Page 8 of The Beta's Heart

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Peri

I barely made it through my dreaded presentation in Spanish class without dying of embarrassment. As soon as the bell rang, I rushed to the bathroom to check my pants and let out a grateful sigh when I saw all was good, then raced to the cafeteria to meet my friends, hoping they could help me laugh off my mistakes.

“Hey, Peri! How’d it go?” Keeley Breckenridge called out as I approached our usual table.

As Callie smiled encouragingly, I sighed and dropped down into my seat.

“It was awful. I stumbled over the conjugations and mixed up ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ at least twice.”

“Oh, stop worrying,” Callie said, waving her hand dismissively. “You did fine. Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Yeah,” Keeley agreed with a smile. “You’ve got an A in the class, and a few tiny goofs in one presentation isn’t going to drop your grade that much.”

Sophia Bishop and Yolanda Ramirez, the quieter members of our group, nodded in agreement.

“They’re right, Peri,” Sophie said softly. “You’re doing great.”

“And those are easy verbs to mess up,” Yola assured me in her soft Spanish accent. Getting her to talk here in the cafeteria was rare. The more people were around, the quieter she became.

“Thanks, y’all,” I said, smiling despite myself. “I guess I’m just a perfectionist.”

As I looked around the cafeteria, my gaze landed on the table where the queen bees—Korine Holloway, Heidia Jensen, and Olivia Edison—were gathered around Tyler James and the Hall twins, Beckham and Bowie. The girls were laughing loudly, tossing their hair, and batting their eyelashes in an overly flirtatious way that made my stomach churn.

Tyler looked uncomfortable, glancing around as if he wanted to escape, while Beckham and Bowie exchanged annoyed glances, but seemed to be enduring it so as not to make a scene. As for Bram, the girls were ignoring him completely, and he continued eating his lunch as if they weren’t even there.

My heart gave a little flutter at the sight of Tyler. He looked so handsome today, the light glittering on his golden hair, so unlike the bottled blonde I used to hide my natural black tresses. When his blue eyes darted in our direction, I quickly looked away, hoping no one—especiallyhim—had noticed my staring.

Of course, Keeley did.

“So, Peri,” she started, a mischievous gleam in her eye. “What’s the deal with you and Tyler James? You practically light up every time he’s around.”

I felt my cheeks heat up.

“What? No way! I don’t have a crush on Tyler.”

“Oh, please,” Keeley laughed. “Only the Moon Goddess knows who will be mates, sure, but it’s pretty obvious you like him.”

I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Even if I did, it doesn’t mean anything. We won’t know who our mates are until we turn eighteen.”

“True,” Callie conceded, “but there have been times when couples were drawn to each other before their birthdays, only to find out they were indeed mates. Our parents used to say Royal Price and his mate Julia were in lovefor yearsbefore they found out they were mates.”

“That’s a sentimental dream,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “An unreal fantasy in the real world.”

Keeley scoffed at this.

“Girl, as shifters,we’reunreal fantasies in the real world!”

We all laughed, the conversation easing my earlier anxiety, and I was so grateful to have such good friends.

“Well, what about you two?” Sophie wanted to know. “You turned eighteen last week. Don’t you have any sense of your mates in the pack?”

“No.” Both of them screwed their faces up into pouts as they answered at the same time.

“No one catching your eye?” I teased.

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