Page 69 of Finding the Forward: Part One
“What are you talking about?” I met his gaze. While handsome, he didn’t look familiar. Still, I didn’t like the idea of disappointing someone. Clearly, he thought I’d done something wrong.
“Like you don’t know. Grif, while I want you to be happy, I’mnotokay with this.” With a huff, he stormed off, then shouted over his shoulder, “You owe me three cows.”
A door slammed with a thud, rattling the hall.
Another door opened, and Jonas came out in only a pair of briefs, a puzzled look on his face. “What was that?”
“I have no idea. That’s not like AJ at all. Verity, what was he talking about? Have you met?” Grif asked.
“No, but...” I inhaled sharply.
You owe me three cows.
“Oh no. What if they didn’t get the cows?” My heart dropped. There was only one thing that could be.
Jonas and Grif trapped me in the hall with their bodies. Dean was still naked, and it was hard not to stare at Jonas’ beautiful tattoos. Especially the cranes on his chest.
“Why do you owe AJ cows?” Dean’s forehead furrowed in puzzlement.
It would be just like Baba, too. The only alpha dad of the parents enjoyed being heavy-handed. Especially with me. My soul broke a little.
“Let’s go into the kitchen.” Grif led me to a stool. “Do you want a drink? Coffee? Juice?”
“Beer?” Jonas opened the fridge.
“Please?” I caught the can he tossed at me, opened it, and drank half of it.
Grif took one as well. Dean made himself a cocktail.
“So? Cows. AJ. Not something I think goes together,” Dean said, taking a sip of the bright blue concoction.
“His sister’s pack owns a farm. We’ve been there many times.” Grif nodded.
“But what does that have to do withcows?” Dean replied as he leaned into Jonas.
The pieces fit together in my mind. This hadn’t been how I’d imagined my date with Grif ending.
“When I was in undergrad, I got the head fútbol coach at Marquess University fired for being a creep after I awakened as an alpha. I didn’t mean to. I vented to the wrong person. Hazards of having professors for parents.” I took a long pull of beer. I regretted that. A lot.
“Oh. Did he hurt you?” Grif’s voice grew fierce, his scent sharpening.
“No, it was mostly inappropriate talk and looks. It made things awkward,” I told him, shrugging it off. I didn’t like to think about it.
“If he was being creepy with players, heshouldbe fired.” Jonas took a sip of his beer.
“True. But I got a lot of hate from my team and the fútbol community because he was so highly regarded. He ran summer camps and had a family.He’d never do that.I should be able to put up with a littlelocker room banter.They turned me into the enemy and made my life awful.” I took another drink as if doing so would quell the voices echoing in my head.
Because I was yet another alpha bitch keeping the betas down.
“Then I had to make it worse by choosing to not go pro. Not only were people angry I’dthrown awaymy talent to get a PhD. They were also angry that since I didn’t even ‘bother’ to go pro, I should never have gotten the coach fired.” The ostracization had been a lot given I was used to being well-liked.
It had made those last few games awkward and had definitely affected our post-season. Everything was all my fault because I couldn’t simply ignore him. Also, my ex had helped fuel it. As had some of my teammates.
Pressing my face into Grif, I tried to ground myself in his rainy scent. “I had to stop using social media and deleted my accounts. People came to our house to both bother me and vandalize it. I almost didn’t go to Briar for my PhD since it’s Marquess’ sister school. One of the few things the alpha parents ever did for me was shut that down. Hard.”
Mostly, it was because my older brother was leaving for engineering school. They couldn’t have me gone, too. Who’d take care of the littles?
“That’s awful. I’m sure you had reasons to get a PhD instead of going pro. It’s no one's business, anyway.” Dean put his arm around me.
