The Challenge Two Alphas, One Girl

Chapter 25: Friday Falls

Thaddeus’ POV

I had not even glimpsed my little mate, Friday, yesterday so I woke up rather disgruntled. I went straight to her room and was surprised to find her up and dressed at this early hour. She was in a short-sleeved mini black dress with her waves tousled and billowing all around her. She flung herself at me and I scooped her up eagerly. I placed a chaste kiss to her lips.

“Maze hid you from me yesterday,” I said, grumbling inwardly. She kissed my nose, my cheeks and my eyelids. “I missed you,” she said simply.

“I missed you too,” I murmured. If Maze insisted on monopolising his time with Friday, I would do the same.

“I have a fun day planned,” I said, chuckling. Friday’s POV

Thaddeus came to my room early and I was thrilled to see him. I drank a cookies n’cream Frappuccino he had brought me while he drove me to the location of our date. I really did need to cut back on the sugar come to think of it. Thaddeus was driving away from the centre of the town. We passed fields and lush greenery. Eventually he turned onto a long private driveway. A huge ranch-style house loomed in the distance. I gasped when I saw them. There were the most gorgeous horses prancing around the field in front of the house. Some were jet black and gleaming. Others were as white as untouched snow.

Thaddeus opened my door for me. “My parents own a couple ranches and this is one of them,” he explained, grinning at how excited I was.

“Have you ever ridden a horse before?” He asked. “No, but I’ve ridden a wolf,” I said innocently. He smirked. Thaddeus led me over to the field where the horses trotted to and fro. “Pick a horse,” he instructed. “That one!” I said, pointing to a very shiny completely black horse. Thaddeus was hesitant. “That one is a stallion,” he said.

Stallions were difficult to control because they were male horses who were not castrated and therefore more aggressive due to the hormones they had.

“I can handle it!” I insisted. “If you say so, little Luna,” he said, chuckling.

Thaddeus saddled up the stallion who was called Blackjack. I was so excited. Thaddeus also rode a stallion, a brown one called Brownie. These names were not that creative but the horses were gorgeous. I followed Thaddeus’ lead. He was holding the reigns for both horses so we could ride them side by side.

“Do your twin brothers have mates?” I asked him. “No not yet, do yours?” Thaddeus asked.

I snorted. “Definitely not and they both say they don’t want a mate,” I said. Fallon and Fargo were nicer to me than Fang was but they were also much more childish than Fang. They argued incessantly

“You know identical twins and triplets usually share just one mate because they were once one fertilised egg that split into two or three,” explained Thaddeus.

I was aware of the sharing a mate thing because of my twin brothers. They could not share anything without throwing temper tantrums so it made sense that they did not want a mate they would have to share.

“My brothers hate that fact,” I told Thaddeus.

“Timothy wants a mate really badly. He’s a hopeless romantic like me I guess. Titus, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered. I actually dined with your twin bros yesterday,” said Thaddeus grinning.

I groaned. “Were they awful company?” “I prefer them to Fang,” Thaddeus said, shrugging. I laughed. “That’s not much of a compliment. Do the twins have a problem with the actual sharing part?”

“No,” said Thaddeus. “It’s not that. Titus doesn’t want a mate because he thinks being fated is like being forced into a relationship and anytime you tell Titus what to do, he is sure to do the opposite.”

I smiled. I was really looking forward to leaving Marigold a few days from now and meeting Thaddeus’ family and his pack members.

“I can’t believe there are open-minded packs out there where me being wolf-less wouldn’t stop me from being welcomed into the pack,” I said more to myself than to Thaddeus.

Thaddeus smiled sadly. “I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.” “It’s not your fault!” I said quickly.

Thaddeus and I rode through a private trail where flowering vines wrapped around the trees on either side. I had an idea. Not a smart one but an idea none the less.

“Let’s race!” | said to Thaddeus snatching my own reign from him and galloping off on the horse. “No! Friday! Wait!” Thaddeus yelled.

He tailed me. I encouraged Blackjack to run faster. Thaddeus sped up. I giggled playfully and made Blackjack take a sharp turn. That was a mistake. The horse stopped suddenly, whinnying. The horse raised its front legs and tossed me off of it. I hit the ground with a thud. I saw dark spots clouding my vision.

A mere split-second later, I was in Thaddeus’ arms. He was caressing me, checking me carefully for bruises. I moaned. My body throbbed, Thaddeus scooped me up and put me in the car. He sped back to the packhorse. He carried me in. Theo came rushing towards us and Thaddeus sent him to find the pack doctors and nurses. I sighed, holding onto the Thaddeus. His warmth was comforting and kept me from feeling the pain. Maze came into view, concern evident in his expression.

“What happened?” Asked Maze.

“We went horseback riding and she fell off her horse,” said Thaddeus, his voice and expression pained.

“It was my fault,” I told Maze. “I’m sorry Thaddeus. I should not have taken off like that. I should have listened.”

Thaddeus gently kissed my forehead while Maze squeezed my hand. I expected them to start arguing but they were both focused on me. The pack doctors made me get a series of X-rays. One of the bones in my left foot was broken, my 3rd metatarsal. I sighed. The doctors put a cast on me and gave me some painkillers that made me a little loopy.

I noticed Thaddeus looking so forlorn. I knew he was blaming himself for my injury. I touched his cheek with my other nana so ne would not feel lett out. He kissed my paim. uingies snot througn me at being this close to both of my alphas. Fang had just arrived at the pack house and he was busy feigning concern and looking horrified at my X-rays. The orchard smell of Maze and the rainforest smell of Thaddeus were so overpowering together. That plus the painkillers were making me hallucinate or something.

“Baby sis, we need to have a chat,” Fang insisted. Don’t trust him.

Huh. I shook my head. Where had that voice came from? No one else had heard it. I looked up at Thaddeus who still had his eyes closed and was holding my hand to his cheek. Maze had my other hand in both of his. He pressed his lips to my knuckles.

“Did you guys hear that?” I asked the Alphas. “She hit her head?” Maze said, looking at Thaddeus.

“No, she fell onto her left side, thank goodness. It could’ve been worse. She could’ve broken her neck,” said Thaddeus, his voice cracking a little.

It was surreal to see someone as physically powerful as Thaddeus be so emotional. Maze nodded in agreement.

“At least it’s a smaller bone. It’ll heal,” Maze said. “But it’ll take weeks because she’s wolf-less. She’ll be in pain for weeks,” said Thaddeus softly.

“We have really good doctors here and I know you do too in Berryndale. They can manage the pain,” Maze said reassuring Thaddeus.

Did I just say Maze was reassuring Thaddeus? Maybe this was part of my hallucination. “Alphas, I just want to borrow my sister for one moment,” interjected Fang.

No!

“No!” I squeaked, agreeing with the voice only I could hear apparently. I hit my balled-up fist against my thigh for emphasis.

Maze snorted and Thaddeus chuckled. Fang glared at me. “She’s loopy,” Thaddeus said. “Now is not a good time, Fang.” “Another time, Fang,” agreed Maze. Thaddeus’ POV

One minute, I was looking forward to a whole day trip with Friday and the next minute I was rushing her to the pack house to get medical attention. I knew it was just a minor bone that was fractured. She would heal soon enough but I could not stand to see her in any pain. She had already been through so much and I wanted her life with me to be smooth sailings. I cursed myself for taking her on this date. I was

trying to avoid stretching my self control by staying out of the bedroom today when it came to Friday. Now, she could no longer walk for the next six weeks at least which meant nothing but resting in her bedroom. She would still be in the cast even when the challenge was over. I sighed. Maze was shockingly not being an insensitive jerk about all of this. I wondered what had gotten into him.

“So I can’t go out at all?” Friday asked the doctor.

“Of course, you can, honey,” said Doctor Tom-san, an elderly woman with cat eye glasses. “But you’ll need to keep the foot elevated and avoid too much activity.”

“It’s times like this I do actually wish I weren’t wolf less,” mumbled Friday. Maze’s POV

When I saw Thaddeus rushing into the pack house, cradling Friday and calling for the doctors, my Dut she coula not weignt-pear on ner lent tool. The doctors confirmea it was broken. It would take Friday six weeks to heal. Friday lamented the fact that she was wolf-less and thus healed slowly. I stroked her hair and kissed her knuckles. I expected Thaddeus to growl at this but he was lost in his own thoughts. I made sure the doctors gave her strong pain-killers.

Friday was singing to herself. The pain-killers definitely did the trick. She pretended her hand was a microphone and extended it to Thaddeus so he could sing into it. He did not know the song and neither did I when Friday’s “microphone” reached me. She told us we were both disqualified from the competition for being underprepared and that the consolation prize was a year worth of soup. She fell asleep after that.

I walked with Thaddeus as he carried Friday up to the Alpha floor. I wished I was carrying her but it was technically still his day.

“Thanks,” said Thaddeus matter-of-factly, nodding. “For what?” I asked, genuinely curious. “For not being a huge jerk about this to Friday or even to me,” he said. I half-smiled. I guessed my reputation really did precede me. Friday’s POV

My head was spinning. I was sandwiched between Thaddeus and Maze who both had their mouths on my neck and their fangs in my flesh. I heard a strange noise. It distracted me momentarily which was not at all an easy feat. I had fallen asleep still between my two alphas. I was nursing a plethora of hickeys and bite marks. I extricated myself to investigate. Someone was whispering. I looked around. I spotted my reflection in a nearby mirror and gasped. My brown eyes had turned black.

I awoke with a start. I was drenched in sweat. Thaddeus rushed to me and enveloped me in his arms. He stroked my hair and kissed my forehead, squeezing me tightly, cradling my head against his chest.

“Shhh, little Friday,” said Thaddeus.

I looked up at him and he looked down at me. Our lips met and the electricity I had become accustomed to coursed through me as kissed me passionately, cupping my face in his hands. I straddled him, kneeling, with my arms around his neck. We were nose to nose, forehead to forehead. My left foot was throbbing inside its cast due to the awkward position but I ignored it. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“Friday,” said Thaddeus, his blue eyes anxious. “Yeah,” I said softly. “I love you,” he whispered.