Page 23 of Claimed By the Alpha Wolves

It makes me want to laugh, and I think I would if I wasn’t still trying to decide if he’s joking or not. I haven’t quite figured this guy out.

“In your dreams,” I say, surprising myself with the way I’m talking to an alpha.

But there’s something about Cayson that makes me feel more relaxed than normal. For some reason, he reminds me a bit of an excited puppy, and excited puppies are hardly scary. Even though I’m probably a fool to be seeing him like that.

“Absolutely I’ll be seeing you in my dreams,” he says, his voice low, as he takes another step toward me. His tone is joking, but his facial expression is serious, his eyes intent. “Will I be in your dreams, too?”

“More like her nightmares,” Ezra mutters, and Cayson gives him a playful shove.

“At least she’ll be thinking about me,” Cayson fires back.

Ezra pulls a pocket watch out of his shirt andtsks. “The hunt should be over by now. They said?—”

Before he can finish his sentence, another gun shot sounds in the distance.

“Alright,” Cayson says, crouching down again, patting his back like I plan to jump back on. “Let’s go, Faye.”

He can’t be serious… Oh my gods, he is.

“I’ll walk, thank you,” I say, breezing past him.

Behind me, I hear Ezra snicker and Cayson mutter something vulgar to him in response. I’m suddenly smiling, shaking my head. These two are different from any alphas I’ve met before. Different and unexpected.

I’m not sure what to think about that.

ELEVEN

Faye

The moon glitters over the waves in a way that paints everything like a beautiful picture, and Addilyn squeals next to me, her hand tight around my arm. She’s happy because, even though alphas didn’t “catch us,” we have another shot at romance. Of course, for someone trying to find mates, this is the perfect romantic setup. But for me, it’s a nightmare.

How had I been foolish enough this morning to think I could get out of the games for tonight?I should’ve known that the damn ultimas would never let such a thing happen. Not when there are lives to ruin. So instead of spending my night happily in the silence of my room, I’d been assigned a different game. A game that still could lead to me being trapped with Kurt.

The omegas and alphas out here now are the ones who didn’t pair up during the hunt. The others are inside having dinner, and I desperately wish I had just let Cayson say he’d caught me. Having dinner with the handsome, if not a bit forward, alpha would have been far better than this.

Kurt stands with the alphas on the other side of the dock, his dark eyes following me intently, cloaked in a silent threat that makes my blood run cold. It’s clear that while one of his goalsmight be to attract an omega, one who doesn’t see him for what he is, his other goal is to hurt me. To make me pay for insulting him.

I wish he would find a fated mate, or several, and be done with The Selection.Not that I’d want to wish that fate on an omega. It’s just that I would do just about anything to be free of him.

Yet, I can’t run away and hide. Instead, I stand under his intense glare as Brock, one of the ultimas from earlier, explains that one alpha and one omega will be placed on each boat. It’s a chance to chat in a romantic atmosphere and see if a bond, fated or otherwise, can form.

Because being trapped on a boat with a stranger sounds likesomuch fun.

I’m tapping my foot nervously against the dock when Brock calls my name. For a second, the image of me being paired with Kurt flashes in my mind, and my stomach turns… but then Brock calls Ezra’s name. Relief flows through me.Ezra? What are the chances?

Ezra is the first alpha I don’t feel afraid of, but he also seems to want to stay as far from me, and the other omegas, as he can possibly get. Us being on a boat together makes me wonder which of us will be more miserable.

Brock’s eyes dart to me, staring for a second too long, before he gestures for me to head to the boat. I wonder if he knows all the omegas and alphas, or if he remembers me from when I was crying and pleading for justice for my brother. I’m not sure which I prefer.

I head to the boat, bowing my head low, embarrassed the ultima had to tell me directly. A servant helps me step down into a little rowboat, followed by Ezra, whose face is a mask of indifference. I take a deep breath, smelling his clean, fresh rain scent. It’s kind of nice, in an unexpected way.

Do most alphas smell so nice?I think of Kurt, my alpha, and the alphas in the ballroom, and my nose wrinkles. I hadn’t thought any of them, except Cayson, smelled nice. If anything, they’d smelled a bit gross.

Seated in the boat, feeling uncomfortable, I watch Ezra grip the oars firmly, like he’s done this a million times before.I wonder if he has.He seems so at peace on the water, and quickly paddles our boat out onto the lake. He steers us so we drift onto the other quieter side of the lake, shielded from the others by a weeping willow tree that drapes into the water.

At least out here I get a break from Kurt’s gaze. Maybe I can even pretend he doesn’t have something awful planned for me.I think of him, and an image of him crushing my brother’s neck flashes in my mind. I shiver and wrap my arms around myself.I hope I’m never alone with Kurt again.

“Your heart is beating really fast,” Ezra murmurs, glancing at me with those bright blue eyes, as if he’s trying to analyze me. “Is something bothering you? It was particularly loud back at the dock.”

---