Malia twisted and turned on the bed in discomfort as she tried to find the perfect spot without opening her eyes, but alas she couldn't which caused Malia Tate to wake up irritated.
Looking to her side, she found the reason, or lack of, for her discomfort. She wasn't cuddling with Tristan because Tristan wasn't on the bed.
She grumbled in annoyance as this was the second night in a row that Tristan snuck out of bed in the middle of the night to do only-god-knows what.
Luckily for her, just when she started getting up to go find Tristan and pull him back to bed to get her goodnight sleep, the boy in question came back inside and paused as he locked gaze with her.
"Save it. We'll deal with whatever is up with you in the morning. Right now, I just want to sleep. Comfortably." She said before he could even get a word in. She was even keeping her eyes half-open so that the sleep won't fully leave.
With nothing else said, they both climbed the bed with Malia tightly latching on to Tristan just in case he tried to leave again and disturb her sleep.
…..
Tristan was in the kitchen very early in the morning flipping pancakes for his and Malia's breakfast while she got ready.
She came down as soon as Tristan served the two plates of pancakes on the table with syrup, cream and juice to go along with it.
They ate in relative silence, at least for the first minute before Malia broke the tranquil silence with a complaint.
"Can you at least tell me what you go off to do at night and why I have to struggle with sleeping?" She asked while stuffing her mouth with pancakes.
Tristan smiled wryly knowing he was partly to blame for that. "I also have no idea. The night before was a full moon, maybe that might have something to do with it?"
Malia groaned audibly, worrying that this new development might become an unwanted habit. "You do know that you can ponder whatever might be happening to you without having to leave the bed, right?"
Tristan could only chuckle at her words, aware that this was just her irritation speaking out.
"So?" Malia inquired offhandedly. "Figured anything out yet?"
Tristan's head tilted in confusion. "About?"
Malia rolled her eyes at him and breathed out heavily with her head dropping to one side in a tired fashion. "What else if not you, dumbass. Or did turning into an Alpha, or its vampire equivalent, suddenly made you retarded?"
Tristan chuckled with a shrug and held up a finger for Malia to see the black claw growing out to an unnatural length before shrinking back. "I feel kinda light. Also, everything else that I could do before suddenly feels a lot easier to do that it almost feels like a subconscious thing at times, almost like blinking."
"What of your urges?"
Tristan closed his eyes for a bit before shaking his head. "It's still there but I can hardly feel it. Maybe it means I can go longer periods without blood. Weeks? Months? Maybe even years at a time with full drinks, who knows?"
Malia tapped her fork on her plate with an expression of slight worry on her face that she was quick to dismiss. Tristan just evolved to a vampire's version of an Alpha werewolf so of course there'll be some changes in him.
'I'm worrying about the wrong thing. Probably a result of my sleep being disturbed for two nights.' She thought, choosing not to needlessly worry after slightly berating herself.
"As long as you're fine, Mr. Vampire-Alpha." Her words were meant to tease him but it backfired as soon as the words left her mouth. "Ugh. I want to become an Alpha too dammit." Her mood was instantly soured.
Tristan had nothing to say to that so he just patted her on the back but that only made her vent more.
"Damn it! That fucking bastard!" She hit the table in anger. "You'll have to help me catch that bastard so I can kill him, Trist."
The bastard she was talking about was none other than Aiden, the irritatingly smug Alpha who thought he was some kind of tough shit.
Tristan nodded. "Though I doubt we'll see them again in school." A valid point and one that Malia didn't give two toots about.
"Doesn't matter. You'll help me kill him anytime he shows his face in front of me." Malia seethed.
Aside from the fact that he'd want to kill them too if he saw them, Tristan could completely understand why she was this pissed off.
Aiden was the only one not dead set on killing those they fought, which was Malia in this case, and yet she couldn't pull an advantage for herself.
He then trounced her in moments after he pissed her off, with the only advantage she had during the fight was when she had lost her rationality, which he had quickly adapted to. The only thing that saved her ass was the distraction from Tristan and Allison's timely help.
Being an Alpha was a different ball game altogether, and even between Alphas there existed visible differences.
Hoping to compete on the same level as these Alphas while still being a beta can be considered as either a stroke of foolishness or ignorance.
Even Tristan in his fight against Kali was being pushed back at every turn and the reason he was able to level the fighting field to get a coin-flip chance of killing her was because of the venom he pumped into her when he sucked her blood.
Even with all that; paralyzing her, draining her blood, and even Allison's help at the end, the chance of him killing her was 50% at best.
Tristan had even realized that the only reason he could compete with Derek who was an Alpha was most likely because he had been moments from draining Peter of his last ounce of blood when Derek at killed him and had inadvertently taken the spark for himself.
He was left at the precipice of evolving higher, the step before the very tip, because the spark that was needed for the final push was lost to Derek.
"I don't think we need to worry about that for now. And besides, who knows whether if killing an Alpha werewolf will make you an Alpha werecoyote? Your species is just every bit as rare as mine, so like me, becoming an Alpha might be different for you." Tristan's speculations doused Malia's stoked flames of vengeance to flickering simmers as that gave her something serious to think about.
"Hmph. We'll figure it out later. We can even use him as an experiment for me to see if I can change if I kill an Alpha wolf." Obviously, Malia was not one to allow herself be bothered by things that by all right should bother her.
They went back to their food and finished it before running along to school.
As Tristan drove them to school, he heard Malia mumbling to herself.
"Such a waste too. Wouldn't it have been more better for me to kill Ennis than for Derek to do it? After all, he's already an Alpha."
Tristan sighed at Malia's whining that would most likely take a few days for her to accept it and no longer talk about it, at least until the next time she meets Aiden.
…..
School continued as usual with no surprises for the students and teachers to gossip on, except maybe the fact that two other people in town abruptly disappeared.
During one of the breaks, Tristan had Malia direct him to Allison because he wanted to tell her something important.
"Thank you."
"…Eh?" Allison was rightfully confused for a brief moment before realization of why Tristan was thanking her dawned on her and safe to say, she was a bit awkward not knowing how to respond to his thanks.
He might have killed Kali but also he knew just how much Allison's interference helped save his life.
He and Kali could have pretty much died together, which was a very distasteful thought when he mused about it, but Allison's arrows helped decisively turn the struggle to his win.
He was very grateful for that.
Now it was his turn to be surprised, even if by a tiny bit, as Allison hugged him without letting him go until he reciprocated it.
"I'll admit hearing you say 'thank you' is such a rare thing but I'm more happy that you're alive. Don't sweat it, tough guy." She smiled at him and walked off after giving him a wink. "See you later, Malia."
Malia snorted. "Now she finally notices that I'm here. How infuriating."
It was all laughs and jokes for them and they were happy with it that way. Who knows when next they'll have to fight for their life? So small wholesome moments like these were sometimes the highlight of their current lives.
"I'm going to turn in some assignments. You coming?" Malia asked and with nothing to do, he nodded. .
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