MAX
Are you freakin serious?
Now, what the fuck was I supposed to do?
I ditched the so-called happening party an hour ago. Not my crowd or scene, but me and the guys had a special invite by Suri, who promised lots of beer, food, and girls.
Again, not exactly what I was looking for. But my boys wanted to go, so I caved in. They were all hitting up with a few townie girls, ones that were shallow and pedantic, not of our kind, but I didn’t want any part of it.
How could I?
I wasn’t the average eighteen-year-old waiting to graduate high school, go to college, have fun before real life kicked in. Nope, I was next in line to follow after my father, the alpha shifter, who reigned over the whole Appalachian Trail.
But now, I had an issue. A fuckin big one.
I was running across the road, in wolf form, and a car came upon me.
What the fuck was a car doing out here, in the middle of fuckin nowhere, late at night? Shouldn’t everyone still be at that lame-ass party?
Anyways, the car swerved around me but ended up going off the side of the road and smacking into a tree.
Should I leave and let fate happen?
Or play good Samaritan and be a knight in shining armor, without the white horse, of course.
I turned to walk away, but my wolf willed me back to the scene. Ah, c’mon, can’t I ever get a break. This would mean I would have to shift back and approach the vehicle naked, kinda creepy if you ask me. I could only imagine what the occupant of the car was going to think if they looked out and saw a guy standing outside their window without any clothes on.
I shifted and slowly made my way to the scene of the accident. There wasn’t any movement from what I could see from the distance. The front end of the car was smashed in, and smoke was oozing out, most likely from the radiator. I saw a body, a girl, in the driver’s seat slumped against the steering wheel, and no one else was in the car, which made this situation a whole heck of a lot easier.
I yanked open the door to see who the victim was.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Why her?
The driver was none other than Ms. Perfect herself, Renko Watson. She, along with her friend, Ashlyn, thought they were just a little bit better than everyone else. You know the type, beautiful, sexy, and always hanging with the sports guys. She probably had no clue who I was, or that I even existed. Me and my pack stayed low at school, never on the radar. We got in, did what we had to do, then left. Except for the parties we were invited to, we didn’t do all that rah-rah school spirit shit, no games, dances, and whatever else those people did to make themselves seem more significant than they actually were.
I think Renko was still with that Vance dude, but he was a total douche. I’d seen him at too many parties, and when Renko wasn’t looking, believe me, that guy was far from being faithful. Like tonight, for instance, I saw him with some tenth-grade girl, then a fight with Renko on the back deck, then he was with some cheer slut, and finally, I saw Ms. Greene led him up the stairs, and we all know what goes on in the bedrooms behind closed doors.
Anyway, for the most part, Renko looked okay, A little blood from the cut on her lip, but other than that, she didn’t seem too injured. Guess seatbelts do save lives. Her breathing appeared unlabored, and I could hear her heartbeat and it sounded normal.
Guess my job here was done. I would go get my cell phone from the clothes I left hidden, then call the emergency number to report a car accident.
I turned to walk away, but the wolf inside of me willed me to stop. “We’re done here,” I spoke out loud to my inner self.
‘No. Go back.’
I contemplated but knew I really didn’t have a choice in the matter. My wolf was always in charge. He was the only one I could ever trust and never led me wrong.
I turned around and walked back to Renko’s car. She was still passed out but looked so peaceful. Her hair glistened in the moonlight, and I wanted to run my fingers through it to feel its softness. My hand hovered close to her, my wolf was egging me on to touch her.
Why?
I had no clue.
Maybe I could at least lean her back away from the steering wheel and call it a night. My fingertips skimmed across Renko’s cheek. I felt a spark, like a bolt of lightning just passed through me.
Was there some electrical damage done to the car when she crashed? I knew there weren’t any powerlines around this area.
I stepped back from the car and surveyed the damage. The only thing I could tell from this vantage point was the radiator was blown from the hit, but that’s about all except for the structural damage.
I went back to Renko and touched her cheek once more, another internal spark.
I never felt my wolf have this much excitement, longing, this much…happiness.
No!
No!
No!
I jerked my hand back.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not her.
My wolf was insinuating she, Renko, was our mate.
Fuck, no.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll help her this time, and this time only. There is no freakin way she is our mate.”
My wolf settled back down as I undid the seatbelt and carefully lifted Renko out of the car. As much as my wolf wanted me to caress her, make her feel safe, there was no way I would ever let anything between us happen. I would rather deal with the consequences of not having a mate, which can be done, but usually, the wolf side goes rogue and can never lead a pack, than to be bonded with Renko Watson.
I began the ten-mile trek, carrying Renko, back to my house and hoped I wouldn’t encounter anyone along the way.
MAXI heard and smelled some of the pack as I made my way home with Renko. Thankfully, most were on patrol and didn’t have time to see why I was out and about. My father met me at the door but never asked why I was naked and who the girl was I carried in my arms. I knew as soon as I laid Renko down and got dressed, I would be bombarded with questions.“Care to explain?” My mother confronted me as soon as I entered the kitchen.I grabbed bottled water out of the fridge and sat down at the table. “About?” I knew what she meant but might as well prolong the agony.Mom sat down across from me. Her expression already said she wasn’t happy with this scenario even before she said any words. “Max don’t play stupid. Your father told me what he saw tonight. Who’s the girl? Why were you carrying her here?”“Long story short, I was out running, a car came up the back road behind ou
Did you ever have that feeling that you weren’t whole? That something or someone was missing from your life. No matter who you were with, you always felt alone. I feel like that every day of my life. I have my friends and even a boyfriend, if you can call him that, but they just aren’t filling the void that seems to surround me all the time. It’s like the other half of me is someplace else, and I’m just this casing of a body that’s walking around trying to pretend that happiness is all around me. My mom even wanted me to go to counseling at one point in my life, during my tenth-grade year of high school, she was worried about me not being socially receptive. Whatever the fuck that is, right? So, I started going out more with Ashlyn, mainly to parties that her ‘social’ friends held. I even accepted Vance’s proposal that we date exclusively, meaning I only go out with him while he fucks the rest of the female populat
Renko“Because I don’t want to.” I mean really, isn’t that a good enough reason not to want to go somewhere?“Renko, you have to.” My best friend, Ashlyn wouldn’t give up on the pestering of wanting me to go to the big upcoming party next weekend.Our friend Suri, well not really a friend but more of a rival in the social ladder competition that we were all trying to climb in our last year of high school, was supposed to be throwing this huge get-together for all the big who’s who of our school. Usually, that meant that the usual crowd would show up, like all the popular kids, and then they would be so drunk halfway through the party, that no one cared who else showed up. I mean I’ve been there and done that so many times that it was becoming routine anymore. The only thing about Tori’s that was different from all the other parties is that the group of partiers didn’t have to snea
“Oh. My. God. You are going to totally rock the night.” Ashlyn slipped her arm through mine. She’d come over early so we could get ready for the big Tori party together. We did the two-hour shopping trip last weekend to get all the things that we would need to make our appearance known. The thigh-high stockings, high-heeled ankle boots, and of course, the tight little black dresses that clung to our bodies like a second skin.“Yeah, but this is like the most uncomfortable outfit I have ever worn.” I twisted and pulled the skirt part of the dress down so that maybe it would cover another half-inch of my skin. I don’t know why I allowed Ashlyn to talk me into getting matching outfits, but she always seemed to have that effect on me. I say no and she gives me some reason my answer is wrong, and why I should listen to her. Her rationale was that if I dressed like this, there would be no reason for Vance to have wandering eyes.“It&
I stood there for a few moments. Like did that shit just happen? Just because I didn’t want to fuck him on the deck, he gets all pissy.A few more people came out to join in on the big party, well really it was just me since everyone else disappeared. I so wanted to go home and leave all this shit behind. I knew if I didn’t leave, Vance and I would get into some nasty fight and who knew how long that would last—come to think of it—did I care? That’s all we ever did anymore was argue and fight. We both needed some serious help or just to step away from each other for a while or maybe call it off for good this time.I walked back into the house in search of Ashlyn. The crowd seemed to thicken since I was in here last. I saw her with Reese and several other people we hung around with on a regular basis. She looked like she was enjoying this party way too much for us to leave early.“Renko!” Ashlyn squealed and pulled me int
Vance looked shocked to see me standing there. His face was flushed, which could be because of his recent activity of the fact that I caught him red-handed cheating on me.The girl, or should I say, woman, grabbed the sheet and wrapped it around herself. “Renko—I, u-uh…” Obviously, she had no words for what was going on.“Sorry, uh, Linda, uh, Mrs. Greene, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” I looked over at Vance, who had his head laying on the pillow. “It’s over…like really over this time.” I couldn’t keep the tears from falling. I knew he cheated on me before, but to have him say he would never do it again, then to catch him with Tori’s mom blew my mind.I had to get out of there and far away from this party. I slammed the door shut on the way out. I raced down the hall and ran down the steps. I heard Vance yelling my name from the second floor and knew he was going to try and find me.