're wearing a turtle neck?" Rachel questioned Marley, clearly disapproving of her friend's fashion sense.

Much to Eden's annoyance, Marley had decided to cover up her neck with the sweater. The werewolf absolutely didn't like his marks being concealed like that, and was very much vocal about his opinion. But one kiss from his mate had shut up the drama queen from throwing anymore tantrums. However, Marley did realize that this top wasn't something that anyone would find remotely fashionable - or even decent. But it did the job.

Marley tugged at her sweater nervously. "It's cold."

"It's not."

Kiara smirked. "You're hiding hickeys."

Okay, maybe it failed to do the job.

"I-I..." Marley shrunk under her teasing gazes.

"So you two finally had sex!" Rachel exclaimed, drawing attention from other tables. "Tell me-" Marley at once covered her mouth.

"No, we didn't." She looked around and relaxed when people got back to their own conversation. Her eyes darted to Eden who was sitting on the other side of the diner with his friends, drinking his coke. He was looking right at her with a knowing smirk. He had heard it.

Marley shook her head mentally, and turned back to Rachel to avoid his taunting eyes. She removed her hand from her friend's mouth, and was met with her disappointed face.

"You shouldn't wear this ugly thing." Kiara tsked, examining Marley. "You could've used a concealer to hide them."

"I tried but it didn't work. It just made them look like ugly green blotches."

"You don't know how to use it properly. Let me take a look at them." Before Marley could reply, Kiara had already pulled down the side of her collar to reveal her neck. She gasped as she saw her exposed flesh. "Is he an animal or what?!"

"Can't you guys keep your voices down?" Marley mumbled bashfully, tugging back on her collar to hide back her hickeys.

"I'm kinda jealous." Rachel added with another pout.

"I think you should keep on wearing those turtle necks." Kiara advised, ignoring the brunette.

Marley slumped at the thought of wearing these hot sweaters for almost a month. But she couldn't bring herself to hate Eden or his hickeys. Having these red-blue spots on her body gave her a foreign pleasure of belonging to someone. They were the secret reminder of how raw and intense her boy could be.

She wanted to embrace this new erotic side of hers.

"I'm just saying it was way better like that!"

Rachel's voice interrupted Marley's thought. She found the girls arguing about something.

"No, it isn't. There's a reason why we don't give all power to a single person. Just go back in time and see its consequences," Kiara said.

"What are you two going on about?" Marley asked.

"Monarchy." Rachel replied. When Marley looked at her quizzically, she explained. "It's about our history exam next week."

"She's saying that how good those old days were." Kiara muttered disbelieving. "They weren't. The life of a common person in those times was shit Rachel."

"But didn't they have to fret about things that we do about now. It wasn't all that complicated. Kings and Queens were responsible for their subjects and supposed to look after them."

"Only, they weren't really that responsible. For your 'Kings and Queens' it was all about wealth, luxury, land, and plunging their army into unnecessary wars. Those monarchs practically looted from their subjects. And the soldiers were made to fight battles in which they had absolutely no part, the whole bloodshed was just for the few powerful lords and ladies. They weren't allowed to have opinions, even when their own lives were concerned."

Something clicked inside Marley on hearing Kiara's speech.

"Not all monarchs were like that. Some were good, really good." Rachel shot back but her confidence had noticeably lowered down.

Their debate continued and it was apparent that Rachel was losing. However, Marley had tuned them out, her mind caught up on Kiara's one statement.

*They weren't allowed to have opinions, even when their own lives were concerned.*

Weren't her pack allowed to have opinions when their own lives were concerned? Marley thought back at the responsibility that Kyle had given her. Wouldn't it be a betrayal to them if she made her choice without their consent.

After all, in the end it came down to her and other packs. It was their decision.

*You're the Alpha.* Kyle's words echoed inside her mind.

She had seen how Eden worked with his pack, taking their advice and suggestions on every matter. He made sure that everyone could voice their opinions. Even if sometimes their thoughts contradicted with his or disrespected him, he never lost himself to his temper, like when old Joseph objected to Eden's mating with Marley.

He was the true Alpha in every sense.

Now it was her time to step up to her position and be like him. And the first step for that was to make sure her whole pack decides their next action, not just her.

********