Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“So. What happened?” Alpha Green directs the conversation.
Wilde doesn’t answer for a moment, at least not that I can hear, and it leaves me holding my breath, my fingers closed into tight, clammy balls.
“We won the game against Clemson. The guys were partying in our room. We’d just been drug-tested pre-game, which meant it was safe to use.”
“You use drugs.” That accusation, laced with enough condemnation to sink a battleship, comes from Logan. He doesn’t wait for an answer. “Why would you even bother? How fast does it metabolize in your system?”
I hear no reply until Logan snaps again, “Answer me, Wilde!”
“I wasn’t sure if those were rhetorical questions.”
“Don’t get smart.”
“Are you using drugs, son?” Alpha Green’s voice is mild, like he’s cueing Logan to bring down the tension.
“I’m trying to fit in with humans on a tight-knit team. It’s not easy.” I hear genuine frustration and distress in Wilde’s voice and try to resist the sympathy that comes creeping in at the edges.
Wilde is an arrogant prick who surely deserved whatever went down.
If he felt out of place with the humans, then he just got a taste of how it feels to be me every day of my life in this town.
“So you chose to break the law and risk your entire career to fit in.” The voice belongs to one of the pack elders.
“I’m a pack animal.” Wilde’s words fall like heavy stones. There’s defeat in them. Resignation. Like he knew he was doing the wrong thing but didn’t see a way around it.
“You’re a goddamn leader. You were captain of the Wolf Ridge football team. You don’t follow bad examples. You lead with better ones.” Logan’s still pissed. I can’t imagine there’s anything Wilde can say that’s going to get him over it any time soon.
“So what happened? How did the police get involved?” Alpha Green asks.
“The party was getting too loud. I don’t know. Instead of hotel security, cops were at the door. And they had probable cause to search the room. They found the coke and arrested me. End of story.”
“Who else was in the room?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Wilde says. “I’m the one who got caught.”
I hear footsteps, like one of the men got up to pace. “And who bailed you out?” It’s Alpha Green again.
“One of my teammates.”
“Were you supposed to leave town?”
“I just have to be back for the trial date in a couple of months. I talked to Amber Green. She might be able to represent me.”
Amber is Alpha Green’s daughter-in-law, a lawyer in Tucson.
“Wilde, I’m not sensing much remorse from you,” Alpha Green says.
There’s a silence. “I’m sorry I disappointed all of you.”
“Oh, we’re more than disappointed,” the alpha says. “You made some poor choices. Your behavior is a disgrace to the Wolf Ridge High football team, this town and this pack.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“What troubles me most is my sense that you really don’t care all that much. Am I right?”
A prickle runs across my skin because I know Alpha Green is right. It’s what made me feel like Wilde is getting what he deserves.
But why doesn’t he care that much? When he was in high school, he gave everything he had to football. It seems strange he would risk sacrificing it now and not seem to mind at all.
“No, Alpha.”
“Don’t lie to me, Wilde.”
I swear, I feel the tension in the silence that follows seep through the walls of the living room and straight into my chest.
What is Wilde supposed to say? The truth will also damn him.
He says nothing at all.
“Well, let’s see if this motivates you. I want this situation resolved and you back on that team at Duke, or you’re out of this pack. Understand?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“You can stay here while you figure it out You are going to figure it out. No failure. No conviction. Back on the team with the scholarship. And if you fuck up like this again, you are permanently banned. Understood?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Even though I personally can’t wait to leave Wolf Ridge and get the hell away from this town and pack, my eyes fill with tears for Wilde.
Pack is everything to a shifter. We’re communal. We function for the good of all and draw support from each other. If you’re banned from a pack, you’re cursed to live among humans because most other decent packs will also refuse to take you in.
For a young wolf Wilde’s age, with no way to support himself and no community, he’ll probably go mad. Of course, Garrett Green down in Tucson might take him in. He knows what it’s like to be banned from Wolf Ridge.
I stay in the bedroom until I hear everyone leave and Logan and my mom talking softly from their room. Only then do I come out. The living room smells like misery. I look around for Wilde, but he’s not there.