The Alpha Addiction

an's

starting line. His wiry frame looked poised, like a coiled spring ready to snap i

than?" Tolu smirked, adjusting

ndifference. "Maybe today's

open stretch that wound through the forest just behind our house. It had been our makeshift

ice boomed, and the others c

rring into streaks of green and brown. The rhythmic pounding of my f

ondense all at once. I wasn'

my face, but it wasn't unpleasant. If anything, it exhilarated me. When I reached the o

round that I realized how

hard he could barely speak. "

t it wasn't from exhaustion. My body buzze

e," Tolu said, hands on his knees. "Are you h

ous comments, but I laughed them off, shrugg

t the unease settled deep in

-

n intensity that betrayed her thoughts. Grandpa sat in his usual chair

something," Grandma said soft

his day would come, Ebele. We jus

ickening. What were

dma whispered. "And if

rp glance darted toward me, and I k

ing fully into the room. "

ilent conversations only people who'

ry about," Grandpa said,

him, but I let

-

the sky. The moonlight painted her features in soft silver hues

I asked, sitting

d. "I've been hav

ash

r. "It's like pieces of a puzzle I can't quite put toge

e?

earching mine. "I feel like I've known yo

ine. I felt it too-that unexplaina

rushing against my wrist. It was like an electric curr

murmured, l

d, though my voice trembled

was heavy, laden with thin

ndered into my life. She was something more. And whate

of birds overhead. Mia walked a few steps ahead, her hands brushing against the

ng about her being here, in this fore

orest is alive?" she asked s

eyebrow. "

it's watching us. Pr

iry tale," I teased, though deep d

ut then, the atmosphere shifted. The wind stilled, and the birds stopped singing.

alled, my

at me with a furrowed

figure stepped into the clearing-a hulking, twisted creature that looked like it had crawled out

ed, pushing h

. Instinct took over, and I met it head-on,

y hands moved faster than I thought possible, my muscles surging with a power I didn't know I

e with a mix of fear and awe.

ne still coursing through me. "I don't know," I w

, I'm no longer the s