Page 81 of Alpha Varsity

I’m going to crash that meeting.

“Will you and Coach Jamison be at the meeting?”

“No. Council only.”

Fuck. “Principal Olsen?”

“Yes?”

“May I see Asher’s disciplinary file?”

My employer’s eyes narrow, and he considers me. I am ateacher at the school, and Asher is my student. I believe I have a right to ask for the file, but I’m not certain.

He shrugs, though, and pulls open a drawer in the filing cabinet behind him. He hands over a folder. It’s thick with handwritten and typed notes about Asher’s behavior going all the way back to kindergarten. “Have at it. I can’t see what good it will do you, though.”

“Thank you, Sir.” I take the folder and jog out to my car, leafing through the pages as I go. I have an idea. It’s not fully-formed yet, but I’m hoping Asher’s file will help.

Asher

The Wolf Ridge high council consists of the alpha and twelve members–six female, six male. All, including Lotta’s mom, are from pack royalty–the families with the best blood lines.

Coach sits with me outside the pack hall to wait.

The door opens, and one of the pack elders nods at me to come in. There’s no trace of compassion in his face.

Pack hall is designed like a courtroom with a raised dais built in a semicircle at the front of the hall. Alpha Green sits in the middle, flanked by his council members in no particular order. The room isn’t opulent. Shifters aren’t generally rich. It has more of an Old West feel. Like I could be strung up and hanged at dawn if they so choose.

But banishment is the worst punishment for a shifter. We’re pack animals by nature. We rely on community. Once you’re banished from one pack, no other will take you in. Although that’s not completely true, since Garrett Green, Alpha Green’s banished son, formed his own misfit pack in Tucson and is known to take in otherstrays.

I keep my eyes lowered as I walk in and take the single chair placed in front of the council platform.

There’s a silence, no doubt intended to make me squirm.

I don’t.

I’m resigned to my fate.

“Asher, you know why you’re here.” Alpha Green’s tones hold deep disapproval.” What do you have to say for yourself?”

I shake my head. “Nothing, Alpha.”

“Excuse me?”

Wrong thing to say. I meant I had no excuse, but based on the thirteen frowns, they took my answer as disrespectful.

“I just mean that I did it. I deserve whatever punishment you deem fit.”

Based on the sounds of disapproval, that was still the wrong answer. I guess they wanted me to grovel or something. I don’t know. Diplomacy isn’t an art I ever mastered.

“Well, go and wait outside while we discuss what that punishment will be,” Alpha Green says.

I stand from my chair at the same time the door bursts open.

“This is a closed proceeding,” Alpha Green snaps.

The scent of jasmine and honey makes me whirl to see Lotta striding into the room holding a thick manila folder. Her eyes flash with determination.

It takes everything in me not to run to her. I need to sweep her into my arms. Get everything out on the table. My apologies. My heart. What she means to me. What I’d do for her.

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