“And you do?”
“Course not.” She waved a hand in front of her face and scrunched up her nose. “You smell like cigarettes and…” She leaned a little closer, breathed in a little deeper, and her eyes widened just a bit. There were flecks of gold in them. I’d never noticed before. “Is that—is that beer I smell?”
I pressed my finger to her forehead and pushed her back. “How does pretending to date you help me?”
“It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“Pretending to date is mutually beneficial?”
“It solves both our problems. Your father won’t be pressuring you, and mine won’t be pressuring me. Win-win.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sure. It’s a solid plan.” I tapped the side of my head and gave the keys another violent twist. Nothing happened. “Oh! Shit! But what about the obvious?”
She blinked. “Obvious?”
“You know—when they want us to actually claim each other?”
“Obviously we won’t let it get that far. And really, how could it? I think it’s fair to say, with no particular prejudice to either family, that no one will be thrilled to see us together.”
And that’s when I really understood what this was about. Kensey had always been a wild child. Known in some circles as the Deatons’ little monster. She wasn’t on my top ten list, but as far as pack daughters went, she was one of the better ones. And by better, I meant slightly less annoying than the rest. She challenged authority and snuck around behind her dad’s back. Even though they showed her a certain amount of respect, due to her dad’s position in the coalition and her family history, the other daughters hated her.
It was uncommon for the girls in our world to embrace their inner wolves. Underneath our human skin, we were volatile and uneven. We were creatures driven by instinct and need. Desire and fury. Kensey had embraced that. Hell, she lived for it. Me? I tried my hardest to keep that shit buried.
“You think your dad will stand for it?” I shook my head and yanked the keys from the ignition. The damn thing picked the perfect day to die. “Not a fucking chance.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. Twisting, she undid her seatbelt and pushed open the door. “He’ll have no choice—pop the hood.”
I pulled the lever without asking questions and followed her around to the front of the car.
“See, they can force us into this archaic situation, but they can’t chose who we enter it with.”
“Huh?”
She lifted the hood and bent over the edge, fiddling around in the engine. “Meaning, my father can force me to pick a mate, he can even pick one for me—but only if I refuse to pick one myself.”
“Are you sure about that— What the hell are you doing to my truck?”
“Fixing it,” she said, straightening. “And yes, I’m sure. I didn’t spend an entire Sunday afternoon reading up on pack law for nothing.”
“Even if you’re right, that doesn’t tell me how it fixes anything. If we’re not planning to claim each other, then how exactly does this solve our problem in the long run? When we end things, we’ll both be right back where we started. This would be a delay, at best.”
She glanced down at her hands. They were covered in grease. “We’re not going to end things. When they see that we won’t be dissuaded, they’re going to give up and pass the burden to the next sibling in line. There’s no way my father will let me go through with it.”
I narrowed my eyes and took a deep breath to control the anger welling up in my gut. “Go through with what? Hitching yourself to someone like me?”
I knew what they all thought of our pack, and most of the time I didn’t give a shit. If I were being truly honest with myself—something I tried not to do too often—then I’d admit they had good reason to look down on us. We were the thieves. The swindlers. The McAlister pack had a long reputation of taking what they needed, what they wanted, without giving a shit about the consequences. Someone had more money than us? We stole it. Better car? We jacked it. Have a pretty girl? That was our specialty. We’d use our family’s unique gift—a supernaturally charged magnet for the opposite sex—to steal her away, too. And if someone stood in our way? Well, you probably would never see them again…
But despite all that, for some reason, her tone pissed me off. Maybe it was because I’d once expected more from her. We’d been friends up until a few years ago. She’d always seen me as a person rather than through my pack’s reputation.
Until one day she didn’t anymore.
She cast her gaze downward, shoulders lifting slightly with a shrug. She stayed like that for a moment before picking her head up and looking me right in the eye. The flecks there matched the shimmering highlights of gold that stood out against her red hair. Squaring her shoulders, she ran her hands down the sides of her jeans without looking away, smearing grease across the clean denim. “Start the truck.”
Because it would magically start now? This girl was unhinged and delusional. Last I’d heard, the Deaton pack had an elemental infinity for fire—not automotive repair.
I rounded the front and slid back into the driver’s seat. Jamming the key in, I gave it a halfhearted twist. The engine turned over, and the old Ford roared to life without hesitation. “What did you do?”
“Connected the wires that I unplugged last night.”
“You— Wait, what?”
She came around to my window and folded her arms. “Well?”
“Well, what? This whole convoluted scheme of yours is completely one-sided. It gets you off the hook. Your dad won’t allow you to pollute the gene pool, and you have a sister to fall back on—mine won’t give a shit. In fact, he’ll probably shit bricks of happy. He hates your dad, and he’ll view this as just another way to piss the old dog off. I get nothing out of this deal whatsoever.”
She frowned. “What do you want?”
It was a good question. What did I want?
I wanted to be free to live my life the way I wanted. For myself. I didn’t want to be chained to my pack anymore, forced to live a life I hated, forced to do things I didn’t want. That wasn’t something she could give me.
“Sorry, Princess. You don’t have anything I want.”
She deflated but pulled herself together. With a glance at her grease-smudged jeans, she shrugged and pinned me with a hardened expression. “Then I should get inside. If we’re not gonna do this, there’s no reason for us to be seen together.”
And there it was. Her inner pack bitch.
“Yeah. Wouldn’t want that to happen.” I rolled up the window and stomped on the gas with one though in my mind.
Just dodged a fucking bullet…
Chapter Three
Kensey
I couldn’t concentrate on school, much less enjoy the horrified stares and not-so-hushed whispers coming from the girls who passed in the hall. I hadn’t bothered changing, so my jeans still sported the grease I’d smeared down the sides.
After things with Slade had flopped so spectacularly this morning, I’d slipped into full-on panic mode. Normally, I would revel at their aversion. I mean, human and werewolf, I lived to make them all crazy. Everything from scandalizing the school by wearing the wrong color lip gloss and sitting with the social misfits, to appalling the pack daughters by shifting and rolling around in the—gasp—mud.
Maybe I could run away. Use the money I had secretly squirreled under my mattress and disappear. I had to have six, possibly seven thousand by now. Maybe…
Who was I kidding? My father’s resources were too vast for a stunt like that. He’d find me in forty-eight hours flat and drag me right back home again. He’d pass me off like a traded baseball card to whoever he deemed most beneficial to the pack. I’d be trapped.
There was a reason you didn’t see many female wolves over the age of eighteen. The suicide rate in our world was off the charts. Hell, Slade’s own mother had chosen that route rather than staying with Gavin.
In most families, we were tr
aded like commodities and used to improve the alpha’s standing. And while my father wasn’t like that, and I knew he loved me in his own way, he did believe in the old ways. In the old laws. Pack daughters were revered and showered with love—because we had the hardest lot in life.
The bell rang, and I collected my things. With each passing moment, I grew colder, number. Was it worth trying to convince Slade again? What the hell could I possibly offer him? He didn’t need money. I couldn’t offer him material goods. There was no super-secret information I could barter with.
No. He was right. I had nothing he wanted. His father would view the pairing as a win. He’d see it as a way to get a stronger foothold in the coalition. He’d want Slade to follow through—and that wasn’t something either one of us was interested in. He was my ace in the hole, but I would just be his joker. A stupid, useless card that had no value in the game.
I was screwed.
The weight of it came down all of a sudden, and I couldn’t breathe. The walls shrank and the air turned hot and stale—which was a terrifying contrast to the total-body chill creeping into each one of my limbs.
I cut a violent swath down the crowded hallway and propelled myself through the first door I came to. I was met by the soft sounds of a guitar. When I turned, Slade was on a stool in the far corner plucking away at the strings, oblivious to the fact that someone had even entered the room.
I’d heard him play when we were younger. He’d always had his mother’s old guitar with him. Whenever he was upset about something, he’d pluck the strings. He’d gotten better. Much better. The melody he strummed was heavy and dark. It was mournful yet mesmerizing.
I took a shaky step forward and sucked in a breath to pull my shit together. “Is everything okay?”
Slade’s head whipped around, and he blinked several times like he wasn’t sure he was actually seeing me.
Some werewolf…
“Bad morning. Wanted to be alone.” He pointed to the door. “So if you’d scurry off…”
“What happened?”
He set the guitar down and slid off the stool. “Excuse me?”
“You said it was a bad morning. What happened?”
“Why would you think it was any of your business?” he snapped.
It wasn’t. We weren’t friends anymore. In fact, we pretty much hated each other. But something was obviously bothering him. A lot. If I had to bet, I’d wager all ten fingers and a tail it had to do with Gavin.
It always had to do with Gavin…
“Did something happen with your father?”
His eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened for just a second. The hint of something dangerous flickered in his eyes. I thought he might actually lunge for me—Slade wasn’t known for his self-control—but he just stood there, seething.
Curling his fists tight, he said, “You know what, Princess? I know what I want. I want my freedom.” He laughed. The sound of it cut right through me, giving me the chills. It was fury and desperation and hopelessness tinged with the smallest traces of regret. The daughters of alphas had it hard, but the sons didn’t exactly live a picnic-in-the-park lifestyle, either. There were reputations to uphold and examples to be made. Slade had it worse than any of the others. “You want my help? Then get my pack dissolved. Until then, stay the hell—”
“Done,” I said.
I knew how I could make this work, how I could get him to go along with my plan. There were plenty of rumors going around about Slade McAlister. Drinking, drugs, unwarranted violence, multiple girls—sometimes more than one a day… Was I willing to put up with all of it for a chance to gain my freedom? The answer was yes.
I refused to be someone’s trophy.
“Done,” he repeated with a snicker. He picked up the guitar again and settled back onto the stool, strumming the strings absently. Even the instrument sounded like it was laughing at me. “Just like that, huh? Go away, Princess.”
“Done,” I repeated, this time with more force. “If you pretend to date me, I’ll make sure the McAlister pack is dissolved.”
The coalition had the authority to dissolve a pack with enough votes, if the proper proof of misconduct was provided. The wolves in the pack were officially unchained from their alpha, allowing them to either request sanctuary with a new one or leave the territory and start over someplace else. It was a tall order, but given Gavin’s history, I was fairly confident I could pull together what we needed to get my dad to go along with it. The motion had been on the chopping block for a while now, actually. The McAlister pack was trouble, and the coalition was getting tired of dealing with their messes. Since the beginning of recorded history, we’d managed to keep our existence a secret from the human world. In recent years, Gavin had come dangerously close to exposing us.
His fingers hovered above the strings. When he lifted his head, the suspicion in his eyes was nearly overshadowed by something far more potent. Hope. “Bullshit. There’s no way you can make me that promise.”
I moved just a bit closer and held up my hand, crossing my pointer and middle fingers. “Swear to God it’s not. You put on a good show, and I will make sure the coalition votes to dissolve the pack.”
“Because you just happen to have that kind of power?”
“I may not have that kind of power, but I can be convincing,” I said. “I’m a lot of things, Slade, but you know I’m not a damn liar. If I say I can do this, then I can do this.”
He set the guitar down again and stood. In three graceful steps, he’d crossed the room and stopped in front of me. Right in front of me. “And exactly how far are we supposed to take this?” He leaned in, and I held my breath—I had no idea why. My stomach tightened, and goosebumps popped up all along my skin. “Because to get them to believe this, we’re going to have to be convincing. If you think you might need help, I could always turn on the charm…”
Every nerve in my body screamed for me to pull away, but I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
The women of each pack carried its supernatural gift, but it only manifested in the men. The McAlisters? They gave new meaning to the term animal magnetism. When they flipped the charm switch, there wasn’t a female—human or wolf—who could resist them.
I lifted my gaze to meet his. “I don’t need your supernatural freaky pheromone crap to be convincing. Can you?”
“Maybe I’ll be a little too convincing.” He rested a hand on my hip, hooking his thumb through the belt loop of my jeans. The move was as casual as could be. Like something he did every day. “Gonna need some ground rules, because I’m willing to go all out here. You just offered me a future. I’m not gonna fuck that up—even if it means having to play kissy face with someone like you.”
I was both horrified and annoyed by his words—not to mention a little flustered by his hand—which was still on my hip. Maybe I was even a little bit hurt. What the hell was wrong with me that he’d consider me such a chore to kiss? I might not slather on make-up and dress to the nines like the others, but I wasn’t bad to look at. So what if my clothes tended to be on the large, flannelly side, and I didn’t spend six hours every morning on my hair? I was kissable! In fact, I was determined in that moment to show him just how kissable I was.
I leaned forward—and froze.
Oh my God!
No. This was the McAlister vibe talking. I didn’t give a shit who Slade kissed.
The whole reason I was doing this was to avoid being pimped out to someone who would essentially own me. What to wear, when to eat—where to go… My life would belong to someone else. It would be like living in a cage. A gilded cage, but still…
This wolf doesn’t belong in anyone’s zoo…
“Ground rule number one—” I plucked his thumb from my belt loop then placed my other hand against his chest and gave a firm shove. “There aren’t any fringe benefits included in the package.”
He snickered but nodded. “All right, then. Rule number two… Equal time spent with both packs.”
/>
“Equal time?” From what I’d heard, Slade didn’t spend much time with his pack. He kept contact to a bare minimum.
His lips curled up and his eyes gleamed with a level of amusement that made me nervous. “If you get to parade me around, I get to do the same. Nailing one of the other daughters would satisfy my dad’s request. But I think hooking up with you might actually impress him.”
“Why do you care what he thinks?” I regretted it the moment I opened my mouth.
His eyes narrowed, and he leaned in a little closer. “Because you would be the Holy Grail—and I want to watch as he realizes it’s not going to happen.”
“Okay…” It was fair, after all, and a part of me loved the idea of rubbing it in Gavin’s face. “But to be clear, there isn’t going to be any hooking up.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you’ll change your mind.”
“I won’t,” I insisted. “And you can’t use that lusty-mojo on me.”
He leaned close, and my pulse quickened. “Princess, I’ve never had to flip the switch. Ever. I’m not about to start with you.” His gaze raked over me, from top to bottom, and he frowned. “You’ll probably need some new clothes.”
I tugged at the end of my favorite shirt. An oversized black and red flannel over a dark blue T-shirt that said, Dogs—because people suck a$$. The elbows had nearly worn through, and if you looked close, there was a weird stain on the underside of the collar that I couldn’t get out. “What the hell is wrong with my clothes?”
“Let’s put it this way… If you want to really sell this thing, we need to go all out.” He scrunched up his nose. “You’re not my type. They’ll never buy it.”
“Yeah?” I wasn’t his type? Damn right I wasn’t his type. I’d seen his type. Short skirts and low-cut tops that just barely covered the bimbo-bits. I had no problem with confidence and flaunting what you had, but these girls used it as currency to increase their standing. Sex was a scorecard used to tally points and buy people, places, and things. Our whole culture promoted pitting female against female. The sad thing was, if we all just stopped and stood together, respected ourselves and each other, we could put an end to it all. They needed us more than we needed them. “Well, you’re not my type either.”