When The Alpha Wanted What Wasn’t His

ZoeyBy the time Sasha presses my spine back into place, the pain has already dulled into something distant and humming, like it belongs to another body entirely. Her fingers are warm and unyielding as they work along my ribs, precise in the way only someone who has broken and fixed the same bodies for decades can be.“Drink,” she orders, shoving a chipped ceramic mug into my hands before I can argue.The liquid inside is dark and steaming, the smell sharp enough to make my eyes water. I wrinkle my nose but obey, swallowing before my instincts can talk me out of it. The taste is bitter and earthy, like bark soaked in smoke, and it burns all the way down my throat.“What is that?” I ask once the cup is empty, staring at the stained bottom like it might reveal its secrets if I glare hard enough.Sasha chuckles as she takes it from me, already moving to rinse it out. “Pain duller. Muscle relaxer. Something to keep you from biting me if I have to reset anything again.” She casts me a side

ZoeyBy the time I reach the end of the west corridor, my hands are numb from cold and my brain feels like it’s been running on fumes for days.Someone asks me what day it is earlier, and I blink at them like they’ve asked me a trick question. Monday? Thursday? Full moon? I don’t know. The days blur together when all you do is unlock doors, flip breakers, bleed radiators, and drag furniture around until your shoulders ache and your lungs burn.“Zoey,” someone calls down the hall. “Did you check the south wing yet?”“I did,” I shout back without stopping. “Hot water works. Lights too. One of the windows doesn’t close all the way.”“Of course it doesn’t,” the voice mutters.I don’t bother correcting them. Everything in this place is half-broken and forgotten. Just like the people who live here.The boarding school looms around me, all long corridors and high ceilings, built for children who were meant to grow up safe. Now it houses the ones no one wants to deal with. The unranked. The i

Wesley Here I was, thinking nothing could possibly make this situation worse.I’d already walked half the perimeter of this dead-quiet town just to burn off the restless energy crawling under my skin. The welcome ceremony wasn’t for hours, and standing still felt like asking my wolf to riot inside my head. So I wandered. No destination. No plan. Just movement.That’s when I noticed the lake.It was calm in a way that didn’t feel natural, like it was holding its breath. The surface barely moved, even with the breeze slipping through the trees. And right in the middle of it—floating effortlessly—was her.For a second, my brain refused to register what I was seeing.She looked unreal. Not in a dramatic, overdone way, but in that quiet, unsettling way that makes you question if you’re actually awake. Pale skin catching the light. Hair so light it almost blended with the water’s reflection, like moonlight tangled in ripples. She wasn’t swimming toward shore. She wasn’t splashing around. S

Zoey I don’t know why I can’t keep my eyes off him. Maybe because he was willing to stand there while I practically drowned. If that’s how they do things in his pack, it’s amazing anyone has survived. Around here, if we spot another wolf in trouble, we help them.Unless that wolf is me, but that’s a different story. He had no way of knowing who or what I was. How much of a disappointment I am. He didn’t care that I needed help—no, he was too interested in watching me, probably making bets with himself to see how long it would take for me to go under and stay there.He’s nothing. Nobody. Even if he is standing next to a man who’s clearly the alpha. I can smell it on him, but it’s more than that. It’s the energy that radiates off him, energy I sensed back at the lake. Is he the alpha’s son? That might explain why he thought my near drowning was entertaining. Probably gets off on watching weaker wolves struggle. He’s going to have a great time hanging out with my pack, if that’s true.

Wesley Human women go crazy over us—their so-called alpha men don’t come anywhere close to the real thing.“They have their uses,” I remind him. Neither of us wants to say it, but it’s right there between us. We have to stop this before it spins out of hand and bleeds into the human world. Or else we’re all fucked.The blood scent gets stronger with every step we take until I can almost taste it in the air. We’re almost back where we started, walking past the meeting hall toward the long stone building a few hundred yards away. I understand it’s used as a dormitory of sorts for unshifted and unmated wolves—immediately, my thoughts turn to if she lives here? Then I ask myself, what the fuck do I care?Even from a distance, I can hear two men arguing.“That’s not enough this time. They’re going to kill her, Danny l. It’s different now.” He’s straining, hardly able to contain himself, like his wolf is clawing to get free. That would be dangerous when he’s in a mood like this, facing off