Page 6 of Chasing The Alpha's Son
I throw my head back and fling myself against the brick wall like a damsel in a black-and-white film collapsing against a banister.
“Calm down, Scarlett, don’t hurt yourself.”
Eyes squeezed shut, I press my head against the wall and try to think. I know I’m acting like a hysterical nut, but I just don’t get it… Why now?
“I wanted to forget about him,” I say, opening my eyes. “I was ready to move on. I’d decided to move on.”
Sighing a gentle sympathetic sigh, Aisha steps to my side and leans her shoulder against the wall.
“I know things have been hard,” she says. “But maybe he wants to see you.”
I glare at her out of the corner of my eye. “Did he say something to you?”
“What?! No.” She scoffs and pushes off the wall, turning away with her tongue pressed into her cheek. A totally sus reaction.
“He did! What did he say?”
“Nothing,” she says, hands up like she’s under arrest. “Honest to the Moon Gods, he didn’t say anything about inviting you to the Yule Ball. I swear.”
“Then why are you acting weird?”
“We hung out the other day”—she leans back against the brick, her shoulder brushing against mine—“and he told me he thinks about you.”
Doesn’t seem likely. “Jasper said that?”
“Scout’s honor or whatever.”
Now it’s my turn to raise a brow at her.
“Okay, maybe not those exact words. But he said he’s been checking on you, you know in that creepy wolf-sense way he does.” She taps the side of her head and I think back to all the times I walked in on him meditating, opening his mind to the souls of his pack. “He wants to know you’re okay.”
A plume of smoke rises through a grate from the subway, like the fog in my mind, pulling my attention. People are passing by the entrance to the alley completely oblivious that a teenage werewolf is being torn in two.
“I’m the first to admit that what he did was shitty,” Aisha says. “I can’t explain why he turned you down the way he did—”
“He wanted to protect me,” I mumble.
“The only thing I know is that Jasper was doing what he thought was right. He only ever does what he thinks is right. It’s just sometimes he’s a big dumbass.”
She elbows me in the side, and I can’t help but giggle. She’s got a point.
“You don’t have to go,” she says pretty casually, all things considered. “You don’t owe him anything after what he did.”
There are too many thoughts running through my head—too many conflicting feelings, so instead I watch a nearby pigeon pecking about at the pavement. Could I really not go? After all this time and all the texts and calls, the personalized gifts! Could I really just not show up?
The boy with the pristine, angular brows turns the corner into the alley and heads for the door.
“Hey Aisha,” he says as he passes. “Forgot my water bottle.”
“Skylar, you’d forget your pretty head if it wasn’t screwed on,” she responds jokingly.
“That’s the truth. Did you see the allegro Madame Emma came up with this morning? No way I’m keeping all of that in here.” His eyes—piercing steel-blue of course—land on me and he pauses for the briefest of seconds, as if he’s thinking something over. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Max, he’s the coolest kid from Stony Point.”
My cheeks are warm and I wish I could shrink all the way into my puffer.
“Hey Max, nice to meet you.”
