PUCK ME, GENTLY

Valen I’d recognize that fucking growl from any wolf.Reid Maddox just claimed Alexandra Russo right in front of me. Like I’m not finally standing inches from the woman I’d been dying to touch, to protect, to ruin in ways only I should be allowed.And now? Now I’m supposed to just watch while he sinks his teeth into what I’ve been starving for?I move before I even think. One second I’m still, the next I’ve closed the gap and my hand is wrapped around her arm, dragging her toward me.“Lex,” I grit my teeth. She gasps, stumbling between us, wide-eyed and breathless, her skin is pale and she’s shaking like she’s seconds from collapsing.She doesn’t look like she wants to be with him.Hell, she doesn’t look like she wants to be with either of us.But that doesn’t stop me.Reid’s hold on her tightens immediately. Like he’s daring me.For a second, I’m tired of trying to play nice. My wolf roars inside of me. He’s tearing through me violently, howling in my chest like he’ll rip thr

Valen Words travel faster than fire. By the time I step onto Ragriz soil, my phone keeps vibrating with notifications in their tens. Packs forum, social media, group chats. I peek in maybe once or twice. Alexandra Russo Seen Entering Paxon Territory with Alpha Reid. Ex-Ragriz Center Chooses New Pack? The humans watching from the outside don’t remember who she is yet, but our people do. Every single wolf in this territory knows what it means to see that girl wrapped up in someone else’s colors.She chose them.She chose him.She chose him over me. The alliance might have kept us from open war, but no one ever said the enmity was gone.And now… for the first time since my father died, Ragriz’s loyalty is being questioned.I can feel it under my skin.I slam the car door shut and stalk up the front steps of the estate.And of course, the first person standing in the entrance, coughing, old, and shriveled is Coach Russo himself.He looks like shit. With sunken in eyes, and lungs wh

ALEX“I’m not hungry.”“You haven’t eaten all day,” the maid presses gently.This is the third time today she’s showing up at my door with trays of food I don’t touch. Instead, I lay in my bed and I think endlessly about the cryptic messages the twins seemed to have been trying to pass along or hide from me. Either way, it makes me uneasy in a way I don’t understand. Everything makes me uneasy. Everything seems too spontaneous. The sudden allegiance between the Ragriz and the Paxon pack tops the list of shit I’m unwilling to believe. The enmity has been ongoing since the first set of our ancestors settled in Crystal Falls which ages back to hundreds of years ago. There’s no way I want to believe a life long enmity ended within five years I hadn’t been in town. Food is the least of my problems, but this maid, Zara, redhead and soft looking doesn’t want to give up. “I don’t want ” I repeat, for the hundredth time today. “Please,” the girl sighs, standing a little closer to the d

ALEX'S POVThe door to Reid’s office creaks, and my heart slams against my ribs. Before he even looks up, I’m already bolting. My pulse crashes in my ears, drowning out everything else. The hallway blurs. My breath catches.God, I should’ve known better. Reid Maddox was never the kind of man who kept his word. He was the kind who smiled while twisting the knife.I heard everything. Or the most part. There is a spy in Ragriz. He planted her. She is in his office. She sounds awfully familiar...I catch myself against a wall, gasping, my chest heaving. Reid’s out for Valen. The peace treaty was a lie. I’m just a part of the pawn. I’ve always just been a part of the game. In Ragriz, even now in Paxon. A way to make their team better.And the sickening realization washes over me, sitting uncomfortably at the bottom of my gut. This is my life. This is all I ever am. The replacement.My value was never me; my value was always my function. And if I had none to offer, I'm discarded for the

Unbothered, Jordan pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one, the smoke curling around him. Leaning against the bike, he watches me, eyes hooded and unreadable.“You know,” he says, almost conversational, “before I met you, I always wondered what was so special about you.”I hug myself tighter in the jacket, still very shaky, “What do you mean?”He smirks, dragging on his cigarette, smoke spiraling into the air. “I’ve never met you.”I nod, confirming. “And I’ve never met you either.”It’s true. Until a few minutes ago, he was a stranger. All my life competing against the Paxon Wolves and I’d thought I’d met everyone worth noticing, the top players, the ones representing the team, but Jordan had slipped completely under my radar.Same as the twins, if I’m being honest. Then again, I’d been gone for years, probably still too young back then to make the main team.But Jordan…Judging by his height and build, he could probably dominate as a center, and it strikes me as odd that