Page 36 of Pack Rivals, Part One

It's been poor Bea for the last fortnight.

So many poor Beas, I packed up my car and fled for the city.

I am not lucky.

I am not the girl men fight over.

That's Serena.

I am the girl who was lucky to have had Karl in my life.

Until I wasn't so lucky anymore.

Until he chose her too.

"When they get to know me," I mutter, "then they'll lose interest."

I twist my head to peer out at the city. It's so much brighter and busier than Naw Creek ever was. The sidewalks jammed with people bustling this way and that, the shops all lit up like a runway, and the roads logged with traffic. I always thought I'd hate the city, exactly for these reasons. Now I can't help feeling that being somewhere with a vibrant pulse, rather than a sluggish one, might be what I need.

"What do you mean?" Courtney says, knocking me on the shoulder. "Get to know you better and learn how sweet and clever and funny you are?"

"Those weren't exactly the words Karl used." I hold up my hand and list them on my fingers. "Cold, dull, boring, frigid."

Yep, those were his words.

"What's that?" the alpha asks from the front, catching my gaze in the rear-view mirror.

I clamp my mouth shut and feel my cheeks sizzle. I may not want to date, but for some (probably omega-related) reason I don't want to advertise all my faults to him either.

"Nothing," I mutter.

"Just discussing her dick-wad ex-boyfriend."

"Ex-boyfriend, huh?" Silver says, in a tone that almost sounds murderous, his eyes flicking over my face. "Want to tell me about him?"

"Most definitely not," my aunt says, coming to my rescue.

"Where is he now?" the alpha asks. "Not causing you bother?"

"Nope." I turn my gaze back to the window. "Barbados probably."

"How about your boyfriends?" Courtney asks, leaning forward in her seat.

"My boyfriends?" the alpha asks. "I don't have any boyfriends."

"But you have packmates?"

I swing my gaze back to the man in the front seat.

Packs. Another thing we never had back in Naw Creek. Another thing I know nothing about.

"Yes, two packmates. Angel and Hardy."

"How long have you been a pack?" I ask him.

"Ten years," he says, leaning on his horn as Axel cuts in front of us in his flashy sports car. "Motherfucker," he mutters as Axel waves at us.

"Ten years …" Longer than Karl and I were together and that felt like forever. I thought these men had reputations as flounderers. But they're obviously committed to one another. "Are you romantically involved?"

---