Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Cole Muchmore leans against his antique Ford, wearing a ripped t-shirt and jeans. His hair looks wet, like he’s fresh out of the shower. His main accessory is the cheerleader trying to climb him.
Adriana, the homecoming queen.
I don’t want to look—I swear I don’t—but I find myself staring as we go by.
I’m probably reading more into it than I should, but it looks like he’s trying to push her away—is annoyed by her attempts to consummate their royal marriage.
And then he sees me. The moment he does, I know I’m fucked. There’s so much glee. The promise of punishment. My steps falter. Our gazes lock.
He wraps his fist in the back of Adriana’s hair and pushes her down, forcing her to her knees in front of his crotch. Apparently she’s desperate enough to oblige his vulgar suggestion, because she mouths him through his jeans, biting at the bulge there.
Shock ripples through me.
Disgust.
Heat.
Crows of encouragement pepper the air from the other boys around, their jeers making Adriana bolder.
I don’t want to watch—I don’t. Rayne tugs at my arm, but I’m glued to the dirt, unable to look away.
My nipples pucker, pussy flutters.
I shouldn’t find this debasement hot.
He’s cruel with her, still holding her hair, a sneer curling his lips.
The crowd catches on that it’s about me. That his gaze is on me.
Adriana’s friends call to her. Cole’s start muttering.
Adriana looks up at him, sees his focus and whips around to look at me. Outrage flames across her face.
Cole releases her hair and she falls to the dirt on her butt. He chuckles, still watching me, and grabs his junk.
I shake my head.
For some reason, my heart pounds in my chest like I just ran a lap around the football field.
“Bailey, come on,” Rayne urges, pulling harder. “Don’t let him screw with your head.”
Adriana scrambles to her feet and shoves Cole, hard. He just smirks. When she whirls on me, I realize I should’ve taken off when I had the chance.
Especially considering the warning Rayne already gave me about her.
Cole catches her arm, though, causing her to rubberband back at him. He says something to her that sounds a lot like, “Leave it. She’s mine.”
My feet come unglued.
Rayne and I take off running toward the street, away from all the party and mayhem.
Away from Cole Muchmore and the alpha-hole football heroes.
Away from his words.
Away from his claim on me.
She’s mine.
He’s wrong. All wrong.
But no matter how fast I run, no matter how far I go, his words still chase me. The image of his face still taunts me. And when I close my eyes to go to sleep tonight, I know it will be my hair he’s tangling in his fist. Not Adrianna’s. It’ll be me kneeling before him. Not her. Me.
Cole
“Leave it. She’s mine.”
Adriana splutters in my face, fire sparking in her eyes. It occurs to me that Bailey could be in real danger, the kind a human wouldn’t recover from quickly.
The kind that could leave permanent scars and necessitate a trip to the ER.
“You’ll leave the human the fuck alone.”
Adrianna gapes in outrage when I infuse my words with alpha command.
“You’re defending it, now?” She refers to Bailey as an it, like being a human is less than nothing. Everyone is fucking watching us. Listening. Waiting to hear my reply.
I want to tell them all Bailey is under my protection. I may be hellbent on getting under Bailey’s skin, but I’m not going to set her up to get attacked. And that’s the only reason I feel this fierce, almost violent urge to protect her right now. But if I admit she’s under my protection, everyone will think I like her. It’s bad enough my best friends and teammates know I want to bone down with the human. I don’t need the whole school thinking I caught feeling.
“No, I just don’t think she’s worth getting called before Alpha Greene and the council for.”
“And that’s the only reason?”
“Of course, babe,” I murmur in a conspiratorial tone. “You really think I want some bitch, when I can have you? The Queen of Wolf Ridge High.”
That catches her attention.
I pull her face a little closer to mine. “Thanks for helping me fuck with the human. Did you see her expression?” I don’t know why it sickens me slightly to share my genuine satisfaction with Adriana, but it does.
Whatever. It works. A slow smile splits Adriana’s cheeks. “I did.” She drags the last word out, trailing her fingertip over my collarbone.
I grit my teeth and reward her with a kiss, open-mouthed and sloppy for everyone to see.
I’m a cold bastard to use Adriana, but she’s the one who was using me first. Just because we both got crowned royalty—ridiculous—doesn’t mean we’re going to rekindle the old flame.
And it’s not like there was a real flame to begin with. I always consider her a dodged bullet. We hooked up once at a party up on the mesa. There was liquor involved which doesn’t impair shifters as much as humans, except when the moon is full.