Alpha Betrayed: A Dark Shifter Romance

JULIET

I spend the welcome luau, taking the measure of every wolf and big cat I meet during the mixer games, trying to see if they think terrorizing Variants is their birthright from looking in their eyes.

I do a pretty good job-or they do a pretty bad job of hiding their contempt-but the situation doesn't seem to be as dire as I imagined before I met the rest of the incoming class.

Yes, a good chunk of the wolves are jerks, but I'd say it's a smaller percentage than what Ford was estimating, and most of the big cats are cool. I even made a new friend in a tiger who also plans on joining the military school.

Her big sister is already a junior in the program and says it's about so much more than physical fitness, weapons training, or battle strategy. They also take courses in leadership, economics, sociology, and other things that play into shifter conflicts across the globe, all of which would be good things for Zion's future Alpha to know more about. I want to understand the challenges my people are facing in all aspects of their lives. It seems like the major will actually be a perfect fit.

Now, I just need to get in...

The first step is getting this implant out and accessing my shifted form. I'm not naïve enough to think I'll gain full control before the trials start. But if I can use my phoenix to help me in any way at all, I'll be better off than I am now.

Layla, Diana, and I head back to our dorm after the mixer, chatting the entire way about the people we met and our hopes for the next two weeks. The younger girls seem more optimistic, too, and the mood only lightens further as we join the rest of the dorm on the roof to make s'mores under golden lights the counselors have strung overhead. One of them plays DJ, we gorge on the candy bar set up in the corner, and everyone dances until midnight.

By the time the last few stragglers head to bed, heeding Catherine's warning that orientation classes start bright and early tomorrow morning, it's nearly one.

I linger, helping clean up the paper cups and plates littered around the edge of the roof, until just Catherine, Alexander, and my roomies remain. Once Catherine locks the roof entrance after the last partygoer, she turns back to me with an easy smile. "Okay, let's do this and get you all to bed before too late."

With a bracing breath, I sit down across from her at a small table she's covered with a clean towel and hold out my arm. She swabs my wrist with alcohol-soaked gauze, does the same to her hands, then pulls on a pair of latex gloves. Then, using a powerful magnet, she draws the implant close to the surface of my skin.

The sight of the small gray circle lurking just a hair's breadth from a pulsing blue vein makes my stomach flip. But before I can get too anxious, Catherine selects a tiny scalpel from the kit open beside her and the implant is out. "That's it?" I ask, as she presses another piece of gauze to the tiny wound.

"That's it." She grins. "Easy peasy. Just keep the gauze on there until the bleeding stops. Then I'll get you a Band-Aid and you can head to bed." She lifts the implant, trapped in her tweezers, up between us. "I'll get this cleaned and tucked into the locket I found in my jewelry box. You can wear that to bed, for now, and during classes tomorrow if you'd like. Alexander and I can help you work with your shifted form after dinner in secret if you want. It might be best to keep what you can do from the rest of the school until you're ready to wow them all at the trials."

I exhale. "I don't know about wowing people. I'll settle for getting through without getting kicked out or going full burn." I tug at the top of my light summer dress, the one that reminded me a little too much of my outfits in the circus but was the only thing in my trunk suitable for a semi-formal event. "I'm already feeling hotter than I did before."

"That's probably normal, though, right?" Layla asks, with a yawn, "Cause shifters run hot?"

"Probably, but I'll keep an eye on her for a little bit, just in case," Catherine says, casting a sympathetic look Layla and Diana's way. Diana is out cold in Layla's big purse and Layla looks about five seconds from falling asleep on her feet. "Why don't you two get to bed? I'll sit with Juliet until she's feeling steady, then walk her down to your room in a few."

Layla's bleary gaze meets mine. "That okay with you?"

"It's fine." I smile. "Get some rest and I'll see you in the morning. Thanks for staying with me until it was out, though. I appreciate it."

"Of course, girl, we've got you," Layla says, starting toward the stairs. "Sleep tight everybody."

"If you don't need me, I should probably go, too," Alexander says, glancing at the moon, which is already so much lower in the sky than it was when the party started. "I should be back at Lupine before the brotherhood and read them the riot act for being out after curfew. Since the president approved their secret meeting, they won't get in trouble, but I'm not supposed to know that, so..."

"Why would she do that?" I ask, thirsty for more information about my mother, this woman who, so far, seems to be on the wrong side of history.

As a kid, I always assumed my mom must have been the "nice one" in the marriage, since Hammer was such a piece of work. In my observations of couples in our pack, and in books and movies, there was always a "nice" one. I imagined my mother was a sweetheart who, if she'd lived, would have given me enough kisses and cuddles to make up for all Hammer's strict discipline.

But maybe Hammer and Coralie were a better match than I thought.

"Money," Catherine says, setting the lantern that will signal the surgery was a success on the ledge for Ford. "It's always money."

"Or power," Alexander says. "Or control."

"But money gives you both of those things," Catherine counters as she tucks my implant into a simple silver locket and snaps it shut. To me she adds, "President Benoit wants to leave a legacy on campus. She's breaking ground on the Doctor Coralie Benoit Library in the spring, and it won't be as fancy as she wants it to be without extra funding."

I wrinkle my nose. "Ego, much?"

Catherine shrugs. "I mean, it's normal for the president to pick a project for the school and name it after themselves once it's completed. But the scale of this project is pretty intense. I, for one, would have been happier with a smaller library and no kissing up to dangerous men for cash."

"Beck's dad owns half of Boston," Alexander explains as he pulls Catherine in for a hug. "See you in the morning, sis. Save me one of the good pastries if you get to the dining hall first."

Catherine laughs. "You save me a pastry. I'm the one who performed major surgery and will need to sleep in a few extra minutes tomorrow to recover."

Alexander shoots me a grin as he moves toward the fire escape on the other side of the roof. "See how she is? Always exaggerating and making me do the grunt work."

I smile. "I think she's right." I lift my arm, where the cut has already healed enough that I don't think I'll need that Band-Aid, after all. "I've clearly been through something major."

He rolls his eyes. "Clearly. Later, ladies."

He disappears and Catherine settles back into the chair across from mine, setting the locket on the table between us. "How do you feel?"

"Still warm," I say, lifting my hair off my neck. "But otherwise, fine. Not any different really, except..."

I trail off as a tingling sensation shivers beneath my skin. My stomach tugs and my shoulders inch toward my ears. It's like the prickling sensation I get when I sense I'm being watched, but...different. "Except?" Catherine prompts after a moment.

I shake my head. "I don't know. It's kind of like déjà vu but also like that nagging feeling you get when you know you're forgetting something, but can't remember what it is?"

She c***s her head. "Huh. I mean, I know what you're talking about, but I've never experienced anything like that related to shifting. My shifter form feels like a dance. Something I can swing into any time, but that I'm not really aware of unless I'm ready to hedgehog." She smiles. "But a flaming magical bird form might be different."Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

"Yeah," I say, forcing a smile even as the back of my throat starts to feel swollen and tight. "I wish there were more phoenix shifters around. It would be nice to get some first-hand advice."

"Let me look in the library tomorrow while you're in class," Catherine says. "I might be able to find something in the student diaries section. In all this time, surely Lost Moon has had a phoenix student at some point. And maybe they wrote about their experience for generations to come."

"I guess I should do that. Journal," I say, the itchy feeling now so intense that I feel compelled to do something about it.

I rise, following the tug in my gut over to the fire escape. With every step I take, the unsettled feeling subsides, replaced by more heat rising from my skin and a different kind of tingling.

The kind that I currently associate with just one person...

I'm not really surprised when I glance over the edge of the roof to see Ford climbing the ladder leading up the side of the building.

Not surprised, but absolutely disturbed.

The closer he gets, the more intense the honeyed, "there it is, the thing I thought I lost," feeling becomes. By the time he swings over the ledge and onto the roof, I feel like I'm floating in warm, happy vibes. Happy, and horny...

Even when he murmurs in a worried voice, "I was hoping you'd still be up. I have some bad news you should both hear as soon as possible," all I want to do is throw myself at him and make out with his sexy face. Looks like my "fated mate" radar is coming online along with my shifter form.

F**k me.