But then I really didn’t have to guess. I could smell it on him, and I also caught a whiff of her hatred. It’s funny how emotions could tamper with someone’s scent. It made them an open book, really.

What was going on between them? Dominic hadn’t taken her as his mate. Their scents were still distinctly separate. But there was something about the way that he had looked at her. It was as if she was his. It was full of safety — a guarded protection. He may have been angry, but it had been clear that he would have never hurt her. Not really.

And I didn’t know how I felt about that. When a wolf picked a mate that was it. It was for life, and the thought of her being someone else’s made my stomach clench. It was stupid. I didn’t know anything about the girl other than that she was cute and she had pissed off more than one of my pack members, but when I spoke to her, I couldn’t deny that I never wanted to stop hearing the sound of her voice. Even when she was clearly nervous, she had been confident about it. Her voice hadn’t wavered. It was strong, and sweet. Sure and stable. She knew exactly who she was, and she was so positive about it, that I wanted nothing more than to know her, too. She was definitely … intriguing.

Why had I told her I was registering for school? I should have come up with a better lie than that. I graduated last year. Ugh! I should have just left it alone. She was obviously on the verge of being spoken for, and besides that, I no longer had the luxury of choice. Alphas don’t get to choose. A frustrated growl rumbled up my throat and after another long look at the path that Jade had disappeared down, I turned and started for my car.

The cool breeze was refreshing, as I made my way to the front of the school. Everything was still green, but soon it would change. The grass would die, the leaves would fall. Longer nights under the moon. For the first time in years, I was excited for the winter to come. I actually had a pack to run with. One that was not my father’s.

Dog Mountain was small. Everything connected to the one street that ran through its center. There were a few shops, a handful of restaurants, a grocery store, and a hardware store. I was told that in the summer months, it was a busy place, packed full of tourists coming to enjoy the hot springs that were tucked in the mountain, but it was hard to imagine it as I drove through the empty looking town. There were a few people walking on the street. Out of the ten people I saw, six of them were werewolves. At only 4:15, most of the shops were already closed for the day, with only the grocery store and restaurants still open.

I pulled into the driveway of the shabby looking motel that I now called home, and wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Dominic’s VW sitting in front of my room. He was leaning against his car, arms folded over his chest, and his legs crossed at the ankles.

I parked beside him, shut off the engine, and jumped out. “You were following me, weren’t you?” he asked, not even bothering to look at me.

I walked past him, digging out the flimsy plastic key-card from my pocket, and unlocked the room door. I thought about ignoring the question, but seeing him leaning there, so calm and cool, and with an obvious lack of respect, annoyed the hell out of me. “I was,” I snapped. “Spread the word through the pack; Jade is off limits.” As soon as the words came out, I regretted them. I could almost feel the anger rolling off of him instantly.

I pushed the door open and went straight for the curtains, pulling them closed. The room was an eye sore, and the sunlight dancing off the dust that coated the dark wooden surfaces of the desk and dresser only made it worse. I made a mental note to get cleaning supplies. I wasn’t a clean freak by any means, but the dust was starting to drive me crazy.

“Dude, you can’t claim her.” Dominic was right on my heels, coming into my room and slamming the door with a jarring thud. “You lost that privilege when you became the alpha. You know how it works. You can’t just pick a mate.” There was a protective edge to his tone that cut through me like a jagged and dull knife.

Dominic pulled out the desk chair and spun it around before dropping down into it. I could feel the hostility rolling off of him in waves, even if he did keep his tone even and the usual mask tightly in place.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said with a huff, except it kind of had been what I had meant, but I wasn’t about to admit it. I knew the rules better than most of this pack. My dad had been drilling them into me since I was old enough to understand. “Make sure Erika knows to leave her alone. Same goes for everyone else, including you.” I narrowed my eyes and I could feel my eyebrows knit together as I glared at him. “This pack is going to learn to treat people with respect.”

Dominic held my stare for a long moment, his hazel eyes shifting more yellow with every passing second. For a moment, I thought he was going to try to lecture me again on why an alpha wasn’t free to pick a mate, but he didn’t. Instead of arguing with me, he said in an acidic tone, “Yeah, sure, whatever you want.”

The tension in the room was thick as we both glared at one another, neither of us willing to back down. Secretly, I kind of admired his gall. He had only known me for half a day, and in that time, he had watched me kill the alpha, and still, he stood up to me. This was the kind of beta I needed. One that wouldn’t hesitate to tell me I was wrong. One that would stand up to me when I was making dumbass decisions. That’s what my father’s beta had done for him, and that’s what I wanted, too. Except, Dominic didn’t stand up to me because he was trying to help, he did it because he had absolutely no respect for me.

“You will start showing me some respect,” I said evenly, forging an authority into my voice that I didn’t feel, but I was already getting sick of the way he challenged my every decision, and it had only been twelve hours now. It had to stop. “This is your last warning.”

“You think you can run this pack without me?” He tensed in his chair, and his muscles shuddered under his skin as if he was on the verge of shifting.

I narrowed my eyes further and gritted my teeth. “Are you challenging me?” It came out as a growl.

Dominic considered it. He looked me up and down, insolently, and the first snap of a bone breaking and grinding sounded loudly in my ears. Bristles of coarse hair littered his cheekbones. His eyes glowed yellow, as his shift to a wolf began.

Okay, so that wasn’t what I had expected. My jaw hardened, and I widened my eyes, staring him down. My inner-wolf squirmed in my stomach, itching to come out, but I held it back, if only barely. Pins and needles rushed over my skin as my fur began to sprout. I stepped closer to him; a savage growl erupted from deep within my gut, and rumbled through my lips.

Dominic’s eyes widened, and for a split second, fear passed across them. It didn’t last. “Nope,” he said, shrugging his shoulders; any trace of the wolf vanished. “Just stating the obvious. Ray couldn’t do it, and you won’t be able to either.” He spun the chair lazily in slow circles, and all the tension in him melted away, replaced by the cool conceit that I was getting used to seeing in him. “Once Bruce’s pack finds out about you, they’ll be here, ripping this town apart while you’re weak, and I know them. I’m the one with the contact. I know how they work and where they’ll hit.” He chuckled and grinned. “You just focus on the games. Without a strong mate, you’re as good as dead.”

Again, I wanted to tell him to get out. How was I supposed to work with him? I didn’t like him, didn’t trust him. Everything about him screamed authority and he wouldn’t back down. He had made it clear more than once that he didn’t want to be the alpha, but I wasn’t buying it. No one would go to such extremes to show their dominance if they didn’t want the position. There was just something about him that got my defenses up and whatever it was, it only felt more intense with each passing minute.

He was still spinning the chair around in slow circles, when I finally dropped my glare and padded over to the lumpy bed. I sprawled out, staring up at the off-white popcorn ceiling. I couldn’t say how long we sat there, neither of us bothering to say anything, when I asked, “Why haven’t you made a move for her?” I hadn’t even really realized that I wanted to know his reason until the words were out of my mouth. I glanced over at him then and he was smirking.

Dominic’s smirk turned into a smile and his shoulders began to shake as he tried to hold in a laugh. “Is that what you think?” He burst out into laughter, and choked out, “Dude, I’m into men.”

That hadn’t been the answer I had expected, and I was sure that if I hadn’t been able to smell the truth in his scent, or hear the steady beat of his heart, I wouldn’t have believed him. As I looked at him, though, even without those other things, I could see the truth written all over his face, and it confused the hell out of me. The kind of hatred I saw between him and Jade was the kind of hatred that stemmed from a lot of hurt feelings and a deep connection. Maybe they were together before he realized? I wondered.

“Why does she hate you so much?” I asked.

His smile vanished and his laughter died abruptly. “She doesn’t hate me.” His tone was insolent, his jaw, clenched. It was as if he was daring me to say that Jade didn’t like him.

“I’m not an idiot, Dominic,” I growled and sat up, glaring at him.

He threw his hands up in surrender. “Seriously, she doesn’t hate me exactly,” he said with more than a little contempt. “Jade just hates the pack. She thinks we ruined her life. She’d be happy if there was no such thing as a werewolf.” He was lying. I could hear it in his voice. It was defensive, and wavered slightly. I was about to call him on it when he smirked, and chuckled. “But don’t worry about it too much. Soon enough she’ll hate you, too.”

I lay back on the bed, forcing my tense muscles to relax. I didn’t want to think about her, or anyone hating me just because I shifted into a wolf every once in a while. It was still hard to wrap my head around the town dynamics. Humans knowingly living with werewolves. It seemed wrong and utterly perfect all at the same time. I figured it would make life easier, not having to hide, and from what I’d heard about Bruce’s pack, not hiding would make these people a whole lot safer. But still … it was weird.