Unrivaled {Book One}

“Sometimes, doing the forbidden can be nice.”

~Alain Robert

Elsa

There was a reason I’d taken AP Calculus. Still, whenever I listened to my teacher drone on and on about derivatives, antiderivatives, and a bunch of theorems I’d probably never use in my life, I always forgot the reason…

Okay, not really. I was going to study economics and management in college. But when you’re part wolf, you sometimes forget about normal human things. I belonged to a massive pack, which consisted of my identical twin sister Anna, my sister Ember, my brothers Hunter and Caleb, and many others that if I named them all, we’d be here forever. Our alphas were Arya and Ren Laroche.

Otherwise known as my parents.

Fierce, protective, and powerful, my parents owned half of the town. Soon, when my brothers took over the pack, they’d own it. I’d play a part in running it, mostly as Caleb’s right-hand woman. Anna would too.

“Elsa Laroche?” My teacher called out.

“Here,” I said.

“Good job,” he told me, handing back the most recent test. I’d miraculously made an A on it. Anna had done the same. Just as our teacher finished handing out the results, the bell rang, dismissing the class. As my sister and I dashed out of the room, I barely heard our teacher futilely attempting to remind us about our homework. If only AP Calc homework could be forgotten…

Thank god it was lunchtime. It meant I could eat a little bit and sleep. Exhaustion threatened to take over as I’d barely had time to recuperate from the week. Between patrols, hunts, school work, school in general, and working at our family’s hotel, breaks were non-existent.

Our hotel was our primary source of income, and we practically all worked there. Well, actually, it’s a massive chain of hotels all over the world which we have other packs run. It’s why they’re all in mountainous or extremely hilly areas because you can’t have a pack of wolves running down the middle of a city now, can you?

“How was Calc?” Josilyn asked, falling into step beside me. She was Noah’s younger sister, and mine and Anna’s best friend. We were all extremely protective of Josie due to her heart problems, causing her to have trouble keeping up with us whenever we partake in hunting or patrolling.

“Is Calc ever enjoyable?” Anna countered.

“I’ll take that as a no. Can you two give me a lift to wherever we’re going for lunch? Noah is taking Ember on a date, and I don’t want to be in the car when they’re getting all cozy with each other. It makes me feel really awkward.”

“Yeah, of course. Where are the others?” I asked, shoving some books in my locker.

“Riley and Thea already left. Barry, Sebastian, Laurel, and Akira are meeting us in the parking lot. You ready?”

I nodded, shutting my locker. The three of us headed downstairs. All the humans moved out of our way. They had no idea what we were or what we could do, but they knew we were different, and it terrified them. It caused a lot of issues because none of them ever wanted to be near us, so being paired up in classes was challenging, especially when none of my family were in my class. Of course, there were some members from the other pack-the Starks- but we never talked to them. Our packs hated each other, something I never entirely understood. The sentiment had been beaten into our heads: don’t talk to anyone in the Stark pack. Once more, a problem when they were the only ones unafraid to speak to you but couldn’t because of something that happened a long time ago.

Ridiculous.

We were halfway across the parking lot when I realized I’d left my wallet in my locker. I sheepishly excused myself from my packmates, booking it back into the school. Thankfully most of the kids had either gone for lunch or were in class, so there were only one or two stragglers left in the senior hallway. Despite only being seventeen, Anna and I had both skipped a grade early on in life. I wasn’t complaining. It meant I got out of school and into the working world sooner.

“Hey, Spencer!” I froze not just at the voice, but also at the name. I subtly flicked my eyes towards the direction of Jack O’Connor. He waved down his alpha, Spencer Stark. Spencer strode down the hallway as if he owned the place. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he did. I wasn’t bothered by him or Jack despite them being from the enemy pack. Dare I say I found them both attractive. My problem was that they were in the hallway together, two of the strongest males in their group, and I was utterly alone. I can hold my own, but if they decided to attack, my chances of winning would be slim, even with the black belt training. It didn’t help that they knew I was the omega in my pack.

“What’s the agenda for the day?” Jack asked, shouldering his backpack.

“You have patrol duty later. I’m helping dad with some work stuff, and then mom is making me hang out with Callie,” Spencer answered.

“But don’t you like Callie?”

“Yeah, as a friend. Not as anything more, which is really ticking off my parents.”

“Why?”

“Because they apparently want her to be my mate, but I’m going to try and make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“You’re an independent alpha who don’t need no woman,” Jack joked. “Or something to that degree. Okay, I’m heading to town. You coming?”

I tried to shut my locker quietly to avoid giving away my presence. However, when there’s no one else in the hallway except you and two other people, and those two people have supernatural hearing, it’s nearly impossible.

Sure enough, it captured their attention, causing them to look over my way. Spencer, realizing who I was, simply turned back to face his packmate. However, Jack decided otherwise.

“What’s the Laroche omega doing by herself?” He jeered. I planned to simply ignore him as I walked by, but he grabbed onto my shoulder, jerking me around to face him. I shoved his arm off, glaring at him.

“Omega by title, not by power,” I snapped.

“What did the wittle princess do to get her in twouble with her pack?” Jack asked in a mocking toddler’s voice.

“Because my bite was worse than my bark. Want to find out for yourself?”

“Oh please, I’d like to see you try and take me down.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Jack, leave her alone,” Spencer said calmly.

“I don’t need you to handle my battles, Stark,” I growled.

“I’m not. You obviously wanted nothing to do with us either when you were walking down the hallway. I’m making him see that.”

“For once, we can agree with each other,” I said. I turned around and had barely taken a step when Jack taunted, “That’s it, run away like a good little omega.”

Anger ripped through me. Before either of them could react, I slammed my foot into Jack’s shin, and when he bent over in pain, I backhanded him across the face, knocking him to the ground. Immediately Spencer wrapped his arms around me, lifting me away from his friend.

“Jack, get out of here before she escapes and gives you another beating,” Spencer ordered. His pack mate groaned as he hobbled down the hallway, swearing at me under his breath. One sentence sounded suspiciously like ‘ducking hitch.’

Turning my attention back to Spencer, I realized I needed to get out of this situation. Using my legs to give me extra power, I thrust them out and to the ground, giving me the ability to flip Spencer over my shoulder. Unfortunately, his grip didn’t loosen on me, so I ended up flipping over as well, landing on top of him. The two of us grunted from the impact.

“Why did you do that?” he asked, sounding slightly exasperated.

“Because I wanted you to let me go,” I replied.

“You could’ve asked.”

“Oh yeah, because Starks always listen to Laroches. Now can you please let me go?”

“Are you going to beat up my friend some more?”

“No, he’s too far away.” Spencer released me. I rolled off of him, pushing myself up onto my knees so I could start collecting the papers that had fallen out of my bag. Spencer stood up but bent down to help.

“Thanks…” I said, giving him a quick, wary glance. There was an awkward silence between us, which I broke by saying, “Did I hurt you?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Good.” I finished putting the papers in my bag. The two of us stood up, walking off in opposite directions. My feet stopped on their own accord, though. As much as I hated his pack, he’d been cordial to me, and he’d been trying to help. “Hey, Stark?”

He turned around. “What?”

“Thank you for trying to stop your packmate from messing with me. And I’m sorry for flipping you over.”

“I have a feeling he won’t mess with you again, but the rest of the pack might if they hear what happened to him. I’ll try and stop them, but I can’t promise anything. And don’t worry about flipping me over. Besides, I’m pretty sure you kind of enjoyed it.”

“I did kind of take down an alpha,” I remarked, unable to hold back a small smile on my face.

To my astonishment, he actually grinned. “I’ll see you around, Laroche.”

“See you around, Stark.”