23

Ranger

I watched the stage as she sat there like royalty with her head held high, a cut above the rest. The other Alphas were clapping like they were told, but I couldn’t bring myself to move my hands. I sat there, staring.

She’d won the popular vote by a landslide. I didn’t understand how. These things were rigged. Edith and Lilith were near the top along with Fallon and Cindy and Wyona and Sarah and the rest of the elite packs’ offspring females. The producers already knew who’d bring in the most money in sponsors and donations. They altered the film to showcase those who would. But Aspen had taken over the highlights of the episode.

The little she-wolf from a small desert town was making waves on the screen and I didn’t like it one bit.

We need to get her out of here.

Agreed.

Despite Fallon’s griping, I was more than grateful I’d already gotten surveillance set up. Things would get worse for Aspen the more attention she brought on herself and I needed to be prepared to handle it.

Unless she liked the attention.

I rested my chin on my fist, watching as the production assistants came out and removed the women’s microphones. The Alphas around me were rising and congratulating each other as if their Luna’s wins were their own.

Still, I sat.

This shouldn’t have affected me as much as it did. I was no fool. Things were already getting too deep for me to walk away from. I was obsessed.

I didn’t get obsessed.

Blaming my beast would only get me so far.

It wasn’t as if I really knew this woman. Did she like the cameras? The fame? My sources were still pulling information, but from what I’d learned, that didn’t seem like her.

I wasn’t normally wrong, but I wasn’t cocky enough to think I would never be. Watching Aspen stare at the numbers on the screen as if she wanted more bothered me.

She’d won. Wasn’t that enough?

“Congratulations man.” Chad clapped Trenton on the back, startling the young shifter.

“Thanks, I guess.” His shoulders stiffened as he made his way down the aisle toward the exit.

I had questions about him too.

There was so much I wasn’t understanding about their dynamic and the mystery of Aspen.

I was torn.

Keeping her here would give me the opportunity to learn more, but it would distract from my sole purpose in being on the show. I should be able to talk the producers into sending her home, but I wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted.

We could ask her.

I scratched my jaw, still staring as the lights dimmed and the stage emptied.

I think we should.