Four Alpha´s for 1 Girl

I marked a red X on the calendar, which already had more marks than needed to reach the day circled in a huge green circle. That circular day was my eighteenth birthday, the date when my captivity in the High Moon Hill pack would end, almost nine years since I arrived as a hostage after my original pack lost a territorial war. As a guarantee of peace, a hundred boys and girls had to move to the territory of the victors. When I was assigned to work in the Pack House, I thought I had the best luck because the other hostages were sent to work in the fields. I couldn't have been more wrong. I knew the Pack House would be a true hell from the moment I entered and encountered Alpha Damian's quadruplets. The Alpha's four sons were true demons for whom the hostage was the new pet their dad had bought.

Although I nominally came to the High Moon Hill Pack House for education, it became clear from day one that education, as applied to me, included taking care of household chores in the grand mansion. Additionally, I had to attend the pack's school, Blue Sun, accompanied by the Clinton quadruplets: Malius, Spencer, Alex, and Trevor. They never ceased to remind me of my place, both at home and at school. My unpopularity at Blue Sun skyrocketed like foam overflowing from a soap-filled washing machine. Wherever I went, I was the maid of Alpha's quadruplets.

After counting the remaining red X marks, I left my room—a space that could only accommodate a single bed and a dresser filled only once a year with donated clothing. I entered the service bathroom, wet my face, brushed my teeth, and put on the apron required for kitchen duty. It was ten minutes to five in the morning, and the quadruplets would still be asleep for another two hours while I prepared their breakfast and packed their lunches for the first day of spring at school. When I had the four towers of waffles, four plates of bacon, four pans of eggs, and four cups of hot chocolate ready, I heard them coming down to the kitchen's dining area. My torment for the day was just beginning, and I still had to prepare lunch for the four troublemakers.

"The waffles are disgusting, Elf," Malius said, using that nickname as a distortion of my name, Elise. According to him, his brothers, and the whole pack, I was doing well not only because of my position but also because of my short stature. "You know I like them fluffier. I'm not eating this."

"My bacon tastes like smoked rubber, Elf." This time it was Spencer who contributed his "constructive criticism" to my cooking skills. "Did you not sleep well last night, or what's wrong with you? Lately, you've been very distracted."

Malius and Spencer were the two who enjoyed teasing me the most among their brothers. Malius was the rough, crude, and direct one, while Spencer tended to be more calculated, and his jokes could be less frequent but more cruel and elaborate.

"If you want fluffier waffles, you should dip them in the hot chocolate," I heard Alex say, who tended to be conciliatory and, although he enjoyed his brothers' jokes against me, never initiated or proposed any.

"I don't know what you're complaining about; everything is delicious," Trevor concluded, always seeming to contradict his brothers and being the only one of the four who could roll his eyes when his brothers teased me.

I tried to shield myself with the armor of indifference, but due to the intensity of the quadruplets, this strategy didn't always work. Malius usually took care of disarming me. He pulled my apron's tie with his incredible Alpha speed, against which I could do nothing. The apron fell to the floor, and I needed it to keep my clothes from getting dirtier than they already were since I had received them from donations.

"Give that to me!" I protested after, trying to pick up the apron, Spencer took it before and threw it to Alex.

"Take it, Trevor. Toss it to Malius."

I trusted Trevor to put an end to the game that was taking away time from making lunch and make the steak burn, but Trevor, without taking his eyes off his phone, tossed it into the air, well beyond my ability to catch the garment. Malius's hand, which was over a head taller than me, caught it effortlessly.

"You truly are an elf, in every sense, Elf," Malius mocked, always enjoying alluding to my short stature.

"The steak is going to burn," Trevor said with his marked indifference. "Give her back the apron, brothers. I don't want to eat burnt meat today."

"If the meat burns, she'll have to make another one," Spencer replied as he threw my apron to Alex. "And Dad will surely deduct the price of that premium steak from her poor salary."

Even though, by saying it, Spencer knew he wasn't doing me any favors, I knew he was right, and I stopped chasing the apron. I approached the pan at the exact moment when the huge cut of meat was about to be ruined.

I don't know when Trevor caught the apron, stood up, and handed it to me.

"We're running late," he said indifferently, without taking his eyes off the phone. "You better serve our lunches quickly."

The four went upstairs to get ready, and I had to do it in less than half the time they had. It was no wonder that, besides my second- or third-hand clothes, my hair and appearance were, almost every day, a mess, nothing like the perfect appearance of the other girls at school who always looked down on me or avoided crossing paths with me.

Except for that particular day when the four current girlfriends of the quadruplets approached me as soon as they saw me descending from the school bus.

I was stunned to see them approaching in a group, fearing they were going to pour a bucket over me or something worse.

I grabbed my backpack straps tightly.

"You're the one who lives with the quadruplets, right?" Alex's girlfriend asked.

"Yes, it's me."

"Of course, it's her, can't you see? Look at her worn-out clothes. It's easy to recognize her," Spencer's girlfriend said, equally or more cruel than her boyfriend.

"And don't forget her unkempt appearance," Malius's girlfriend added.

"Okay, girls, we know it's her," Trevor's girlfriend cut in. "Look, we're organizing our boyfriends' birthday, which you already know is in three days."

I rolled my eyes.

The quadruplets' birthday, the most nauseating day of the whole year. On that day, not only did the Pack House have to be organized as if it were receiving the President, but it also had to be left immaculate and cleaner than before the next day. And, guess what, I was the main person in charge of ensuring both conditions were met to the fullest.

"On that day, our boyfriends will transform for the first time," Alex's girlfriend said. "And you know how important that is."

I was very aware of what that meant.

By transforming for the first time, the quadruplets could find their mates; they would be able to detect them, and, of course, their girlfriends were eager to know if they would be the chosen ones.

"You have to help us organize the party," Spencer's girlfriend added, without a "please" or "could you." "You know them very well, you also know the house, and..."

"You know their parents," Malius's girlfriend interrupted, revealing the true interest of the four conspirators. "You have to make sure Alpha Damian and Luna Emma are distracted."

"We need them to mark us that same night," Trevor's girlfriend concluded.

Were they so sure of being their mates?

Although they had been the quadruplets' girlfriends for a little over a year, that didn't guarantee them being the mates of the four brothers. Anyone could be their mate. Even their mate could be someone they didn't know at that moment, living thousands of miles away, in another pack.

But who could convince those four harpies of something different?

They were eager not only to be chosen but also to be marked that same night.

And I could understand them.

The quadruplets were not only the Alpha's sons, but also four devilishly handsome adonis, tall and muscular, sculpted with the chisel of a Renaissance artist.

"I can help you, yes. I have no problem with that." After almost nine years, I was used to being servile, and this year, at least, the quadruplets' birthday promised to disappoint four idiotic girls at once. I wanted to be present in that moment. "Tell me what you need."

The four girlfriends smiled, and I even saw them jumping with excitement.

The day passed without much excitement in my ordinary life at Blue Sun High School, a day so monotonous that I forgot about the commitment I had made in the morning with the quadruplets' girlfriends. That's why I was surprised to see them together again when they approached my locker as a group.

"You haven't forgotten what you promised us, right?" said Spencer's girlfriend.

"Of course, he hasn't forgotten," pointed out Malius's girlfriend, slamming my locker door shut. "Or did you actually forget?"

I scanned the four girls while shaking my head and clutching my books to my chest, fearing they might throw them on the floor with a blow.

"I told you. It was impossible for him to forget," said Alex's girlfriend. "Are we going to the mall, or what?"

"To the... mall?" I asked.

"Of course, to the mall. Where else do you think we're going to buy new clothes for the party?"

I felt uncomfortable going to the mall because when I did, it was always with