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But that wasn’t what had happened. Instead, she had broken down. She’d clung to her children. She’d begged her alpha not to be paired with me.
I clenched my fists at my side.After what her family did, she has the audacity to reject me?
More confusion slid into place, causing my muscles to quake while I tried to keep steady ground. Though I had done everything in my power to convey the irritation I felt, something else broke through the surface of my contempt, something deeply unexpected.
It was lust.
That shoulder-check wasn’t an accident, yet I couldn’t tell which one of us had done it. There was a wolf inside me dying for physical touch again, so much so that he was willing to initiate it through aggression. Not that I would ever lay my hands upon Sara—or Virginia, whatever—in a way that she wouldn’t specifically request.
However much I wanted to resist her body, it called to me, urging me to act and take matters into my own hands. I didn’t like being told what to do. Being paired with Virginia agitated me—yet being abruptly denied that pairing made my anger triple in size.
Nobody would keep my desires at bay. Not even my parents could have done that. History told a story of two people who were drawn to each other in ways that were forbidden. Was that history about to repeat itself?
I turned to the stage. It wasn’t my problem anymore.Shewasn’t my problem anymore. The alphas were likely trying to think of someone to match her with so her rejection wouldn’t eat her alive. Those kids needed a stable home, and I wasn’t about to take on someone else’s kids as my own.
That went well, didn’t it?I thought while watching everyone flood to the doors.Jerry Springer couldn’t have possibly done better.
Disappointment settled in my gut like a bad steak. Something about the way she had checked me as she passed bothered me and enticed me at the same time. Old-school Virginia was notorious for starting shit where there was no shit. That had to be the reason that weirdo Bentley had been staring at her, and why he’d chosen to expose her as a Walsh.
Which should have been a good thing. But something about it was bothering me. Something was telling me I needed to follow Virginia and her kids home.
Noise exploded in the hallway. Shouts followed. I raced into the crowd to search the area for discord, noticing that two men were in a heated debate about what had just transpired. No doubt they were trying to just get some of that unfiltered energy out of their bodies, but fighting wasn’t going to get it done. Shifting would be better. Somebody had to talk some sense into them.
When I saw Troy and Blake break through the crowd, relief washed over me. I sensed that they would handle the situation, so I didn’t need to stick around. But if they were here, then who would be walking with Virginia and her children?
Panic wrapped its icy fingers around my heart. I shoved my way through the crowd, fighting the urge to shift with so many people crowding around me. We were packed like sardines in this hallway. If the alphas didn’t get their members under control, it would surely turn into a mob. Men I had seen flock around the alphas jumped into action, one of them looking like he was related to Troy. That must have been the Bravecrest crew.
Once I got through the hallway, I stumbled out of the double doors and whipped my head around. I spun in a circle about three times, trying to sense Virginia, my nose wiggling viciously to catch her scent on the breeze. I stood still, closed my eyes, and angled my nose to the sky.
Sea salt and berries smacked me in the nostrils. That was her—that was Virginia. She had used this sea salt hairspray back in the day, something that made her blonde hair frizz out around her face in a sort of controlled explosion. She called it emo. I called it a mess.
My eyes snapped open and I sprinted to the left, using my instincts to locate the woman who had broken my heart and my family. Why was I chasing after her? Why did I want to shake the ship when my alphas clearly wanted to keep everything under control?
Why are you being rebellious, Slater?
This wasn’t the time for my mother’s voice to activate in the back of my brain. Nobody else was going to protect Virginia, so it had to be me. That was how it had been in the past—and that had gotten me burned. Yet I couldn’t ignore the persistent feeling in my gut that something was truly wrong.
And I had to do something about it.
Dirt and rocks skittered away from my boots, kicking up dust in my wake as I barreled down the neighborhood road. Somebody squealed. Two children started yelling. I doubled down and ran faster, nearly shifting as my vision tunneled and locked on the four figures ahead.
As more details came into view, I realized Bentley was trying to grab Virginia, and her children were growling for him to bug off. I lowered my head and rammed into Bentley’s ribs, sending the fucker flying ten feet away and into someone’s flower bed. The twins jumped up and down while Virginia stared on in shock. Me, well, I was barely affected by the encounter, my head as hard as a damn rock since the war. (And from the headbanging experience too.)
I wiped invisible dirt from my arms and then shrugged my shoulders. “Need an escort?” Naturally, I extended my elbow to her, but she didn’t seem inclined to take it. She was too busy staring at Bentley.
What in the world was so appealing about a bozo with a bad nose who was getting into her business?
“Sara?”
Her eyes went so wide that I thought they would become planets with their own orbit. “My name is Virginia now.”
One of her twins stepped forward. “Thanks, mister. No one seems to like us here.”
My heart practically melted at the child’s claim. If what I had witnessed back at the rec center was evidence, then these three had been facing trouble all along, even without the dirty rumor of a deceptive Walsh being around.
I looked at Virginia, thinking about how I had corrected myself a while back with her name, and considering how she must have felt at this moment in time, staring at this man who used to know her. Who technicallystillknew her. How did she feel?
My eyes dropped to her chest where her heart thudded like it was dying for oxygen-rich blood. “Virginia.”
