Page 6 of Step Alpha

“Well…I’m sorry. I really am, man.”

I shake my head. “We’re cool,” I say, even though we’ve never actually been cool. Because these guys aren’t my real friends. I’m just playing a role here. “Thanks for bailing me out.”

He starts the car and drives to the airport where we return the rental and head to the ticket counter. “I got both our tickets changed,” he says.

I stare up at the board showing all the departing flights. There’s one going to Phoenix in an hour.

For the second time in twenty-four hours I make a life-changing and probably stupid decision. “Listen, Ryan. Can you spot me another five hundred bucks? I’m gonna fly home instead.”

“Yeah?”

I nod. “I have no reason to go back to school if I’m suspended from the team.”

“What about your classes?”

The classes I’m failing out of? “Fuck ‘em.”

Ryan shakes his head like he can’t understand me, but he pulls out a credit card. “Then let’s get you home.”

I guess the bastard must really feel bad about fucking me over because he books me a first-class flight home. And no, they didn’t ask for identification before they served me that gin and tonic.

Maybe I’m nuts to go back to Wolf Ridge. I certainly could go and stay with my mom. She’d be overjoyed to have me. But she moved back to her home pack in Ohio after she left my dad. That’s not my home.

Of course, my dad was right–the entire town of Wolf Ridge will be ashamed of me. I might get kicked out of the pack.

But I guess that’s kind of the point.

My dad’s the one who made a mockery of us by marrying the runt’s mom. So I guess I don’t mind sticking it to him. He wants me to stay away? He wants to talk about bad choices?

Fuck him.

He’s the one who couldn’t keep his dick to himself. My mom divorced him two years ago for his propensity to fuck every female with a white tail during the full moon runs.

So now it finally bit him in the ass, and he had to do the honorable thing and marry the she-wolf he knocked up. But, fates, is his taste in females really that bad? He had to pick the lowest female in the entire pack to pin down and make happy out in the forest?

Christ, the woman can’t be younger than forty-five. And the last wolf she gave birth to isn’t even a wolf. Rayne the Runt can’t shift to save her life. She’s been an outcast since before puberty, and it only got worse when what we all suspected was confirmed.

She’s probably half-human. No one knows who sired her.

No, my dad’s the one who has lowered our family’s status by marrying intothat.By letting them move into our house. Take our name.

And if I just added a little more ruin to it, well then, that’s icing on the cake.

I recline the wide chair back and close my eyes.

Wolf Ridge, here I come.

Little stepsister, prepare to suffer.

I’m going to make your life a living hell.

ChapterTwo

Rayne

In bed that night, I toss the covers off. Lately, I’ve been getting sweaty at night, like I’m having hot flashes. Or like I’m the one who’s pregnant. Only I’m obviously not since I’m a virginandon the pill because my period went haywire this year.

I’ve also been more emotional, physically sensitive, and smells bother me. All things that go with pregnancy. I think I’m having an empathic reaction to my mom’s situation.

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