Page 1 of The Alpha's Temptation
ONE
Selena
I swearI know this room better than my own.I’ve been in my best friend, Penny’s, bedroom probably five times a week since I was six.We used to hang out here to do our homework.We had sleepovers, our first fight, and more movie nights and spa days than I can remember in this room.
“Want me to do your nails?”Penny asks as she grabs the large container of nail polish from the top shelf in her closet.
“No, not today.Mine is still good from last week.”
She nods and rifles through all the colors.I sprawl on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as I daydream.
I moved to Night Grove Falls when I was six with my parents, and it’s been my home ever since.
I remember being upset about the move at first.I had just lost my grandma, and my parents were making us move away from everything I knew.I was devastated and furious with them.
My parents swore the move would be a good thing.They promised they wouldn’t have to work as much, so they would be home to play with me more.They promised me I would make new friends.
One of those promises came true.
It was moving-in day when a girl with honey-brown hair in two messy braids, skinned knees, and a grin like a dare bounced up to me.I was sitting on our front porch, bored and lonely, as my parents hauled in boxes, and she appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m Penny,” she announced, like a proclamation.“You’re new.”
“I’m Selena,” I said, shy but not enough to miss making a new friend.“I like your braids.”
“Mom did one and I did the other,” she told me proudly.“Want to see the river?”
I glanced back at my parents carrying boxes into the old house and gave my mom a hopeful smile.“Can I?”
“Twenty minutes,” she said.
And that was it.Penny grabbed my hand like she’d been expecting it all along and tugged me down the street, our sandals slapping rhythmically on the dirt path.We cut behind the general store and a barbershop with a spinning red-white-blue pole and through a break in the hedges.
The river was shallow, cold, and full of tadpoles.We squatted in the mud and named them.When I slipped on algae and fell with a splash, Penny didn’t laugh.She held out a hand to haul me up and asked me, solemn as a Sunday prayer, “Wanna be my best friend?”
“Yes,” I whispered, feeling lucky to have been chosen by her.“You can be mine, too.”
From that day on, we were as thick as thieves.
I met her brother a few days later at a town festival, and once again, my life was changed by one of the Miller siblings.
“Foster!”Penny yelled, using lungs that powered her voice like a megaphone.“Come meet Selena!”
He was tall and lanky for a teenager, with black hair that reminded me of the night sky.He had a calm presence even back then, and eyes that seemed to see everything.I remember that his t-shirt had a small tear near the collar and his shoes were all scuffed up, like he’d been running through the forest.
“This is my best friend,” Penny said as if that were the only credential I needed.“She fell in the river and didn’t cry.”
“Good skill,” he said, not quite smiling.
His voice had a roughness to it, like gravel under tires.He held out a hand for me to shake, and as soon as my palm slid into his, I fell in love with him.
There was a spark from the start, at least for me.
I didn’t have words for what skated down my arm then, just an awareness that my hand fit inside his, and I didn’t want him to let go, even though he did.Of course, he did.He was thirteen.I was six.
From then on, Foster became the center of my world.All other boys were measured against him, and they all fell short.
Sometimes, he’d walk Penny and me home at dusk, his easy stride making it look like the road unrolled just for him.He carried our backpacks the day we over-packed for a picnic and fell asleep on the blanket.And he taught us how to skip stones with the kind of patience I thought only belonged to saints.
