“Do you remember my leaving party?”
Five years ago
“Hey, wait up,” I call to Ryan. He’s getting ready to head to the boathouse for a day on the lake with his friends as a last social gathering before Luca leaves, and there is no way I’m being leftbehind.
“Can’t you hang out with someone your own age for a change?” he asks with a groan, and I roll my eyes. You would think he would be used to my presence by now. I guess I get it. I probably wouldn’t want a sixteen-year-old tagging along if I were twenty-five, either.
“Fine, I know where I’m not wanted.”
“Don’t be a dick, Ryan. Let her come,” Luca cuts in, stepping into the doorway with that smile that always unravels me. “You’re always welcome, as long as it’s safe, Princess.”
The way he says it—so sure—my heart stops beating. This will never get old. How he includes me and welcomes me. Ryan is my brother, and the only family I have really, but Luca is my favorite person in the world.
He’s always there for me; he has my back even when it involves going against his alpha. He laughs at my jokes, and he was the one who put me and Ryan back together when our world fell apart. I kind of wish he weren’t so handsome, though. Because, goddess, he is too good looking. Black hair that’s always hanging in his piercing blue eyes, a strong, muscular, and tall body. And his abs do that V-shape thing that should be illegal.
But he’s nine years older than me and my brother’s beta and best friend, so it’s not as if he would ever see me the way I see him.
He would be horrified if he knew that I fantasize about him and imagine what his lips would taste like. It doesn’t matter; I can’t stop it.
I mouth a ‘thanks’ to him before grabbing my towel. I already have a bikini on under my summer dress.
Luca throws his arm around my shoulder and steers me towards the lake, chatting with me about school, asking how my end-of-year exams went, asking if there are any boys he needs to kill. He has me laughing out loud. I haven’t even looked at any boys other than the one currently telling me I should definitely wait for my mate.
“You know, even when you find your mate, you should probably wait a bit longer. What about until you turn thirty?”
“Like you waited?” I tease while elbowing him in the ribs, even though thinking of his string of exes has pain lancing through my chest.
“That’s different. I’m not as good as you are,” he says while arching a brow. He stares into my soul, letting me know that he genuinely believes that. Not in some messed up patriarchal bullshit way, but as though he really believes I’m worth something.
“Agreed. Definitely wait until you’re at least thirty,” Ryan chimes in as we arrive at the lake. Around ten or so are already here, some sitting on the blankets, others swimming. No sign of Jackson yet, but that’s not a surprise. He rarely comes to these things anymore.
“You are both ridiculous.” I laugh, dropping to the blanket and grabbing a beer from the cooler. Ryan immediately takes it from me and starts drinking it.
“I said you could come, not that you could drink,” he says, raising an eyebrow. That’s his ‘don’t challenge the alpha’ face. It works on pretty much everyone else but not me.
“I don’t see why I can’t have one or two? I’m a shifter; it’s not like I’m a human teenager on spring break. It’ll barely affect me.Come on, Luca, back me up on this?” I ask, glancing at him over my shoulder and giving him my best puppy-dog eyes.
Before he can answer, Caitlyn, a blonde who is wearing heels and a dress that barely covers her ass—comes straight for Luca.
“Is this seat taken?” she says with a giggle before plopping herself on Luca’s lap. My wolf rears up, and my nails extend to claws. This bitch is lucky that I’ve been working on keeping my wolf in check since my first shift when we realized I am an alpha female.
My wolf wants to snarl at her to get away from him. That he’s mine. But I don’t. I can’t. Because he’s not.
“We were in the middle of something,” I snap when Luca says nothing.
“Sweetie, why don’t you run along and let the grownups talk, huh?” She says in the fakest sweet tone I’ve ever heard. “I’m pretty sure the beta doesn’t want to babysit at his own party.”
I cross my arms under my chest and cock a hip, ready to lay into her to defend myself, but I don’t have to.
“Hey,” Luca growls, pushing her off his lap. “Show some respect to Sofia. I want her here. You, on the other hand, are welcome to leave.”
My cheeks burn, but my wolf preens at Luca’s defense of me. At how he prioritized me over what was clearly an easy lay for him. He always has myback.
Present
“That was the last time you had my back,” I reply, my chest tightening as I remember how he stood up for me with Ryan and then again with that she-wolf.
“People were starting to whisper. You remember Caitlyn?” he asks, and my wolf surges forward with a snarl even though Caitlyn left the pack a couple of years back when she met her mate.
