Filed To Story: Alpha's Regret: His Wrongful Rejection
Oh, shit.
The entire library quiets and turns to look at him.
My pulse begins to gallop. My face flushes so hot it itches. I shove my fingers under my thighs so I don’t scratch, and I bow my head. I wish my hair was loose, but it’s tied back in its usual braid.
Brynn rushes to Cadoc’s side. “Did you leave it in the gym?”
“I’ll go check,” a random mid-pack wolf announces and dashes off.
“No.” Cadoc’s forehead furrows. Is he really just now realizing he doesn’t have his stuff? Maybe knocking Bevan around distracted him.
I cling to the spark of anger so I don’t succumb to the wave of panic crashing through me.
What have I done?
Something very, very stupid, that’s what. What the hell was I thinking?
I need to stop time. Rewind. Reset.
Run like hell.
“Here.” Brynn hands Cadoc her phone. “Use ‘Find My Phone.'”
“What’s ‘Find My Phone?'” I mutter under my breath.
“I don’t know.” Nia’s staring at me now. She knows something’s up. She can smell my fear. All the scavengers at the back tables can. Their hackles are raising. Those who were in mostly human form sprout fur and fangs.
“Oh, Christ on a cracker.” Nia’s eyes widen. “What the hell did you do, Rosie-cakes?”
I can’t answer. I’m frozen in my seat. Panic has paralyzed me, glued me to the chair, sitting on my hands with my shoulders curled.
Why did I do it? I don’t lift things. I haven’t swiped anything since I was seven and Bevan dropped a lollipop in my pocket in the canteen. I didn’t want to take that, but if I’d returned it, they’d have taken the cost out of my hide.
My guts gurgle. I’m gonna hurl.
Over by the circulation desk, Brody and his crew have noticed the excitement. Brody surveys the library, his close-set piggy eyes narrowing on us at the back tables.
Bevan slouches down in his chair. “Fuck. Who stole what?”
The scavengers at the next table over eye us.
“Don’t bother,” Brody says to Brynn. “We know where it is.” His fat nostrils flare.
“Stop smelling like that,” Nia hisses at me under her breath.
“How do I do that?”
Nia eyes my empty lap. “Where did you put it? Tell me it’s not in your pocket.”
“I don’t have pockets.”
“Finally embracing your roots, eh, cousin?” Bevan hisses under his breath. “Helluva day to start.”
Brody strides over to our table, Vaughn Lewis and Art Floyd at his heels. All three visit my sister sometimes. They’re cheap, they don’t take their shoes off in the house, and she cries after they leave.
Brody’s the worst. He’s always asking if my oldest niece has shown signs of her first heat yet.
They stop across the table. Brody puts his big cinderblock hands on his waist and raises a patchy blonde eyebrow. “It stinks over here. More than usual.”
“Stinks like thieves,” Vaughn sneers.
“Stinks like dead weight.” Art kicks the seat that Bevan was resting his foot on. It topples over.
“We don’t have whatever you’ve lost,” Nia says.
I’m shaking so hard, I don’t know how my chair legs aren’t rattling. I stare at the table top, sneaking peeks, trying desperately not to puke.
I don’t get in trouble. I do my own thing.
Cadoc Collins and Mrs. Dee appear beside Brody. Mrs. Dee’s a shifter, and her nose is twitching.
Cadoc’s expression is as guarded as always. He doesn’t smell angry, but then again, nothing much registers over the scent of my own terror.
Brody, Vaughn, and Art split and take reluctant steps back to allow Cadoc forward, rearranging themselves in a semi-circle around him. Brody makes sure he’s closest. Brody hates Cadoc, but physical proximity to the alpha heir denotes rank, so closer is better.
But not for us scavengers. We steer clear.
We don’t lift something that will be immediately missed and then casually carry it with us into a room filled with predators who can smell fear.
I am so dumb today.
And man, karma is a bitch. I pinch something one time, and I don’t even get an hour before I have to pay for it. My sister-in-law Arly has an entire closet of shoes she’s swiped from the nobs when they shift for full moon runs. She must have a hundred pairs, stacked nice and neat in milk crates.
Under my thighs, I ball my fists.
What if I confess now? Beg for mercy? Plead temporary insanity. That’s basically true. It’s not like I had plans to hock the phone. I just wanted—I don’t know. I wanted to touch it and see what’s inside.
My eyes blur and burn. I’m going to get a beatdown. I haven’t taken a lick since Brynn and her posse got in trouble in middle school for smacking scavengers around in front of the humans and the alpha made them stop.
I hope I can still take a punch. I can’t cry. If I do, Bevan will jump in to defend me, and he’s had enough today.
“Yeah, I smell guilt, even over the scavenger stink.” Brody licks his thick lips. “That one.” There’s a pause, and a few gasps. “That one has it.”
I don’t even have to look up. I know I’m “that one.”
“Rosie? Seriously? You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nia scoffs, but her voice is pitched too high. “She only smells like that ’cause she’s so uptight, the aggression messes with her head.”
It’s not a bold-faced lie. I am the type that feels guilty when the whole Bog gets herded to the lawn at the center of campus to get yelled at for something, even if I didn’t do it. Abertha tells me it’s my worst flaw.
Brody doesn’t respond to Nia. He casts glances at his minions, and then everything happens at once.
Vaughn ducks left and grabs Nia. Art goes right and hauls Bevan out of his chair. Bevan and Nia struggle, snap their teeth, snarl, kick. Bevan’s paw nails the table, sending it screeching across the floor. Then there’s nothing between me, Brody, Mrs. Dee, and Cadoc.
Brody takes one step toward me.
A shattering roar rocks the library, echoing among the tall stacks all the way up to the skylight, rattling the glass windowpanes. Instantly, everyone freezes and bends their neck. Even the humans.
Far off in a corner, a shelf teeters over, smashes into a wall, and books thud to the ground.
Then there’s silence.
The roar came from Cadoc. His wolf. It was an alpha command.
Now the whole library reeks of fear. Females sob. Humans clutch each other.
I stare at Cadoc’s beige Chukka boots and quake. For a long moment, no one dares to breathe.
Then Cadoc’s wolf emits a low rumble. It breaks the tension. Packmates straighten their necks with exaggerated caution.
“I got it!” Brynn says, jogging over, holding up her phone as if everyone hadn’t just frozen in abject terror, and there isn’t the scent of piss coming from the humans. “Found your phone. It’s there. Under Rosie’s chair. In her backpack.”
Phones have tracking devices?
With my luck? Of course, they do.