Page 5 of Alpha Chase

He chuckles lowly. “Maybe you should watch where you’re going, shorty.”

“Maybe you should take up less space, stretch!” I shove my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, shouldering past him and fleeing the packhouse.

I throw myself into the drivers’ seat of my car, slamming the steering wheel with the heel of my hand and releasing a frustrated groan. I don’t have anyone to blame but myself- both for the cracked phone screen and for letting a cocky prick like Chase get me riled up. I’ve got zero time or tolerance for fuckboys.

And Chase Walker is the definition of a fuckboy.

CHAPTER THREE

Chase

Irollmyeyes,chuckling as the little five-foot-nothing firecracker tears out of the packhouse like a goddamn tornado. Women are all the same; it’s just too fucking easy to get a rise out of them. They play cute, but crave torture- the meaner I am, the more desperate they become to jump on my dick. And make no mistake, that girl fuckingwantsit.

I saw the way she looked at me. She’d be fun to play with, but these days, I tend to break my toys. Misery loves company after all.

I step into the doorway of my dad’s old office, leaning against the frame. My throat tightens as I look inside at Gray seated behind the large black desk. I know it’s stupid, but some part of me still expects to see my dad sitting behind that desk every time I walk by this office.Every damn time.

Fallon’s lounging in a seat on the opposite side of the desk, sideways with her legs flung over one of the chair arms. “Hey, baby Alpha,” she smirks, twisting around to glance over at me.

I push the hood of my sweatshirt off my head and lazily rake a hand through my hair, smirking right back at her. “You know you’re the only one allowed to call me that, right?”

I like Fallon. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t put up with the nickname. Don’t get me wrong, I hated it the first few times she used it… as I got to know her, though, both she and the nickname grew on me. Fallon’s stubborn as hell, feisty as fuck- honestly, I don’t know how Gray puts up with her- but she also tells it like it is, which is fucking rare these days. The girl’s as real as they come, which I respect.

Fallon grins back at me smugly while Gray looks up from the paperwork in front of him. “You ready to sit down and go through some of this?” he asks, pushing back in his chair.

“Uh, actually, I was gonna go boarding with the guys,” I mumble, scratching the back of my head as my eyes remain downcast. “How about tomorrow?”

I dart Gray a quick glance, noting the hard set of his jaw and how his lips are pressed into a tight line. He’s not happy that I keep pushing this off, but hey, I didn’t ask him to come here and sort through my dad’s shitty bookkeeping. He took this upon himself.

“How about after?” From the tone in Gray’s voice, it’s more of a demand than a question. Dude has been in a position of authority for so long that he’s obviously not used to being met with resistance. Trouble is, we’re on level playing field now, so he can’t pull rank on me to force my cooperation.

I shrug, pushing off the doorframe. “Maybe. Probably won’t be back till at least three.”

“Try to make it two,” Gray mutters, looking back down at the paperwork spread out on the desk in front of him.

There’s no chance in hell, but there’s also no point in arguing. No matter what time he wanted to do this, I’d find some excuse to get out of it. I’ve had no lack of excuses over the past two months.

I was born to be Alpha of this pack. I always wanted to be Alpha, but not like this. Never like this.

There’s fresh powder on the mountain today. For the past few winters, my boys and I have made a habit of coming out here to shred several times a week. The six-pack owns and operates the Cedar Ridge ski resort, so we may as well take advantage of the fact that we’ve got constant access when it’s peak season, right? Nobody seems to care much as long as we steer clear of the human tourists, but not many of them venture as high up the mountain as we do. The more dangerous the run, the better.

Most shifters are athletic by nature. Snowboarding came as naturally to me as riding a bike, and once I started getting better at it, the adrenaline hooked me. Nowadays it’s like a drug to numb out everything else.

“One more, then we call it?” Miles asks, shoving his goggles up to rest on his forehead.

We just hopped off the lift at the top of a black diamond run- the same one that Miles snapped his femur on last week coming off of a jump. Cried like a fuckin’ baby. He’s been acting like it was no big deal since, but he’s also been riding timid. Rapid shifter healing means we do a lot of stupid, high risk shit up here without considering the consequences, though even with rapid healing, a broken bone still hurts like a bitch.

My buddy Levi slides his goggles up and looks to me, arching a dark brow. “Chase?”

The six of us guys have been tight since we were kids, but Levi is my closest friend of the bunch. Because I’m an alpha type, they all look to me as their leader, and Levi is like my right-hand man. If I chose a Beta, it would be him, hands down. Hell, if Rob keeps giving me enough shit, I might fuck around and replace him.

“Fine,” I bark, giving Levi a curt nod. I don’t look to the others for confirmation- they know what I say, goes.

Callum slides up beside Miles, clapping him on the shoulder. “Try not to bleed all over the snow again, huh?” he sneers as Miles pales.

There’s always been something a little dark about Cal; he just puts off a vibe that people tend to steer clear of. It has never bothered me because I’ve never questioned his loyalty- he’d spill blood in defense of any of us. What scares everyone else, though, is how much he’d clearly enjoy it.

“Aw c’mon, Cal, lay off him,” Alec chuckles, shaking his head. He and his twin brother Darius round out our group of friends. They’re fraternal twins, but you wouldn’t immediately guess they were related by looking at them. Darius- or Dare, as we call him- is tall and lean, while Alec is stocky and built like a brick shithouse. Dare has dark features, Alec light. For being wombmates, they couldn’t look more different, though their personalities echo one another’s. They’re also super in sync with each other and do cliché twin things like finish one another’s sentences. It gets annoying fast.

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