Alpha’s Bullied Forced Bride (Skymist Mating Alphas #2)

Prologue - Dani

The bell rang, its shrill cry scattering the last remnants of afternoon chatter through the narrow halls of Skymist High.

Spring sunlight poured through the windows, burnishing the bland, yellowing linoleum almost gold, the scent of freshly cut grass and pollen drifting on the unseasonably warm air.

Dani Taylor leaned against her locker, laughing at something stupid her best friend, Sophie, had said. The sound bubbled out of her easily, as though she didn’t have a care in the world.

That was the trick of it. Here, she was just human. A normal human girl who truly was careless.

Not a shifter who somehow still hadn’t managed to shift at eighteen years old.

“Tell me you’re still coming to the senior bonfire,” Sophie said, shoving loose papers haphazardly into her backpack. “Please don’t say you’re bailing again.”

“I’m not bailing,” Dani lied, trying to aim for casual as she inspected her fingernails. “I just…don’t know yet. I have a lot to do around the house.”

“You always have to do stuff around the house,” Kendra, another of her friends, said with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, she’s right,” Sophie whined, the slam of the locker jolting Dani’s nerves. “I know for a fact your parents would want you to be enjoying your teenage years, not holed up inside doing chores! This is the last celebration before graduation. One night of fun won’t kill you.”

Dani grimaced.

Sure, it might not kill her, but half the Nordan Pack would be there. The Volkhov, too. And young alphas plus bonfire plus alcohol…

Unlikely to end well for her.

For Sophie’s sake, she managed a wan smile, no doubt showing too many teeth. “I’ll try.”

Behind them, the hallway was alive with noise, the rhythmic slam of lockers, the laughter of human kids making weekend plans. It was almost normal. Almost safe.

Then the air shifted.

She felt it before she saw them, the faint prickle under her skin, that animal awareness that warned her when shifters were near. The noise around her seemed to dull as a group of boys strode down the hallway, their easy, confident gait making everyone step aside without a word.

She didn’t need to look to know. The scent of pine and snow, of dominance and raw power, rolled off them like smoke. Only two groups of shifters could elicit such an immediate response.

The young Volkhov wolves, led by Dominic and Leonid…

And then her packmates.

The Nordan.

Her shoulders tightened.

She didn’t turn, her legs frozen, but she did risk a glance from under her eyelashes as they passed.

There he was. Arthur Wells. And all his friends.

Her throat tightened.

He was taller than most of them, broader through the shoulders, his presence quiet but commanding. Son of the alpha.

They may have been in the same pack, but they were worlds apart.

Sophie and Kendra were still talking, but Dani barely heard them. Her heart gave one heavy, traitorous thud.

Arthur’s eyes flicked toward her for half a second, quick and unreadable. Then he looked away, as though she were just another face in the crowd.

Her stomach dropped.

He didn’t slow down, didn’t nod, didn’t smile. Just kept walking, his friends orbiting him like moons around a steady sun.

The hallway swallowed them a few steps later, leaving behind the faint echo of laughter and the scent of forest pine.

“Okay, what was that?” Sophie asked, eyebrows raised. “You just turned into a statue.”

“Nothing,” Dani said quickly, snapping her locker shut. “It was nothing.”

“Those guys are such jerks,” Kendra muttered, flipping her hair over one shoulder. “Did you see how they looked at everyone? Like they own the place.”

“They kind of do,” Sophie said under her breath, too quietly for the others to hear.

“You’re just mad that Alex didn’t call you after you hooked up at that party the other week,” Sophie said, nudging Kendra.

“What? Am not!” Kendra’s cheeks flushed red, and she scowled, slamming her locker shut with decidedly more force than was necessary. “He’s an idiot, I don’t want anything to do with him!”

Dani didn’t say anything as her friends continued to bicker over Alex, one of the Nordan boys in Arthur’s group.

Sure, she could see the appeal. Shifter males, alphas in particular, were far more attractive than their human counterparts.

Plus, they had the whole raw animal magnetism thing going on that humans couldn’t resist.

Even though most humans, Sophie and Kendra included, had no idea shifters existed.

“Come on,” Dani said, interrupting a particularly eloquent flow of vitriol from Kendra, “let’s get out of here.”

They started toward the parking lot, the afternoon bright and cold, the sea wind rolling in through the open doors. But Dani’s thoughts lingered behind her, trapped in that brief moment when Arthur’s gaze had brushed hers and moved on like she was invisible.

She shouldn’t care. She told herself that every day.

But she did.

Because when the humans looked at her, they saw a normal girl. And when the wolves looked at her, they saw nothing at all.

Not even him.

The parking lot was half-empty now, sun glinting off car roofs, the scent of salt and motor oil in the air. Sophie waved before climbing into her truck, Kendra climbing into the passenger seat with a mock salute, and Dani returned the gesture with a distracted smile.

The second they were gone, the smile faded.

Her reflection in the car window stared back at her, a pale face framed by thick red hair, faint lines of exhaustion under her eyes. Some shifter she was.

She climbed into her car, tossed her ancient bag onto the passenger seat, and exhaled. Her notes spilled out, the stupid zipper finally giving way, and papers tumbled into the footwell.

“Damn,” she muttered, leaning over to gather up the mess, “what the…damn it.”

Her history notes were missing. Of course. She had been too busy trying to turn invisible as Arthur passed to properly bother packing her bag.

With an irritated snarl, she climbed out of the car, stalking back into the school, shouldering past the final few students spilling out into the fading golden light.

In the absence of the normal laughter and chaos, the drone of the electric, blue-tinged lights echoed alongside her footsteps as she hurried through the winding corridors.

It never failed to amaze her how quickly the lively hubbub and noise transformed into an eerie, almost ominous, emptiness.

She wondered if the effect would be better or worse if she had been able to shift, if she had access to the higher senses her wolf would grant her.

As it was, her ears twitched at every far-off door-hinge groaning, every rustle of breeze through the poorly insulated windows.

A dull thud from further up the hallway made her pause, her heart stuttering, eyes widening.

She held her breath, clutching her bag to her chest, but only the hum of the lights met her.

With a loud, pointed scoff, she straightened, shaking out her hair.

She wasn’t some child, cowering at dark doorways and big, empty spaces.

The monsters that lurked in her shadow were altogether much more obvious about their presence.

With renewed confidence, she strode forward again, doggedly marching past an open door to a shadowy classroom.

A blur of motion caught the corner of her eye.

Before she could scream, a large hand clapped over her mouth. The other snaked around her waist, yanking her backward into the darkness.

Her bag fell, the zipper scraping the linoleum.

She thrashed against the body holding her, jabbing her elbows back, trying to sink her teeth into the flesh of their palm. Pure, blinding fear choked her. Whatever had her was not letting go.

It was a man. She caught his scent, throat closing, neurons misfiring.

Not a man. A male. A shifter.

She fought harder until a low chuckle poured like honey into her ear, her muscles instantly relaxing.

“Easy there, hell-cat. No need to bite.”

A beat passed as her brain fought to catch up to her biological reaction. And then she shoved away. This time, the iron bands of his arms released her, and she turned around with fury in her snarl.

“Don’t do that!”

Arthur Wells shrugged, eyes gleaming with amusement as he crossed his arms over his enormous chest, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “What? It’s funny.”

Her breath was coming fast and short, the edges of her vision still blurry, her animal reaction priming her body to run, to fight, to escape. She pressed a hand to her chest, squeezing her eyes tight, refusing to let any tears fall.

She couldn’t have a panic attack. Not here, not in front of him.

Focusing on her breathing, she ran through five things she could see. Floor. Shoes. Walls, windows, desks.

Arthur, his brow furrowing, eyes narrowing in concern. “Shit, sorry, Dani, I didn’t mean—”

“Just”—she held up her hand as he reached for her, fingers white and shaky—“just give me a second. You scared me, that’s all.”

He at least had the decency to look sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, the other still hovering awkwardly towards her. “I’m an idiot, seriously. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she said again, scraping her hair back and blowing out a large breath of air. “How do you even move so quietly?”

He gave her a quizzical look, “I don’t.”

“Right,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Shifter thing, I guess.”

Understanding dawned, and he cleared his throat. “Yeah, sorry, I suppose I do move quietly for…”

“Human ears?”

“That’s not what I was going to say,” he said, stepping towards her.

She took a step back, ignoring the flash of hurt across his face. She didn’t trust herself, standing too close to him. Stupid shifter senses. He’d wonder why her heart was still beating so fast, why her pupils would dilate. Why her scent would change.

“It’s okay,” she managed a casual laugh. “I mean, I basically am a human. For the time being, I guess.”

“So the healer…”