Page 9 of Ruthless Alpha Beast

“Tara, don’t be silly, I’m not leaving you here alone,” Lacey said, trying her best to smile, but I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was done. She was going through more than she ever wanted to let on, and hiding her emotions was just her way.

I placed my hand on top of hers. “I can tell that you’re exhausted. Going out is supposed to be fun, and if you’re not feeling it, that’s completely fine. I want you to be comfortable.”

She shook her head and then looked around hesitantly at the bar filled with shifters. All of them, we both knew, had the ability to snap my neck in seconds should they so want to. As much as I wanted to stay, the risk of being a human there alone was too big.

“I promise we’ll go out another night, together,” Lacey said with a wounded smile.

I nodded. “It’s no big deal, really.”

The truth was, I’d been looking forward to getting out of my shitty town all week. Every time I met with Lacey and entered the alternative reality of the supernatural world, I felt alive. I felt like I could finally be myself.

It’s hard to explain.

But Lacey’s well-being came first, of course, and I knew we’d have a chance to go out to a supernatural bar again.

“Come on,” I said. “I’m walking you back.”

“Oh,you’rewalkingme?” She laughed.

“Yup.”

Once I walked Lacey as close to her pack as I could go without getting noticed by one of their guards, I gave her a tight squeeze and bid her goodbye.

“Are you good getting back alone?”

“Of course,” I said.

I wasn’t scared; I don’t know why. Maybe I should have been, but the supernatural part of the valley felt like home. Even then. It was like being immersed in one of my storybooks, but in a whole new way.

As I walked, two paths lay before me, one leading to my car and the other to my crappy, empty human town. The other one that led to the bar filled with shifter werewolves.

A nagging voice urged me.So what if you get one more drink? What else are you going to do? Sulk at home by yourself?

Already a little tipsy, I didn’t want to think. I just moved. Before I knew it, my legs were taking me back toward the thumping music, the neon lights, and the building full of wolves.

I entered the place with confidence, holding my head high, and took a seat at the bar.

“One glass of the house red.”

I hardly even recognized the self-assured confidence in my tone. I was no longer Tara, a tragic loner human with zero purpose in life; I was a confident heroine living in a supernatural world. Special and unique.

Once I got my glass, the bartender busied himself, and when he returned, he told me my card wasn’t needed. That my drink was already taken care of.

I was confused at first. Did Lacey somehow know I’d come back here? But then I followed his gaze along the bar to where it stopped on the most incredible man I’d ever seen.

Correction, shifter—of course.

Blonde hair, blue-gray eyes that somehow sharpened beneath the neon lights. I held my breath, my stomach tightening as I watched his gaze rake over me.

This, I thought, is the kind of guy I think of when I imagine a supernatural werewolf or a hero in a storybook. He’s enormous, towering above the bar with muscles as defined as boulders.

The jocks at my high school have nothing on him.

I smiled, shyly, and then my cheeks flushed as I looked the other way.

He’s making fun of me, I thought, he has to be. No guy like that would be interested in a girl, ahuman, like me.

All the other shifters in the bar were so beautiful, like supermodels. I’m short, I have fat deposits in places where magazine covers tell me they shouldn’t be.