Page 20 of Alpha Varsity (Wolf Ridge High #5)

Chapter Twenty

A sher

I feel the impact before I hear the crunch of metal crushing. Glass shatters all around me. My body is launched into the air and hurled fifty feet to the side of the highway, where I roll.

The sound of brakes squealing reminds me to get back on my feet and run away from human eyes.

Blood soaks my fur. Some of my bones are broken, but I ignore the pain.

Fuck, where am I?

I become dimly aware of the fact that my paws are scraped and bloody, and I’m far, far out of wolf territory. I’m halfway to the Grand Canyon, deep in bear country. And I will not win a fight against a bear shifter if I run across one.

I look up at the sky. By the placement of the sun, I would guess it’s past noon.

I’ve been running for hours, blind to my path. Blind to anything but vengeance.

Except I have absolutely no ability to execute that vengeance. I don’t know where my dad is or even where to start looking for him.

Clearly my brain went off-line when I wolfed out and ran.

Lotta.

Oh, fate. I ran off and left my mate. I should’ve taken her into my arms and held her. Dropped to my knees and begged her forgiveness for being such an ass. Instead, I raged out and ran.

Hardly honorable mate behavior.

I wheel around. I need to get back to her. I abandoned my mate when I should’ve been there for her–twice.

Fuck. I need to get back as quickly as I can.

It takes me an eternity to get home. My brain has kicked in enough for me to realize I shouldn’t run straight to school in wolf form. Especially not bloody and limping as I am. I stop at my place and rinse off the blood, dust, and brambles in the shower. Several of my ribs and my lower leg are broken, and the pain of their regrowth is worse than the impact of that car that hit me.

And thank fuck it did because it knocked the sense back into me. If it hadn’t, I might be in Colorado by now. I wince as I hurriedly get dressed. School is already over, but Lotta will still be there.

I climb on my motorcycle and drive to school.

The team is out on the field. Coach Jamison puts his hands on his hips when he sees me. When I stalk toward the school, he blows his whistle and throws his hands in the air with a what the fuck? gesture .

I ignore him. Already desperate to see Lotta and apologize, now something has the hairs on my arms standing up.

Something feels off. Something besides what happened this morning.

I pull open the door to the school.

“Asher! What are you doing?” Coach yells.

I jog down the hallway to the art studio, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

Through the window of the door, I see another figure standing in the art studio with Lotta. A man.

A man is with my mate.

My logical brain tries to stop me. It’s probably the principal. Or the janitor. Or another teacher. It could be another student. My illogical thought is that it’s my dad.

A haze of red-brown covers my vision.

I know it’s not true, but my wolf needs to make sure. I have to eliminate all threats to my mate.

I grip the door handle hard enough to bust the hardware, but manage to stop myself before I yank. I try to force in a calming breath. I shouldn’t open this door. Lotta needs our relationship to remain a secret. How bad will it look if I go barging in there, and she’s with another teacher?

My wolf doesn’t give a fuck. He’s in a frenzy. He needs to get between Carlotta’s body and that other guy’s at all costs.

I squeeze my eyes closed, leashing the intense possessiveness I feel. I can’t show that here. I can’t show anything. I can’t fuck up this job for Lotta.

I grip the door knob and turn it slowly, silently. Lotta and her visitor are now hidden from my vantage point, standing behind the canvases in her makeshift studio.

“No, but the question is, what are you going to do for me?” There’s a sexually suggestive lilt to the man’s voice that makes me nearly shift. I want to tear him apart with my teeth and watch his blood spill all over the linoleum tile floor.

As I storm across the classroom, I hear the sound of a light slap. “Get off me, Andy.” There’s no ambiguity to her tone.

That’s all the green light I need to kill this guy. I somehow manage not to fling aside every canvas that stands in the way of me seeing them. I make it around the corner only knocking one easel over.

There, I find some asshole human crowding Lotta’s space, his hands resting on both her hips, his smiling face leaning close to her frowning one.

“ She said get off .” There’s an inhuman growl to my voice.

“Asher!”

The alarm on Lotta’s face doesn’t register soon enough for me to check my aggression. I don’t know what she was going to say, but it’s too late. Nothing can stop me now.

I pick up Lotta’s visitor by the throat, draw my arm back and hurl him forward through the air. My healing ribs crack, rebreaking from the effort.

I forgot he was human. I forgot to hold back my strength.

He smashes through the plate glass window, his body continuing to soar through the air another twenty feet where he lands in a roll on the grass outside.

“Asher, no!” Lotta shrieks, her eyes wide with horror.

Her upset should slow me down, but instead my wolf only registers that she’s still in danger. I stomp across the broken glass, and kick out the remaining pieces along the frame, so I can jump out and finish him off.

“Asher!” Lotta jumps on my back, her forearm against my windpipe like she can choke me. I hardly feel her weight. I’m oblivious to what she wants from me.

My focus is on the human climbing to his feet, apparently still capable of walking. He won’t be soon.

“Asher, no!” She bites my ear.

I jerk my head away, but she clamps her teeth down harder, breaking the skin. Blood drips down my neck.

Some question pops in my mind about what’s happening, but I can’t focus.

She puts her hands over my eyes, so I can’t see.

I pause, finally registering that she’s trying to stop me.

“Asher, y ou have to stop now.”

Reality starts to seep in through the fog of rage. Reality and a whisper of dread.

Oh, fuck. What have I done?

My breath is coming in hard. I take a step back and then another.

Lotta uncovers my eyes, and I stare at the mess I’ve made.

“Fuck.”

“It’s okay.” Lotta sounds like she’s trying to talk herself into it, too. “He’s still alive. He doesn’t even look hurt. You get out of here now. I will handle this.”

I stay frozen where I am. The enormity of what I’ve done hits me like a bowling ball to the stomach. I just attacked a human. I broke the biggest pack rule, right after never revealing our nature to humans. Fuck, I broke that one, too. Because that guy just had a taste of my super human strength.

“Fuck, Lotta. I’m sorry. I–I didn’t mean to.” I’m still staring at the guy staggering around on the grass. “I mean, I did, but I lost control.”

“I know . He was assaulting me. You couldn’t help it. But Asher, you can’t tell them I’m your mate. Let me handle this. Please?”

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

This is it–the moment I always knew would come. I’m going to be banished like my father was. I became the man I now want to kill.

If I tell them Lotta’s my mate, I might be released from culpability. They would understand there’s nothing more powerful than a male wolf’s need to protect his fated mate. Everyone knows that, whether they have a fated mate or not.

But I won’t do that to Lotta. As much as it’s killing me, she needs us to remain a secret. She needs this job, and I have to respect her wishes. Especially when she directly asked me not to tell.

It’s all right. I was never going to be able to make it on the straight and narrow path, anyway. I would’ve tried for Lotta, but it’s too late now. After the shit I’ve put her through, the best thing I can do for her is leave.

She didn’t want to be cuffed to me, anyway. She made that plain from the beginning. She doesn’t want to be a wolf or have a mate.

I take another step backward.

Lotta splits her glances between the man out on the grass and me.

There’s blood dripping from my hands. I must’ve grasped the jagged window frame when I was trying to get out.

“Asher— go ,” Lotta hisses. “Get out of here. You will only make things worse. I’m going to fix this.”

I hold no faith in her ability to fix this. But yeah. I’m resigned to this fate.

I was never going to get the happy ending. I was never going to have a mate who wanted me to claim her. Her parents were never going to accept our mating. This town was never going to support me after what my father did, and now I don’t blame them.

“Yeah. Okay. I’m gone.”

The weight of two tanks fill my limbs as I turn and jerkily walk away.