Jacob always, always chose the worst scenario for me. This was my living nightmare—all
those people. Humans—whom I’d never been around—and shifters—who’d declared me an
abomination.
I’d become too complacent. This was my punishment for being ill-prepared.
Realizing the massive wolf I’d slammed into still loomed beside me, I inhaled deeply
through my mouth and ordered myself to move. Avoidance only created more trouble.
Accept your fate, and move the hell on
. It’d been my motto for years and saved me many nights.
“Thanks.” The dismissal seemed to go unheard as he dragged me forward. God, he was
tall. Taller than Jacob—and not many could say that since the Alpha leader was well
over six foot. This guy was much wider across the chest, too, but his hips were lean,
his legs long and powerful thighs beneath his jeans. “I can handle it from here.”
“This way.”
He tunneled a path through the crowd with his muscular body, my suitcase in tow. When
had he gotten my suitcase?
I followed helplessly, darting apologetic gazes to unseen masses of people as I hurried
along in his wake until we entered a smaller second room. I took a few moments to
look around, relieved we’d parted company with the crush of bodies in the other room.
Folding tables, manned by a couple of people at each, formed a half-moon in the room.
A few students stood at most of them, chatting away with the smiling attendants. Human.
Fae. Wolves. Lions. Tigers. Pumas. I read shifter faction after shifter faction, each
one slicing my soul. Each beautifully decorated sign, complete with colorful emblems,
sealed me within a tomb of doubt. The encroaching apprehension squeezed, crushing
my few moments of normalcy with brutal efficiency.
I was none of those things.
“Well?” He flashed a grin and crossed his arms. “Don’t leave me guessing all day,
sweet mouse.”
Heat streamed through me. I grabbed the suitcase beside him before he could stop me
and studied the options one final time. A handwritten piece of poster board leaning
against the wall denoted my fate.
Other.
I foraged what self-confidence I’d squirreled away and closed the distance between
me and the desolate table. I could feel the stares of those around me as I nudged
my way past the lingering wolves and tigers.
Several shouted to the looming shadow I’d inherited. “Macen.”
The name continued echoing around me in a stream of welcomes, which agitated me. Maybe
he wasn’t following me. He’d done his obligatory duty and gotten me in here—wherever
“here” was. I thought a moment before I took the final few steps to the table.
The coastal scent of pine and salt water had rippled through Macen’s aura when I’d
been near enough to scent him. The memory heated my insides with a renewed awareness
of the man still shadowing me, even though we’d passed his pack moments ago. The unique
musk already embedded in my brain as
him
blanketed me in the realization I was not alone—he was there behind me, his heat
near enough for me to sense, yet distant enough for me not to flinch in discomfort.
Why was he still there? Did he mean his presence to be comforting or threatening?
I’d grown accustomed to being the bug under the proverbial microscope of existence.
Pinned in place and unwillingly sliced apart time and again by others for amusement
or perhaps to appease curiosity, I’d numbed to the ridicule and animosity.
Until now.
Whispers traveled as I closed the distance between me and the scowling blonde with
large, barely contained breasts jutting out from an obviously modified Wolf Pack shirt.
She scowled and leaned toward me, thrusting her tits forward—no doubt for Macen’s
benefit and not mine. Grabbing a pencil and the sole sheet of paper in front of her,
she sliced a blue-eyed stare my direction.
“Well? Who are you?”
“Riletta.” Cervantez. The latter almost tumbled from my lips without pause. That wouldn’t
have boded well for me.
Disgust mottled her flawless face. “Whatever you are, listen up. You might’ve been
the princess from wherever you were, but this is the University of Nomadia. You are
a nothing here. So, we need a last name.”
“I don’t have one.”
She tossed the paper to the scowling, green-eyed, brown-haired man beside her. “You
deal with her, Logan. I’ve checked in four of these freaks—a slug, a turtle, a snake,
and a fucking iguana. I don’t even want to
know
what this twisted bitch is.”
“Stacy.” Macen’s voice was a husky whisper, low and growly. I didn’t want to think
about the warm flush of heat in my insides.
Logan checked the sheet. “Huh. There’s only one left to check in, and I doubt it’s
you—unless you’re a male ferret named Dale.”
“No, afraid not.”
Logan’s light brown hair was cropped short. He was tall, like Macen, but thinner.
Lean and sleek, but still firm in all the right places. I smirked when he winked.
He was a player like a lot of the Cervantez pack I’d observed from a distance. Unlike
them, though, he interacted with me. Deep green eyes danced in amusement, but not
at me. No, this man grinned and chuckled
with
me.
Some of the tension left me. Not all of these people were like my pack had been. Maybe
this was a new beginning. Maybe I’d fit in better. Maybe they wouldn’t care that I
was defective.
“Just get her gone already, Logan. Maybe Macen can help you.” She glared over my shoulder.
“She doesn’t belong here, and I don’t like the vibe I’m getting from her.”
Okay, it wasn’t much different from my pack. I could handle this. I could handle her.
I’d dealt with worse.
“I’m really very sorry. I honestly don’t know how he would’ve registered me. I don’t
even know if he did.”
All he did was dump me here
.
Pain radiated within me, deep in my marrow. He’d been the closest to a father I’d
been allowed. His mate, Elise, had once cared for me—showing me mercy when no one
else would. The pack accepted my existence even though they all agreed I should’ve
been destroyed.
I swallowed and tried to seal off the emotional dam threating to drown me. I was a
hot mess. My emotions were all over the place. I couldn’t break down, not here where
people could see.
Stacy sighed and took the sheet, glancing at it one more time. “Lookit, you aren’t
on this one, so maybe you aren’t in this category. It can be confusing, I guess.”
“What are you?” Logan asked.
I hedged my response, unsure how to answer. What the hell was I? Good question. Excellent
one, in fact.
“I was raised with a wolf pack.”
There. Information without detail. I could do this.
***
Macen
The beast within me growled, demanding I do something to help this female. I’d stood
and watched her Alpha break her down until she was a crumbled shell. Never interfering
with an Alpha while dealing with a pack member was one of the imperative rules of
my kind, yet my wolf had wanted to destroy that fucker.
I’m not a good person. I’d seen a lot of fucked-up shit. My father’s pack was the
fiercest in the region—arguably in the country. I didn’t do the protective wolf bullshit.
That was for beta pussies. I kicked ass and drew blood until my enemy submitted.
So, why did I want to drag her into a dark corner and wrap her within my embrace until
she stopped trembling, and the fear I sensed drifting through her gave way to desire?
I wanted to stroke her, taste her. I wanted to bury myself in her slick heat until
she screamed my name and forgot all about the bullshit she’d gone through. I’d never
seen someone like her. Maybe that’s why my wolf wanted to claim her.
Her ebony hair tumbled around her shoulders in curly ribbons of silk. Her skin had
appeared soft, almost translucent in the sunlight. She was all curves and innocence
in a petite frame—so small my wolf was afraid we’d break her.
Darkness settled in my veins when I noted the older black, yellow, and purplish bruising
along her arms. The scene I’d witnessed was nothing different for her.
“Yo, man. Snap to it.” Logan slapped my back. “Stop day dreaming and start dealing.
You hear what Riletta said? She was raised in a pack.”
“Never say that name.” Her fucker of an Alpha had wielded it like a sword, slicing
her each time he used it. I didn’t want her equating the pain he’d created with me
or anything to do with me.
“What’s your problem, man?”
“Later.” Logan was allowed great leniency as my second. It didn’t mean I’d allow his
bullshit to continue any longer. Questioning me before the pack wouldn’t happen.
Ever.
A college pack was a joke. Too many Alphas in too small a space created an explosive
concoction of drama and hormones with a short, pre-lit fuse. Somehow, it’d been mine
to handle for three years. One more to go and I’d assume leadership of my father’s
pack.
I directed my attention to my wolf’s obsession. She’d retreated back into herself.
Her expressive face displayed the shift in emotions, and I could taste her fear and
despair. It sickened me. Stacy had cut her down and sliced her apart while I’d been
distracted.
Stacy was a good female Alpha, or so I was told. Personally, I couldn’t stand the
bitch, but I handled her. Most assumed she’d be my mate, but I’d rather send my nuts
through a meat grinder than have my wolf bound to her for eternity. No way.
I could barely fuck her when the need arose. I hated the fucking tradition of the
male and female Alphas hooking up. Fortunately, she had plenty of playthings to scratch
her itches.
“Logan, take over for Stacy. Which pack were you part of?” I waited for Riletta to
snap back to awareness. Motioning for the binder we kept on all the packs in North
America, I waited for the gorgeous dark blue eyes that spent too much time looking
down. If I did nothing else while she was here, I’d make those eyes smile.
Vanessa brought the binder to me. The perky brunette rubbed against me. “Thanks, Van.”
She fluttered her lashes and rubbed her front against me again in a blatant invitation.
My wolf growled. The low rumble made her retreat.
The back of my neck pricked as I heard the rumble of warning coming from my pack.
Dean Sandusky shoved his way through my pack, his paunch belly leading the way. The
bald prick in an ill-fitting black suit was the last thing I needed right now.
He was a piece of shit. I spent more time unraveling his web of crap than I did learning
shit. He’d shifted his focus to breaking down my pack. I’d figured out why—we held
too much power—but I didn’t have time for political bullshit.
“What are you doing here, Dean?”
“I understand there’s a disturbance.” His gaze roamed Riletta with lewd interest.
Miserable prick had no business thinking that shit. “You were supposed to go to my
office.”
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Doctor Richard Sandusky, Dean of Admissions. I knew you were trouble. I should’ve
refused the favor asked of me and kept you away from all of these exemplary shifters
of academia.”
“My apologies, Doctor. I must’ve misunderstood.”
He preened under her discomfort like the miserable virus he was. “Well, see it doesn’t
happen again. This is an institution of learning. We don’t have time to coddle you
like you’re accustomed to.” The dean looked at Stacy. “She’ll be in Ruger Hall.”
A few of the people around me gasped and distanced themselves. Fuck. Ruger Hall was
the last place she belonged.
This bullshit isn’t going down
. I sent the thought to my pack through our telepathic link. I rarely communicated
with the entire pack at once. That fact had made everyone’s attention focus on the
dean.
I’d labeled him a threat, and my crew took that shit seriously.
She isn’t even wolf. Why are you doing this shit?
Not dealing with your melodramatics now, Stacy
.
“I’m done with the freaks. Van, be a sweetheart, and take over for me. I can’t deal.”
Stacy flounced off in a flurry of golden locks.
We’ve got your back, for what good it’ll do. Hate to side with Blondie, but we have
no jurisdiction over her since she isn’t wolf.
She was raised by a pack. We’ll make her history work.
We’ll sort shit later
. Logan flexed his fists and took a position beside me. His presence calmed my wolf
somewhat, but standing here like a pussy and saying nothing wasn’t working. I could
see Riletta giving up. She’d stopped caring. She wanted out of here, and I couldn’t
blame her.
Fuck, I wanted out of this, and it wasn’t my shit. One thing about wolves—we took
care of our own. Her pronouncement made this our problem whether she liked it or not.
She kept retreating into the corner, away from me and my pack, as though distancing
herself from our presence. Security guards appeared and surrounded her.
“We’re funding her with a state run program, so her tuition and board are covered.
She’ll need to purchase the meal plan and her own books.” The dean smirked.
Riletta’s cheeks reddened. Tears pooled in her eyes.
“Miserable son of a bitch,” Logan whispered.
“Why the fuck would he air this shit?”
“To break her,” Logan stated.
I could feel my pack behind me. Disgruntled and pissed. Confused. The emotions all
struck me.
Keep your shit together. Focus on getting this prick out of here
.
I shoved the order out through our telepathic bond. It’d have to do. Visibly shaken,
Van went behind the table and thumbed through papers until she came to one she turned
around for Riletta to review. “Here are the plans.”
She pointed at the sheet and withdrew the wad of cash I’d seen the prick shove at
her in the parking lot. The paltry sum was probably all she had, and it wasn’t nearly
enough. What the fuck was the piece of shit thinking? The Alpha within me raged; the
man within me wanted to protect her. The wolf within me wanted to destroy the son
of a bitch who’d put her in this position.