The Code Of The Alpha

The childhood memories made me smile as we pulled into her parents’ driveway. Both of our dads were outside already, her father and mine loading their luggage into the back of my dad’s truck.

“Well look who it is,” her dad said, glancing down at his watch.

“We were about to leave you two.”

“You wouldn’t have left us, Mr. Reid,” I said confidently as we got our own luggage from the back of my car. “You threaten us with that every time but you never have.”

He raised an eyebrow. “There’s a first time for everything, Miss Blair.”

I walked over to my dad and he took my duffle bag to pack it away.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

Mady and I nodded. We waved to our mothers, who were watching us from the kitchen window.

Mady’s mother, Shannon, raised the window.

“Drive safe! Be sure to text us when you get there!” she yelled. “And don’t spend all your money in Vegas!” my mom added. Giving them a thumbs up, Mady’s dad and mine got into the truck. She and I followed suit, blowing kisses and waving to our

respective mothers.

We hadn’t gotten very far down the road before my father’s phone went off

“Hello? Yes, this is Dr. David Blair.”

I looked down at my watch before showing it to Mady. “Only took two minutes for that thing to ring,” I said to her.

“I’m betting his will go off in the next five minutes,” she whispered, pointing to her own dad.

“I can hear you,” he whispered loudly from the passenger seat.

The both of us laughed quietly, trying not to disturb my father, who was discussing a patient’s prescription with a nurse. When my dad wasn’t being a Beta for one of the largest packs in Oregon, he was a family medicine doctor in a clinic that he ran with my mother, who was also a doctor.

As their only child, I struggled with the fact that I knew they had planned on me going to medical school and taking over the clinic one day. But I could barely pass my college-level biology class, much less make it through medical school successfully.

My passions and talents didn’t involve science or medicine, but that didn’t stop me from wishing they did As predicted, Mr. Reid’s phone rang not long after my dad had bended his own call.

The back and forth of phone tag between our fathers and their courthouses and clinics lasted the remainder of our day-long drive.

When we finally arrived in Vegas that night, we checked into our hotel and all went our separate ways.

“So,” I said, nudging Mady as we passed the casino entrance on our way to the elevators

She shook her head.

“Absolutely not, I’m exhausted. We were up until three and I woke up early this morning.

“Oh. c’mon.” I said. “We haven’t done anything exciting all day.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, hitting the elevator call button. “I loved staring out the window at the miles of dirt and cacti for nine hours.”

“You’re hilarious,” I said, my unamused tone matching her sarcastic one.

We rode the elevator up to our room on the eighth floor.

‘”Let’s at least go and find something to eat for dinner” I argued stepping off the elevator. “We haven’t eaten anything since we pulled through the drive-thru for lunch.”

“Carrie, you’re a grown woman. If you’re so hungry, go and find something to eat.”

“By myself? While we’re on vacation?” I scowled. “That’s not fun.” We found our room and Mady scanned the key card to open the door.

“I’m not in the mood for fun right now,” she said, entering the room and sitting down on her bed.

I threw my duffle bag onto the bed.

“When are you ever in the mood for fun, Miss Party Pooper?”

She narrowed her eyes at me before drawing in a deep breath.

“Fine, I’ll go and get something to eat with you but then we’re coming back here so I can go to bed.”

“Deal.”

When we left the hotel, I could hardly tell that the sun had begun to set. All of the neon lights that flashed around us were as bright as daylight. After wandering around for a few minutes, we found a

restaurant and went inside to eat.

As we were being led to our table, I was so focused on the lights and memorabilia plastered to the walls around us that I ran into someone that was trying to walk past me.

He grabbed my shoulders to keep me from falling into the people sitting around us.

“I’m so sorry,” I said quickly, regaining my footing.

“Hey, not a problem.” he assured me with a chill tone. He had brown eyes, a deep tan, and light brown hair that was peeking out from under a backwards-facing trucker’s hat.

He flashed a disarming smile before letting go of me.

“Sorry,” I found myself repeating.

“Don’t worry about it. Have a good one,” he said, walking around US. I nodded and waved, somewhat enchanted by the friendly stranger.

I turned to Mady, who watched the spectacle with an amused look on her face.

“So embarrassing,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush.

Mady just shrugged.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“He didn’t seem to mind.”

I shook my head as I followed her and the hostess to our table. We ordered our food, which came out quickly. This left us plenty of time to walk around and sightsee before it got too late.

Turns out all Mady needed was some food in her system and she was out of a bad mood and into a touristy one. We wandered around the city for quite a while before the both of us were ready to call it a night.

As we headed back to our hotel, we noticed the security detail that stood outside the building and in the lobby.

“Who do you think is here?” I asked her. “Do you think it’s a celebrity?”

‘”I honestly don’t care,” she yawned, hitting the button to call for an elevator.

Deciding that Mady had already put up with enough of my curiosity for the night, I let it go and followed her into the elevator.

“Maybe we’ll see whoever it is tomorrow,” I said.

She just shrugged. While Mady was exhausted, I was nearly giddy at the thought of what the next two days would hold. It had been too long since I’d had a vacation.

After all, what happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas.

Or so I thought.