by J. L. Wilder
Haley was the kind of girl who wanted an alpha. She was the kind of girl who would settle for nothing less than what she considered to be her birthright. Jasper could tell that about her already.
And really, in that way, aren’t we the same? We both want to be what we believe we were born to be. And we’re both being held back from it by circumstance.
Really, if there were anyone in the world who could relate to Jasper, who could understand what he had been going through, it would be her.
She would have been the perfect person to enter the Games with.
And suddenly, a hard knot of resolve crystallized within him.
I’m not going to let her get away. I’m going to find her again, and I’m going to convince her.
He would go without his brothers this time. They had only been distractions. And he would do whatever it took to convince Haley to join him in his quest to enter the Alpha Games.
Chapter Eleven
HALEY
Haley—
I don’t want to graduate angry at you. I don’t want us to leave here mad at each other. I’m sorry for the things I said to you at the social. I get that you were upset that night.
Can we meet up and talk? I’ll be at the usual spot at lunchtime.
Margaret.
Haley folded the note into the smallest square possible and tucked it into her pocket. It felt like a talisman there, like a charm warding away all the strange and confusing things that had happened to her over the past several days.
Margaret still wants to be friends.
She was surprised by the wave of relief she felt. She had known that the idea of graduating without making up with her friend was making her sad, but she hadn’t realized it was upsetting her this much. Now it felt as though a tremendous weight had been lifted.
She hadn’t seen Margaret at all today. The note had been on her bedside table when she’d woken up this morning, and her friend had already been gone. Now Haley sat in class, struggling to keep her attention on her professor as he discussed the requirements for their final project.
The moment class ended, she burst through the door, fully intending to run straight to the place where she and Margaret liked to meet for lunch.
“Haley!”
The voice was deep and masculine, and it came at her in a whisper. She stopped on a dime, rooted to the spot, feeling strangely like a prey animal that had sensed a threat.
She looked around.
There he was, partially obscured by a tree, his eyes fixed on her. He beckoned her over.
I’m not going over there. This is crazy. It’s the middle of the day, and he’s twenty yards from the center of campus. Anybody could see us.
But even as she thought it, her feet were already moving. Carrying her toward him as though she was powerless to resist.
She didn’t even glance back as she entered the woods. She didn’t even check to see whether anyone was watching, whether she would have any awkward questions to answer later.
Margaret, she thought. Margaret is expecting me. Margaret will notice when I don’t show up.
But it didn’t seem like a real concern. It felt like something out of a story, or maybe a daydream. What was real was Haley and the man in front of her. Everything else had become background noise.
She entered the woods, and he turned and began to walk away from her.
“Wait a minute.” She hurried to catch up. “Where are you going?”
“We need to get away from campus,” he said. “We can’t allow ourselves to be seen.”
By rights, Haley thought, she should have been leading the way. She was the one who knew this campus. But somehow, it felt right to fall into step behind him, to allow him to take the lead.
“I still don’t know who you are,” she realized.
“I’m Jasper,” he said. “You can tell because I’m a little taller than my brothers.”
“That only helps me if you’re standing next to them,” Haley pointed out.
“I’m the one who wants to enter the Alpha Games with you,” Jasper said. “If you agree, I’ll be the one you see most of the time. You’ll have no reason to hang around with Tom and Dean.”
“But I already said I didn’t want to enter the Games,” Haley said, hurrying to catch up.
He turned to face her. He must have decided they had come far enough into the woods. “What if I were an alpha?” he asked. “Would you want to enter with me then?”
“But you’re not an alpha,” she said. “So what difference does it make?”
A shadow crossed his face. “I will be,” he said. “I’ll be an alpha before this is over.”
“I hope so,” Haley said, surprised to find that she meant it. “You seem like you’d be good at that, Jasper. I believe you when you say you were meant to be an alpha.”
“But you still won’t help me.”
“I can’t,” she said. “I can’t jeopardize my chances with my future alpha.”
“And you don’t believe that I might be your future alpha.”
“It’s too big a gamble,” she said. “Too big a risk to take. I just can’t stake my entire future on the possibility that this might work out the way you want it to. Because if it doesn’t—”
“Then you’d be stuck with a beta.”
Haley sighed. The truth was, she didn’t believe that Jasper’s plan would work. She wanted to believe it. But she didn’t.
If he were meant to be an alpha, he would be one. It’s not complicated. I’m an omega without even trying.
But was that true? she wondered suddenly. It wasn’t as if she were living up to her potential as an omega. And she had done nothing but try for the past four years.
“Have you thought about the money?” Jasper asked.
“I’ve thought about it,” she said. “It’s not worth it. My future is worth more than any amount of money.”
“If you had the prize from the Games, you wouldn’t need to depend on an alpha,” he said. “You could make it on your own.”
She stared up at him, shocked. “I don’t want an alpha because I think I need one,” she said. “I’m an omega. I’m meant to be with an alpha.”
“Not everyone gets what they’re meant for,” Jasper pointed out.
She shook her head and pushed past him. “Just because you’re disappointed with the way your life is turning out, that doesn’t mean I have to give up,” she said. “I will find an alpha.”
But he caught her by the wrist and pulled her back. “Don’t go yet,” he said.
She tried to pull her hand free. “I’m supposed to be meeting my friend,” she said.
“I’m not finished talking to you,” he countered.
“Well, I’m finished talking to you.” She stared at him. “What are you doing?”
“You’re my best chance to win the Games,” he said. “You can’t just walk away from me.”
“I told you, I don’t want to do it,” she said. “And I’m supposed to be meeting someone. You shouldn’t be on this campus at all.”
He pushed her, gently but firmly, pressing her back up against a tree. She stared at him, unable to break eye contact.
“Are you going to tell anyone?” he breathed.
“No,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“Why not?” he asked. “What am I to you? Why do you care if I get in trouble? Why do you care if my life is ruined?”
“I don’t care,” she said.
“Yes, you do,” he said. “I can tell you do.”
“I don’t want anything bad for you,” Haley said. “But you’re not my alpha.”
He released his hands. “Go, then,” he said.
But he was still staring at her, his eyes still fixed on hers, and Haley felt strangely pinned in place. It was as if she couldn’t move.
She wanted to move.
She wanted to go to Margaret. She wanted to end this conversation.
But her body wanted to stay.
“Let me go,” she
said.
“I’m not holding you,” he pointed out.
“What are you doing to me?”
“I’m not doing anything.” But he stepped closer.
Her heart pounded. Her breathing accelerated. She felt as if she were falling, dropping through the air, and a sharp stab of terror shot through her.
She was afraid of where she would land.
Jasper’s hands found her again. They came to rest on her shoulders. Then they slid down her arms to her wrists. But he wasn’t gripping now. He wasn’t holding her in place. And she knew that if she’d wanted to, she could have slipped from his grasp.
“You should go,” he said. His voice was practically a growl. “You should run.”
“Why should I run?” It came out breathy and higher pitched than her normal speaking voice.
“You shouldn’t be alone in the woods with me,” he said.
“You brought me here.”
“And now I’m telling you to go.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“You do,” he said. “You just said you did.”
Her head was spinning. She had said that. She had wanted to go. And he was right. She shouldn’t be here with him. It was dangerous.
But something about that danger was making her feel more alive than she ever had before.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, slackening the muscles in her arms, making it very clear that she didn’t intend to pull free of him.
What is he going to do?
His hands tightened around her wrists, and he lifted them and pinned them with one hand against the trunk of the tree above her head. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Are you sure you don’t want to go?”
“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice shaking.
When he answered, his voice was shaking too. “I don’t know,” he said. “I have no idea what I’m going to do.”
They stared at each other for a long moment.
“If you tell me to let you go right now, I will,” Jasper said.
She knew she should. She absolutely should.
But the rest of the world had faded to nothing. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was this moment, his hands on her, his piercing eyes holding onto hers.
“No,” she whispered.
And then, without warning, he was kissing her.
She was completely overwhelmed by the scent of him, by the strength of his hand as he pinned her arms, by the fact that there was no way she could have broken free even if she had wanted to.
And by the fact that she didn’t want to.
We shouldn’t be doing this. The thought nudged at the back of her head, trying to push its way in. My first kiss shouldn’t be with a beta. Things can never be real between us. This can never be anything. And when I do meet my alpha...
But then his fingers skimmed up her inner thigh, and her thoughts dissolved like tissue paper in a rainstorm.
He pushed her legs apart, and as his hand climbed higher, she found herself impossibly thankful that she had worn a skirt today. It usually fell to her knees, but now it was hitched up around her hips. She knew that if anyone were to walk into the woods right now and see her like this, her reputation would be destroyed.
Why did that only make her want it more?
No one had ever touched her like this. No hand but her own had ever been there, caressing her so intimately. And then he slipped two fingers inside her, filling her in a way she had never felt before.
She let out a cry of pain and pleasure.
He kissed her harder, silencing her.
One hand held her pinned. The other fucked her, slowly, deliberately. Agonizingly.
I shouldn’t be doing this. I should tell him to stop. He’ll stop if I ask him to.
But she couldn’t.
The idea of stopping was horrible. She never wanted it to stop.
But it did stop. He stepped back, removing those skilled fingers and leaving her feeling cold and empty. Without meaning to, she let out a little whine of disappointment. Her hips hitched against empty air. Wasn’t he even going to let her come?
Then she saw that he was unbuckling his pants.
Oh my God.
It was as if someone had rung a gong inside her head. She knew what was happening, what he was about to do. If someone had asked her, just this morning, whether she would allow it, she would have been scandalized. Of course, I wouldn’t! she would have said.
But now, the idea of leaving was unthinkable.
Still, he seemed to want to give her a chance. He pulled his cock from his jeans and stroked it lazily, watching her, clearly waiting to see what she would do.
She couldn’t stop staring. She had never seen a naked man before.
She had never expected to feel such want. Such hunger. It consumed her.
“Turn around,” he said, his voice quiet but firm.
He would let me go if I tried to go.
She knew it was true.
She turned around
His hands slid up her thighs again, this time along the outsides, lifting her skirt, exposing her. She felt the cool forest breeze against her ass. Anyone could come along right now. Anyone could see me like this.
He took her hands, carefully threading his fingers through hers. Bending over her back, he guided her palms to the trunk of the tree and pressed them there.
He kissed her shoulder. “Relax,” he said softly. “You’re breathing so hard. Are you afraid?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Do you want me to leave?”
“Please don’t. Please.”
He wrapped his body around hers. She felt him, hard and yearning, pressing up against her. Pressing into her.
And it was so big, and so much, and she thought she wasn’t going to be able to take it—
“Shh,” Jasper was saying. “Be quiet. You don’t want anyone to hear, do you?”
She realized she was whimpering. His hand wrapped gently around her mouth, and she felt his hips resting against her ass. So close. She was so full of him. Nothing had ever felt like this before. Oh, God.
“You’ve never done this before, have you?” Jasper murmured, and she actually felt him throbbing inside her.
She shook her head.
“Okay,” he said, his hand moving between her legs, stroking her leisurely. “I’ll go slow, then”
He held her like that for a while, resting inside her, barely moving while he worked her with his hand. After several minutes, he began to thrust, slowly, gently, but commandingly.
Haley thought she might die of the pleasure. How had she gone her whole life without ever feeling this? How did everyone at Omega University—all these girls who had mates right across the street—keep from indulging in this? Even knowing how much she was risking by being here with Jasper, she couldn’t bring herself to wish for it to end.
I hope it never ends.
She lost track of time as their bodies moved together, rhythmically, taking each other higher and higher, farther and farther away from the real world, the world in which they could never be together.
It could have been hours or only a few minutes before she came, her body shuddering, stars exploding behind her eyes. She went limp in his arms, no longer able to support herself, her legs wobbly, her arms dropping from the tree.
He cradled her against him and fucked her slowly, deeply, and moments later, his own orgasm took him, and he sank his teeth into her shoulder and shuddered against her.
Chapter Twelve
JASPER
Oh my God. What did I just do?
She was still in his arms, still clinging to him, her body trembling desperately. Jasper himself felt practically in shock.
I never meant to come over here and fuck her. That was never the plan.
This was exactly why Shifter U students weren’t supposed to sneak onto the Omega U campus. Because of the possibility that something like this might happen. Because they might seduce, or be
seduced by, an omega.
And he had to acknowledge that Haley held no fault here. She definitely didn’t seduce me.
But then...what had happened?
He had only meant to talk to her. He had only meant to try to persuade her to join him in the Games. And then...he’d been looking at her, and it had felt like something had changed between them. Something tangible and powerful. Something stronger than Jasper’s own will.
Haley was still shaking. He helped her get her feet underneath her, supporting her with one arm. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “That was...”
“Surprising?”
“Yeah.”
“I hope you’re not...” What? What did he hope? That she didn’t regret what they’d done? He still wasn’t sure if he regretted it himself.
“I wanted to do it,” Haley said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” But she was frowning.
“You don’t look like you mean that,” he said.
“I do mean it,” she assured him. “I’m just not sure how I feel about it now.”
He nodded. “I know. Me too.”
“We shouldn’t have done that,” she said. “Right?”
“I’m still a beta,” he said. “You still want an alpha.”
“Right,” she said. “It’s just...”
“What?”
“Well, you didn’t exactly seem like a beta when you were fucking me like that. Or when you were telling me to get into position. That was pretty...commanding.”
“It’s just because I’m more experienced than you are,” he said.
“You think?”
“Of course,” he said. “I took the lead because I knew what I was doing. That’s all it was.”
Haley nodded. Jasper could see that she was ready to accept whatever he said. She acknowledged that he was the one who understood this situation. He was the one who had been there before.
“About the Games...” she said.
“It’s a bad idea.”
She nodded. “This doesn’t change anything,” she said. “I still can’t do it.”
“I know.” If anything, this did change things, but for the worse. He couldn’t possibly spend any kind of extended time with Haley now. They would just end up right back there. And they couldn’t allow themselves that.