The Problem With Human Girls

Alaric Blackthorne had spent most of his life being studied. Teachers studied him. Council members studied him. Pack leaders studied him. Even strangers studied him whenever his name appeared in the news. Future Alpha. Future King. The Heir.

Titles had a way of turning people into spectacles. By now, he had become accustomed to it. What he had never become accustomed to was being ignored. Yet somehow Mara Vale managed it effortlessly.

The gymnasium had emptied nearly twenty minutes ago. Students filtered toward showers, lockers, study halls and afternoon lectures, carrying with them the day's gossip. Most of that gossip revolved around one unbelievable event. Mara Vale had almost knocked Alaric Blackthorne flat on his back.

The story would grow with every retelling. By dinner, she would have defeated him. By tomorrow, she would probably have challenged him to single combat atop the library. Alaric found himself smiling at the thought. "You're doing it again." His wolf's voice echoed through his mind. Alaric's smile vanished instantly. "Doing what?"

"Thinking about her."

Alaric continued toward the private training room attached to the athletics complex. "I have more important concerns."

"Liar." Arcane sounded disgustingly pleased. The wolf had been insufferable since Mara arrived.bFor weeks, Arcane had behaved like a starving beast finally allowed near food. Every scent, every glance and every accidental encounter. The wolf catalogued them all with relentless enthusiasm.

Alaric hated how aware of her he had become. He noticed when she entered rooms. He noticed when she laughed. He noticed when she frowned. Worst of all, he noticed when she wasn't there. A dangerous habit.

His entire life had been mapped out long before he was born. The Council expected him to strengthen the bloodlines. His future mate was supposed to come from one of the Great Families. Someone powerful. Someone respected. Someone capable of producing heirs. Not a stubborn scholarship student from a farming town who openly accused half the campus of participating in a conspiracy.

Arcane snorted. "She's perfect."

"She's human."

"She's Mara." Alaric entered the empty training room and shut the door behind him. The silence settled comfortably around him. Normally, physical training helped him organize his thoughts. Today, it only made them louder.

His wolf remained unusually attentive, restless and alert. Like a hunter pacing a boundary line. Something felt different. Ever since the grappling exercise. Ever since he'd grabbed Mara's wrist. Alaric frowned. "You've been quiet about something."

Arcane immediately stopped pacing. The reaction alone was enough to confirm his suspicion. "What are you hiding?" The wolf's golden eyes lifted. For several moments, he said nothing. Then slowly..."I smelled it." Alaric stilled. "What?" Arcane's gaze sharpened. "Her blood." That got his full attention.

Every werewolf possessed a unique scent. It carried information. Health, emotion, strength and lineage. But wolves couldn't smell the future. They couldn't determine destiny from a heartbeat. At least not usually. "Explain." Arcane lowered himself onto his haunches. "When she touched us."

Alaric remembered it instantly. The brief contact. The sparks. The inexplicable awareness. The way his pulse had reacted. The way Mara had immediately looked offended by it. His wolf continued. "I thought I was mistaken."

"Mistaken about what?" Arcane's voice grew quiet. A rare occurrence. "Her constitution."

Alaric felt a cold sensation crawl down his spine. The Primordial Wolf never sounded uncertain. Never. "What constitution?" For several seconds, Arcane simply stared at him. Then..."The one the old stories speak about." Alaric's heartbeat slowed. No. Absolutely not.

Those stories belonged to mythology. Ancient nonsense. The kind elders whispered around ceremonial fires. The kind nobody genuinely believed anymore. "Impossible." Arcane's expression didn't change. "That is what I thought." Alaric felt his stomach tighten.

The Primordials existed before kingdoms. Before packs. Before the modern Council. Ancient wolves whose blood had shaped entire bloodlines. Most were extinct. Others survived only through diluted descendants. Arcane himself should not exist. Nobody outside the royal family knew the truth.

The wolf residing within Alaric was not royal. He was something older. Far older. A relic from a forgotten age. Only a handful of people knew that secret. Fewer still understood what it meant. "If you're right..." Arcane interrupted. "I know."

The implications were staggering. The ancient texts described rare humans born with unusual constitutions. Individuals capable of carrying Primordial blood without destruction. One appearance every several centuries. Sometimes longer. Most died before their gifts were discovered. Others disappeared into history.

Alaric had always considered those records exaggerated. Legends designed to glorify extinct bloodlines. Yet Arcane sounded utterly certain. The wolf lowered his voice. "She carries the mark." The room became unbearably quiet.

Outside, students laughed somewhere in the distance. A door slammed. Life continued normally. Meanwhile, Alaric felt as though the foundations beneath his world had shifted. Mara Vale. Human, scholarship student and a professional troublemaker was a potential key to a bloodline believed lost to history.

A laugh escaped him unexpectedly. Soft, disbelieving and dangerous. Of course it would be her. Nobody else could arrive at Larkin College and become a catastrophe within three weeks. Arcane's tail flicked lazily. "You're smiling again." Alaric shook his head. "This is not amusing."

"No?"

"No."

The wolf looked entirely unconvinced. Because beneath the shock, beneath the political implications and ancient mysteries, Alaric recognized an uncomfortable truth. For the first time in years, something had happened that he hadn't anticipated.

Something beyond Council plans. Beyond bloodline negotiations. Beyond carefully constructed expectations. Something entirely his own. And somehow, impossibly, it had arrived in the form of a stubborn human girl who thought he was an annoyingly athletic rich boy.

Arcane's amusement rolled through their bond. "She's going to change everything." Alaric stared through the training room window toward the distant academic buildings. Toward the chaos currently walking around campus disguised as Mara Vale.

For once, he found himself agreeing with his wolf. The truly terrifying part was that he wasn't sure he wanted to stop it.