This new girl is feisty, I’ll give her that.
And hot. Way hotter than any female alpha I’ve ever seen—not that I’ve seen many apart from Warden Black. They all seem to have a bit too much testosterone, nothing like the pretty pin-up plaything that has just been delivered to my doorstep.
I sit up slowly and watch one of the campus staff hauling her suitcases toward our dormitory. A wicked thought enters my mind, and I turn to Gabe with a grin.
“Hey, where do you suppose they’re going to put her stuff?” I tip my chin at the staff. “I sure hope it’s secure. It’d be a real shame if someone were to steal her shit when she’s not even expecting it.”
A matching grin spreads across Gabe’s cheeks, and he pops up, offering me a hand.
I’m not too proud to admit I need the help at this particular moment.
We follow the suitcases at a safe distance, my anticipation growing by the minute. It seems almost too good to be true when we see which room she’s been assigned—literally right next door to ours.
The hallways are empty, so Gabe and I duck into our room and wait for the staff to depart. There’s no rules at this school, but if you get caught doing something technically illegal, they dock points for that shit. The key is to avoid getting caught.
Only two ranks in Drakewood matter: Your academic rank and your social rank. Academic rank determines whether you get kicked out of school and forever banned from having a pack. It’s based completely on how well you behave and how well you do on your mandatory lessons.
But social rank… that one is entirely up to the student body. The more fucked up shit you do and get away with, the better your social rank. The better your social rank, the higher your position among the rest of the student body.
And according to my social rank, I am a god among insects.
Once the hallway is clear, I stroll casually over to our new classmate’s room.
Time to officially welcome her to Drakewood Academy.
three
AMBER
Ihave no idea how much time passes while I’m waiting in that stall. I do know that it’s enough for me to contemplate scaling these walls and disappearing into the California wilds forever. I could run away and pass as a beta. Do whatever it takes to make it on my own. I don’t need a pack. I don’t need anyone anymore. I’m not the sweet omega everyone expected. I’m a goddamn alpha.
Anything has to be better than this—anything except going home to my mother.
This is all her fault. Fucking bitch.
My sisters’ circumstances should’ve been my first warning, but I was too damn naive. There is a reason Scarlett is estranged from our parents. I never expected this to happen. Not to me.
If only I could talk to her now. I’m afraid, though. After what happened… my sisters may never talk to me again.
If only I could say the same thing about our mother.
Because I’m able to see things clearly now that some of the adrenaline has waned and I’ve had time to process what happened. Mother knew what I was months—if not years—ago. She could have warned me. Things would’ve been different if she had.
I thought it was weird when she asked me to start taking a special “beauty pill” around my thirteenth birthday. None of my other sisters needed to. My insecurities got the best of me, made me think something was wrong with me—that I was somehow lacking. After all, Mother had referred to it as a beauty pill.
But now I know it must have been some kind of suppressant to mask my emerging alpha pheromones. She knew what I was and decided to hide it from everyone—even me. And ever since I lost control and revealed my true nature to everyone inside that house, I haven’t had access to those pills.
Now my hormones are going crazy.
It started simply with my lascivious thoughts and urges and progressed from there. My lustful fantasies are starting to overlap with reality, making it hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t. I saw myself on those steps with Beau and Gabe—saw it as clear as day like it was happening right before my eyes. It took everything in me not to answer that siren’s call, not to strip off my clothes and take them right there.
Alphas don’t ask.
They demand. It might not be vocally but in their—our—deep-seated nature.
Damn it! I don’t like who I’m becoming.
I was raised to be someone completely different—charismatic and docile, sweet and shy.