Page 40 of Alpha Games

“What’s the story with you two?” Jesse pinned up the front section of my hair.

I thought about not telling him, but stylist confidentiality made me a little more comfortable. “We grew up together. His dad is the Alpha and has been since before I was born. There was kind of a big situation with my father trying to challenge Alpha Derek when I was a pup.”

“He didn’t.” Jesse gasped.

“He did.” I nodded, careful not to mess up the pins Jesse was putting in my hair. “Alpha Derek killed my dad and cemented our lower ranking status in the pack. Things would have been fine, I guess, but I had a little attitude problem when I hit puberty.”

I knew I was mincing my words and Jesse seemed to notice it too by the way he narrowed his eyes. “Attitude problem?”

“I spoke my mind a lot.” I shrugged. “Might have told a teacher or two that they were on a power trip. There was one time where I suggested a male PE coach was a sexist pig and I started a petition to get him fired.”

“I’m guessing Alpha Derek saw this as the beginnings of another challenger like your father was.” Jesse hummed his disappointment.

“Something like that. He pulled me in his home office when I was twelve and beat the attitude out of me though.” The funny thing was I didn’t rememberthe pain as much as I did the humiliation of being forced to bend the neck. “Trenton was always a cocky jerk, watching as his friends roughed up the lower ranking wolves and saying nothing. He didn’t really participate, but it was almost as if the silence was worse, you know? Especially for someone who is supposed to lead the pack someday.”

“And what did he do when his dad hurt you?” Jesse asked.

I saw Trenton’s eyes as clearly in my mind as I saw them that day. “Nothing. He stood in the hallway, watching, and didn’t say a single thing until his mother shooed him away.”

“I knew I didn’t like that punk,” Jesse hissed.

“It gets worse,” I laughed.

“How so?”

“On our first mating season–”

“Shut up. He didn’t.” Jesse’s eyes widened.

“He did.” I smiled. “His wolf chased mine up the mountains and straight to one of the caves I’d camped at with my papa when we’d be out running the trapline. He didn’t know it, but I’d spent a few weeks preparing that area so I could ride out my heat in peace.”

“Smart girl.” Jesse zipped his makeup bag and leaned a hip against the bathroom counter. “I take it he wasn’t a fan of the word no.”

“It was a little embarrassing.” I sighed, remembering how awkward it was with Trenton’s wolf huffing and puffing as he tried to get out of my leg-hold snare trap. “He hung around for most of the weekthinking he could starve me out or something and I’d give in. Could you imagine?”

I gave a little self-depreciative laugh, thinking of how awful my life would have been if my wolf had decided to choose him.

Never would’ve happened,she reassured me. I placed my hand on my heart, coming as close to touching her as I could on this plane of our existence.

“I didn’t realize it was that bad.” Jesse’s eyes misted with tears as he looked me over.

“It was fine. I’m sure other shifters have it worse.” I brushed off Jesse’s pity and stood to admire myself in the mirror, giving a whistle as I ran my hands over the black silk pantsuit and twisted to see my sleek pinup ponytail. “I’m never going to be able to recreate these looks when I leave this show. You’re magic. You know that, right?”

*

My phone started pinging a few minutes after Jesse left. I rushed over to where it was sitting on the charger. It’d managed to get up to sixty percent battery life and the first thing I saw was about ten missed calls from unknown numbers. Clara wasn’t kidding when she said she’d been trying to call.

I’d never had so many notifications in my life.

I opened the text from my papa, seeing an image of his furry human chin. It took me a second to figure out what I was staring at.

Aspen:Did you take a selfie?

Papa:What’s a selfie?

Aspen:Never mind. You look handsome. Also, don’t tell me if you watched the show.

I looked at the time. The latest episode should be finished airing by now and I had to head down to the interviews soon.