Two

Two

Gavin POV

It was my first day as Alpha of the Red Lily Acres pack. A little over two months had passed since my father’s ultimatum, but investigating the systematic slaughter of the Noble Families and my new leadership were the least of my concerns right now. A raw, chafing irritation gnawed at me. Father had refused the jet, forcing me into a tedious, multi-day drive. We’d only arrived last night, and the morning had come far too soon. I just wanted this farce over with.

I knew his game: force me to interact, to build connections, to make me a viable heir. It wouldn’t work. I remained stubbornly, defiantly, myself. I had delegated all unwanted interactions to my retinue, leaving my brigade to handle the mundane. I was intentionally the worst candidate for the crown, a walking monument to apathy my father would have no choice but to ignore.

So here I was, masquerading as a senior at the only all-supernatural high school in the province. The irony was bitter. In reality, I had over a millennium to my name and had stopped aging centuries ago, collecting false identities like trophies.

My time would have been better spent hunting leads on the murders, but this… this was the only way to get close to the Rogue Human. The thought of school was a grating noise, but I had endured far worse. As a senior, with the year nearly done, the classes would be trivial. I could sleep through them and still pass with honors. I could stomach a few months of this purgatory.

My Beta, Jim, walked beside me, his easy stride a stark contrast to my rigid impatience. I rolled my eyes as a wave of giggles followed our passage. I refused to grant them a glance. Jim, with his sharp blue eyes and styled black hair, was more diplomatic. He offered a wink or a polite wave. He was too kind to tell them to screw off. He was giving me the tour, his voice a low drone as he pointed out the cafeteria, the front office, the science wing. I tried to focus, but my mind kept snagging on the reason I was here. The Rogue Human. She’d been transferred here, a lamb tossed into a den of wolves—literally—to minimize the risk of exposure. Theoretically, surrounded by supernaturals, she couldn’t cause a disturbance. It was the perfect place to hold her until I tamed her. I would not fail.

Before the trip, I had devoured her file. Five in-school suspensions, countless detentions, a trail of rebellious behavior stretching back years. But it hadn’t always been that way. Before high school, she was isolated, a rule-follower with a small circle of friends. A prime target for bullies. The shift was telling. No school would expel her, as most infractions were in defense of herself or others. The problem was who she was defending them from.

Nine times out of ten, she was interrupting a ranked pack member putting a subordinate in their place. She would challenge them, promise protection, then unleash a volley of insults that most supernaturals wouldn’t tolerate. She’d gotten reactions, of course. Lucky for her, none had been foolish enough to shift or use magic in the open. I understood the fear. One wrong move, one supernatural pushed too far, and the human world would descend upon us.

I wasn’t unimpressed. I was… intrigued. There had been countless attempts on her life, both direct and indirect. She’d thwarted them all while remaining blissfully oblivious, which was astonishing. Faced with a gun under the guise of a school shooting, she hadn’t flinched. She’d taken three bullets to the shoulder and one to the gut and still managed to disarm and kill her supernatural assailant—our first casualty in this operation.

No human I had ever known could so blatantly disregard our auras. That innate sense was our primary camouflage, the subtle warning that kept humans from getting too close, from digging too deep. With her, it was the opposite. The reports stated her auras only fueled her, making her angrier, more volatile. I had to see it for myself. I had to witness how the aura of a Royal impacted her.

The pack was under strict orders to stay out of my way. The other species had agreed to keep their distance, as this was Royal business. My brigade, however, had been testing her for weeks, sent ahead to stabilize the situation. Her reputation held. They taunted, and she impressed.

Jim turned down another hall, and I caught his words about the science lab, but my eyes were scanning the throng of students, searching. I had no picture, no proper name—just ‘Rogue Human,’ which irked me to no end. Aside from the Rogue Human, the murder investigation was a void. No leads, just questions. The bodies were pristine, yet their internal systems had literally erupted. No toxins, no disease, no magic trace. They had just… died. The thought was a cold stone in my gut, but I pushed it away. I needed to focus on the present. The pack had fallen into disarray without leadership, but my brigade had restored order with surprising efficiency.

The transition was so smooth, there was barely a whisper of dissent. It turned out the pack wasn’t the biggest problem. She was. This Rogue Human who initiated fights, who challenged even my Deltas. This girl who had somehow made Orio—an Elite Warrior with a vicious temper—submit to her.

No one knew how. She’d taken him down with a few well-placed punches and a head slam that cracked his orbital socket. She interfered in everything. She wouldn’t even stand down to full-grown Lycan teachers flexing their aura. It was amusing. But this girl was about to learn that I would not tolerate her insubordination much longer. I would make her fall in line. Yet curiosity was a potent drug. I wanted to meet this girl who was a law unto herself.

“…and this is B wing, the science lab is just past those lockers,” Jim was saying as we walked down the hall. The Lycan students bowed their heads in deference as I passed, their respect a tangible weight. The other supernaturals stared curiously, their own status making them cautious but not subservient. Being a Prince had its privileges.

I nodded, taking the schedule Jim handed me. Every class was shared with the Rogue Human. I had arranged it that way.

Before Jim could speak again, a loud, angry female voice cut through the din.

“Ah, not again…” Jim groaned, stopping us.

My eyes locked onto the source immediately. The only human in the school. The Rogue Human, confronting one of my Deltas, Preston.

“Is that…?”

Jim just leaned against the wall, a smirk on his face. “Watch.”

And I did. I watched as she got virtually nose-to-nose with Preston, shoving a warning finger in his face. She was utterly immune to the waves of aura he was deliberately washing over her. Despite the rebellion, she was striking. Even from here, I could see she was built with a fighter’s lean strength packed into a frame with lush, feminine curves. She was short, but carried herself with an intimidating confidence. I inhaled subtly, but without letting my wolf to the forefront, her scent was lost in the mélange of the hallway. I settled for observing her.

Light brown hair cascaded down her back to her waist, and her eyes, even from a distance, seemed to swirl with a storm of grey, blue, and green. I shook my head. Why was I captivated by her appearance? I had saved myself for my mate. I hadn’t touched a woman in over a thousand years, though I’d courted a few for my father’s sake. It never went beyond a chaste kiss. My body, my desires, were reserved for her. When I found her.

Preston’s lips curled into a smirk, and in a flash, I saw his wolf surface in his eyes as he shoved her against the lockers. The next thing I knew, his mouth was on hers.

A fury, black and visceral, erupted in me. It was so sudden, so violent, it stole my breath. Eon, my wolf, snarled in my head, surging forward with a possessive rage I had never felt from him before. I slammed him back into the depths of my mind, my hands clenched into fists at my sides, my body trembling with the urge to rip Preston’s head from his shoulders. I forced myself to watch with an indifference I was far from feeling.

 Why would a mere human ignite this level of protectiveness? It had to be the Alpha instincts, the need to protect any lesser being in my territory. Preston was letting his primitive impulses rule him, just as he had back at the palace, continuing the assault. I couldn’t blame him entirely. She was exquisite.

But what happened next made my jaw drop. After a moment of rigid stillness, she dropped her bag and, with a movement too fast to track, threw him off. She punched him, a brutal, satisfying crack of bone. The tables turned in an instant. She pummeled him in a blind rage, a flurry of blows until he sagged to the floor, clutching his broken, gushing nose and submitting. It was as if his own wolf refused to grant him the strength to fight back.

Some teachers began rushing toward them. I didn’t want interference. I let my own Royal aura wash down the hall, a wave of absolute authority, and raised a hand. They froze, understanding the silent command. I would deal with this myself.

I watched as she grabbed her bag, crouched beside the broken Delta, and said something too low for even my Lycan hearing to catch. It was a whisper of pure venom. Then she stood and walked away.

My gaze followed her, my fascination deepening. I saw her join a vampire boy and one of my twin Gammas. Daisy. My eyes narrowed. One of my own brigade had befriended her? Why wasn’t this in my reports? I would have to follow up.

The school bell shrieked, signaling the end of breakfast. As I watched her retreating form, my eyes traced the length of her body. I couldn’t help but linger on the sway of her hips, the confident roll of her stride that accentuated the lush curve of her ass. A hot, thick rush of blood surged south, a surprising and unwelcome heat that hardened me in an instant. I shifted my stance, a subtle movement to conceal the evidence of my sudden, inconvenient lust.

‘Those hips…’ I flinched as my wolf’s voice, usually a silent presence, slithered into my thoughts. He was showing me an image—my hands gripping those hips, pulling her back against me as I drove into her from behind—

“Cat got your tongue, Gavin? Or should I say, Trish got your tongue?” Jim clapped me on the back, his laughter yanking me from the fantasy. He was the only one who dared.

I shoved the impure thoughts away, crushing the flush of embarrassment before it could color my cheeks. I glared at my Beta, refusing to lose my composure. “I am the Alpha and a Royal Prince. Why would a human affect me?” I growled, the words tasting like ash. “She will learn her place, and quickly.” I barely sounded convincing to myself.

Jim just laughed again. “Good luck with that, man. She’d take you on, too. She’s not popular just for her looks, you know. Though she is hot.”

For the second time in minutes, my wolf snarled, a possessive fury that I barely managed to swallow. A rage I didn’t understand consumed me. Why was I reacting like this to a human?

Jim didn’t notice my mood shift. “That girl, though sweet when she’s not being challenged, has a tongue like a razor and a bite just as vicious. She doesn’t let anyone in. Good luck ‘putting her in her place.’” He gave me a mocking salute and walked away, still chuckling.

I stood there for a long moment, my eyes narrowed in the direction she had gone. Who did this human think she was? I was Royalty, and she hadn’t even acknowledged my presence. But the burning question was why did I care? Why was I angry? Why had she, a human, gotten so completely under my skin in under five minutes? She had just defeated a top-ranked warrior, while his wolf was practically clawing its way out. This was not a normal human. I had known it intellectually, but seeing it, feeling the evidence of it, was another thing entirely. A part of me wondered if she was more.

‘She’s not. You would’ve sensed it. I like her.’

I rolled my eyes at my wolf. A thousand years of near-silence, and now he decides to be chatty? I took a deep breath, trying to center myself. Should I be wary? Intrigued? Hostile? I scoffed. No human would get the better of me. The bell rang again, signaling the start of class. I wasn’t sure what the future held, but I knew one thing with absolute certainty. I was going to have fun breaking this human.

I turned on my heel and headed to first period, a dangerous, predatory smirk forming on my lips as a plan began to take shape in my mind.