"What's that, sweetheart?" I take a hit off the joint Jared passed me and offer it to her. She shakes her head, but I don't sense judgment.
"Why a guy as smart as you sits in the back and screws around during class. If you applied yourself, you could get a full ride to college somewhere."
My chest tightens but I force a laugh. I wrote off college a long time ago. Probably about the time my eighth grade teacher told me I was as worthless as my imprisoned dad, and I should get my ass into vocational school. "What makes you think I'm smart?"
"You wouldn't be in the advanced classes if you hadn't tested in. And you ace every test even though I never see you study."
She's been paying attention.
That in itself makes my world shudder and rearrange.
"Nah, school's not for me. I can't stand authority." I flash her my bad boy smile and she leans into me, her forest green eyes lit by the flames.
"You follow his authority." She lifts her chin in the direction of Garrett Green, our pack leader's son.
"He's different." I mean it. Garrett may be one-hundred percent alpha, but he's one of us. He doesn't care for school or authority, either. He won't toe the party line. He's told his dad point blank he will never run the brewery. More than anything, though, he's a friend. He's as loyal to his mini pack of teen wolves as we are to him. He'd do anything for us.
And I've had way too little of that in my life, so yeah-I'm sticking close. Where he goes, I follow. And we sure as hell aren't going to college to become suits at Wolf Ridge Brewery.
She turns her gaze back to the fire.
Across the way, Garrett howls and strips off his swim trunks. With a whoop of excitement, the rest of the boys follow, dropping their suits and shifting to howl. A bunch of girls, do, too, calling to me and Sheridan. She stands up and hesitates, shooting an unsure glance at me.
As much as I'd give my left nut to see Sheridan Green naked, there's no fucking way I'm going to let her do it front of the rest of the gang. Yeah, we've all been shifting together since we were kids, but that was before puberty. Before our teeth bore the serum capable of permanently marking a female.
"Not here, sweetheart." I snatch her up by the waist and run, carrying her toward the cluster of tents while she giggles and fights me to put her down.
I drop her in front of her tent and turn my back. "Last one on four legs is a rotten egg!" I shove down my trunks and shift while she's still ducking into the tent.
She squeals in frustration and then darts out, her tawny coat thick and shining. She runs at top speed down to the water and I chase, nipping her heels, my wolf already ready to mate, to mark.
Down, boy. Sheridan Green is about as far off limits as a nun in the Vatican.
My wolf doesn't give a shit.
He wants her. Preferably in human form, naked and on the beach.
He wants her tonight.
Present
SHERIDAN
FOR A SECOND TREY just stares at me, eyes wide as if I shot him in the chest.
Again.
The pain and shame of that night comes back to me like a black fog rolling over my body. I've tried so hard these last twelve years to claw free from it, to believe I did the right thing. Especially since the Tucson pack has done well for itself.
My first boyfriend then turns and kicks the leg of the desk.
"Fuck," he spits. "Fuck fuck fuck." He kicks a trash can and it goes flying.
"Lovely," I drawl, stopping a rolling beer can with my foot. "You always were so eloquent."
"You were never this much of a bitch," he shoots back, and I flinch.
"I can't believe I ever loved you," I mutter. I don't mean him to hear but he glances up sharply, anger flushing up his neck. Stupid sensitive wolf hearing.
I raise my chin, daring him to comment.
"What the fuck is this, Sheridan?" There was a time I would melt when he said my name. Very inconvenient to remember that right now. Trey is angry. Very angry. But the wolf in me feels his heat and interprets it differently. She remembers when Trey's big body and all his anger at the world became fiery passion he unleashed on me. The perfect alchemy.
"You show up after twelve years, talking big… let me explain something, sweetheart." He jabs a finger in my direction. "You don't have the authority to shut me down."
"My alpha does."
"So you're going to turn tail and run to him? You were always good at tattling on us. Twelve years hasn't changed a damn thing."
I flush. Score one for the angry he-wolf.
"That's not why you're here." Trey crowds me, giving me an eyeful of the flexing muscles of his chest, and suddenly I can't think straight. "I think you got tired of your pretty little place in the pack and pretty little life. Is that right, sweetheart?" The shaded edges of his neck tattoo fill my vision. It's hot, almost too hot to breathe. "You always wanted to walk on the wild side. That's why we were together in the first place. I wanted to get my dirty paws on a pack princess, and you"-his breath warms my ear and I feel dizzy-"you were slummin'."
He steps back to survey my dazed expression, a satisfied look on his face. My blood rushes faster, faster, and my wolf wants to know why we still have so many clothes on.
"That's why you're here." Trey folds his arms over his broad chest, effectively closing himself off. "Another taste of the dog's life. Then it's back to your cushy gig, after you piss all over everything I've done. Because you're still out for revenge."
"This isn't personal."