Alpha's Bane

Chapter Two-1

Chapter Two

Twelve Years Ago

Trey

She-wolves in bikinis, empty beer bottles, sand between my toes. San Clemente State Park is the perfect place to camp with the gang on an October weekend.

My mom’s easy, but I’m not sure how most of these kids got their parents to let them come—must be because Garrett, our future alpha, headed up the trip. Either that, or they lied and said it was a school outing.

I know if I was Sheridan Green’s dad, I would never let her sleep anywhere near the likes of us. Of me. Because she is in serious danger of getting marked right here and now.

And it’s not just the stolen beer keg talking.

We’ve never hung out before—we run in totally different circles, but somehow we ended up playing frisbee in the water together this afternoon. Now she leans against me in front of the small beach fire someone lit, the skin of her bare shoulder warm against mine, her scent in my nostrils. I haven’t touched her yet, mostly because I don’t trust myself. I can’t even believe we’re hanging out. Homecoming queen, pack royalty, straight A student—she’s everything I’m not. At seventeen, she works in the upper offices of Wolf Ridge with the rest of the royalty, not on the factory floor, like me and my mom.

And she’s the most gorgeous she-wolf this pack has ever seen.

I thought she’d date an alpha kid from another pack, someone like her cousin Garrett, who is and has everything. Or even Jared, who at least has a mid-pack pedigree.

“You know what I can’t figure out, Robson?” Her voice is husky and soft so only I can hear her.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” I take a hit off the joint Jared passed me and offer it to her. She shakes her head, but I don’t sense judgment.

“Why a guy as smart as you sits in the back and screws around during class. If you applied yourself, you could get a full ride to college somewhere.”

My chest tightens but I force a laugh. I wrote off college a long time ago. Probably about the time my eighth grade teacher told me I was as worthless as my imprisoned dad, and I should get my ass into vocational school. “What makes you think I’m smart?”

“You wouldn’t be in the advanced classes if you hadn’t tested in. And you ace every test even though I never see you study.”

She’s been paying attention.

That in itself makes my world shudder and rearrange.

“Nah, school’s not for me. I can’t stand authority.” I flash her my bad boy smile and she leans into me, her forest green eyes lit by the flames.

“You follow his authority.” She lifts her chin in the direction of Garrett Green, our pack leader’s son.

“He’s different.” I mean it. Garrett may be one-hundred percent alpha, but he’s one of us. He doesn’t care for school or authority, either. He won’t toe the party line. He’s told his dad point blank he will never run the brewery. More than anything, though, he’s a friend. He’s as loyal to his mini pack of teen wolves as we are to him. He’d do anything for us.

And I’ve had way too little of that in my life, so yeah—I’m sticking close. Where he goes, I follow. And we sure as hell aren’t going to college to become suits at Wolf Ridge Brewery.

She turns her gaze back to the fire.

Across the way, Garrett howls and strips off his swim trunks. With a whoop of excitement, the rest of the boys follow, dropping their suits and shifting to howl. A bunch of girls, do, too, calling to me and Sheridan. She stands up and hesitates, shooting an unsure glance at me.

As much as I’d give my left nut to see Sheridan Green naked, there’s no f*****g way I’m going to let her do it front of the rest of the gang. Yeah, we’ve all been shifting together since we were kids, but that was before puberty. Before our teeth bore the serum capable of permanently marking a female.

“Not here, sweetheart.” I snatch her up by the waist and run, carrying her toward the cluster of tents while she giggles and fights me to put her down.

I drop her in front of her tent and turn my back. “Last one on four legs is a rotten egg!” I shove down my trunks and shift while she’s still ducking into the tent.

She squeals in frustration and then darts out, her tawny coat thick and shining. She runs at top speed down to the water and I chase, nipping her heels, my wolf already ready to mate, to mark.

Down, boy. Sheridan Green is about as far off limits as a nun in the Vatican.

My wolf doesn’t give a s**t.

He wants her. Preferably in human form, naked and on the beach.

He wants her tonight.