Page 5 of Star-crossed Betas

Fee lies on his back, floating along the water’s surface, flicking his toes to make tiny splashes. He’s naked like me, and his dick is soft, floating from side to side as he moves gently through the water. His chest and abs are defined in a way that suggests heworks out a lot. My body is slimmer than his but is built mainly from genetics and the manual labour of my joinery work.

Growing up in a wolf pack leaves you relatively immune to nudity. Still, I find myself paying more attention to Fee’s naked form than I usually would. As my gaze works its way up to Fee’s face, I realise I’ve been caught looking for a little too long. His eyes sparkle with humour, and my face heats.

“Enjoying the view?” he asks, and I roll my eyes at him.

“I was thinkin’ you must spend a lot of time in the gym to look like that.” He lets out a deep, throaty laugh in response.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not a gym rat. I just play a lot of rugby. I play for my uni team, my local team, and I help coach an under twelve’s team.” I’m surprised, although it does explain those thick thighs. Coaches kids’ rugby? Did he have to be a fucking saint too?

“Now would be a good time to start listin' your faults, or I’m gonna think I’m in a fever dream.”

“Hmmm. Well, I’m a duvet hog. When I shower, I leave my dirty clothes in the corner of the bathroom and ermm… I also sing to myself—constantly. Is that enough to keep you going?” His eyes glitter with amusement as he ticks each incriminating item off on his fingers.

“Yes, thanks. You’re totally disgustin’ now,” I deadpan, and it earns me another of his deep throaty laughs. I’m a thief in the night, stealing them to replay later.

As the sun begins to rise, lighting the sky with a warm glow, I begin the run back home. My mind is buzzing with excitement as I fly through the air. Bright smiles and deep brown eyes consume my thoughts, and I wonder briefly if I should tell Niamh about my mystery waterfall man. In the end, though, I decide that for now, I’d quite like to keep him all to myself.

Three

July 2017 - Five Years Ago

Phoenix Campbell

Cee is standing under the waterfall’s spray with his eyes closed, letting the water cascade over his shoulders. He looks like a fallen angel, a frankly unreasonably sexy fallen angel sent here to tempt me into doing some very ungodly things to him. His usual tousled raven-black hair is plastered to his face, and the moonlight bounces off his sharp cheekbones and jaw, only adding to his enigmatic presence.

His pale, milky-white skin is entirely flawless. Wolf shifters generally have unblemished skin, considering we usually heal quicker than we can scar—but Cee's skin looks like it was cut from marble. This is the fifth week in a row we’ve met here, and my fingers are itching to touch him.

I think he flirts with me sometimes? But I’m so embarrassingly into him that I’m worried I’m reading into it.Cee's mossy green eyes, lined with thick dark lashes, sparkle with mirth when he catches me staring at him; I don’t even bother to look remorseful.

Cee gracefully wades through the water towards me. He’s so lithe and agile that even though I’ve seen him in his wolf form several times, I sometimes half expect him to shift into a sleek, black panther. He strikes me as someone who always lands on his feet and would most definitely scratch your eyes out if you cornered him. He pauses a few feet away from me, and a shiver runs down my spine as his gaze rakes over my body.

We do this sometimes; stare at each other as though we aren’t entirely sure this isn’t a mirage, and if we look away, the other will suddenly disperse like smoke into the ether. A light breeze in the air bathes me in his intoxicating scent of lightning and heather. Cee smells like a storm brewing, and I can’t help but think that might be telling.

A part of me knows no good can come of getting so close to someone in the enemy pack, but I think it would take nothing short of a direct Alpha Order to keep me away.

I’ve only been on the receiving end of one once before. I was a pup and kept sneaking out to swim in the lake near our home. My brother Jasper snitched on me to Mum, and she Alpha Ordered that I only go when there was adult supervision. Being the precocious little pup I was, I figured out that if there were human adults in the vicinity when I went swimming, I could get around the Order that way. When she eventually caught meagain,she was livid. I suspect she learned to make her Orders substantially more watertight after that.

“Let's play a game,” Cee declares, cutting through my reminiscent thoughts. His eyes are all mischief.

“Okay… what game do you want to play?” I ask.

“I’m thinkin’ Truth or Dare?” I can feel my Adam's apple bob as I swallow a large gulp of air. The last time I played Truth orDare, I kissed my best friend Alice’s brother, Milo. I’d been quite drunk, and the kiss was wet, sloppy and frankly—best forgotten.

“If we play Truth or Dare, I think we should still keep some truths off the table.” I raise an eyebrow at him in question.

“Okay, how about Truth or Dare, but the truths can’t include any identifying questions?” he proposes.

“Deal, your idea to play so your turn first, Truth or Dare?”

“Truth,” Cee says with a glint in his eye. Biting the bullet, I ask the question that’s been on the tip of my tongue since the day we met.

“Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?” I ask, holding his gaze so I don’t look as nervous as I feel.

“Definitely no girlfriend, I don’t generally swing that way…” He pauses, knowing full well why I asked, but I force myself to wait for him to finish answering the question even though my stomach is doing somersaults in anticipation. “And no boyfriend either. You?” he finally answers, and I let out a breath, a weight lifted off my chest.

“Nice try. That’s not how the game works unless you want to waste your turn asking me the same question?” I give him a teasing look, and he splashes water at me.

“Fine, Truth or Dare?”

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