“Ah…thanks.” She blinked rapidly, and he knew he’d been rude, but who gave a shit?
Her feelings couldn’t matter. She was a werewolf and not appropriate.
He turned on his heel and marched toward his fraternity house. Taking the stairs two
at a time, he arrived at his room in less than ten minutes. Having an advanced position
in the House came with some perks. He didn’t have or need a roommate.
Lying down on the bed, he tried to breathe through his nose. He’d watched werewolves
for thousands of years. The same way he’d watched vampires. Lion shifters. Phoenixes.
Humans.
That’s what demons did. They watched. Until they surfaced on Earth and took a body.
What they did with their time depended on the demon, and so help him…his shot would
count for something. He’d be twice the demon his father was.
Before this body turned thirty, he would be more powerful than any other of his kind
had ever achieved.
He closed his eyes. All of his planning meant he needed to stop thinking about her.
So what if the day she’d arrived for freshman orientation, she’d stared up at him
with the bluest eyes he’d ever seen while he signed her in? So fucking what? Who cared
if she giggled for a second before she laughed?
He was a teacher’s assistant in one of her classes. Alexandra had a brain in her head
to rival any of her fellow students, but she stood on the side of the road, staring
up at a sorority house that, by all rights, should desire her. Yet he knew the so-called
sisters might not. Not his problem.
Werewolves were not part of his plan. Particularly not some sorority wolf whose kind
didn’t wish to have her around.
His phone rang, and he rolled over to stare at it. Human feelings were seeping through
into his consciousness, and he couldn’t allow the leak to continue. His hair could
grow, but his lack of sympathy for humanity had to stay neatly tucked away as someone
else’s problem.
Right then, he had to answer his phone. “This is Kieran.”
“Son.” His father’s human voice travelled over the wireless network to reach him.
He flinched at the sound.
“Why are you calling? Bad enough I have to take calls from this vessel’s human parents
every week. Are you planning to be a nuisance, too?”
A snicker echoed over the connection. “One call in three months and I’m stalking you?”
Kieran rolled his eyes. “What do you want?” If his father didn’t come up with a reason
for this call soon, Kieran would hang up. Screw the man. Demon. Whatever.
“A favor.”
Kieran sat up straighter. “From me?” He’d never been in a position to help anyone
before, and he didn’t really think anything had changed. He lived as a co-ed. “What
can I do for you? Chiefs of police don’t usually need something from pre-law students.
Need me to look up a statute for the District of Columbia?”
“If you could put away the snark for a minute, I’ll share something I think you’ll
find very interesting.”
He rubbed his forehead. “Go ahead.”
As he listened to his father’s voice, his headache got worse. Kieran. He slammed his
hand down on his side table.
Stay out of my head. You’re dead, got it? Humans don’t master the Demons. We master
you
.
And yet sadness flooded him, and he knew it couldn’t be his own emotion. He didn’t
feel sadness. Ever. Some twenty-two year old kid couldn’t beat the son of one of the
most powerful demons in hell.
***
“Honey.”
Alexandra O’Henry stared at her reflection in the mirror. Should she stay in her black
skirt, or would it be better to meet the sisters for the first time wearing something
funkier? What said “accept me as your sister even though my mom’s a whore” better,
a skirt or floral pants?
“Honey, are you listening to me?”
No, at the moment, she wasn’t listening to her mother who blabbed on the phone. “Sure,
Mom, talk to me.”
“You don’t have to do this. Plenty of wolves are lone wolves. You weren’t raised around
all of this nonsense, and you don’t have to play all their games now. We were fine.
We were happy, right? Why are you doing this to me?”
Alexandra sat down on the bed. This was hard, a lot tougher than she thought it would
be. Lying to her mother for months and months about where she had decided to go to
college was one thing. Coming clean about it the day before she left had been hellish.
But the sheer pain in her mother’s tone every time they spoke had to be the most difficult
of all.
Why couldn’t the woman understand this was something she had to do? She was a werewolf—one
who had never known the sanctity of pack, who had never felt the embrace of that kind
of family.
Lambda Chi Sigma
would give her all of that and more. The werewolves who were sisters there moved
on to become members of any pack they chose. They did not have to petition an alpha
for admittance; the alphas came to them. She could pick a future, pick a life, pick
a pack
. And, finally, for the first time in her life, take a deep breath.
“Mom. This is just something I have to do.” She rubbed her nose. “Why can’t you understand?
You made a choice. You—”
Her mother interrupted. “I chose you. I chose your father. We were lone wolves. It
was okay. I had a pack. If I haven’t made this clear over the years, what you really
need to understand is a pack isn’t the Holy Grail answer to everything. The concept,
sure, it’s fantastic. The reality? It sucks. I’ve never seen one that hasn’t ended
up in the dirt. Your father knew—”
This time it was her turn to interrupt her mother. “My father? He left us. He was
such a lone wolf he couldn’t even stick by his own wife and child. I’m sorry you had
such a horrible time. I really am. But this is my turn. I’m not spending one more
second talking to you if you can’t at least promise to respect my decision to try.”
“Sweetheart,” her mother growled. “You have to understand what you are doing. You
are putting them in a terrible position. You are a legacy. They
have
to take you. It’s in their bylaws. They have to respect them. At least pretend to.
But I left my mate for another wolf. I disrespected my pack, and in their eyes, I
disparaged the sorority name. They will take you, and they will make your life hell.”
She took a breath. “My economics class is really hard, but I’m doing well.”
“Oh, Alex.” Her mother’s breath hitched. “Sweetheart.”
She disconnected the phone and bit down on her cheek to stop the tears threatening
from actually falling. It would be so easy to do what her mother said, so simple to
fall back into the routine where her mother said, “Jump,” and she said, “How high?”
For all intents and purposes, her mother had been Alex’s only pack for so long they’d
fallen into an alpha-subordinate relationship.
But her mother wasn’t the pack she desired, and finally she could do something about
it. She was nineteen years old. If humans could break away, so could she.
“Ah.” She lay back on the bed. None of the shit with her mother was new. It had been
happening since she was old enough to realize other werewolves didn’t live as she
did.
Her roommate was out at a rush event for a human house Alex had never heard of. She
couldn’t even remember the names of the other houses. If she didn’t get Lambda, no
others mattered.
Alex’s mind drifted. Seeing Kieran the night before had thrown her. He was right.
There would be things to do on campus if she didn’t pledge a house. Her course load
was nothing to sneeze at, and even when she found a pack, she needed to be able support
herself and pay her dues. She needed good grades if she ever hoped to have an MBA.
Not to mention maybe she could do some of the things Kieran did just to spend time
in his presence. If that made her pathetic, so be it. Some people Facebook and Instagram
stalked. She took classes with hot TAs.
“No.” She sat back up. The plan had been Lambda. She had lied, schemed, and even sought
out her father to pay her tuition at Tide so she could pledge Lambda. Nothing could
get in her way.
Not even doubts put in her head by a hot senior who was a walking, talking hypocrite.
He’d pledged a house and joined a frat. He could hardly tell her she shouldn’t do
the same. Kieran was a human. He didn’t even fully understand the ramifications of
what he’d said. With the other houses, it was about socialization and status; for
her, it was about the makeup of the rest of her life.
Screw his dark hair, green eyes, and dimple. And why had he been so mean and run off?
Guys just got in the way. They should all go take a long leap off a short dock.
The alarm on her phone beeped, and she got up. The skirt would have to do. It was
time to go. It wouldn’t do to be late to her first rush, even at Lambda. Her mother
was right. The sisters might be tough on her, but only until they got to know her.
If there was one thing she’d always been able to do, it was to charm the pants off
people. By the time she was finished, they would be thrilled to give her a bid, and
ecstatic to make her a sister.
She set her back and walked with her head held high out of the door. It was a short
distance between her freshman dorm room and the Greek Houses. The school didn’t let
anyone rush or pledge a house until three months into the school year. It was supposed
to give the new students time to decide if they wanted to be Greek or not without
the pressure of the first few weeks weighing down on them.
The whole campus set up for the rush week as if it was a giant party. Every house
on the hill—some of them built similarly to Lambda with Corinthian columns and fresh
white paint— were classic statements of good taste and established history. Other
houses seemed to go out of their way to show just how artsy they could be. Spray painted
murals on one house and the actual American flag covering the front of another illustrated
the feelings of the members who lived inside.
She didn’t spare them a glance. With eyes on her target, she reached Lambda House
without shaking. That had to be a good sign. If not, she would pretend it was. This
was her night, the first step on the path to the rest of her life. If she needed to
see a sign, then, damn it, she would see one.
Several people were in front of her in line. Earlier, she’d turned in her rush forms.
The sororities would all know her story. The basics would tell them she’d had a 4.0
in high school, and her favorite food was steak. They’d also know her mother was a
legacy of Lambda, which meant Lambda would know, too. They would have looked up her
family. They’d know her mother’s story, which saved her the problem of having to lie.
Alex would tell the truth; she’d be up front, and all would be well. A positive attitude
went a long way, and given they were three weeks from the Full Moon, she wouldn’t
feel the overwhelming urge to rip someone’s face apart if they pissed her off.
She smiled at the woman in front of her, sniffing the air when she did. Human. She’d
never get into the Lambda.
The line continued to form behind her, and by the time the music started over the
college loudspeakers to indicate the beginning of Rush Week, she had steeled her nerves.
This wouldn’t get away from her. She was in charge of her own destiny.
One by one, they filed through the door to the clapping and smiling of the Lambda
sisters. They chanted their sorority sound, and the whole thing deafened her ears.
Every werewolf in the room must be in hell from the experience. But if they could
smile, so could she.
Finally, they ushered the hopefuls into a main room. The walls were brightly colored
with pictures of sisters, both current—she could see some familiar faces from around
the room smiling from the walls—and alumnae. The bell-bottoms were a distinct give
away along with paddles bearing the names of pledge classes and the written names
of every sister who had ever pledged the house.
A smiling blonde woman stepped in front of her. She extended her hand. Alex caught
the immediate scent of a werewolf and almost melted into a pool on the floor with
the relief of being around another of her kind. Even knowing there was a house at
school filled with werewolves, she hadn’t encountered many others since she’d gotten
there. Yes, this was why she’d come; this was what she needed
“Hi,” her fellow blonde werewolf said as she shook hands. “I’m Mellee. “
“Hi.” It wasn’t hard for Alex to smile. She’d be lucky if she ever stopped. “I’m Alex,
well Alexandra. I’m so happy to be here.”
Mellee laughed, a low sound. “Yes, well, Rush is exciting. I’m the president of the
Lambda chapter at Tide University.”
“Oh, wow!” The actual president? Her first time in the house? Incredible.
Mellee leaned over, a smile still plastered on her face. “I don’t know what you think
you’re doing, but if you force my hand in this, if you make me give you a spot in
my house, I’ll make your life hell, she-bitch. Do you hear me? H-E-Double L. Hell.
So at the end of today, you will march out of here and forget this house, forget me,
forget you are any kind of a version of a werewolf. Live with the humans. Pretend.
Because you’ll never be welcome here. Do you understand?”
Kieran saw Alexandra the second he entered the bar. She sat by herself in the section
usually reserved for the restaurant customers and twirled the little decorative stick
in her drink. He walked over and took a seat at her table without being invited. She
looked up at him, wide-eyed and too pale.
“Well, hello there.” She sniffed. “Kieran Montgomery. I guess you decided to join
me.”
Before he could answer, the waiter came by and dropped off her order. He grinned at
the food. The bar, Jewell’s Watering Hole, was famous for its version of nachos. Instead
of tortilla chips, the entire thing was made with Doritos. If he ate them, he’d be
ten pounds heavier, but the little werewolf would never gain weight.