Page 5 of Chasing The Alpha's Son
And on the back is the seal of the alpha.
Gulp.
Maybe forgetting is easier said than done.
AN INVITATION
I hop from one foot to the other trying to keep warm while I wait for Aisha to get out of practice. I’ve been hanging around in this alley staring at the maroon-painted steel door for almost half an hour. The envelope is burning a hole in my pocket, right next to my cell. Some beefy guy in a black puffer gives me a strange look as he passes and slips in through the cast entrance of the theater.
What? You don’t like my Kermit impression?
Finally, the door opens and a stream of flush-faced ballet-bun-sporting dancers flow out. Practice must be over.Good.Flesh-colored tights stick out the bottom of large winter coats and I’m overwhelmed by the sheer number of leg warmers. Everyone looks so fit and healthy. A couple of guys walk past—one with the most pristinely groomed eyebrows and well-coiffed hair I’ve ever seen, and the other with a buzz cut and shoulders wider than my arm span. They glance in my direction, and I dart my eyes to the ground.
“Hey dude.” I glance back up and Aisha is standing a few feet away, hand on a hip, eyebrow raised. “This is a surprise. What are you doing here? I don’t think we made plans.”
“Do you know about this?” I pull the crumpled envelope out and shove it into her hand.
She turns it over, staring at it like it’s some archeological artifact I’ve recovered from a tomb. “Know about what? What is this?”
“Open it.”
She lifts the crinkled flap and pulls out the letter.
Her eyes scan the page and she pouts. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Is this some kind of joke? Where did this come from?”
Aisha exhales through her nose and shakes her head.
“It’s an invitation to a party, not a death threat.”
She’s not taking this seriously enough, so I snatch back the letter.
“It’s an invitation to the Yule Ball, at the freaking Plaza! The only people who get invited to this are personally selected by the alpha.”
She shrugs. “Is that a bad thing?”
“Why would the alpha invite me unlesssomeoneasked him to?”
“I dunno,” she says, trying hard not to smile too widely at my discomfort. “Maybe he likes you.”
“Or maybe Jasper asked him to invite me…”
Adrenaline surges through my body in an instant, boiling the blood in my face, making my legs shaky. It’s the only explanation for why I’d be invited to the Yule Ball. The only possible wayIwould have been included on the guest list of such a prestigious event. But I hadn’t let myself believe it until the words were coming out of my mouth.
“It’s possible,” Aisha says, still acting way too cool about the whole thing. “Jasper does get to invite people. That’s why I’m going.”
The relief is like a cool wave sploshing over me, taking away some of the searing pain from my cheeks.
“You’re going?”
“Ahuh.”
“Okay, that’s good.” At least I’ll have a friend when I go—ifI go.I’m not going to go, am I?
“But why would Jasper invite me now? He hasn’t spoken to me since September.”
“That I can’t say. Maybe he just felt like it was time.”
