Page 14 of Ruthless Alpha Beast
I’m an Alpha. A little aggressive, sure, but I’m not a monster.
She puts her hands on her hips, throwing me sass in that frustrating way of hers. If anyone else spoke to me like this, they’d be punished.
“I don’t know what you’re going to do,” she says. “Given yesterday's events, it’s clear you’ve lost your mind, so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t want to hang around long enough to find out. You can tell me whatever it is you want out here.”
I resist the reflex to scowl and remember to try to put on a little charm.
“Fine,” I say, with as much of a smile as I can bear. “Fine, I’ll tell you out here.”
I notice the way that her hazel eyes look like fiery orbs of magic beneath the light. She’s the most in-human looking human I’ve seen.
“So,” I say. “I wanted to explain a little about my behavior yesterday. You see, the reason I kissed you is because I was trying to get that witch—"
“Penelope, you mean.”
“Yes,” I continue. “Penelope, off my back. She’s been on me constantly about setting up an alliance between her coven and my pack. Apparently, we haven’t exactly been the most open to the changes that have been happening around here.”
Tara scoffs.
I pause, my wolf ridiculously excited by the movement in her chest.
If I give off any impression that I’m watching her body, I hope she knows it’s not about her. My wolf is just a little frustrated at the moment, is all.
“Is something funny?” I challenge.
She shakes her head. “Nothing funny about it, actually. Please, go on.”
“Okay,” I say. “So, the thing is that the coven marriage arrangement doesn’t exactly work for me and my pack. But it seems like even Sawyer and Ellis are on the witches’ side.”
Tara huffs. “As much as I’d absolutelyloveto listen to your problems on this fine afternoon, I’d appreciate it if you could get to the part that includes me? And thenon-consensual kiss?”
Given the sound of her groans, I wouldn’t exactly say non-consensual, but that’s beside the point now. I won’t let her get a rise out of me.
“I was trying to get away from Penelope, and then I panicked. You were just there, and at first, I thought it was a mistake, but then I realized that my instincts were guiding me toward the solution.”
Tara is moving her eyes and nodding her head in a way that’s pleading with me to hurry up.
“The solution is we get into a fake relationship.”
She leans against the wall behind her door.
“I don’t follow.”
“If I pretend that I’m with a human, everyone will realize that me and, by extension, my pack are actually more open to inter-species mixing than everyone thinks. It will get everyone off my back and allow us to focus on the real problems at hand, which is what we truly need. Then, once everyone’s convinced, we can split up and go our separate ways.
“Now I know what you’re thinking, how does this serve you? And if I’ve already thought about that. You’re the only human living among us, right? Everyone’s being welcoming to you, but still, it must be hard to feel fully accepted. If you’re with me, you won’t have to worry about that; you will beproperlyintegrated. Everyone will accept you. It’s really a win-win.”
I feel good about this. All the logic is there; it makes too much sense.
Tara is gazing back at me with a blank expression, one I can’t make out. Man, she looks good.
I bark an internal command at my wolf.
He must need to get laid more badly than I thought.
A breeze settles between us, and still, Tara stays quiet.
She mustwantto rebut my proposal with some sassy, scathing response, but the idea is too solid.
