Page 10 of Tempted By the Alpha Outlaw

“This thing’s ancient,” I mutter, fiddling with a stubborn screw. “Might need some parts I don’t have.”

“I can help track them down.”

I chuckle. “You always this helpful?”

“Only when it matters,” she says with a small smile, and damn if that doesn’t feel like a punch to the gut. I look away, forcing my attention back to the projector.

“You’re distracting, you know that?” I tease.

Magnolia glances away, tucking a strand of dark, glossy hair behind her ear. “Sorry,” she says quickly, starting to rise like she’s overstayed her welcome. “I didn’t mean to?—”

“I didn’t say leave,” I cut in—because shit, I don’t want her to go, even if she really should. She freezes mid-step, looking back at me with those wide brown eyes, her innocence practically glowing off her.

Like she has no idea what she’s doing to me just by standing there.

I clear my throat, trying to play it cool. “I just meant…you’re a lot more hopeful than I’m used to.”

Her lips part slightly, soft and unsure, and I catch myself staring at them longer than I should. My wolf stirs low in my chest, urging me to close the distance between us, to take her, to ruin her sweetness until she doesn’t blush like that for anyone else but me.

“Is that a bad thing?” she asks.

I put the screwdriver down, taking a second to get myself under control. She’s too close. Too bright. Too goddamn good. “No,” I say after a beat. “But it might be dangerous.”

Her eyes widen just enough for me to notice, and the air between us goes taut with tension. She holds my gaze, her lips pressing into the faintest smile. The kind of smile that makes a man forget everything he swore he wouldn’t do.

“Well,” she says, her voice light but with just enough weight to settle under my skin, “I’ll take my chances.”

She turns to leave, and I watch her go, my chest tight, my wolf pacing inside me. That faint, sweet scent of hers lingers in the air—vanilla and wildflowers, clean and innocent—and it’s like a leash around my neck, pulling me after her.

She’s good. Too good. The kind of girl who believes in fairy tales and happy endings, who’s never seen the kind of ruin a man like me can bring. And all I can think about is how much I want to wreck her. To turn her softness into something wild, something that’s mine.

Dangerous doesn’t even begin to cover it. She’s trouble I’ve got no business wanting.

But holy hell, I want her anyway.

4

MAGNOLIA

Dinner in the Jones household is always a little chaotic, but it’s the kind of chaos that holds the pack together. Lucy’s giggles rise above the clatter of dishes, her bright laughter filling every corner of the room. River slouches in his chair with the practiced indifference of a seventeen-year-old, picking at his food and pretending he doesn’t care about anything. Kate leans over the table to snatch the last roll before anyone else can claim it, her smirk daring anyone to call her out on it.

And then there’s me—always the one cutting Lucy’s meat into tiny pieces before she tries to swallow it whole, gently reminding River to sit up straight, and shooting Kate a pointed look when she stirs the pot just for fun.

The oldest. The responsible one. The good one.Always.

It’s been like this for as long as I can remember. My family is a cornerstone of the Austin Den, a symbol of resilience and unity in a world that fell apart long before any of us were born. My parents, Sarita and Bruce, are both beta wolves—steady, reliable, and fiercely protective of their own. They were some of the first rebels to rise up against the Heavenly Host, and their defiance helped lay the groundwork for what the Austin Den has become.

They’ve kept us together through everything—through the scarcity, the uncertainty, and the constant threat of danger. All us kids were born after the Convergence, a fact that still astonishes people when they think about the odds. Lucy, our youngest, was a surprise born into what felt like relative peace, but Kate, River, and I? We were born in the thick of it, when survival wasn’t guaranteed and every birth felt like a tiny act of rebellion.

I was the first omega born on Earth after the Convergence, or so my mother tells me. She doesn’t talk about it often, but I know enough to piece it together. While pregnant with me, my mom was captured by the Heavenly Host, infected with lycanthropy while my dad tried desperately to find her. She escaped—barely—and gave birth to me in the middle of a safe house somewhere south of here.

Dad says I was small and quiet, but fierce, even then.“You came out fighting,”he always says with a smile, ruffling my hair like I’m still that tiny baby in his arms.

That story has always felt like a heavy mantle to carry, though my parents never made me feel like I had to live up to it. But the pack remembers. They look at me and see not just Sarita and Bruce’s daughter, but a symbol of what it means to survive against all odds.

Still, as much as the den reveres us, inside these walls we’re just the Jones family.

And dinner is our time to be messy, imperfect, and loud.

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