Nerd's Badboy Alpha novel Chapter 15

He looks at me through the haze of his cigarette smoke. "Do you not know anything about being a wolf?"

"Apparently not." We reach a park with an artificial lake regularly restocked with fish and find a bench to sit on.

"You're a wolf who can turn into a human instead of the other way around." He finishes his cigarette, drops it on the ground to put out the embers with his shoe, then picks it back up to put in his pocket. "There's a special place in Christian hell for people who litter."

I contemplate what he said and compare it with what I know of lycanthropic biology, which is sadly very little. There are wolves who can turn into humans and humans who can turn into wolves. The wolves who can turn into humans are more powerful and supposedly have magic powers. I don't know that I believe the last part.

I laugh because I don't know how else to respond. "You're nuts. I've spent all my life being bullied and thinking I'm going to be omega and now you're telling me I'm a Luna candidate? You're crazy." I throw my hands in the air. "Why would they throw me a really hot guy who's got everything going for him if there's nothing wrong with him? Of course there's something wrong with you. You're crazy!"

He stares at me for a moment. "So you think I'm really hot, huh?"

I slap his arm. "Oh, you're a funny guy, too."

He puts his arm around my shoulders and gives me a quick side-hug. "We're going to do very well together, Melody Gabrys, you'll see."

I push him away, though his touch isn't unpleasant, because I'm not really used to another person paying close attention to me or any attention to me at all. "Well, I hope you'll be happy with plain old Melody Gabrys, too, and don't expect me to become the Luna of this pack or anything. That's not in the cards, buddy."

"All right. Ten bucks say you're wrong," he says, holding out his hand.

"Call," I reply, shaking it.

"You're what?" Lucy's mouth hangs wide open as she stares at me in horror. "You go from being completely ignored to Alex Royce's girlfriend to somebody else's fiancee in the space of a week?"

I scoff. "I know, right? Totally the plot of a South Korean soap opera."

We're sitting outside the picnic blanket outside the cafeteria eating our lunch. Lucy is chowing down on an enormous pita stuffed with hummus and bean sprouts, while Molly is picking on the last of her personal pan pizza.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Molly drops a pepperoni into her own mouth. "It's like, 'who are you even?' Are you still allowed to hang out with us now that you've sat at the Apex table?"

I roll my eyes. Alex made me sit at his lunch table the other day to eat with his friends and I was uncomfortable the whole time. I don't know about them, but I sat there thinking at any moment somebody was going to jump out and scream "You've been pranked!" in my face because that's what the whole week's been about. Alex must have noticed I wasn't having a great time, so he finished his lunch-and I hadn't really touched any of mine-grabbed my hand, and took me out for a walk for the rest of our lunch period.

That was the first and only time I ate at the Apex table. I told him the next day that I wanted to eat with my friends. He said cool, gave me a noogie, and peaced out. We're buds. That's what buds do. We don't have to eat together at lunch.

"Does Alex know?"

Kaden had to return to the Bay Area because there are a few things he still has to wrap up and he said he'd be back before my birthday. He said we'd Skype or Zoom or something. I said cool. We fist-bumped goodbye. My uncle looked at the two of us and shook his head.

"No, Alex doesn't know. Why would he care, anyway?" I pick up a carrot stick I've dipped in fat=free ranch. "He's not really my boyfriend."

"Oh, really?" challenges Molly. "Why don't you tell him that, then?"

I look up and see Alex heading toward our direction with a determined look on his face. In one swoop, he picks me up like a hawk catching a field mouse and continues walking, taking me away from my friends.

It would have been fine had it been a bridal carry, but no. It is a fireman's carry with me over his shoulder. I beat on his back with my fists to get him to put me down, but I might as well be hitting a wall. Students watch as we pass and laugh.

Finally, when we're at the top of the field where there aren't a lot of people, he sets me down on the ground. He isn't even winded. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks down at me as if he were waiting for me to explain myself.

He pokes my side. "Is he cute?"

Though there is a teasing element in his tone, I sense an edge, too. I take a closer look at him.

"What?" he asks, squinting at me.

"Nothing." I'm being silly. Why would Alex be jealous that someone else has a claim on me? Sure, he cares about me, but only as a friend.

"Are you blushing, Fluffy?" He pokes my side again, causing me to giggle.

I slap my hand over my mouth. I have never giggled in my entire life.

"You are blushing." He lunged toward me again, this time tickling my sides and my waist, under my arms, until I am in tears and shrieking with laughter.

I fall into him and he begins to tickle my stomach. "Stop it, stop! You're going to make me pee!"

"Then you'll be the one marking your territory, huh?" He continues his relentless tickling assault.

"Stop it." I start hitting him to get him to stop until he captures my hands and holds my arms over my head.

Somehow, he ends up on top of me and we are now breathing into each other's faces.