Page 23 of Step Alpha

There’s a silence. “I’m sorry I disappointed all of you.”

“Oh, we’re more than disappointed,” the alpha says. “You made some poor choices. Your behavior is a disgrace to the Wolf Ridge High football team, this town and this pack.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“What troubles me most is my sense that you really don’t care all that much. Am I right?”

A prickle runs across my skin because I know Alpha Green is right. It’s what made me feel like Wilde is getting what he deserves.

But why doesn’t he care that much? When he was in high school, he gave everything he had to football. It seems strange he would risk sacrificing it now and not seem to mind at all.

“No, Alpha.”

“Don’t lie to me, Wilde.”

I swear, I feel the tension in the silence that follows seep through the walls of the living room and straight into my chest.

What is Wilde supposed to say? The truth will also damn him.

He says nothing at all.

“Well, let’s see if this motivates you. I want this situation resolved and you back on that team at Duke, or you’re out of this pack. Understand?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“You can stay here while you figure it out You aregoing tofigure it out. No failure. No conviction. Back on the team with the scholarship. And if you fuck up like this again, you are permanently banned. Understood?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

Even though I personally can’t wait to leave Wolf Ridge and get the hell away from this town and pack, my eyes fill with tears for Wilde.

Pack is everything to a shifter. We’re communal. We function for the good of all and draw support from each other. If you’re banned from a pack, you’re cursed to live among humans because most other decent packs will also refuse to take you in.

For a young wolf Wilde’s age, with no way to support himself and no community, he’ll probably go mad. Of course, Garrett Green down in Tucson might take him in. He knows what it’s like to be banned from Wolf Ridge.

I stay in the bedroom until I hear everyone leave and Logan and my mom talking softly from their room. Only then do I come out. The living room smells like misery. I look around for Wilde, but he’s not there.

I head into the kitchen to make dinner, and I see a pile of clothes by the back door. My head snaps up, staring out the window. There, disappearing up the side of the mountain, is a black wolf. He’s massive, displaying sheer beauty and power as he eats up space with long, powerful galloping strides.

A black wolf with green eyes. I should have known Wilde Woodward would be nothing short of spectacular in his four-legged form.

* * *

Wilde

“Bruh, that’s harsh,” Cole says a few hours later. He, Bo, and Austin drove up from ASU to lend their support. We’re up on the mesa now, with our buddy Slade.

Considering the dressing-down I just took, I’m grateful to be with friends.

I shifted and ran after the council left, unable to even sit in my own skin for another moment, and I stayed out until long past darkness.

When I got back, I found the runt had left a plate piled high with barbecued drumsticks and a bowl full of broccoli with lemon butter out for me. I think it’s kind of shitty that it’s her chore to feed us. I mean, it would be one thing if she liked cooking, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think she’s doing what she’s told.

After I plowed through every last morsel of food she’d left, I found the guys had been blowing up my phone about coming up.

They showed up at the door without waiting for the official invite and told me to get in the car.

Now, we’re sitting around a fire, drinking beer like old times.

---