Page 22 of Step Alpha

Rayne

I go to my bedroom to give them privacy although I’ll be able to hear everything through the walls. I may not be a shifter, but my hearing is still better than a human’s.

“Have a seat, Wilde,” Alpha Green instructs.

I hear the scrape of chairs from the dining table and imagine the council members forming a semicircle around Wilde, interview style.

Or maybe I should say interrogation style.

I don’t know why my own stomach is tied up in knots over Wilde’s situation. I have nothing invested in his situation. I don’t even know what exactly happened. I don’t know what he did or didn’t do, other than land in jail on drug trafficking charges. I don’t know whether he has an excuse or reason for it.

“So. What happened?” Alpha Green directs the conversation.

Wilde doesn’t answer for a moment, at least not that I can hear, and it leaves me holding my breath, my fingers closed into tight, clammy balls.

“We won the game against Clemson. The guys were partying in our room. We’d just been drug-tested pre-game, which meant it was safe to use.”

“You use drugs.” That accusation, laced with enough condemnation to sink a battleship, comes from Logan. He doesn’t wait for an answer. “Why would you even bother? How fast does it metabolize in your system?”

I hear no reply until Logan snaps again, “Answer me, Wilde!”

“I wasn’t sure if those were rhetorical questions.”

“Don’t get smart.”

“Are you using drugs, son?” Alpha Green’s voice is mild, like he’s cueing Logan to bring down the tension.

“I’m trying to fit in with humans on a tight-knit team. It’s not easy.” I hear genuine frustration and distress in Wilde’s voice and try to resist the sympathy that comes creeping in at the edges.

Wilde is an arrogant prick who surely deserved whatever went down.

If he felt out of place with the humans, then he just got a taste of how it feels to be me every day of my life in this town.

“So you chose to break the law and risk your entire career to fit in.” The voice belongs to one of the pack elders.

“I’m a pack animal.” Wilde’s words fall like heavy stones. There’s defeat in them. Resignation. Like he knew he was doing the wrong thing but didn’t see a way around it.

“You’re a goddamn leader. You werecaptainof the Wolf Ridge football team. You don’t follow bad examples. You lead with better ones.” Logan’s still pissed. I can’t imagine there’s anything Wilde can say that’s going to get him over it any time soon.

“So what happened? How did the police get involved?” Alpha Green asks.

“The party was getting too loud. I don’t know. Instead of hotel security, cops were at the door. And they had probable cause to search the room. They found the coke and arrested me. End of story.”

“Who else was in the room?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Wilde says. “I’m the one who got caught.”

I hear footsteps, like one of the men got up to pace. “And who bailed you out?” It’s Alpha Green again.

“One of my teammates.”

“Were you supposed to leave town?”

“I just have to be back for the trial date in a couple of months. I talked to Amber Green. She might be able to represent me.”

Amber is Alpha Green’s daughter-in-law, a lawyer in Tucson.

“Wilde, I’m not sensing much remorse from you,” Alpha Green says.

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