Taunting the Alphas

NESSA'S POVI was not one to dwell on things, especially not when I was standing in a room with eight boys who were staring at me like they had never seen a girl before in their entire lives. Their eyes moved over me from head to toe, some curious, some openly annoyed, and a few already looking like they wanted me gone before I had even said a single word. The three who had come down last were still locked on me, but the confusion that had been on their faces only a minute earlier had shifted into something else entirely. Now they looked almost amused, like they were studying every inch of me and finding the whole situation entertaining in a way that made my skin prickle. I could still feel that strange pull toward them, the same heavy warmth that had hit me the second our eyes met, but I forced myself to look away from them because staring back only made it harder to think straight. My heart was still beating too fast, and the air in the living room felt thicker than it should have.

NESSA'S POVI was pretty sure that I had walked around the house for no less than twenty minutes after the boys left me alone in the living room, and the longer I searched the more I realized just how big the place really was. Every hallway always turned out to be longer than the last, and every door I opened either led to another empty common area or to rooms that clearly belonged to the players based on the clothes and equipment scattered around inside them. I kept moving, determined to find the one room the coach had told me was mine, and after what felt like far too much time spent going in circles, I finally found the guest bedroom he had allocated to me. It had not been easy to find at all since it was basically downstairs and at the back of the house, tucked away in a corner that put a pretty fair distance between me and wherever the boys’ rooms were upstairs. The coach had told me that he had placed me in this room for my own good so that the boys would not make me uncomforta

NESSA'S POVI rolled my eyes and let out a long sigh before looking up at the blonde with the buzz cut for only a brief second. The way he stood there with that mocking smile still on his face made my blood heat up all over again, but I forced myself to keep my voice steady even though the strange pull in my chest kept trying to distract me every time our eyes met. “I do not care if you are here to mock me,” I told him, my tone flat and tired. “Clearly you have nothing better to do with your time, but I have to get this over with soon, so I would appreciate it if you either left me alone and let me do my thing, or if you are going to insist on staying, then the least you could do is keep your mouth shut and just watch silently like a little mouse.”He stared back at me, looking mostly unbothered by my remark. His arms stayed loose at his sides, and that same casual arrogance sat on his face like it belonged there permanently. For a second I thought he was going to fire something rude

NESSA'S POVAfter I finished letting the three of them know that I was not about to sit back and let them think they could mess with me whenever they felt like it, I turned around and walked out of the dining hall without waiting for another word from any of them. The pit in my stomach sat heavy and cold the whole way, the kind of empty feeling that came after a big fight when the anger started to cool and left something uneasy behind, but I ignored it the best I could. I headed straight for the kitchen because I needed to know what had happened to the food I had worked so hard on. The hallway felt quieter now that the shouting and the throwing was over, and the only sound was the soft thud of my own footsteps against the floor as I pushed open the kitchen door and stepped inside.The first thing I did was look at the counter where I had left the last four plates, and to my genuine surprise, they were gone. Every single one of them had been taken. A small part of me felt a quick rush

NESSA'S POVI woke up to the sharp ringing of my alarm, and for a second I had no idea where I was. The ceiling above me was plain and unfamiliar, the light coming through the curtains was the wrong color, and the bed under me did not feel like the one I had slept in for years. My heart jumped before my mind could catch up, and then the memory landed all at once. I had moved into this house, and I was living with the football team. Everything that had happened yesterday rushed back into my head in a messy wave, the argument in the living room, the dinner they forced me to cook, the pizza boxes on the table, the food I threw in their faces, and the three names Aaron had given me before I finally made it to bed. Adrian Blackwood, Damien Callahan, and Lucian Knight. I let out a long sigh and dragged myself out of bed, my feet hitting the cool floor as I sat there for a moment with my face in my hands. I could not tell if today was going to be any better or any worse than the first night,