alpha

noah clarke Alpha. Brother. Advisor. Best friend.

[noahthealpha]

carasuttons:

It didn’t take her long to find him. Each member of the pack seemed to have their own special coping mechanism after a pack meeting had gotten a little heated. It was always the same way meeting after meeting, William didn’t like what was going on in their town or how Noah wanted to handle the situation. Noah’s plan of attack usually considered less attacking and more political moves. Will wasn’t the political type, he was punch first and avoid the arrest warrant later. Cara had observed it time after time, and she had watched them all sulk away to process their anger and annoyance just as many times. Quinn would disappear into one of the many vacant rooms, usually accompanied by Tristan and an influx of curse words she could never repeat around her students. William tended to grab the keys for his motorcycle and take matters into his own hand, punching the problem square in the nose and Noah.. 

“Brooding in silence again?” Cara inquired, brow raised sympathetically as the gravel crunched beneath her boots. “I knew I’d find you out here, neglecting a perfectly good beer. You’re lucky Quinn’s upstairs kicking things and probably taking her frustrations out on poor Tristan. Otherwise I’m pretty sure she’d be out here, throwing tyres at you for letting one of her beers go warm.” She climbed onto the back of the ute, taking him up on his offer as she moved the forgotten bottle of beer to one side and sat down next to him. “No lectures. Scouts honour. I just thought I’d come get some fresh air and join you.”

Noah welcomed the company because he did want to ask Cara a question. He couldn’t ask Quinn, as she was otherwise preoccupied making Tristan’s life harder and Will and Noah already had enough discussions for the day and perhaps the week. Now there sat the newest member of their pack, observant and calm. He embraced it. Calm was a hard thing to find in their household. His body tilted back and his hands met the cool metal. Noah could only inhaled and exhale the fresh air, his head tilting back. 

“You know... When we took you in, I was unsure where you’d fit. It wasn’t that I didn’t want you in our family. But Quinn is terrifying when you don’t know her, Tristan has his own demons and Will is a handful. Then comes you, happy to brood in silence with me, working beside children each day. Despite the rocky start of having to get you out of a troublesome situation, you were a piece I didn’t realise we were missing.” He glanced over at her. “So I need your input as a member of my pack. You know how it is to be on the outside of everything. You know what it is to be a wolf that is alone. I need to know. Why did you vote against Nadia staying?”

[noahthealpha]

williamstemple:

Will did mean it, at least in that moment he did. Screw Quinn, screw Tristan and screw Cara too. They were supposed to be family, they were supposed to be pack. They should have had his back on this but instead they turned against him. They all but laughed his concerns for this werewolf girl off. If it had been any one of them who came home with Nadia this would have gone completely differently, it wouldn’t just be Will and Noah left too hash it out while Nadia remained unconscious on their sofa. It only made his blood boil more, anger burning brighter and hotter inside of him despite his best efforts to stop the flames from burning anybody he loved. Noah’s serene and calm demeanour only added fuel to the fire, his jaw clenched with a burning rage as he walked towards the opposite side of the room, a tightly clenched fist tapping against the wall in frustration. He wanted so badly to punch the wall, to feel his fist connect and break something. Anything. Will was an expert at bottling up his emotions, burying them so deep that even he wasn’t sure he was capable of feeling. Anger, however. That was never an emotion he could hide. Not when his father died, abandoning him. Not when Rosalie betrayed them and abandoned them, and not when he realised the people that were supposed to protect this town were just as corrupt and evil as the villains in the comic books he read growing up.

“Stop.” Will breathed, pressing his forehead against the cold, brick wall. “Stop calling me that and stop doing that.” He hated when Noah remained calm and collected, it was patronising when he was younger and it was even more so now. “Do you trust me?” He lifted his head from the brick wall, turning to face Noah again and steeling himself. “You say I fought well. You say I made a good argument,” He walked towards Noah now, the fire inside of him beginning to flicker out, slowly. It wasn’t gone, not completely but the flames weren’t ablaze now. “So, do you trust me enough to let me make this call?” 

Noah just watched Will. His hackles were rising, even if he didn’t realise it. And Noah didn’t know how to talk him down just yet. Sometimes it was best to just let him thrash it out against something and let it crumble before his eyes but Noah wanted him to control his emotions, not succumb to them. 

“I’m not doing anything.” Noah said it gently. “I’m agreeing with you, Will, there isn’t a fight to be had here.” The next question caught him off guard and there was more weight to it than the young wolf knew. Did he trust Will with this? There was a lot that he trusted the boy with. The pack, their home, his life but did he think that the boy was old enough to carry this responsibility? It took him a few moments to think about this, pulling all he knew about Will into his head. He was unpredictable, a fire cracker that would go off at any second. A feral wolf, even one who seemed to be able to control for moments, wasn’t something that could be brushed off or forgotten about. He didn’t want to have to clean up this mess like so many that Will left behind. But the tone, the look in his eyes, that spoke volumes. Perhaps it was time.

“I trust you.” He said simply, grasping Will’s shoulder. “You’ve gone through enough in this world to know what’s right. So, yes, William, I trust you with this choice. The question is, do you trust yourself? Disregard me for a moment. If this is what you want to do, then do it. You always have done before now, don’t change.”

[noahthealpha]

He shouldn’t had been surprised that Cara would be the one to find him. She was the most caring out of the lot of them. At least, when it came to him. The rest saw him as a leader. He was fairly certain that Cara saw him as a man, flawed and just as unsure as the rest of them. Tristan was a good person for a vent but at the end of the day, the beta did look to him for answers. 

He sat on the back of the ute, a beer lying next to him forgotten as he glanced at the omega. “You’re welcome to sit here, assuming that there isn’t going to be a lecture about the drinking on a weekday.”

[noahthealpha]

williamstemple:

“Screw the pack.” Will spat the words like venom, though he didn’t mean them. He was just angry and hurt. The Pack was his family, all of them. Noah, Cara, Tristan even Quinn. They all meant the world to Will, they were the only family he had left. After losing his father and then Rosalie, he couldn’t bear to lose anybody else he cared about. Which is why he wanted to help Nadia so badly, despite not knowing the first thing about her. Will ran a hand through his hair as he began to pace up and down, a sigh of frustration escaping his lips. “Who cares about the consequences when somebody needs our help? The Pack should be on board with this. You should be on board with this. I don’t think she has anybody else, I don’t think she has a Pack who can look out for her.” We can be that Pack. We can look out for her, His eyes seemed to say, as he pleaded with Noah to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

Will couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing, was Noah agreeing to this? His brows furrowed together, green eyes glancing at his brothers hand clamped on his shoulder. He nodded in understanding, allow his eyes to drift upwards and meet Noah’s gaze. “I understand,” He said, the tension and anger he had been carrying in his shoulders suddenly dropping, his shoulders sagging in return, “She’s not a risk to us, I don’t know how I know it. I just do. You understand that, right? You trusted Cara, Quinn and Tristan enough to let them into the Pack. I just need you to extend Nadia the same courtesy.”

“You don’t mean that.” Noah said it gently. It was strange, the more that Will spat at him, the more Noah was calming down. This part he could handle, Will lashing out because he was angry. He knew this Will. He watched as Will paced and he couldn’t help the small smile that was rising onto his lips. It seemed that Will was intent on surprising the shit out of him this night. Because that was the whole point of the pack, it had been for a long time but he hadn’t realised that the younger wolf had truly understood that until now. Will had always been fighting any injustice that he would see, but this was different. It wasn’t a little thing he was picking up, it was a responsibility and he was willing to take it.

Noah glanced at Nadia on the couch, his lips pursed together. “That still remains to be seen. But yes, I do understand. I mean... you’ve met Quinn.” Noah said it wryly. Quinn was always the rebellious one, the one that cause him trouble on par with Will on some days. She had no filter and her temper would get the better of her most of the time. She was a risk and they molded her into a fighter for their pack, loyal beyond belief. Perhaps it wasn’t much different. He did tilt his head before he smiled at Will. “You fought well, young wolf.” It was an old nickname but Noah was feeling nostalgic for the little boy that Will used to be. A bundle of laughs and troublemaking, always a cheeky smile in his wake. Maybe he wasn’t doing such a bad job, if this was how he turned out. “Good arguments... Who taught you how to do that?”

[noahthealpha]

williamstemple:

“What does that matter?” Will demanded, almost wincing at the anger in his own voice. His voice sounded strange and unfamiliar to him, like he was hearing himself in a dream. A vivid, angry dream. Will didn’t understand why everybody kept questioning his motives behind wanting to help Nadia. Wasn’t this what they always wanted from him? Hadn’t they all said that one day he would need to start caring more about getting a girl into his bed? Here he was now, wanting to help somebody for the sake of helping them and they still doubted him. Everybody always doubted him. 

“You want to know what I see?” Will asked, looking between Noah and Nadia who still lay unconscious on their sofa. “A girl who needs help. Isn’t that that we do? We help other werewolves who need our help.” That was what his father had always told him. They weren’t like the rest of the werewolf community who only cared about power, conquering and territory. Their packed helped other werewolves and other packs if necessary. They were guardians, protectors. Rosalie never understood that. Will couldn’t help but wonder if Noah had lost sight of that since her betrayal. Will sighed, why did it always have to come back to his feelings? “I don’t know.” He answered honestly, shrugging his shoulders. “There’s something about her that makes me want to help her.” She’s special. “I can’t explain it.” He said with a shake of his head, wishing he had the answers that Noah was looking for. “All I know for sure is that I want to help her. Isn’t that enough?”

It mattered because this is all the pack knew. Will wasn’t someone they trusted to make the right choices. Not yet anyhow. But perhaps this was the first step. Noah hadn’t meant to be doubting every step that Will took but that was just how he thought. Trust wasn’t born overnight and considering that trouble seemed to find Will, Noah was struggling. He missed his father for a split second. He could have used some guidance, just for a moment. How was he meant to play this. “The pack doesn’t know you like I know you, Will.” He admitted. “They’re looking at this as a rash choice. That’s why it matters.”

He was right. But Noah was having trouble admitting that. This girl, Nadia, she needed help. She needed a home, a pack, she needed nurturing. But he was still hesitating. The last feral wolf near them had torn their pack to shreds and Will still didn’t know who that had been to this day. “She gets a choice in this. If she doesn’t want our help, then we can’t force her to stay. However, I’m ruling that she can stay as long as she needs to. But she’s your responsibility, Will. Whatever mess she makes, you’re the one cleaning it up. I’d say the same to Cara, Quinn and Tristan if it was one of them that brought her in. She’s not pack right now, she’s a tourist. Do you understand?” He clapped his hand on Will’s shoulder. “It’s enough for me. Now you need to do some reading. See if there is something in the history books about feral wolves. Something tells me you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into and I need you educated before we talk to her about this arrangement.”

[noahthealpha]

williamstemple:

Will adverted his gaze from Noah, allowing his emerald green eyes to follow the rest of the pack across the room as they followed Noah’s order one by one. Cara looked hesitant, like there was something else she wanted to say but was too afraid to say it. Quinn was shaking her head, saying something to Tristan that he couldn’t quite understand. He wasn’t sure he wanted to either, it was probably about him or Nadia. Will wasn’t in the mood to hear Quinn’s two cents on the matter. Tristan was the last one out, hesitant at first but once he got the all clear from Noah he closed the door behind him and silence fell between the two werewolf brothers.

Will narrowed his eyes at Noah’s question and clenched his jaw, screwing his fists together at his side to stop himself from launching across the room at Noah and swinging for his older brother. “How the hell can you even ask me that?” Will demanded, green eyes blazing brighter until they changed into a molten gold colour like the flames in a fire. “Do you really think I’m that fucking shallow?” He spat, the words hurt more coming from Noah than they did when Quinn had accused him of the same thing. “I’m not some fucking sleaze bag who only cares about getting in her pants, Noah. This is about helping somebody who needs our help. Somebody who can’t help herself but for some reason you’re all ready to toss her aside because you all think I can’t possibly have any other interest in a girl other than wanting to make her another conquest.” Will wanted to hit something, someone, anything. It was how he dealt with his danger, he lashed out and dealt with the consequences later. “This was my plan, Noah. Things already got bad for this girl so I bought her to you because I promised her we would help her.” Noah was who Will turned to when things went bad, when things spiralled out of control and he could no longer handle things alone.

Noah felt the air in the room change and his own eyes flashed a sharp red. He was used to seeing Will this angry but never about a girl and never about another wolf. Not since Rosalie. “When have you proven me any different? Your bedroom door revolves, Will!” Noah snapped back, the tension in the room was so high, it was making the hair on the back of Noah’s neck stand. However, he had better control than this and Noah took a deep breath, steadying himself. What Will was saying was something he should have been proud of. The young wolf was growing, changing, proving that he was more than a slight liability. He was going to make a stunning Beta one day. 

“Okay, Will. Okay.” He held up his hand. “But can we please address what we saw? That was a feral wolf, one that can’t differentiate between wolf and human. It’s dangerous. It can destroy a pack. She could turn and kill us all. Her wolf isn’t one that can be apart of something, they are loners. I don’t know how to help her, I don’t know if we can. And you can’t deny what is happening here. I haven’t seen you look like this before, Will.” He looked down at the girl. “Do you like her? It won’t change anything, I’ve made my decision. But you need to make yours. Can you separate what you feel and what you’re about to take on?” Noah stared at Will intently. 

[noahthealpha]

williamstemple:

“Nadia,” Will told Noah, spitting his words like a crackling fire, “Her name is Nadia and she needs our help.” Not our judgement. Not to be turned away from our sanctuary because she has a problem. Will was furious, his anger seeping into every drop of blood and every bone in his body. It didn’t surprise him that Quinn had wanted to turn Nadia out on her own the first sign of trouble. Cara came as a surprise to him, it felt like being punched in the gut. Cara was the compassionate one, she always wanted to help others, yet she had sided with Quinn. Ready to cast Nadia out because they thought she posed a threat to their pack.

They were wrong. 

Will knew that Nadia wasn’t a threat to them, only to herself. She needed their help and he was going to make sure she got it. One way or another. Standing up straight, Will glared at the rest of his pack and snarled. A warning. He wanted to be left alone with Noah and Nadia, to talk to his older brother about what they were going to do to help her without the rest of them constantly butting in and trying to undermine him. “I’ll talk once they’re gone. They’ve made their minds up about her already.”

Noah looked at Will, the frustration on his face before he looked at the rest of the pack. He was going to keep to his word and suddenly he knew this wasn’t a pack discussion, it was a brother one. “You can’t be seriously-” Quinn snapped but Noah held his hand up, his face dark and stern. “Out. Please.” He said it with such finality that the pack moved, Quinn still muttering under her breath. He looked at Tristan and gave him a nod, which meant the shut the door behind them.

He looked at Nadia once more, a curled up girl who had no idea what these people said about her. “They’re not here now.” He said softly. “Now talk to me. Tell me why you’re defending this girl, who you’ve only just met by the way, so passionately. Cause I have to take what Quinn said into account. What happens if you lose interest, Will? I’m not saying you will. But what if it doesn’t end well? What’s the plan? Because you may not have seen this before but I have and I can’t guarantee she’ll pull through.”

[noahthealpha]

Will was carrying the young girl in and Noah wasn’t sure how he could even begin this discussion. He knew what had happened, he had seen this with Will’s father and yet, Will didn’t know anything about it. They wasn’t something they would ever talk about, it was a taboo topic across the supernatural world because it had no cause, no cure, no science explaining why it happened. All they knew was that it was in the blood, it was a cancer that snuck under the surface and could be triggered at any moment, just like the werewolf gene. This was exactly why he watched Will’s temper as much as he did, why he told the boy to calm, to stop fighting the good fight. He couldn’t lose Will as well, not that way. Not when he was the only one that could put him down.

He watched as Will set the girl down softly onto their moth eaten couch and he let out a quiet sound. “I’ve never seen someone talk themselves out of that state before. It’s supposed to be impossible.” He started, staring down at the brown haired, spit of a girl on his couch. She looked... small, like she was unable to do what she just did. “Who is this girl?”

[carasuttons]

Cara searched for words of reassurance for her Alpha. She wanted to ease his worries about his brother, to reassure him that even Will could last one night, unsupervised, without pissing somebody off and getting himself into serious trouble.

The truth was that Will and trouble came hand in hand together.

Instead she laughed, nodding in agreement with her Alpha, “Are you saying you don’t enjoy having to always get him out of trouble?” Cara raised her eyebrows, “What would you do if you didn’t get to give him one of your personal branded lectures that you’re so fond of?”

Luckily for Cara, she had never been on the receiving end of one of Noah’s lectures. The youngest werewolf always thought that Noah had enough on his hands constantly trying to reign Will and Quinn in. The the least she could do to repay him for welcoming her into his family was not bring trouble knocking to his door.

Will was a master in the arts of doing that all by himself, he didn’t need any help from Cara. While Quinn, like Tristan, was a master of guilt tripping and manipulation. They were a match made in heaven.

[noahthealpha]

Noah chuckled. “Despite what Will and you may think, I do not enjoy giving lectures. I wait for the day Will has to give one of his own, then he’ll understand the pain I go through daily.” Noah took a sip of his beer but that thought did linger for a moment. Noah lecturing Will was one of the few pieces of contact Noah actually had with his brother. He wished it wasn’t so negative but at least when he was lecturing, he actually got to talk to Will about matters that were close to the pup’s heart. Noah was fairly sure he wouldn’t know about it any other way.

Cara was still looking at him and Noah jerked himself out of his own thoughts. “Shit, I’m sorry, I am going all ‘brooding in the corner’ as Will calls it. How’s school? Your students?” 

Noah was curious about something other than Cara’s teaching. That being, how the staff were treating her after her big change. Their town didn’t exactly hate the wolves being in town but at the same time, they weren’t exactly pleasant. Noah wanted Cara to know that if any trouble was given, he could handle it but she hadn’t come to him with anything yet. 

He just didn’t want Cara feeling alone, that was all. 

[carasuttons]

Cara stirred the little umbrella around in her drink, idly, as she watched her family going about their usual business in the bar; Tristan working behind the bar, of course, a towel slung over one of his shoulders while he buttered up a middle aged woman, while Quinn kept sneaking behind the bar to fix herself a drink, free of course. Tristan would never make her pay her tab that she had worked up over the years, no matter how much he teased her about paying it in full one day. Will was, Cara realised then, not amongst her family tonight, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for him. Will was often scampering off to do his own thing, and the less she wondered about what that could be the less gross things she could imagine. 

They were her family and watching them made something inside of her chest swell with a joy and comfort she had not felt when she had first been welcomed into The Pack. Cara had been frightened, terrified even of all them and what they were—what she was. Each of them had helped her to accept what being a werewolf was in their own way; Quinn helped her discover her strength, Tristan had always been there after a full moon, somehow knowing exactly what she wanted to hear. Will had taught her to enjoy and embrace being a werewolf and that it didn’t have to be a curse. Noah though, Noah had taught her the most important thing; he had taught her how to keep her humanity and showed her she wasn’t alone in the world. 

He had shown her a family.

“That would be Quinn.” Cara said, a smile on her lips as she leaned over to speak to her Alpha. The bar was normally filled with a peaceful buzz of energy, the same faces night after night, but their were a few faces Cara didn’t recognise tonight and the bar felt alive with a different sort of energy tonight. ”What about you? Which one of them had to drag you away from the station kicking and screaming?” She asked with a teasing smile, watching his eyes search the bar for somebody. Will, she realised. “He’s not here,” She said, “You can tell by the lack of shouting and testosterone in the place tonight.”

[noahthealpha]

It was easy to forget that Cara was the youngest of the pack. In human years, she was older than Will but as a werewolf, Cara was the equivalent to being a puppy. That being said, Noah couldn’t help noticing that it suited her. Everything about being a wolf settled on her shoulders comfortably. There was an air of confidence around her that he didn’t see before she became pack. It was beautiful to see, she was a sight to watch and Noah couldn’t help being constantly proud of her. 

Noah knew that he couldn’t take all the credit. While his pack was small, it was more a family than anything and it was that feel that made it easier for new pack members to come in. Noah wasn’t overly selective about who joined his pack but after Rosalie, Noah needed a member who wouldn’t break his pack’s hearts again. And they found it in Cara. Kind, beautiful Cara, who could match Quinn’s sarcasm and Tristan’s smarts, who didn’t speak down to Will but rather calmed him when he went on a crusade. She fit. And his pack needed another person who would love them unconditionally.

The back of Noah’s neck was prickling but he ignored, shrugging it off. He was becoming as bad as Will with his paranoia, it was a feeling that something was off but Noah saw nothing. He didn’t want his wolf to ruin the night because he was feeling territorial. It always happened when there were new people in town. “Ah, I got Tristan. The man can do a hell of a guilt trip, I’ll give him that.” Noah took a sip of the beer that Tristan had placed into his hand before scurring off somewhere. His beta knew him well and it wasn’t as though Noah’s order was hard. The Alpha chuckled softly, fondly thinking of Will. “Ah. Thought it was nice and quiet tonight. Although that doesn’t usually bode well for me. If he’s not here drinking, that usually means he’s out causing mischief and I generally have to break the bail jar again.”

[noahthealpha]

When Noah walked into the bar, he was expecting to see a lot of things. He was expecting Tristan behind the bar, charming the pants off some old lady for tips, he expected Will playing pool or darts in the corner, he expected Quinn stealing a bottle of something while Tristan pretended not to notice. What he didn’t expect was Cara. She was sitting daintily at the bar, nursing a drink and she looked... happy. 

He was walking before he realized what he was doing, taking a seat next to her and smiling kindly. “So which one dragged you out to be the third wheel? Usually that’s my position. Although Will is normally a good buffer...” He glanced around again, looking for his pseudo brother. “He didn’t come?”

[williamstemple-blog]

Rosalie was Noah’s sister, a she-wolf with a sharp tongue and an even sharper set of claws. William had grown up with Rosalie too and had been just as close with her as he was his Alpha before she had been banished. It was why when Noah mentioned her name, he felt something tug at his heart; grief, sadness, disappointment, it was hard to tell. Rosalie wasn’t dead, she had been banished which meant she was never allowed to return, but that didn’t stop William from hurting after she had been banished. “Rosalie taught me something much more valuable.” Will said, grinning to try and hide the pain he felt swelling inside of his chest. “How to put up with you.”

“I might not know much about home furnishing,” He said, with a look that said that was the understatement of the century, “I do know that kind of furniture is in fashion. Have you never watched a quirky, sitcom about a struggling, twenty something year old living in New York?”

“You really know how to take the fun out of being a werewolf. You know that, right?” He said, shaking his head with a soft smile. “If you’re looking for the card it’s on top of the refrigerator.” He pointed to the tall, silver refrigerator, or what used to be a refrigerator. Now it had the door hanging off, it wasn’t suitable for refrigerating any kind of food. It did still come in handy for storing beer from the bar that Tristan worked at though, whether it kept it cold or not.

“You’re getting love handles. Maybe you’re the one who should go for the groceries. You could use the exercise.”

[noahthealpha]

Noah shoved Will with a slight chuckle. “And yet no one taught me how to put up with you.” Rosalie was a sore  topic for all of them, especially Quinn but Noah needed them to talk about it, he needed them to know that she may be gone but she was not forgotten. They needed to know that if they moved on, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t still be loyal to them. He didn’t want to be that type of pack, the ride-or-die kind that meant people were unhappy.

“I don’t watch as much tv as you and Quinn.” Noah rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “But I’m not going to IKEA. Not happening. I’ll make the furniture myself if I have to.”

“You know, we’re not all content in life when we’re chasing rabbits. Unlike someone.” Noah looked at Will pointedly with a smirk, a memory from Will’s childhood making him laugh internally. He was a cute kid, it was hard for Noah to stop seeing the little boy who didn’t know how to growl till he was 6. “All I’m saying is you’re still learning, don’t get cocky. You’ll be a good beta one day.” He clapped Will on the shoulder before heading to what was left of their fridge. The card was sitting precariously on the top and Noah sighed, passing the card to Will.

“Shut up and go get food. Don’t piss off any police while you’re gone, your bail money jar is awfully low at the moment and I don’t want to have to take a loan from the bank of Tristan.” Noah shoved him in the direction of the door. “Remember the vegetables.”