Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“That’s what I thought, too.”
“Nope.” I won’t let it happen. “I’d choose moon madness if it came to that over marking that female.”
Abe leans against the back wall and folds his arms over his chest. “That could be your defense. For the council, I mean. The fact that she’s your mate. No one is going to fault you for defending your fated mate’s reputation.”
I sit on the stack of flour sacks. “I know. But I’m not going to tell the whole fucking town before–”
I stop. Before what? Before I tell Lotta?
Is that what I plan to do?
I haven’t even figured out my next move beyond hunting her down again at the next full moon run.
Somehow, I doubt I’ll make it that long, though.
The need to get my hands on her grows every minute of the day.
“Before you mark her?”
“I’m not going to mark her,” I snarl. But I know it’s a lie.
I’m going to sink my teeth into that delectable flesh of hers and leave my scent, so no other male ever touches her.
That doesn’t mean I’ll keep her.
It will be a catch and release situation.
Except I know that’s a lie, too.
I’m going to mark Lotta, and then I’m going to tie her to my bed and punish her in every delicious way possible for the misery she’s caused me.
I just have to graduate high school first, so I don’t create a scandal even bigger than the one that got my dad thrown out of town.
Lotta
“You’re an asshole for not coming back, even for a visit,” my high school friend, Olive declares, narrowing her long, fake lashes at me.
“Seriously,” Brianna agrees. We’re at the New Moon Diner where the two arranged to meet me, so we could catch up.
“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just…it was hard to live with humans, so I kind of needed to cut off my old life, so I could adapt.”
There are two paths for Wolf Ridge pack members after high school–death or rebirth. That’s my take on it, anyway. Death is staying. You’ll work at the brewery or some other local business, get knocked up by another pack member, and dig in to die here the way everyone in your lineage has. Or, if you’re lucky and work hard enough, you can get out. But it will mean living away from the pack amongst humans, which has its stressors. In order to survive, you’ll have to be reborn as a human.
“It’s good to see you. I didn’t even realize how much I missed your faces.”
I’m lucky they aren’t more pissed at me, considering I didn’t even attempt to call anyone even after I arrived here two weeks ago. I bumped into Olive at the grocery store last week and guiltily asked who else from our circle was around. She called Brianna, and here we are.
They both were cheerleaders for Wolf Ridge–incredible gymnasts who built sky-high pyramids and tossed each other twenty feet in the air. Now, they are stuck in Wolf Ridge. Brianna works in the nail salon. Olive has a job at an upscale clothing boutique down the mountain in the wealthy human community, Cave Hills.
“Yeah. I heard Wilde Woodward is struggling playing football at Duke. He purposely got into some kind of trouble to get kicked off the team, but he’s back there now to finish out the season, at least.”
“Duke, wow. That’s impressive.” I’m out of the loop on all the news. Sure, my mom still called me while I was at school and talked my ear off about the pack news, but I think I missed hearing someone made it out of here to Duke.
I wonder, briefly, if Asher is good enough to get a scholarship somewhere. But he hates school, so I doubt he’d want to go on. From what I can tell, the work I put into raising his math and writing literacy when I tutored him went down the tubes after his dad got banished.
My stomach tightens into a familiar knot at that thought. You’d think after four and a half years, I would’ve forgiven myself, even if there’s no chance of Asher ever forgiving me.
“What do you think it takes to get nailed by Coach Jamison?” Olive murmurs, stirring her milkshake with her straw and ogling the gorgeous thirty-something high school football coach.
He’s sitting a few booths over. With shifter hearing, he probably heard her, if he’s bothering to listen.
I force myself to slow down sipping my espresso milkshake. I nearly drained the whole thing the moment Sandra, our waitress–another girl who never made it out of Wolf Ridge–set it down in front of me. Fate, my appetite has been out of control since the full moon. This meal is going to cost more than I wanted to spend.
“Who does he fuck during full moon runs?” Brianna wonders aloud.