Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Isat on the bench in the team’s locker room, my head in my hands, trying to figure out what the fuck had just happened.
Since Adan hadn’t been able to tell if Laney was a werewolf, I decided to step in and find out for myself.
Now I understood their confusion because she sort of smelled like one, though she wasn’t full-blooded.
Which was a huge problem since half-breeds weren’t allowed.
The problem was, the second she exited that bathroom, all I could think about was shoving her against the wall, my lips devouring hers. I needed to taste her. Feel her. Just thinking about her got my heart racing again.
Not only did my body physically react to her, but there was a weird pull between us. It was what I’d imagine the beginning of a mating bond would feel like, but that was impossible since she wasn’t a full-blooded werewolf. None of it made any sense.
“Game day,” Jacob shouted as he came into the locker room.
I needed to get my head in the game we were about to play. “What’s up?” I asked him, trying to shake off my encounter with Laney.
“Not much.” Jacob shoved his bag into his locker, then sat next to me. “Hey, since no one else is here,” he glanced over his shoulder, making sure the door to the showers was closed, “I need to talk to you.”
“Shoot.” As the captain of the rugby team, the guys were always asking me for advice. But Jacob was a wolf, like me, so this could be about anything. Since I was the alpha’s son and next in line, my packmates came to me for everything.
“I ran into a girl today. She sort of smelled like a wolf but not a wolf wolf.”
“Laney?” I asked, wondering if I could get through five minutes without thinking or talking about her.
“Yeah. Have you met her?”
I nodded. “I think she’s a half-breed.” Though I’d never encountered one before.
There were rumors that they existed, but the enforcers always made sure to clean up that mess.
The last thing we needed was half-breeds running around.
The problem was that if they were strong enough to shift, oftentimes they couldn’t control when and where.
If they were too weak to shift, they couldn’t be allowed to breed.
If they unknowingly carried the wolf gene and passed it on to an unsuspecting child, it would only be a matter of time until the human world found out about us.
And if they did, we’d be locked up like animals.
We had a duty to protect our species. It was my duty to protect my pack.
Jacob ran his hands through his curly hair, messing it up. “When I asked her a couple questions, she seemed confused. I don’t think she knows anything about our world. She must have the wolf gene but not know it.”
“That’s what I think.”
“Which means you have to report her.”
Adan walked in, giving us a nod as he tossed his bag into his locker.
I got a whiff of him and tensed. He smelled like Laney.
Dammit. Even her smell affected me. Seriously, what the fuck?
She wasn’t a full-blooded wolf. I shouldn’t be reacting to her this way, or in any way, for that matter.
Maybe if I were a lesser wolf. But I wasn’t.
I had alpha blood running through my veins.
My girlfriend, Emily, was the strongest female wolf in my pack that was close to my age, and she didn’t even make me feel a fraction of what Laney did.
“What’s the matter with you?” Adan asked as he pulled off his shirt and tossed it in with his bag.
“Nothing,” I replied. “How’d the lab go?” I’d asked Adan to run a quick test to see if Laney was human. It had been easy enough to convince Teagan to do the experiment.
“She’s not one hundred percent human.”
Fuck. I was going to have to report her. When I did, the enforcers would kill her. The thought of anyone hurting her made a cold chill run down my spine.
“We have to redo the lab,” Adan added. “I’ll make sure to switch the tubes when they go into the machine so ours turn out normal next time.”
I nodded. “Do you think you can get a DNA sample from her and give it to me? I’d like to take a look at it.” I wanted confirmation just to be sure.
Adan sat on the bench across from me. “Why? We already know she’s not human.”
“I should make sure she’s not a full wolf either,” I said, though she couldn’t be.
If she was, she’d smell like it and would have reacted differently coming across our kind.
“I need to tell my dad,” I mumbled. He’d want to investigate before reporting her.
I pulled out my phone and sent him a message.
Rowan
Possible half-breed on campus.
Dad
Give me the name and any info you have.
Rowan
Laney Lake. Junior.
Dad
Female?
Rowan
Yes.
Dad
Why do you think she’s a half-breed?
Rowan
Based on the way she smells. I’m going to verify with her DNA. I’ve never met one before. I didn’t realize any existed.
Dad
My guess is someone had a one-night stand. He probably didn’t know he got a woman pregnant.
Rowan
I don’t think Laney knows about our world.
Dad
I would assume she doesn’t. Otherwise she wouldn’t have made it this long on her own. She must not shift either.
Rowan
I guess not. I mean, if her mom found a wolf in the crib, she would have freaked out.
Dad
Exactly. So my guess is her blood is too weak to shift, and she has no idea what she is.
I ran my hand over my face. That had been exactly what I was thinking.
Dad
I’ll check her out.
Rowan
Are you going to report her?
Dad
It depends. If I report her, they’ll kill her. I’d rather have her join our pack and live by our rules than see an innocent life taken.
His words calmed my raging heart. Maybe Laney didn’t have to die after all.
“We good?” Jacob asked.
“Yeah. My dad’s going to take care of it.”
“Now you can stop obsessing over her,” Adan said as he pulled his jersey on.
“I haven’t been obsessing.” At least outwardly.
A few more guys came in, including my packmates Finley and Drew.
I stood and went to my locker, getting out my home jersey.
“I think Laney is pretty hot,” Adan said. “I’m going to ask her out.”
Rage hit me fast and sharp at the thought of someone else being with her. Before I realized it, I was closing the distance between us. Adan barely had time to react before I shoved him back, my hand fisting his shirt.
“Don’t,” I said, my voice low and dangerous.
He scoffed, and something in me snapped. My grip shifted, fingers tightening around his throat before I fully registered what I was doing. It would’ve been so easy to keep going. Too easy.
Finley and Drew grabbed my arms, trying to yank me off him.
Jacob screamed in my ear, “Look at me!”
I blinked, the haze cracking just enough to make me let go.
“What the fuck?” Jacob asked, shoving me back as Adan collapsed to the floor.
Finley and Drew dropped beside him.
“I’m fine,” Adan rasped, his wolf healing already kicking in. “Jackass. What the hell was that?”
I stared at my hands, unease settling in my chest. The surge of anger had come out of nowhere, too fast and strong, and for a second, I hadn’t cared how far it went.
Jacob put a hand on my shoulder. “Please don’t get offended and try to kill me, but…is this because Adan said he was going to ask Laney out?”
At the mention of her name, my arms tensed again. Whatever this was, it wasn’t just anger. It was something sharper, more territorial, like the idea of anyone else getting close to her flipped a switch I couldn’t quite control.
I exhaled hard, forcing it down. This wasn’t me. I didn’t lose control like that. Especially not over a girl. And I wasn’t about to start now.
Adan slowly pushed to his feet, glaring at me. “If you weren’t a fucking alpha, I’d kill you.”
He started to walk away, but Jacob grabbed him. “Wait. We need to figure this out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out,” I snapped.
Everyone near me took a step back. I dragged a hand over my face, forcing the last of the anger down. I’d never reacted like that before. When other guys talked about Emily, it never got under my skin like this.
I almost felt bad for Adan, but not enough to apologize.
The rest of the team filtered into the locker room, the noise rising as everyone got ready for the game. Luckily no one was paying any attention to the five of us.
“She’s just a half-breed,” Jacob said, lowering his voice so no one else could hear. “You’re an alpha. I don’t get it.”
I didn’t get it either. Someone like me shouldn’t react that way.
I shouldn’t even notice someone like Laney.
But that wasn’t the part that stuck with me.
It was how easily she’d slipped through unnoticed.
A half-breed should’ve been obvious. Someone would’ve caught it before now.
So how had she made it this far without anyone realizing what she was?
“And in case you forgot, you already have a girlfriend,” Adan said. “You shouldn’t care about Laney.”
A tight feeling settled in my chest at the mention of her name, sharper than before, harder to ignore. The thought that this was more than just anger, more than a momentary lapse in control, pressed in whether I wanted it to or not.
The possibility of a mating bond lingered at the edge of my mind, unwelcome and impossible to shake. Laney wasn’t an acceptable match for me. She shouldn’t have affected me at all.
While I knew all of that, it didn’t change the fact that the second I’d walked into the party next door, I’d felt her.
Not seen, felt. Like something in me had locked onto her before I even knew why.
And when I finally looked at her, into her bright blue eyes, I knew I was in trouble.
I’d never reacted to anyone like that before.
Not just noticing. Not just attraction. Something sharper.
More consuming. It didn’t make sense. It shouldn’t have been possible.
Drew snapped his fingers. “Is Laney that hot chick with the dark hair and blue eyes?”
“Yes,” Adan said. “She’s new. A transfer student.”