Defect.

“This isn’t my idea of a date,” I huffed bringing in the last box from the moving truck.

Brady drove me home, to his home—which happens to be conveniently located in the same cul-de-sac as the “Daniels Family” residence. Luckily Tristan isn’t home. We snuck into Brady’s house through the garage. Alpha Colt is somewhere handling pack business but Brady filled him in over the phone once we were safe inside the house.

While Brady was on the phone I explored the house. It still had a faint scent of my uncle all round it, even as a… whatever I am I could still smell it, and it made me a bit sad. But I’ve already had enough time to mourn over him so I tried to ignore the small sad feeling.

Brady said that they kept most of my uncle’s stuff out of respect and that everything they weren’t keeping was put into storage, or given away through his will. I never knew he had a will. Since Alpha Colt recruited me for the job, I had to help them bring in their stuff and unpack.

“This is my idea of a perfect date,” Brady said laughing. I just grunted and sat down on a box that was labeled ‘living room’.

“I’m tired!” Brady complained as he took the box next to me. I mmm’d in agreement with him. “Let’s stop for today and have an un-packing party tomorrow,” Brady suggested.

I giggled quietly, “Sounds fine to me.”

The front door was heard opening, but we couldn’t see who it was through the mountains of boxes before us. From Brady’s stance I could tell it was someone with dominance. I immediately went on alert, it could be Tristan.

“Who goes there?” Brady yelled and threw his shoe over the mountain of cardboard boxes. Shortly after its descent we heard an angry, “Ow!” and Alpha Colt appeared rubbing his head with one hand and Brady’s shoe in the other.“What was that for?” he asked calmly but somewhat annoyed. I was sure he was going to yell at us like Tristan surely would have. But I forget that Alpha Colt and Tristan aren’t the same person.

“Precautions,” Brady shrugged and took back his shoe. He sat down on his box to put his shoe back on. I giggled a bit. Alpha Colt turned to me, “Hello Alpha.”

“Please call me Henry,” he said with a smile.

Henry, like Andromeda does? No thanks.

“Bitch, she’s too cool to call you by your first name!” Brady said breaking the short silence between us. I felt Alpha Colts stare on my face. I fought the blush and looked down at my hands in my lap.

“So, should I be worried that two hormonal teens were all alone in my empty house?” he asked jokingly.

Brady scoffed, “Please homeboy, I don’t roll that way,” he said standing and stretching. Alpha Colt chuckled and I hid a small smile. Oh that’s right he’s gay, I forget.

“Besides,” Brady continued, “If I would’ve ravaged this sexy little thing,” he grabbed my hand and yanked me up to him. This boy has people pulling issues, “She wouldn’t be standing right now,” he finished with a wink and a chuckle.

I felt my face flash red, “Brady!” I complained and pushed him away from me. He lost his balance and fell into a stack of boxes, causing a small avalanche to ensue on top of him. He stopped moving and the last box fell on top of him with a grunt. I don’t know my own strength.

Alpha Colt was roaring with laughter as I helped him up.

“Sorry Brady,” I apologized once he was fully standing. He flashed a bright smile at me. I’m forgiven. Alpha Colt was winding down from his laughter when he asked, “Brady?”

Brady shrugged, “She won a bet.”

“And her prize was to call you Brady?”

“And breakfast every day,” I said with a small smile. Alpha Colt saw my face and smiled himself.

“Shit, I forgotten about that part” Brady said scratching his head, “just feed you a freaking pop tart,” he muttered but I heard him.

And I laughed whole heartedly.

I felt Alpha Colt look at me incredulously, “So you can laugh” he said and rather than being offended I laughed more.

“By the way, Venus, How old is your sister Andromeda?”

I stopped swinging my feet from the high box I was sitting on, “Um, almost sixteen.”

Alpha Colt visibly gagged on his water, “I thought she was seventeen!”

“No, I’m seventeen.”

Brady looked disgustingly at him, “Freaking pedophile, that’s rank.”

I broke into a giggle fit at the face Brady kept making at Alpha Colt

We stayed talking and Brady kept making jokes that would send Alpha Colt into a laughing fit that would leave him breathless. He’s a lot more comfortable to be around like this.

By the time it got to be around 11pm I asked if someone could drive me home. They were both arguing on who should drive me home, it was a few minutes of nonstop bickering back and forth before they settled on both driving me home. Brady’s really close to him, he puts with Brady as well as supports him financially. So that means that Alpha Colt isn’t that bad of a guy, right?

I hated Alpha Colt just a little less. Also, I think I’ll start calling him Alpha Henry now, even if Alpha Colt has a better ring to it. I grabbed my things and we went to the big empty garage.

There were two flashy cars inside now. We got into the car Brady had driven me in, but Alpha Henry got to drive. We pulled out of the garage and everything was fine, besides the fact that a murderer was driving me home. It’s hard to hate someone when they’ve only been nice to you since they’ve got here. Excluding assigning me the unpacking part, but I kinda earned myself that.

Then we saw and angry Tristan on the other side of the cul-de-sac. He was leaning on his own car, two houses over from Brady’s home. He was surrounded by his friends, who were also in his pack. Tristan always has an entourage with him.

He didn’t do anything to us besides send the ultimate death glare. I wanted to peel out of there but Alpha Henry just drove by slowly to spit Tristan. It was like a show down. I was half expecting for Brady to stick his head out the window and shout something, but he stayed right in his seat.

He’s a smart kid.

Speaking of which, why isn’t he in school?

As soon as we were blocks away from the cul-de-sac I asked him. He was in the back with me. He closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, “That’s because that asshole hasn’t registered me yet into any high school”

Alpha Henry shook his head, “I told you, the pack has me busy.”

“Yeah, yeah sure,” then Brady opened one eye, “I wanna go to Venus’ school!”

Alpha Henry laughed bitterly, “And be in the same building as his oh-mightiness?” he meant Tristan, “ Yeah, not happening.” He hates Tristan too; I’m starting to like this murderer already. He’s not like the rest of the entire student body at my high school.

Now Brady opened both his eyes, “Why not?! I need to protect this little vixen from the-the”

Vixen? Since when have I been considered a vixen?

“From the man-beast-whore!” Brady finished yelling. I shook my head, wow so many names for Tristan.

“No. She can handle herself. She’s done it so far.”

“But... I’m her bodyguard.”

Alpha Henry laughed, “Since when?”

“Since six seconds ago!”

Even I laughed at Brady’s childishness. Their argument went on like that for the entire ride to my house. In the end Brady won, but Alpha Henry never said when he would officially register him. So for the moment Brady is technically a high school dropout, but he has Alpha blood in him so he’ll do fine.

I said my goodbye’s to the boys and after promising Brady that we’d have an “un-packing party” tomorrow, I got out of the car and jogged up to my porch. Once I was safely inside, I heard the boys drive away.

The house was completely dark, everyone must be asleep already. I quietly started making my way to the stair but the second I stepped foot in the living room the lights went on, temporarily blinding me.

“Where were you?”

I turned to the source of the question to find an angry Andromeda standing next to the light switch. I opened my mouth to answer but she cut me off, “No—What were you doing?”

I was confused; wasn’t she at the pack meeting yesterday?

“At Alpha Henrys house unpacki-”

“Alpha Henry” she looked pissed, “that’s disrespectful, Venus.”

Wait. Is the slut, whose younger than me, giving a scolding on what is considered respectful? What kind of home did I just step into.

“You’re one to talk,” my eyes went wide open, that totally slipped out.

Andromeda was “offended”. She made a hurt noise and looked me dead in the eye, “Please that’s different. He’s my future mate—I can say that.” She said cocking an eyebrow with a pout on her lips.

I nearly burst out laughing, but I kept a blank façade. Alpha Henry with her? He was disgusted at the thought! She really wants to be Luna that bad.

“I demand to know what you were doing with him for so long.”

Demand? I looked at her incredulously. She can’t demand anything from me. She’s already taken the affection of our parents away from me. She once tried to scare Robin away. She’s taken everything important from me.

This girl has been sprouting questions into my mind the moment she first spoke. I only discreetly rolled my eyes and kept walking towards the stairs, “Venus!” I heard her shout at me. Then once again, but this time I heard all the desperate anger in her voice. I ignored her, but she grabbed my wrist and dug her harpy like nails into my skin, nearly drawing blood.

“Tell me!” she shouted in my face.

My patience was nearly gone.

“Andromeda!” a powerful voice bellowed making both of us jump with fear. Without looking I knew it was my father. Andromeda’s hand tense up with fear, “Let her go.” He commanded.

She quietly snarled at him but didn’t remove her painful grip from my sore wrist.

“Andromeda. That was a command.”

Reluctantly Andromeda let me go. She didn’t want to listen to him, but since he’s a dominant male wolf—she has no choice. She can’t disobey no matter how badly she wants to.

My father was the Alpha’s third in comment, since the position of Beta was given to my uncles best friend, who was also the best strategic fighter in the pack. Even if my father has Alpha blood in his veins, he wasn’t strong enough to challenge his father when the time came. My uncle was. But out of respect for his younger brother and his family, my uncle allowed us to use his home and live on his land.

A Luna having more than one male child is rare, not impossible, just that no one wants a feud between brothers. Only a male can challenge his father for the position as Alpha. So Luna’s usually only give birth once. But if her first born is a girl, then she will try again until she gets a boy. It’s just how it’s done.

Only my grandmother, and Brady’s mom have broken the norm.

“You know very well where she was and what she was doing. The whole pack does. So swallow your jealousy and leave your sister alone. She’s tired enough without you.”

Andromeda made an unattractive noise and pushed past me up the stairs. She carefully walked around my father and into her room.

My father let out a tired sigh, but before leaving the stairs back to his comfy bed, he told me that if I wanted dinner it was saved in the microwave for me.

I thanked him and he went back to his mate, my mother. I ate dinner, did my homework and fell asleep happy because my father had stood up for me.

Something that was rarer than a Luna having two baby boys.

**

I woke up to the sound of shuffling around my room. Frightened, I quickly sat up in bed and covered myself with whatever I got my hands on. I slipped on my glasses and turned to look at the intruder. Brady. He was looking at my collection of photographs on the wall.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

He jumped and turned to face me, “Don’t do that! Scared the bejeebus outta me,” he said putting a hand over his heart. It was then that I got a good look at his outfit for the day. He was wearing beige skinny jeans and a red tank top that al looked nicely on him.

“It’s okay, no one heard me come in,” I looked at him stupidly, no one heard him come in.. in a house full of super hearing werewolves.

I looked at the clock, “Its five in the morning, you creeper!”

He had an amused look on his face. I felt a blush crawl onto my face. Wait. He’s gay. Remember that, he’s gay.

“Someone’s cranky. Thought you were a morning person,” he commented coming to sit with me on my bed.

“I am, sorry—I disrespected you.”

Brady waved his hand around in the air, “It’s alright. Besides, I like your cranky feisty side,” he said with a smile. “Oooh you’re blushing, how cute!” he crooned lying down next to me and staring directly at my face.

I covered my face with my hands, “stop it.” I muttered and slammed a pillow onto his face. He said something I didn’t hear so I lifted the pillow, “What?”

“Bitch, I bring you breakfast and this is the thanks I get!” he said again sounding less muffled.

“Oh,” I said with a smile. He wasn’t giving me a chance to cancel. He rolled his eyes and hopped off my bed, “Get dressed so we can eat.” Then he did the unexpected, he laid down on the floor—face first into my carpet. He put his hands up on his head, like if he was ready to be arrested.

I guess that’s his way of giving me privacy.

I quickly changed into some blue skinny jeans and a grey shirt. I tapped him on the shoulder and he looked up at me to make a disgusted face. “Hell no, outfit makeover,” then he began rummaging through my closet. I sat on my bed and took out the breakfast he brought—freshly baked croissants that had been turned into ham and cheese sandwiches’. He also brought me a Nesquik drink, it was strawberry flavored.

I’ve always said that if a beverage is pink, it must taste good.

I ate as I watched him reject half the clothes in my closet, complaining that we needed to go shopping. By the time I finished my breakfast, he had settled on light blue jeans, a black off the shoulder shirt with a purple undershirt. And for accessories, a necklace that only had a metal feather hanging from its chain. Black converse to top it off.

“Too revealing,” I muttered taking a swig of Nesquik.

He shot me a dirty but playful look, “No, now wear it.”

I grunted but did what he said. But I didn’t listen to his complaints about me not wearing make-up or doing anything to my hair.

**

“We’re lost. Admit it,” Brady said.

“No, we’re not,” Alpha Colt said making another turn down a street.

It was their idea to drive me to school. Their excuse was because I was too tired from moving boxes around all day to walk to school. This is total bull ‘cause I feel fine, but I let them since I didn’t feel like walking today or calling in a favor from Robin, who’s probably not awake yet. It was 7 o’clock and school didn’t start for nearly another hour.

“Ha, yes we are. We’re not even on the right road,” Brady complained thrashing around in his seat. I stopped trying to give directions because they had tuned me out with all of their arguing.

Alpha Henry groaned, “Shut up already, you complain all the time”

Brady puffed out his cheeks; “No I don’t!” he turned to face me in the back seat, “Do I?”

I nodded. I’ve noticed that he likes to complain a lot.

Brady yelled something incoherent and slumped in his seat.

I leaned forward so I was in between the two brothers, “And we’re on the right road…”

Brady exploded, “What?! Bullshit!”

“Language,” Alpha Henry warned him.

“We were on the wrong road but now we’re not,” I explained.

Brady jumped up in his seat and pointed a finger at Alpha Henry, nearly poking his eye out, “Ha! Told you!”

Alpha Henry growled, “If it’s in my face, I’ma eat it.”

Brady quickly retracted his finger. Turns out the murderer was also a cannibal, I laughed. This made the boys relax and join in with me.

The rest of the ride went on like that, with the brothers constantly bickering. It makes me wonder how they manage to stay so close. Maybe their constant fighting brings them closer… who am I kidding? If that were true then Andromeda and I would be best friends. But then again we don’t usually fight, she just snarls while I sulk. Not much back and forth going on there.

I was beginning to think that I had been a bit unfair to Alpha Henry. I judged and labeled him before I had even known his name. Yet, he’s accepted me more than my own pack has. He maybe a murderer but he’s a good guy.

“We’re here,” Alpha Henry said turning off the engine.

We were parked in front of the school’s main doors, in the handicapped zone. I think Alpha Henry saw my face when he added, “Alpha priority, get to park here if no-one needs it,” with a wink.

Ah, the perks of being in power.

I thanked him and got out of their flashy car. I was unbelievably early to school. Students were barely starting to arrive. Why would they ever want to arrive at school so early? Unless they had something they wanted to escape from home, upon thinking that I made a face. I hope that’s not their case.

Brady hopped out of the car, slide over the hood and trapped me in a bone crushing hug. “Bye! See you later at my party!” he said and I’m sure he winked even though I couldn’t see his face. I hugged him back, “sure thing” I said. He then let me go to smile at me.

If this boy weren’t gay then he’d have girls crawling all over him.

Then something unexpected happened. Alpha Henry got out of the car and also gave me a hug. To say that it was uncomfortable would be lying, to say that I didn’t love it would also be a lie. It was… it was weird. And I liked it.

Murderers give great hugs.

They also manage to give me butterflies in my stomach. I hugged him back, “Thanks again Alpha.”

“Please, call me Henry—shut up Brayden,” he quickly turning around before Brady could say anything. I giggled very quietly. And, I bet this guy has ladies worshipping the land he walks on. I leaned away from his hug to look him in the eye. I could tell that he was confused.

“I’ve been thinking,” I started. Brady walked closer to listen in, “you should have a nickname too.” After being extremely prejudice to him, I could at least try and fix my mistakes.

Giving him a nickname seems enough o fix it.

“Oh yeah?” He smirked raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah... Henny.”

His mouth dropped open, and Brady broke out laughing. I grinned brightly up at him, “Yeah. Henny fits you just fine.”

He laughed—it emanated power—and grabbed me in a gentle headlock, “Kid!” he said and messed up my hair. I began laughing despite the position he had me in. Calling an Alpha “Henny” isn’t appropriate but, it felt right.

Incredibly I felt extremely comfortable around him now, the butterflies are still there but not as nerve wracking as before. He’s actually fun to hand with, even if he is an Alpha and a murderer.

Brady was still to the side laughing his head off, “Henny my penny!” he kept shouting before another fit of laughter would attack him.

I was wiggling in Alpha Henny’s hold attempting to get away but he only held on tighter. Then in a quick movement with his other free arm he got Brady’s laughing ass in a headlock, and shook him until we were both laughing.

“It’s good to be king!” he said right before letting us go.

My face was beat red from both laughing so hard and being in a headlock. Compared to Brady my face was just pink. He took being red in the face to a new level.

It was Alpha Henny’s turn to laugh at our faces. I never knew Alpha’s could be so childish. I always thought that they were stick-in-the-muds. He’s proven me wrong. Then again he’s also young to be an Alpha, I’m guessing he’s in his early twenties or something.

“Alright,” he said winding down, “Bye, Venus. Take care okay?” he said pulling me into a last hug. I hugged him back, “I will.”

He let me go and I walked into the building waving at Brady who had half his body sticking out of the car window. He was waving furiously at me with an idiots grin on, I’m surprised his hand didn’t snap off or something.

I walked to my locker with the biggest grin ever; this morning has certainly been like no other. It’s been freaking fantastic! I hummed as I got my things ready for the first class of the day. Then I walked to class knowing that I was probably going to be the very first one in my seat.

During first period I filled Robin in on everything that she missed. She was so excited for me that the teacher had to repeatedly remind her to quiet down. After her fifth warning from the teacher, and shooting a glare at the teacher, she leaned into me to whisper, “Before you had no guy. Now you have two men!”

And she was right.

Things change over time, even if it’s only been a few days.

**

2nd period is my foreign language class—Chinese.

Four years of the damn thing and I still don’t understand a single thing. Not to mention that Tristans friends are starting to annoy me again. They’ve stopped for a year or two, but it seems like they’re starting up again. I hope their interest dies down soon

3rd period rolled around. It’s English, and learning about dead authors and globalization is a lot more fun when you have a kooky teacher like Ms.Moore, also when your partner is quiet but very mischievous.

Criss had slipped a fake cockroach into the back that belonged to the girl next to us. His façade was totally calm and bored when the girl stood up shrieking. Though, I was the only one that noticed his mischievous grin after Ms. Moor told the girl to man up and sit down.

My 4th period is service learning—or as Robin calls it “Maid 101”—with Mr. Campbell, my Art teacher. He usually makes me sit in the back putting “Great Job!” stickers on every piece of work his freshman students do, but today he had an odd task for me. He gave me a camera and told me to walk around and photograph the school.

Well this sure is interesting.

I happily took the camera, a hall pass, and began to wander the halls.

I like taking pictures but ever since my camera broke, I haven’t been able to take any pictures. I took it to school once in middle school, to take pictures of everyone and Tristan broke it into a million pieces. He just grabbed it and smashed it onto the floor. I never bought one again since then. But I occasionally borrow one of the schools cameras.

Brady had been staring at my collection in the morning right when I woke up and yelled at him.

I shook my head and began taking pictures of everything and anything. I kept the lens to my eye and my finger on the shutter. I caught quite a few candid photographs of the hall monitors doing embarrassing things, like picking out a wedgie.

I got a great shot of a sophomore who was extremely late to class. She was standing by her open locker fixing her books when I took the shot. The sunlight hit at a certain angle that made the hallway glow. At first glance, the girl looked like she had beautiful white feathery wings coming out of her back.

Best shot so far.

I was backing up down the hallway—so the girl wouldn’t notice me acting like a total creeper and get mad—when I bumped into a warm wall. Wait. That’s not right, a wall being warm? Strong hands steadied me and sent sparks flying.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I knew that voice.

Tristan Daniels.

Again.

I quickly backed away from him. I heard the cameras shutter go off. Ugh, I don’t want a picture of the bastard, no matter how drop dead sexy he is. It’s like he head my thoughts because he smirked down at me. I hate the fact that he’s significantly taller than me, like… go pick on someone your own size. And gender.

“Daniels,” I muttered, I wasn’t in the mood to use his first name.

He smirked, showing a dimple, “Ballentyne.”

My stomach churned. I wanted to run from there. But I remained glued in that same spot, right in front of him. I sighed in frustration. He suddenly made a disgusted face. I took a step back wondering if my breath smelled badly.

“You reek,” oh gee thanks, “of him.”

Wait, what?

It took me a while before I realized what he meant. He could smell Alpha Henny’s scent all over me from the morning. That reminds me, I didn’t get a chance to shower this morning so his scent from last night is probably still on me too. If it is, Tristan can smell it.

“Oh, it’s cause we were fooling around in the morning,” I said casually playing with my words. I wanted Tristan to be frightened and back off, or at the very least disgusted with me.

“Fooling around?” he growled.

My plan wasn’t working, “Y-yeah. It’s-”

“Where?” he demanded

“Where?” I asked confused.

“Where! I said where!” he growled, making me flinch.

I stared up art him rather scared, “I-in the p-parking lot.”

A low, deep guttural growl emanated from him. His pupils changed size, showing that his wolf was rising to the surface. I was suddenly very scared, my legs started functioning and they began to move me backwards, away from the angry soon-to-be Alpha.

When dominant male wolfs lose control of their anger it’s not a pretty sight.

“Don’t. Leave. Venus.”

I froze in my tracks. “Sorry,” I said quietly. I don’t even know why I was apologizing.

But the next thing I knew he had me pinned up against the wall. My back crinkled a poster from the pressure he was putting on me, the sparks from his touch began to fly, and I became frantic to escape.

He put both my wrists in one of his hands. I squeaked as his nose sniffed my neck right before he rubbed it.

“Get his scent off,” he said deeply.

With his free hand he lifted my chin upwards so more of my neck was exposed to him. I closed my eyes from the intensity of the shocks his touch was giving me.

Alpha’s are no good for me.

He sniffed my entire neck before he rubbed his cheek on it. I was beginning to hyperventilate. He lowered my chin gently, “Open.” He commanded and my eyes flashed open. I hated having to be so obedient even if I wasn’t a real werewolf.

His eyes showed the tell tale sign that his wolf was still in charge, still giving the orders. Fear began to wash through me.

“Don’t be afraid,” Tristan or Tristans wolf said.

The fear dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. Alpha word was law; I hated that with every fiber in my being right now. I hate having to do everything this man says… and I hate the sparks he’s giving me right now with his mere touch.

“Why?” I gulped out. If I was going to be trapped with him, crushing me up against a wall, then I needed some damn answers.

**

Tristan’s POV

“Why?” she gulped.

I was confused, why what? I don’t want her to be afraid, at least not around me. But the history between us won’t allow that now.

“Won’t hurt you,” my wolf told her before he tore us away from her hypnotizing eyes and back to the mission of getting another man’s scent off of her. We’ve never wanted any harm to come her way, but every time we intervene things go awry.

When it comes to her I can never think straight. My wolf comes out and my mind gets muffled, my thoughts clouded. My wolf growled.

We were sad, hurt, and betrayed when she left our side to go to the city all those years ago. My parents had to hold me down the day she left. If they didn’t I would’ve made her stay. After she was far away from town, they let me go and I went on a mini rampage for a whole week straight. I didn’t stop until I decided to man up, and never let a girl affect us in that way ever again.

It was nearly impossible to forget about her, you can never replace your first best friend. Then she came back, years later, but she was different. She wasn’t our Venus anymore. She was distant, quiet, and mature. Not to mention that she had gotten prettier and cooler over the four years she was gone. Everyone wanted to be her friend, everyone.

I remember the first day she returned to school—it was in the middle of the sixth grade. No one knew who the new beauty with glasses was, but everyone wanted to be with her. She was constantly talking to someone new, giving everyone their own time alone with her undivided attention.

She wouldn’t say hi to me in the halls, she wouldn’t even look at us.

She was supposed to be by our side, things were supposed to go back to normal after she had returned from the city, but she stayed by someone else’s side. Some guy I had gotten expelled when we were in the seventh grade. She was always with him and it annoyed my wolf to no end, that’s why we got him expelled.

What was his name?... Nick something.

“You safe,” we told her.

We had always tried to keep her that way. Always tried to keep her safe. We even went to the extent of threatening everyone to stay away, especially the boys. They would only hurt her. It happened a few days after Nick was expelled, we caught her crying in the hallway.

She was sitting on the floor with her back leaning on the locker that used to belong to Nick. Her face was in her hands, and her body shook with every sob she had. We will never be able to forget the God awful cried that she emitted that day.

We were about to go cheer her up by tugging on her hair and chasing her around the football field—girls her age liked that right?—when a girl walked past her. From the tag that she was wearing I knew that she was from the high school but went to the middle school to service learn.

She asked Venus what was wrong and in a wavering voice she answered, “Boys break your heart,” right before another sob racked her body and the high schooler embraced her.

She had gotten too close to someone and they had harmed her, they had broken her. We knew it had been Nick and we were happy that we’d gotten rid of him soon. We came to the conclusion that if people couldn’t get close enough to harm her, then she’d always be safe.

She’d go back to being our friend, our Venus.

We went out and threatened everyone, that I’d kill them if they got too close to her. Everyone listened.

“Leave. Me. Alone.” She said angry.

We wanted to keep her safe yet, here we are harming her.

The scent of the new Alpha all over her just awoke my wolf. I backed up from her. My wolf had given me control again.

Being away from her, her intoxicating scent of caramel and the electric sparks her touch gives, my thoughts cleared. And I remembered that I hate this girl. She’s a stuck up bitch that can even shift. In my pack she’s known as the black sheep of the ThunderBirds.

She’s a little geek with her nerdy glasses and no sense of style, excluding today. She’s a little freak. And whenever I’m around her she makes me go soft.

Alpha’s aren’t soft.

“I hate his scent,” I muttered through gritted teeth.

She gave me something I took to be a glare, but that mans scent on her just drove me crazy, “If I catch his scent on you again, freak, there will be hell to pay.” I spat at her and I felt the fear settle in to her system right before I turned around and walked away.

I texted Kelsey to meet me in the supply closet in ten minutes; I need a release, and I had to get her out of my head.

I won’t let her make me soft, lose my edge. Never again.

I’m gonna have to kick it up a notch.

Alpha’s aren’t soft.