Page 52 of Step Alpha

Unbelievable.

I hoped and wished my entire childhood that I would eventually develop into a normal shifter, but nothing pointed in that direction for me.

I didn’t have the healing abilities other pups had. I couldn’t see in the dark. My hearing sucked. My nose wasn’t good for much.

Even so, when I got my period and grew breasts, I’d hoped and wished and begged fate that I might also learn to shift like the other girls in the pack.

But alas. It seemed it wasn’t for me. I finally accepted what everyone has suspected from the start: I was defective.

But now, as I stand restrained by my stepbrother, the bully who just won’t leave me alone, she finally emerges.

And she’s beautiful. At least her eyes are. Silver, like the moon we worship.

I go limp with another sob. If Wilde weren’t holding me up, I would fall to my knees and weep like a baby.

“Silver eyes,” he croons in my ear. There’s a note of wonder in his voice like he thinks my wolf is beautiful, too.

Like he recognizes the magic and power that’s present in the room. The shimmer and glow around me.

All I can do is sob, though.

“Hey.” Wilde pulls down my t-shirt to cover my bared breasts, and the hand at my throat slides down to hold me up by the waist. “You’re okay.”

“I know that!” I sob. “I’m a wolf.”

Wilde finally releases me and grins. Our gazes meet in the mirror. “You sure are.”

I turn around and give him a hard shove, which doesn’t move him even an inch. “What were you doing to me?” My voice is choked with tears.

I’m confused as hell about the riot of sensations in my body. The pulsing heat between my legs. The fact that my stepbrother possibly just tried to rape me.

The notion that I partly wanted him to.

For once, Wilde seems to offer me an honest response. He spreads his hands. “I don’t know. I think…my wolf sensed her in there. I caught your scent, and it sort of drove me crazy. I didn’t mean to try to strip you. I’m sorry about that. But then I saw your eyes…” He grins. “So I did it again in front of the mirror to show you what I saw.”

I let out a wobbly exhale. “Maybe…maybe this is why I’ve been so hot at night. And hungry all the time.”

Wilde’s throat works to swallow.

I realize I can see him perfectly in the darkness.

“Maybe this is why I can’t leave you alone.”

I’m shocked by that admission.

And titillated.Verytitillated. But I’m way too raw and confused to follow up on it. Right now I have an advantage. Wilde’s being semi-respectful for a change. “Wilde.” I lift my chin and point to the door. “Get out.”

I’m shaking all over. I fall to my knees in front of the mirror and stare into the reflection, willing the silver-eyed wolf to return, but she’s gone.

Apparently, only Wilde can summon her.

ChapterFourteen

Wilde

I have to shift and run to keep from barging back into Rayne’s bedroom. My wolf doesn’t like being denied, and apparently, he thought he was going to get some. After failing to get any sleep on the couch, I get up and make two huge plates full of pancakes. The kind my dad used to make for me on the day of a big game–with protein powder and nuts mixed in, and a stack of Canadian bacon slices to round it out.

Rayne’s going to need her protein if she’s going to shift. I remember going through puberty–I couldn’t seem to eat enough. I was hangry and horny all the time.

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