Page 2 of The Alpha's Temptation
“Again,” he’d say if my pebble plopped uselessly, and I’d try to duplicate the exact magic of his hand.
When the rock finally skipped across the river with five perfect jumps, he bumped his shoulder into mine the way older boys do when they’re trying to be gentle and not call attention to it.I savored that feeling like a penny in my pocket for weeks.
Here’s the thing: I’ve always had a crush on him.Always.At six, it was hero worship.At nine, it was a song I hummed under my breath.At thirteen, the year the world snapped into focus, it turned into a vow I never said out loud.
And thirteen was when Penny told me the truth about Night Grove Falls.
We were in her room under a ceiling of glow-in-the-dark stars when she asked me if I could keep a secret.She whispered it so low that it took me a minute to figure out what she’d said.
“Of course,” I whispered back.
“You can’t tell,” she warned.
“I won’t,” I promised, because I never did.
“Okay.”She took a breath like she was about to dive.“Foster and my parents… and me… we’re not like regular people.We’re wolves.”
I laughed.
She didn’t.
“Not like zoo wolves,” she said, wrinkling her nose.“We’re shifters, Selena.People who can turn into wolves.We have a Pack.There are a lot of us.”
I stared at her in the darkness, my heart beating so loudly that I was sure it would give me away.
“Are you messing with me?”
“Nope,” she said, smiling.“Dad says we tell our human friends about shifters and fated mates when we’re sure they’re ours.You’re mine.Forever, okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered again, because the word felt like a spell.“But…fated mates?”
“Mates,” she supplied, grinning.“You want the good stuff already?Fine.Yes.Fated mates are real.Destiny stuff.Dad says the bond hits like lightning, but then it keeps you warm.You know when it’s yours.It works for wolves and humans.And if someone is yours”—she shrugs—“they’re yours.”
Lightning.Warmth.Mine.
“And…Foster?”I ask carefully.I was always so careful with my crush around Penny.
She rolled on her back and aimed one of her paper stars at the ceiling.“He’s going to be the Alpha one day.”
“Alpha?”
“Yeah.He’ll be in charge one day.He’ll take over from my dad.”
I lay awake for hours that night, counting my heartbeats, cataloguing the moments of my life with Foster like evidence.The time he lifted me onto the fence so I could see over.When he knocked a snowball out of the air with his bare hand before it could hit me in the face.The time he looked at me across a room like he saw me.Reallysaw me.
From that day on, I’ve been hoping, wishing, praying that I would be Foster’s fated mate.
I wasn’t the only one either.Tons of girls in town had crushes on Foster.Some lusted after him from afar, while others tried to get close to him.A few even tried to befriend Selena to get close to her brother.Those were tough periods for both of us.Luckily, she got good at spotting the girls who were trying to use her.
“Earth to Selena.”
I blink, coming back to the present day.
I’ve been thinking about the past more and more lately.I know it’s because I’m about to turn eighteen and find out once and for all if Foster and I are meant to be.
“Sorry,” I say, looking over to where Penny is sitting in her desk chair.
She’s painting her toenails a ridiculous glittery purple that only looks good on her.Penny is unapologetically herself, which means she can wear a tutu to the corner store and have the checkout lady ask where she got it.She has a way of filling the space around her, making me braver by accident.
