Page 7 of Alpha's Baby Girl
Anger had been my friend in the past years, and I thought it would be enough. I just wasn’t prepared for the desire to spring back up again, overflowing from the box I’d put it under lock-in.
Sasha texted back, a simple reminder.Remember what that fucker did to you. You got this.I laughed to myself and then began to get ready for that night’s banquet. I was not the same naïve college girl, crying over a rejection. I was not the same pining wolf who had to physically heal from the bond, nor was I the nervous girl who’d walked into Kato’s office. I was stronger than that, I reminded myself.
I was good and ambitious, and I could do anything I set my mind to.
Dressed in a flowing gown of scarlet with glitter panels lining the strips and a plunging neckline, I sat at the banquet table. It was set up with candelabras and laden with full plates of food, all prepared to serve a hungry group of wolves with a large appetite. The feast was magnificent, from the steak filets on our plates to the servings of salmon, plus seasoned vegetables and dauphinoise potatoes. What wasn’t part of the main course was merely served as a side dish.
Fenrys sat at the head of the table wearing a navy suit with his shirt top button undone. He looked powerful, with the gold-plated watch on his wrist and a black bracelet on his other hand, which I recognized from years before. I recalled it being a gift from his father. I disliked all the wealth he flaunted, as if that was reason enough for being awful in the past. As if his town status gave him any right. My annoyance flared, even as I couldn’t help but want to look, glancing at him, remembering the way the water had dampened his hair in the lake and how droplets had slid down his chest, towards the low waistband of the shorts he’d worn. I didn’t want to want him and yet everything in me called to him. The worst part was he likely knew it, with the way his eyes were on me over the table.
As he drank deeply, he kept his eyes on me, and it made me remember the first time I’d seen Fenrys.
It had been the first week in college, and I’d gone to the college noticeboard to find clubs to sign up for , while texting. A lecture theatre door had slammed next to me, making me jump and drop my phone. I’d swooped to grab it as a hand closed over mine. It had been strong and tanned, and a scent had overwhelmed me. My whole body had reacted, and as I looked up, I found a dark-haired boy with the softest brown eyes looking down at me. So close up, I had seen the flecks of blue in them. Everybody knew who Fenrys Randon was but something else shifted inside.
He gazed back at me, his brows furrowing.
Then his hand jerked away, he blinked and stood up. “Sorry,” he said before he purposefully fixed a bright smile on his face. “Didn’t mean to make you jump.”
His voice had been lower than I’d expected, making me shiver.
“Thalia,” I answered, offering my free hand. When his skin touched mine again, we both jumped. Around us, the world slowed, sharpening to the point where only we existed. All other sounds faded into white noise, and all I could smell was his scent, collecting on his neck, his wrists, his jaw, where he may have sprayed cologne. He was intoxicating. My own scent heightened, triggered by his. His pupils expanded, chasing out the blue in them, and they remained on me for another minute before the bell rang, calling us to class. We broke apart, and I hugged my textbooks to my chest as if that would cover up how fast I was breathing, my chest expanding with the motion.
“See you around, Thalia,” he’d said quietly, passing me by.
I hadn’t been able to get him out of my head ever since.
Now, he was simply older, and while he didn’t play football after graduating, he still bore the muscles from the years of practice. All male shifters kept themselves in shape but I knew, from the lake that day, that Fenrys took extra care of his body. Despite it being covered up now, I couldn’t shake the image of his defined muscles, tapering into a slim waist that had disappeared below the water.
Shiba sat to his right, fawning over him, every inch the doting little victor she was playing at being. So she had won—Ihad gotten there first. I had found the lake first; she’d cheated, and distracted me, so she could claim Fenrys for herself.
Part of me thought she was well within her rights to. She wanted him in the way the Games intended: to be his Luna.
I kept my eyes on him beneath my lowered lashes as we all ate, conversing quietly.
“How did you all find the first trial?” Fenrys asked the table.
“Amazing,” Shiba gushed. “It wasn’t too challenging, though. I definitely think I could handle a harder trial.”
“Good to hear,” Fenrys answered, but it was monotone, his eyes already moving away from her to me. I knew it had been easy for me, too, but I wasn’t about to flaunt it, if that was what he hoped. I wasn’t interested in the petty one-upping of the other she-wolves. “The last two to have found me at the lake will be eliminated in the morning. But for now, please dine with me and enjoy your meal. It’s been well-deserved.”
As I talked most with Dakota, I remained attuned to Fenrys. He talked with the she-wolves nearest him, ever the charmer I remembered. But what had it been about me back then that had caused him to reject me? What hadn’t I had that made him not give me a chance?
He seemed different now, as I hoped I was. I wished I was bolder, more confident, in his eyes.
He was still full of bravado and smooth charm, flirtatious, always having that undercurrent to his tone, but he held himself differently. Maturity had taken most of the boyishness from his face, as well as the goofiness that I remembered him having. Now, he carried himself like a proper leader. Three years ago, he had led his pack as if it was merely a fun pastime. Now, I wondered what they were all like.
At one point, I excused myself for the restroom, the wine they’d served us rushing through me pleasantly as I stood up. I made my way out of the grand banquet hall of the hotel, down the polished marble floors, and found the bathroom. Once I was finished and considering calling it a night, I headed back but was stopped by the sound of shoes on the floor up ahead.
Fenrys paused in the hallway, cocking his head as if he had been looking for me. “How are you liking the spread we prepared?”
“It was enjoyable,” I told him, holding back. It had been decadent, and delicious, and I’d craved to devour the whole feast after today's trial. My wolf was hungry—and not just for the food. “How is Shiba’s company?” I gave him a tight smile.
“She’s as pleasant as a moth who won’t leave my clothes alone.” He grimaced, walking towards me. This time, I didn’t take a step back.
“And me?” I asked, desperate to know how he felt being faced with me again after what he’d done. I needed to know if guilt consumed him the way humiliation had eaten me. But why was I searching for a reason to go against Kato? Or maybe it wasn’t about Kato at all. It was healing for my own heart. “How ismycompany?”
“I don’t know,” he answered with a slow smile. “You’ll have to spend more time with me for me to properly give an answer.”
He was saying he’dwantme to. That it wouldn’t be something he was opposed to, at least.
