Page 42 of Step Alpha

I’m still in the dog house with him. Unless I figure out how to get back onto the Duke football team or in the NFL, I probably will be until the day I die.

“Good. I got a job at the auto shop, and I’m assisting Coach Jamison with the team.”

“That’s great!” Leslie says. I have to say, she’s really not bad. She has a kind presence, similar to Rayne’s. I don’t hate her living here with my dad. He needs someone like her to smooth his rough edges.

Rayne reemerges from her room and moves around, pulling out plates from the cupboard and placing them on the table.

She’s like a little mouse, scurrying quietly around, afraid of making waves.

I both love and hate it. I want her that way for me. I don’t like that she shrinks around my dad. I want her to give him the same lip she gives me, even though disrespect to elders isn’t part of our culture. There’s pack order, and adults are alpha until they’re challenged.

I remember too well how hard that was for Cole when his dad became an abusive asshole, and he finally had to decide to change the order. But thank fuck he did because his dad cleaned himself up. He even has a job at the brewery now. Not his old job, but something that pays the bills.

“You don’t need to be Assistant Coach. You need to keep in top shape for Duke.”

“Dad, I’m a wolf on a team of humans. I don’t get out of shape. But yeah, I’ll work out with the team. I’m doing what you asked.”

“I think it’s great. You have a lot to offer those kids now that you’ve played college ball,” Leslie says.

Do I? Somehow I feel more like the loser bringing everyone down, but her words make me think about what I learned at Duke. Yeah, maybe a few interesting strategies.

My dad gives me a sour nod and sits down at the table. “Rayne, thanks for cooking burgers. I’ll try not to eat them all.” Despite his words, he piles a plate with three burgers for Leslie. I swear for a moment, his gaze goes soft when he looks at her.

It surprises me. I definitely thought this marriage was born of duty, not affection. But Leslie blushes and gives him a special smile when he hands her the plate, and I’m suddenly not sure at all what’s going on between them.

They’re not fated mates. Obviously. If they were, he would’ve mated her the moment they scented each other at puberty. They’re both from this pack. There’s only a small percentage of shifters who actually find their fated mate. Maybe fifteen percent of shifters worldwide.

Cole was lucky enough–although Bailey’s a human, so maybe unlucky is the better word choice. But he’s happy, and I guess that’s all that matters.

No, it seems my dad and Leslie may have found the more human reason for marriage–love.

My dad takes three hamburgers, and I take four. That leaves two for Rayne, which seems adequate since she’s a runt. She plows through both of hers pretty quickly, though. I see her licking her fingertips out of the corner of my eye, and it makes my dick swell against my zipper.

“Wow. You have an appetite today,” Leslie remarks like it’s unusual for Rayne to eat two hamburgers.

I pick up my last hamburger, holding her gaze as I eat it as if to prove my dominance. Pack order around here: I eat first. But as my teeth sink into the meat, it turns rancid in my mouth.

“Yeah. I think your hormones are affecting me, too,” Rayne says.

“I don’t think it works that way,” my dad says.

I set my burger down. Fuck.

What if she’s so tiny because she never got enough food? I know that’s irrational. I’m sure her mother fed her growing up, but some weird protective instinct rears in me, and I find myself picking up a butter knife and slicing my burger in half. I pick up the unbitten half and toss it lightly on her plate. “Eat up, Runt. Maybe you’ll actually grow someday.”

“Maybe you’ll actually get a personality,” she fires back as she picks it up then seems to remember she’s afraid of my dad and immediately ducks her head, flushing.

Both my dad and Leslie choose to ignore the exchange, which is good, because Rayne waits until the moment passes before she eats the hamburger, and it drives my wolf nuts having it sit there uneaten. Not because I wanted to take it back.

Because I wanted to feed it to her.

And that doesn’t make sense at all.

And I still can’t stop thinking about her in those high heels. A flood of dirty thoughts run through my head. Like forcing her to put them on for me and giving me the whole performance.

And that’s when it really sinks in.

I can.

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