Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
They think this human means something to me.
She doesn’t. She definitely doesn’t.
I would never screw around with a human. Especially not Lauren. The Ice Princess may be hot, her scent may do things to me, but there’s absolutely nothing underneath that manicured, rich girl exterior.
It’s a school night and late, so I don’t drive back up to the mesa to light a fire and shoot the shit with the guys. This is the one time I don’t want to hang out with my best friends because I know they’re going to keep busting on me to figure out what happened tonight and why.
But I need to give them the story now because every shifter kid at school tomorrow is going to want to know what happened, and my friends need to be the ones to spread it.
It has to be a story that puts me on the top. I’m the alpha of the school. I can’t afford any perception of weakness. Especially not with my secret.
I pull up to Markley’s house and kill the engine, then I twist around in my seat to see the guys. “Dude, she was naked. Standing in front of her bedroom window.”
It makes my stomach queasy to talk about Lauren this way. Which doesn’t make sense. We hate each other.
“Whaaaaat? Oh, damn!” Asher shakes his head.
“I know,” I go on, like I always do. I’m their alpha–the aggressive super star of the school. The guy who crushes anyone who doesn’t pay total and complete respect. “Perfect fucking tits. But she saw me. And you know what the Ice Queen had the audacity to do?”
“What?” Asher’s upper lip curls. He’s the wild one in our school pack. The guy who’s usually breaking pack code and getting busted on by the alpha. Like father, like son, I guess.
“She told me to shoo.” I leave out the way her breasts bounced when she made the motion. What it did to me.
“Oh, shit.” J.J. grimaces over the human’s audacity at insulting an alpha wolf. “What did you do?”
I paste a shit-eating grin on my face. “I scared the crap out of her.”
My wolf doesn’t like that, though. I sense a restless disapproval ripple beneath my skin. But I don’t know what his problem is. My wolf cannot want to mate with a human.
And even if he did, it won’t happen. It can’t.
As it is, there’s a 50-50 chance I’ll pass my defect on to my pups. If I mated with a human, they would be further degraded, if they even transition to be shifters. Which is why I have to mate with an alpha female.
My dad has drilled this fact into my head since the early months of my transition at puberty when we discovered the family defect presented in me.
He wants me to trick an alpha female into mating me. I might just not mate at all. Avoid passing this shit on to any pups at all.
I remember how he sat beside me on the bed after I passed out—the only time anyone in our family actually needed his skills as a doctor. It’s a genetic anomaly. Your brain’s interpretation of ocular input gets mixed up. Basically, your brain is trying to see with your wolf eyes while you’re in human form. It’s manageable, but you have to hide it. Stay away from fluorescent lights, which can trigger the episodes. When they happen, hide them. You’ll have to learn to fake it. Do not tell a single soul about this. No one can know you’re not perfect, Abe. You’ll have to work to become the alpha of your class and maintain your position, so you secure the best possible mate before it gets worse or anyone finds out.
Which means for me, there’s no chance of me finding my fated mate.
Asher growls approval over me scaring Lauren.
J. J. rolls his eyes. “You’re lucky Alpha Green didn’t tear a piece out of you.”
He means literally. With his teeth. Pack discipline is almost always physical since we heal instantly. It’s a show of dominance and a demand for respect.
“He was already dressed,” I explain.
“You’re fucking lucky,” Markley says. “No consequences at all?”
“I told him she was naked, and he chalked it up to raging teen hormones.”
“Genius, dude.” Sebs offers his knuckles, and I fist-bump him.
“Wait, wait, wait. Let’s go back to the naked part,” Markley says. “Like full-on naked? Or panties-and-bra naked?”
The other guys snicker and lean their heads in, all waiting for my answer.
Funny, but I wish I’d kept my mouth shut. I offered up the situation to Alpha Green to get him off my back, but now I don’t like everyone talking about her tits.
Lauren may be a stuck-up rich girl who doesn’t belong in Wolf Ridge, but she doesn’t deserve to be disrespected this way. Not even to preserve my reputation as alpha.