Filed to story: The Alpha She Chose Instead (Serena & Ethan)
“I never pulled your braid, Serena Hayes. You hid up by the teacher.” He bends and nestles his nose in the crook of my neck, inhaling. Tingles zip down my spine. “Why don’t you smell like arousal?”
I don’t? Good, good. That would be too humiliating. But I feel something. New and powerful and terrifying.
But no, I don’t want to have sex with him. He’s Ethan Kelly. I just got publicly humiliated. Again. And we’re out in the open. Anyone could walk past. There’s a bug zapper hanging a few feet away. I’m wearing an old lady’s sweater, and it smells like mints.
And yeah. He’s Ethan Kelly. My mate who rejected me. I’m not turned on.
I try to pull my neck away from his nose, but his grip on my hair is too tight.
“I don’t like you,” I say. It’s such a stupid argument.
He nips at my shoulder. “You don’t have to. Do you think half the females in this pack like me? I’m the alpha.”
“I think it’s bigger.” My voice is breathless. Wobbly.
He stops messing with my neck and rises to his full height to gaze down at my upturned face. His forehead wrinkles. “What?”
“The number. It’s definitely more than half.”
Why am I baiting him? Is this how moon madness starts? With bad jokes and me getting my head ripped off by the braid, buck naked except for a borrowed cardigan?
He doesn’t laugh, but he doesn’t snap my neck like a twig, either. He kind of cocks his head. “Why don’t you like me?”
“Well-” I don’t know where to start, but I do know that saying pretty much anything honest would be a huge freakin’ mistake. “I mean, for one, you’re pulling my hair. It hurts.”
He stares at me for a long second, and then he smooths my braid so it hangs over my left shoulder. He tugs off the elastic, and with one hand, he undoes the sections, careful not to yank.
He combs his fingers through the loose strands. Slowly. Gently. His fingertips glance down the slope of my breast. It’s too light and fleeting to be full-on copping a feel, but I don’t think it’s accidental, either. Goosebumps break out down my arms and bare legs. No one touches me like this. Ever.
Nobody ever really touches me.
“I could make you hot,” he says. “Your wolf’s panting for it.”
She is-at this point, she’s presenting-and it’s beyond awkward. I’m not paying her any attention. If I did, my face would spontaneously combust.
“We’ve agreed to disagree on this one,” I mumble.
“There’s no division between the man and the wolf. That’s a heresy.” Ethan says it like he learned the words by rote. I bet he did. It’s what the elders preach. The man and the wolf are two sides of the same coin.
Abertha teaches us differently. She says everyone’s connection to their wolf is unique, a creation of their own making. When people are fucked up, it’s because of an imbalance in the relationship. She says that’s what’s wrong with a lot of folks in this pack. Their heads are up their wolf’s ass.
But I don’t say that. I hedge a little. “I don’t see it that way.”
“And you know better than your elders?”
“There’s a division between you and your wolf.” It’s as clear as the color of his irises. And the fact that his wolf actually likes me.
“Is that so? And how do you know?”
Because he’s a cocky asshole, and his wolf is a giant, homicidal snuggle bunny.
“Because your wolf is in my thrall.” I almost gasp when I say it. It’s way more truth than I intended. I brace myself. That was a challenge. He can’t possibly take it any other way.
His already angular jaw clenches, throwing those neck muscles into even sharper relief.
Why did I say that? What is possessing me? This whole conversation is bonkers. I should apologize for whatever I did or didn’t do, according to him, and go on to live another day.
But the moon is casting the world in blue, and everything feels hyper real. Heat radiates off Ethan, and I’ve never had an alpha this close to me before. I’m not “aroused” as he put it, but I’m-interested.
It’s like my inhibitions-some of them, the filter on my mouth, for one-are fading. I forget to defer. That should be impossible. Submission to rank is hardwired into our DNA.
At least that’s what the elders believe.
I wait for Ethan’s response, a knot coiling in my belly, fear and-anticipation.
He slides a finger along my temple, tucking my hair behind my ear. Then he traces the shell. I shiver. His mouth softens into something almost like a grin.
He leans close, and when he whispers, his lips brush my earlobe.
“And what are you going to do with him, little wolf?”
A husky whine escapes from deep in my chest, a demanding, impatient sound dripping with raw lust. I press my palm to my mouth, cheeks flaming, and Ethan laughs, backing off.
Somehow, the spell is broken. A mask I didn’t even realize had been lifted returns, making Ethan’s face cold and hard again. And almost-worried.
He jerks his chin toward the lodge’s front doors. “Come on.”
He doesn’t wait for a response. He heads inside, fully expecting me to follow, the elastic from my braid around his corded wrist.
I wait a full three seconds before I scurry after him.
***
Nuala’s sweater is a really lovely pumpkin color, but I feel like a neon orange emergency cone when I trail Ethan back into the great room. People are back at their seats, finishing dinner, but as soon as I walk in, there’s a massive clatter of forks and the hushed chatter dies.
Ethan points to a spot by the elder’s table. “Stay there.”
He doesn’t bother to look back at me when he gives the order. He’s striding toward the A-roster table with a purpose.
I clutch the hem of the cardigan, stretching it as low as it can go.
People are staring at my messed-up leg. Thomas Fane’s fang marks should be old news to everyone, but packmates still ogle the scars, and I still squirm inside.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?