Page 4 of Alpha Varsity (Wolf Ridge High #5)

Chapter Four

A sher

My fingers close into fists as I stride down the hall. My knuckles crack and snap. Eric Damonella is going to die.

At lunch, I heard a rumor–a rumor I am going to kill him for.

Supposedly, he has a pair of Carlotta’s panties, and he’s saying he came here and hooked up with her during the full moon run last night.

Obviously, I know that’s not true.

I know because I still remember the feel of her slender body beneath mine. How it felt to drive into her and make her scream out her pleasure.

He probably brought a pair of his sister’s panties to school. All I care about is that he’s spreading lies about Carlotta that degrade and objectify her.

I may be the asshole who sits in the back and disrespects her in class, but that sure as fuck doesn’t mean I’m going to stand by and let Eric Damonella humiliate her. I have my reasons for hating her .

Reasons she understands. Reasons no one else needs to know.

But I will beat anyone else to a pulp for doing more than following my lead in class.

I throw open the door to the art room. It has one of those hinges that automatically pull it closed, but I hit the door so hard the hinge busts off and clatters to the floor.

I don’t give a fuck.

Eric is sitting in the back row, where my buddies and I sit, and he is showing the guys something in the pocket of his backpack.

I drop my backpack and shove a row of tables out of my way as I march through, sending students’ artwork flying. Believe it or not, I still don’t have Eric’s attention. He’s too busy telling some fucked up story to Seb and Markley, who I will kill for looking at the pair of panties he’s flashing.

“No, dude. I’m not making it up. Smell them for yourself.” He balls the fabric in his fist and passes it to Seb.

I nearly lose control of my wolf. I leap over the bank of tables in time to grab Eric’s wrist before he completes the pass-off.

Snap.

I break the bones in his wrist with one swift corkscrew spiral.

A human girl in the class screams.

But my wolf isn’t satisfied yet.

“Asher Martin!” Lotta snaps, rushing toward us. Her scent enters my nostrils–cool and earthy at once. Jasmine and honey.

She’s in a bright turquoise top cropped above her belly button and a plain black skirt that hits above the knee but unfortunately hugs her ass in a way that makes my mouth water .

I glare at that heart shaped perfection. I hate everything about her.

And I don’t want her close to me now. Her scent fucks with my wolf, and he’s already getting off-leash.

“ Stand down. ”

My wolf recognizes the sound of our mate, but that only riles him further. Like he believes she’s in physical danger from this asshole, rather than just reputational.

I palm Eric’s head and smash it down on the table, facing Carlotta. “Tell Ms. James what you’re saying.”

Eric splutters.

“Go on. Tell her.” I keep his face pressed to the laminate.

“Let go of me, dude.” He struggles to sweep his leg behind mine to take me down.

I pick up my large foot and push it against the side of his knee. “Want me to break the knee, too?”

Eric’s a shifter. He’ll heal in a couple of days. Still, fights aren’t allowed on school property. There are human teachers and students who would be horrified by the level of violence shifters exhibit in a fight. Plus, there will be the problem of explaining why we heal so quickly. Eric will now have to wear a cast, healed or not.

“Dude, what’s your problem? I thought you hated Ms. James.”

I pick up his head and bash it back down. The human in the front shrieks again. I’m definitely breaking all the pack and school rules right now. There will be hell to pay for this, but I’m used to being the pack pariah. My dad and Lotta made sure of that.

“ Asher!” Carlotta barks. “That’s enough . Let him go. Now . ”

“Apologize to Ms. James.” I’ve cooled down a bit now that he’s pinned, and I can smell his pain.

“Sorry, Ms. James,” he pants quickly.

“Tell her what you’re sorry for.” My voice is harder than stone.

I glance at the floor where the panties dropped when he lost control of the use of his fingers. I point. “Give me those,” I say to Seb.

Seb complies, picking up the panties and searching my face as he hands them to me. I’m sure my behavior seems like a complete one-eighty. My usual aim in this class is taunting our substitute teacher not defending her.

I hold them up. Everything in me is hardened and mean. “What are you saying about these?”

The part that throws me off is the way Carlotta’s face drains of color when she sees the panties.

Are these her panties? Eric did tell Seb to smell them.

I shove them in my back pocket, trying to get control of my wolf’s rage.

He didn’t touch her. No way.

My mind is going wild, though. What if he got to her after I did? No. I don’t believe it.

Besides, if he had, she wouldn’t have been wearing panties.

So, what the fuck?

I turn my attention back to Eric, who I fear I will genuinely murder.

I bang his head once more and punch him in the kidney. “Tell Ms. James what you’re saying about her.”

“I’m sorry!” Eric yelps. “I said we had sex. I’m an asshole, okay?”

I watch Carlotta’s face transform into shock then outrage. But does it mean she didn’t have sex with him? Or did she?

Fuck, I’m so off-balance here. I don’t know if I can’t trust any of my thoughts about that female.

“Both of you, to the principal’s office. Now,” she snarls.

My gaze meets Carlotta’s and locks. Color has returned to her face through two bright spots high on her cheeks. Anger flashes in her golden gaze. “ Now, Asher. ”

I gotta hand it to her. She knows how to infuse alpha command in her tone for such a petite shifter. It doesn’t affect me physically, but she sure sounds like she wields deadly force behind it.

I don’t want to let go of Eric, but what else can I do? He confessed and apologized. Unless I’m actually going to kill him, the fight is over. Reluctantly, I lift my vise-like hold on his head, then grip him under the armpit to haul him to stand.

I stalk out of the class, grabbing my backpack on the way out the door. Outside the classroom, I turn to give Carlotta another look.

She’s watching me with–is it misgiving? Regret?

Well, she should be sorry.

I hope she’s spent as many nights awash in misery as my mom and I have for what she did to us.

Lotta

I tap on Principal Olsen’s door even though his secretary told me he was waiting for me.

I’m a teacher now–an adult, I try to remind myself because I’m feeling very much like a naughty school girl. Well, I did fuck up. The adult thing is to own it completely .

Unless he doesn’t know what happened. In which case, I should keep my mouth shut. Ack–I don’t know how to play this!

“Carlotta.” His gaze is disapproving to say the least. “Have a seat.”

I sit in the chair opposite him and cross my legs.

“I came in this morning to find your clothing strewn throughout the hallway. Care to explain?”

My face burns hot. Fate, I hope he assumed it was because I shifted and not that I had hot and heavy sex with someone in the school.

“I am so sorry. I had a…mishap last night.”

“Of what nature?”

“This is really embarrassing, but the truth is, I haven’t shifted since I left for college.” I force my hands to stop fidgeting in my lap by holding them tightly together. “After the first few months, I found the full moons actually weakened my energy and life force. But last night while I was painting here, I heard the pack howls, and my wolf awoke. It was like I was a prepubescent teen again–I had no control over the shift. I ran to get out of the school. When I returned, I discovered I’d locked myself out. I planned to come in early to rectify the clothing in the hall situation, but somehow, I guess as a result of my first shift in almost five years, I completely overslept.”

I leave out the part about realizing my fated mate is here, in Wolf Ridge. A member of this pack. What are the chances? Of all the hundreds of thousands of wolves scattered across the globe, my fated mate would be from my hometown. The place I am desperate to get out of.

Principal Olsen frowns, exuding that alpha power and sternness that makes him a good principal to a school full of wolf shifters. “You should have contacted me last night when you realized you were locked out.”

“Yes, sir.” I want to throw out the excuse that my phone was locked inside as well, but I could have gone to my parents’ house to borrow one of theirs. I just didn’t want to admit to my mom anything of what had transpired.

“You’re right. The truth is, I lost control, and then I was embarrassed, and my failure to take responsibility for my actions made it all worse. I’m sorry.”

“I’m guessing Eric Damonella found your panties somewhere on campus?”

My face flames hotter. Is it possible to die of humiliation? It’s not, right? Because it really seems like I might die right here, right now.

I clear my throat. “Uh, yeah, that’s my guess, too.”

“I understand he claimed to other students that he had sex with you.”

Gross. As if I’d have sex with a student.

Having a kid telling everyone he screwed me was the kind of pervy shit I expected from the situation. What I didn’t expect was having Asher Martin defend me.

What was that about?

The guy literally hates me. He sits in the back of my class and mutters backtalk the entire period. I’ve already given him detention twice for his behavior in my class, and I’ve only been teaching at Wolf Ridge for two weeks.

Asher never does any of the work I assign. I predict he will be benched soon from playing football because he’s failing my class. Which will be a problem, since I understand he’s one of the school’s star players.

I don’t relish delivering that punishment, though. It will just give him another reason to believe I ruined his life .

“I’m sure you know that’s not true. That would be highly unethical.”

“Yes. I questioned him. He lied about spreading rumors about you, but he told the truth when I asked point-blank if he’d had sexual relations of any kind with you.”

I nod.

“I don’t want rumors spread about my teachers sleeping with their students in this school. I don’t want teacher’s panties being handed around by students. If you can’t get control of your wolf around the full moon, stay away from this school after hours. I gave you keys and permission to use the art studio on your own time as a favor. Don’t make me regret it. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. Perfectly.”

I hesitate. Before he dismisses me, I have to ask about Asher.

“Given that it was my folly that caused the fight in my classroom, I hope you, um, didn’t go too hard on Asher. He was just…acting gentlemanly, to be honest.”

I don’t know why that idea makes a knot tighten under my ribs.

Because it shows he cares? No, he clearly doesn’t. It just shows there’s a decent guy under all that assholery.

“I suspended him for the rest of the week, but allowed him to play in this weekend’s game. We have college scouts attending, and he’s one of our best.”

Relief pours through me. “Good. That’s important.”

“I will have to notify Alpha Green and the council, though. He broke pack rules showing his nature in front of the humans in your class. Plus, the violence was excessive.”

Fuck.

My mom is on that council. She won’t be kind to Asher because of her bias against his dad .

My stomach twists. He may be a pain in my ass right now, but I happen to know how much he’s been through. If he gets himself banished from the pack, I will be sick over it.

“Are you sure that’s necessary?”

I still have this ever-present need to protect Asher. But he’s not thirteen anymore. He’s eighteen–an adult now. And my past attempt to protect him only messed up his life even more. But somehow, I can’t seem to stop myself.

“Are you questioning my judgment?”

“No, sir. Sorry.” I stand. “Thank you for your understanding. I won’t let it happen again, I assure you.”

“See that you don’t.”

I walk out, trying not to think about Asher’s fate. It’s his problem, not mine.

It was just my panties that started it. Gah!