Page 85 of Step Alpha

I check the time on my phone. She’s right. I start the Jeep and pull out. “I’ll mail the package after I drop you off.”

She turns to look at me with surprise. “Thank you.” Her gaze goes soft on my face, and it gives me a rush of satisfaction so strong I almost want to shift.

Maybe it’s the moon, which will be full this weekend for Homecoming. Or maybe it’s something about Rayne’s scent. It’s changing. I scent more of her wolf. And the more I scent, the more I want her.

I have to get her to shift. I feel certain if I do, I’ll find out she’s my mate.

And if she’s not?

Well, then, we’re fucked. Or, I should say I’m fucked. Because her being my mate is the only excuse I could possibly offer for screwing around with my new stepsister.

If anyone finds out I took her virginity without that excuse?

I’ll be out of the pack for good.

I drop her off in front of the school, and she does her usual thing of quickly slinking out of the Jeep. like she doesn’t want anyone to see her. I might have appreciated it at first because I didn’t like being associated with her, but now I fucking hate it.

“Rayne.” I stop her as she shuts the door.

“Yeah?”

“Have a good day.”

A slow smile blooms on her face, and it takes my breath away. She’s beautiful in the morning sunlight. Radiant, even. And the way she’s looking at me makes me feel like a king. “You too, Wilde. See you after school.”

A strange lightness overtakes me as I drive to the post office before I head to the auto shop. It’s something like happiness, but a kind I haven’t experienced before. A weird, bubbly sensation. Like everything is new and different.

Like I’m someone new and different.

Not busted Wilde, the no-good fuck-up who got arrested on drug charges and will fail out of Duke. Not angry Wilde, who’s living his life for his father and pack instead of figuring out what in the hell he wants to do for himself.

Not the fish out of water Wilde living halfway across the country with humans he can’t relate to.

I feel more like myself, except it’s a self I barely know.

Fuck, I know that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the sensation.

At the post office, I wait at the counter to mail Rayne’s shoes. They’re going to someone else’s PO Box. No name, just a set of initials, but the post office box is in Chandler. Right down the hill.

I don’t like it. Something about it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up again.

Rayne’s logic is sound, I don’t see how this could bite her, and I’m sure as hell not going to stop her from earning a thousand bucks, but something about it feels wrong to me.

Helping her out felt right, though, and I loved that look of gratitude on her face, so I go through with it.

When I get back in the Jeep, my phone rings.

It’s the head coach from Duke.

I pick up his call. Time to stop dodging.

“Woodward.”

“Coach Granview.”

“Son, I have been calling you for three weeks now.”

“Yes, sir.”

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