by J. L. Wilder
The other figure was a man.
It was immediately obvious to Dean that this was no professor. A professor wouldn’t be lounging against a rock in nothing but his shorts, dangling a bottle of whiskey from his hand. No, this guy was from Shifter U, just like the three of them were. And by the look of him, he was almost definitely an alpha.
Her alpha?
He didn’t know either of them. But would an alpha really sneak over here to see his omega this close to the end of the year? Soon enough, if they just waited, they would be together forever. There was no need for this.
But maybe they’re practicing for the Alpha Games. The games had been enough to bring Jasper over here, after all. Dean had to believe that they would be motivation enough for someone else.
Then again...what kind of practice was this? Sitting by the river and drinking whiskey? There was no way that was going to be an event in the Games.
He crept closer.
“Dean,” Tom hissed.
Dean ignored his brother. He wanted to hear what they were saying.
“I hear you’re the best in your year,” the alpha said. “Top of your class. Is that true?”
The omega studied her hands and said nothing.
“You might as well talk to me,” he said.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said. “You shouldn’t be here.”
That didn’t sound like an omega addressing her alpha. What was going on here? Dean crept a little closer.
“Come on,” the alpha said. “You were into me the other night at the social. You wanted to be mates. You said so yourself.”
“Well, I made a mistake,” she said. “It was embarrassing. Did you come over here to humiliate me or something?”
“No,” he said. “I came over here because I can’t stop thinking about you, Haley.”
“You have a girlfriend,” Haley said. “And I think you’re also sleeping with that girl Janie on the side. Am I right?”
His face darkened. “You can’t talk to me that way,” he said. “What kind of omega are you?”
“Not the kind that lets any random alpha do whatever he wants just because of the fact that he’s an alpha,” she said.
“Probably why you’re still unmated,” he said, leering slightly.
She held her ground. “Maybe.”
“Listen,” the alpha said. “I didn’t know who you were when I met you at the social. I didn’t know what you were. I thought you were just—”
“What? Some bimbo you could cheat on your mate with?”
“Yes,” he said defiantly.
“Is that what Janie is? Just some bimbo?”
“If you know Janie, then you don’t need to ask that question,” he said.
“And what is it that I am really?” she asked.
“Smart,” he said. “Accomplished. A girl like you could win the Alpha Games with a guy like me. My mate thinks it’s enough to be cute and smile for the crowds. But she doesn’t have the knowledge or the skills to back it up.”
“You don’t think very much of her,” Haley observed. “Why are you mated to a girl you don’t even respect?”
“Maybe I’m still deciding,” he said. “School’s not over yet. It’s not like I’ve imprinted on Clarisse. I could still change my mind.” He leaned closer to Haley. “I know you’re still looking for a mate, Haley. I could be your alpha.”
“Is that also what Janie thinks? That maybe you’ll choose her?”
“I’m not responsible for what Janie thinks,” he said. “She’s even more of a dumb skirt than Clarisse is.”
“Well, you’ve got the wrong idea,” Haley said. “I’m not looking for a mate right now.”
“Bullshit,” the alpha declared. “You were interested at the social. You were practically throwing yourself at me.”
“I’m not interested,” Haley repeated. She got to her feet and began to back away.
The alpha was at her side in an instant. “Omegas are all the same,” he said, his voice a growl. “You don’t know what you want until you’re getting it, do you? I’ll teach you to show some respect. And you will partner with me in the games. You’ll thank me for this when we bring home the prize.”
She struggled against him. “Stop it!” she cried. “Let me go!”
Dean was just about to turn to Jasper and tell him they should intervene when something went streaking past his left shoulder.
TOM
He couldn’t remember the last time he had shifted without meaning to. He had learned to control himself before either of his brothers had. He had always been the calmest, the most stable, of the three of them.
He had always had the best grip on his human side.
Maybe it was because the alpha in front of them was Zach, the same person who had humiliated and rejected him at the social. The guy he had seen treating his girlfriend as if she was disposable.
And now here he was manipulating another girl. Trying to force himself on her.
He had been primed to despise Zach. His brothers had probably been encountering Zach for the first time.
Maybe that was why his animal self had been so close to the surface. Maybe that was why he had been so ready to spring into action the moment Zach had grabbed Haley.
Whatever the reason, he had left logic and common sense behind. He had left his humanity behind. He was wolf now, and he flung himself on top of Zach with all the force he possessed.
Haley screamed, and Zach let out a cry. He was strong. He was probably stronger than Tom. But he wasn’t prepared, and Tom managed to pin him to the ground.
Run! he thought fiercely toward Haley, wishing he could call out to her, wishing he could actually say the word. She wasn’t running. Maybe she was in shock.
Zach punched Tom in the ribs. The blow was powerful enough to make Tom stagger slightly, and that was all Zach needed. He was on his feet, shifting, and Tom felt a stab of fear penetrate through the rage he was feeling. This was going to be a wolf fight. Someone was going to get hurt.
And he’s an alpha, and I’m just a beta.
Then, suddenly, he was flanked on both sides.
Jasper and Dean had joined the fight.
Zach stared at them. For a moment, Tom thought he was going to take them on anyway, despite his disadvantage. But he couldn’t win, and after a moment, he seemed to recognize that. He snarled, the turned and loped away into the woods.
Tom and his brothers stared after him for several moments, remaining on their guard. Tom knew it was possible that he would try to double back for Haley, who still hadn’t run away.
After several minutes had passed, Dean retreated into the woods and came out in human form and fully clothed. “He’s gone,” he said. “And your clothes are in shreds, by the way, Tom. I haven’t seen you lose control like that since we were kids.”
Jasper looked from one of them to the other. Then he too disappeared into the trees. When he came back, he was dressed in his boxer briefs and his t-shirt.
“I left my pants in there for you,” he said to Tom. “You can’t walk home naked. That would definitely draw attention. And you shouldn’t be in wolf form in the middle of campus either.”
Tom inclined his head to express his gratitude to his brother. He turned away and went back to the place where they’d stood watching as Zach had made his advances toward Haley.
That happened so quickly.
At least Zach had no way of knowing it had been the three of them. He could absolutely imagine a guy like that finding some way to report them for being on the Omega U campus. It should have been impossible for Zach to give them away without revealing that he had been here too. But Tom was willing to bet he’d be able to figure it out.
Once he was dressed, he rejoined his brothers by the side of the river.
Haley was still there. She still hadn’t run away. In spite of Zach’s attack against her. In spite of the fact that three strange wolves had arrived on her campus. She was still standing there.
/> And moreover, to Tom’s surprise, she didn’t look as if she were frozen by shock.
She looked curious.
“Who are you?” she asked them. “What are you doing here?”
It was Jasper who spoke because it was always Jasper who spoke when the three of them were together. “I’m Jasper Wood,” he said. “These are my brothers, Tom and Dean.”
“You’re from Shifter U,” she reasoned.
Jasper nodded.
“Thanks for running him off,” she said.
“Not a friend of yours, I take it?”
“Definitely not.” She knelt back down among her reeds. “What are the three of you doing over here, though? Shifter U students aren’t supposed to be on our campus.”
“That’s a long story,” Jasper said.
She looked up at them, assessing.
Then she seemed to come to a decision.
“Sit down,” she said. “I don’t have anywhere to be.”
Chapter Nine
HALEY
Haley couldn’t have said exactly why she wasn’t afraid of the three men around her. They were much bigger than she was, and she had just seen them spring out of the woods in wolf form and engage in a violent conflict. By rights, she ought to have been terrified.
Maybe it was because they had been protecting her. They had come to her defense, and as soon as they had seen that she was safe, they had resumed human form. It seemed clear to her that they didn’t mean her any harm.
Or maybe it was because, now that Zach was gone, they were keeping their distance. Zach had moved closer and closer to her the whole time he had been there as if she were going to somehow not notice that her personal space was disappearing. By contrast, these three had taken seats several yards away from her and showed no sign at all of moving.
Or maybe it was just the fact that she found them so fascinating.
“You’re triplets,” she said. “Aren’t you?”
“You figured it out,” one of them said, grinning in a way that made Haley feel sure he was making fun of her.
“Don’t be an asshole, Dean,” another one said.
The one named Dean rolled his eyes at his brother. “Don’t be so sensitive.”
“How am I supposed to tell you apart?” Haley asked.
“You don’t have to tell us apart,” the third one said. “It’s not like we’re staying.”
“Wait,” Dean objected. “Why aren’t we staying? You came here looking for an omega. She’s an omega.”
“She’s just been attacked,” said the one who had claimed he wasn’t staying. “She’s not going to be interested in this right now.”
“Wait a minute,” Haley objected. “I can speak for myself, you know. What am I not going to be interested in?” She looked from one of them to the next, frowning. “Are you alphas?” she asked. “You can’t all be alphas, can you, if you’re brothers?”
“None of us are alphas,” Dean said. “But one of us wants to be.”
“Wants to be? What does that even mean?” Haley asked. “You either are, or you aren’t.” It was like being an omega. It wasn’t something you could choose. You were born with it, or you weren’t.
Dean indicated the one who had wanted to leave. “This is my brother, Jasper,” he said. “He wants to be an alpha. Thinks he already should be an alpha, actually. He’s here to find an omega so that he can compete in the Alpha Games.”
Haley blinked.
“I don’t get it,” she admitted.
“Of course you don’t,” the other brother said. “That’s because it doesn’t work like that. They know it doesn’t work like that, but they somehow still believe they can cheat the system.”
“Shut up, Tom,” Dean said. “Not all alphas manifest their authority at the same age, and you know it. It’s not like there’s some law that says if you haven’t become an alpha by the time you’re twenty-three, you never will.”
“There is a law, actually,” Tom said. “Natural law. It may not happen at the same age for everyone, but it always happens before physical maturity is reached. Unless you’re telling me that Jasper isn’t done growing.”
“I’m just saying that there are always exceptions,” Dean said. “We don’t know for sure what will happen if he’s paired with an omega and entered into the Games.”
“You don’t think he’s going to become an alpha,” Tom scoffed. “You don’t even want to see him become an alpha. You just want to cause havoc by messing up the Alpha Games for everyone else.”
“So what?” Dean said, shrugging. “Do you really want to see one of those cocky, arrogant bastards win the Games and take home the prize money? Jasper may not be an alpha, but he’s got strength and discipline, and I think he can win the games.”
Jasper glanced at Dean. “You don’t actually think this will help me become an alpha?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Dean said. “Either it will or it won’t, regardless of my opinion. And either way, if you manage to win, you get to take home all that money.”
“I’m not in this for the money,” Jasper said.
“Well, that’s stupid of you,” Dean shot back. “Think about what we could do with a take like that. Our lives after school could be whatever we want them to be.”
Haley held up a hand, overwhelmed by everything she was hearing. “Let me see if I’m understanding this,” she said to the brothers. “The three of you are betas? All of you?”
“It’s a sore subject,” Dean said with a little smirk. Jasper looked away.
“I take it you’re the oldest?” she said to Jasper.
He jerked his head just slightly, affirmatively.
“Jasper was born seven minutes before Dean,” Tom said. “Those seven minutes have been very important to all of us.”
“It makes sense,” Haley said. “I would have thought that would make him the alpha of the group. You haven’t got another brother, have you?”
“No,” Tom said. “But not every family has an alpha. There would be far more alphas if that were the case. An alpha usually descends directly from another alpha, and our father wasn’t one.”
Haley felt a twinge of annoyance. Did they think she was stupid? Everyone knew that alphas descended from other alphas. That wasn’t even advanced shifter lore. That was basic. It had been covered in her first-year classes, and even then, she had already known it.
Margaret’s voice flashed in her head. Don’t be a know it all.
All right. She would try things her friend’s way. After all, it wasn’t as if this Tom person had any way of knowing how intelligent she was or what she was capable of.
So, although she would typically have spoken up and told him that he didn’t have to tell her where alphas came from, today, she remained silent.
It was Jasper who spoke. “Our grandfather was an alpha,” he said. “And there haven’t been any male children in the line since him.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Tom said.
“It means it’s possible,” Jasper said. “And if it’s possible—”
“You think that winning the Alpha Games will trigger something in you and turn you into the alpha you were always meant to be,” Haley surmised.
“Something like that,” Jasper said.
“But if you’re registered at Shifter University as a beta, they’re not even going to let you enter the Games,” Haley said. “You have to already be an alpha to even compete.”
“I think they’ll let him in,” Dean said. “If we pair him with an omega and we explain to the board that he should be an alpha and that he’s just having a little trouble coming into his own.”
“I’ll explain it to them,” Jasper growled.
Haley thought she knew why he was upset. Dean was making Jasper sound weak, almost pathetic, as if he were just some alpha who had never managed to claim the authority that was his birthright.
But Haley saw things a little differently.
“It must have
been really hard for you,” she said to him.
Jasper turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if your father wasn’t an alpha, but your grandfather was,” Haley said. “There must have always been a lot of pressure on you. I bet it was a constant question in your family when you were growing up. Will he be an alpha, or won’t he? You must have felt scrutinized all the time.”
Jasper stared at her.
“That’s exactly how it was,” he said, and she heard the surprise in his voice. He didn’t think I would understand that. I’m smarter than he expected me to be.
And, she realized suddenly, he liked it.
He liked that she was smart.
He liked that she had understood him.
Margaret had been wrong. Haley didn’t need to pretend to be stupider than she was to be a good omega.
Wait. What am I thinking? This doesn’t prove anything. He’s a beta, not an alpha, and I’m certainly not his omega. If he likes me, it’s as a fellow person. Nothing more.
“That isn’t how it was,” Tom protested. “We weren’t always watching to see if you were going to turn into an alpha.”
“Nah, she’s right,” Dean said. “We kind of were. Admit it, Tom, you were curious about it when we were growing up. Even if you didn’t care very much one way or the other, you wanted to know what he would be.”
“All right,” Tom conceded. “I guess I did.”
“There was no part of you that ever felt relieved to learn that you weren’t going to be an alpha?” Haley asked.
“Would you be relieved not to be an omega?” Jasper asked her.
“Not if it happened to me right now,” Haley said. “But if I’d been born a beta, I don’t know how I would feel about it.”
“You like being an omega, right?” Jasper said.
“Yes,” Haley said.
“Why?”
She thought about it. It wasn’t as if she had a mate in her life. She knew that most omegas would have said that the best thing about their role was being able to serve an alpha, and maybe it was. Haley wouldn’t know anything about that.
But she knew that she loved what she was. Not having an alpha made her feel terrible, but even if she never had one, she wouldn’t change her position as an omega. Not for anything.