Page 34 of Rise of the Alpha

“So Bone Crusher, huh?” she asks Zeke while putting a hand on her hip.

He rubs the back of his head with one hand, looking bashful of his nickname here. “Ugh, yeah, I didn’t pick it. Timur gave it to me, and it just kinda stuck,” he tells her as his cheeks redden. She just nods her head in acceptance.

There is an awkward silence between them before Zeke breaks it with his voice in a stage whisper, “So not that I didn’t enjoy your lips on mine, Pretty Wolf, but what was that about? You were ready to bathe in my blood at school today.”

Magnolia runs her shoe in front of her on the ground while looking down, not answering. Then, after a brief silence, she looks up and takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Zeke. It was wrong of me to react so poorly without listening to your side of the story in its entirety. I just wanna move past it and start over. If that’s what you want?”

“The ferret thing doesn’t bother you, Pretty Wolf?” he asks, and I roll my eyes. If I had a quarter for every time my best friend worried about his shifted form, I’d be a fucking billionaire, I swear.

Surprising the fuck out of me, Magnolia pulls back and socks him right in his shoulder. “No, what you shift into doesn’t matter to me. Do you think I’m that shallow?” she asks demandingly.

He blushes, and Jude smacks him upside the back of the head, “Told ya so!”

That comment has Magnolia whipping her head Jude’s way and glaring at him, “And just what is that supposed to mean?” Jude reddens to the color of a strawberry before pulling his composure back, then with a cocky-as-hell grin on his face, he wraps an arm around Magnolia, pulling her close to his side.

“Means we all have the hots for you, Maggie.”

“Maggie?” she asks at the new nickname.

Jude just shrugs, “I like it. Magnolia is too formal for our woman, babe, and I plan to try to make you our woman.”

Her eyes widen, and her mouth is open in shock as she quickly looks between all of us. “Oh, don’t worry, babe, we all agreed to pursue you since we are all best friends. Right, guys?”

Magnolia pulls away from him quickly and wags her finger at him. “There can be no pursuit. I am promised to another.” Another feral growl leaves my body as I snatch her up, bringing her nose to nose with me. Or as close as I can get since she’s so much shorter than me. “Over my dead body,” I say through clenched teeth. Jude and Zeke voice their agreement with me.

Then suddenly a flash of rainbow slips in between us and is stealing our girl away. “Sorry, fellas! But this is how it has to be,” she hollers back to us. Then mouths ‘for now’ and with that, she turns and drags a giggling Magnolia back through the crowd toward the exit.

Jude chases after them, calling, “Wait up! I’ll walk you two fine ladies to the door.” I’m glad he piped up and went with them. I wouldn’t want anyone else thinking they could put their hands on her or Wylla like that fucker from earlier. I watch them until I can’t see them anymore.

FUCK!

That woman is so infuriating; Magnolia, not the witch. Why can’t she just see what is right in front of her? Why does she continue to hold on to this ‘I have to do what my Alpha says’mentality? She’s so fucking hot and cold. One minute she is flirty, and I think she is ready to court us, then the next she is all ‘I’m promised to another’. It’s driving me insane.

Jude comes strolling back up to us, preening like a peacock. “I got them to the door with no issues. I think they were just going back to the dorm to call it a night,” he tells us. I look from him to Zeke and can see my friends are feeling the same way. So I do the next best logical thing, wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders. “You guys wanna get shit-faced? I hear theElixiris having a half-off on any beer on tap.”

“Yeah, let me go clean up, and I’ll meet you fuckers outside,” Zeke answers. Jude just claps me on the back, and we part ways with Zeke, heading out front to wait for him.

Three hours later, we’re sitting at the bar inElixir,half in the bag.Countingby Volbeat comes on, and the three of us are singing some bad off-key karaoke while sloshing our drinks together in cheers.Half-priced tap beer was a great idea!The drum solo hits, and I slam my drink down and begin drumming my hands on the counter to the beat, while Zeke and Jude cheer for me.

But I read you like a letterlyric is sung when I feel a hand run from my shoulder down my chest. Looking down, I see long red nails clawing at my chest. I turn around to see who the fuck is touching me.Fuck me, it’s the bartender from the fights. Did she follow us here?

“Hey, baby, you leftKOtoo fast and didn’t call. Don’t you wanna play with me tonight?” the fake, high-pitched voice purrs at me.

Grabbing her hand, I pull it from my chest and drop it midair in disgust. I hear the guys snicker behind me. “No, thank you–Ava, was it? I have a girl. Now leave us,” I growl at her.

“That girl with the old-lady colored hair? Come on, she looks like a prude nun. Let me take you home. Tell ya what, I’ll bring some friends for yours, and we can switch later if that’s what gets you going,” she whispers seductively in my ear.

Looking her straight in the eye, I fake gag. “I said no thank you. Now move along, and if you talk about my girl like that again, I might just break my rule of putting hands on a female.”

She stomps her foot and gives a shrill shriek before turning and storming away. She meets up with two girls who look as desperate as her, then turns and eyes me from across the bar. “You’ll see, wolf baby, it’s me you need. Not her,” she says before grabbing both of her friends’ hands, and they leave the bar.

I turn back to the guys, who are trying to hold back their laughter. “What?” I snap at them. They burst into a fit of giggles like two little girls who know a secret.

“Nothing, we just… We don’t know, but that gagging? Then she stomped at you? It was fucking hysterical,” Jude cackles.Goddess above, we are shitfaced.

We resume our boys’ night while drinking beers when a brilliant plan smacks me straight in the face. “Guys, I just had an idea. One that will show that sexy little mate of ours how good it can be to be ours,” I tell them, vibrating with how good I think this idea is.

They stare at me on pins and needles, waiting for me to tell them this epicness. I say nothing, keeping the wheels turning in their heads. They say nothing as they wait and Jude shakes his head at me in a ‘well go on then’ gesture.

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