6

Aspen

“Was there something wrong with the clothes?” Stef smirked as she stood on the sidewalk of the only gas station in our Podunk little town.

I set down my gram’s trunk that Papa loaned me and dropped my duffle bag on top of it. “They didn’t fit.”

I stared straight ahead as a tumble weed blew down the two-lane road, not wanting to cause a scene in front of her dad who was loading suitcases into the van. Those couldn’t all be hers. If they were, I’d seriously under packed.

She snickered, about to say some snarky comeback I’m sure, when Alpha Derek’s sunset yellow Pontiac Firebird roared into the parking lot. He and Trenton were always working on one of their hotrods and vehicles that piled up in their yard. I’d never seen this beast before though. It must have been the new flavor of the month.

“I got you clothes,” Stef mumbled under her breath.

A smile teased the corner of my lips at the thinly veiled warning. She didn’t scare me. I had the power here. One word and I could bring her down, tell the Alpha that his Beta’s precious daughter hadn’t followed orders.

Except I wasn’t a snitch.

But I could. If I wanted to.

Anyway, it wasn’t the smartest idea to paint yet another target on my back when we were going somewhere with other packs. I had to play nice for at least a little while. Better the devil you know.

“I thought you were going to dress up.” Trenton looked me over before sliding his reflective sunglasses onto his eyes.

Why is everyone obsessed with what I’m wearing?

I glanced down at my oversized gray knit sweater and the black leggings I wore tucked into my nicest pair of tennis shoes. “I packed a bunch of different things.”

Stefanie released the breath she was holding. Her dad came forward and slipped a wad of bills into her hand.

“Jareth is driving you to the airport. Make sure to check in with me when you get there.” Alpha Derek clapped Trenton on the shoulder.

I’d gone to bed right on time last night. Nine PM was my cutoff. Early to sleep. Early to rise. Since I got up at 5am this morning and already said goodbye to Papa after helping him check the traps and bribing Russell–his old drinking buddy–to help him over the next few weeks, I climbed into the van first while Trenton and Stef spoke with their fathers.

Jareth sat in the driver seat. He was a younger shifter, probably a grade or two below me, who mated during his first rut. His hair was shaved short and he had that militant look about him that all the young prison guards had. Especially the ones with families to raise.

“Did he say airport?” I asked.

Jareth’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror just as Stefanie shoved me in the back.

“Move.”

I growled, pulling my sleeves over my hands to hide my wolf’s fur sprouting, and crawled into the second row as far away from Stef as I could get. Trenton climbed onto the passenger seat.

“I’m counting on you three to bring pride to our pack.” Alpha Derek’s large frame filled the open side door of the van as he rapped his knuckles on the roof. “Understand?”

“Yes, Alpha,” we all said in unison. It’s not like there was anything else we could say.

Jareth pulled the van out onto the open road, heading past the prison and driving straight through the pack territory borderline marked by the fence.

There was a flurry of activity as he picked up speed and we flew by some cars parked on the side of the road. Doors opened and a few people jumped out with cellphones in their hands. I cocked my head to the side, wondering if they were visitors for the prison. We didn’t get many tourists out here.

“Parasites.” Trenton snarled.

Stef laughed as she slapped the back of his seat. “Play nice. You never want to piss off the reporters.”

I pressed my face to the window, trying to get a glimpse of the vehicles we left in the dust. A sinking feeling dropped into my gut. This was real. Strangers were outside our trailer-trash little pack hoping to get a picture.

“We need to get some photo ops in,” Stef was still talking. “Of course, we have to hide the cow somehow.”

Cow?

I turned to look at her smug grin, realizing she meant me. That was new. I’d never been called a cow before. It must have been in reference to the clothes not fitting comment I made earlier.

I looked back out the window, resting my forehead against the cool glass and breathing slowly to calm my beast. The dust continued to drift behind us. Sage and sparse pinyon lined the open desert road. The blue sky was full of thick white clouds that rolled lazily over the mountains in the distance.

I was really doing it. Leaving this pack behind. But it wasn’t the way I dreamed. My papa was back there. I was still under Derek’s thumb. And I was stuck with these two idiots.

Forcing myself to shake off the self-pity, I swallowed my pride. I’d promised my papa to keep an open mind. This was only a hiccup. I would have had to go through a final mating season anyway.

So what if it was on television and there was a slight chance of death?

No big deal.

“What’s the game plan?” I asked out loud, trying to get things started.

“Our game plan doesn’t concern you,” Stef said. “Honestly, Trenton. I don’t know why your dad thought it was a good idea for her to come.”

Guess she didn’t get the memo. I really didn’t think this was going to be a team effort, but I wasdoing this for Trenton after all. The same asshole who was too busy staring out the front windshield to say something to shut Stef up.

And he wonders why things went down like they did.

Stef seemed to sense his dismissal and pulled out her phone. I stared at Trenton’s outline, willing him to speak up. He was handsome in a way if you were into that dusty blonde mechanic look which me–and my wolf–were not. You’d also have to ignore how arrogant he seemed with his pouty lips and the bored look in his hazel eyes. His muscles had only grown larger over the years, filling out his white t-shirt with the folded over sleeves.

But he was still the same jerk who laughed when Felix pushed me down the stairs in third grade and he was a part of the boy’s group making fun of my boobs in middle school when they grew in lopsided.

The right was bigger than the left for an excruciatingly long six months and my papa had no clue where to take me to find a bra. It sucked.

Yet I’d promised to help Trenton through the Alpha Games if we even made it that far.

Seriously? What did I get myself in to?

“Trenton,” I addressed him directly, testing the waters, “do you have a plan or an angle to work to get through the season? I want to help.”

See? I could be the bigger person.

Stef looked up from her phone and glanced out the window, pretending she wasn’t interested in the conversation. Jareth’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror again with a worried expression.

Trenton was silent–no shocker there–as he worked his jaw.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Never–”

“You two just focus on not embarrassing us during the Luna Trials,” he grumbled in that gravelly tone that had most of the unmated females in Nuva Pack turning tits up and belly exposed, but made my wolf wince as if nails were running down a chalkboard.

Trenton turned to look out the window. “I don’t need help from anyone, especially not you.”

Lovely. We were off to a wonderful start.

*

Screw the Luna Trials.

The plane was what would kill me.

Nuva Pack was backwoods enough that I’d never seen a plane up close. I wasn’t ignorant, I’d watched TV and knew how planes worked. But the roaring beasts overhead as we pulled into the traffic outside the airport had my wolf pacing frantically and me breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Have either of you flown before?” My voice did not come out as calm and collected as I intended.

Stef laughed, sensing my weakness like the predator she was. “Scared of a little plane ride?”

First of all, those were big freaking planes.

And second, I knew for a fact that she hadn’t been anywhere further than Junction City like me. We were on the outskirts just past the freeway and I’d only been here once in high school when we took a trip to the planetarium as part of the government mandated shifter/human school integration program.

“You’ll be alright.” Jareth offered me a slight nod like he was some sort of world traveler. “Alpha Derek said they paid for first class.”

Well, I guess that sounded fancy.

Jareth pulled the van to the curb.

“They better have gotten us first class.” Stef was checking her reflection and applying lip gloss while holding up the front facing camera on her cellphone.

Too late I figured out why.

“Stay behind me,” Trenton barked, swinging open the passenger side door.

Stef pushed up her cleavage in the low-cut pink shirt she was wearing and blew herself a kiss before stepping outside the van.

Sweat was pooling in my armpits because I’d worn my warmest sweater like an idiot and my heart was still beating too fast. My hair was plastered to my face. My cheeks were bright red. I was going to trip and fall and embarrass myself…

“Come on,” Stefanie hissed at me.

I took a steadying breath and tried to smile. It probably looked like more of a grimace as I stepped onto the sidewalk while the cameras flashed and a group of people clustered outside a roped off section to the terminal.

Two burly men in black jeans and tops who smelled like humans but looked like shifters stood next to Trenton at the back of the van. He unloaded suitcases, handing them to a third guy who placed them on a cart. Stef was waving at the cameras like she was some sort of celebrity.

The chaos had my wolf growling. I hurried to the back of the van and grabbed my stuff, not sure what else to do with myself. The men were speaking into headsets, acting as a security detail, and more of them stood by the ropes.

Reporters were coming closer, calling out questions. I wished my wolf would stop growling so I could hear what they were saying. A human woman in a navy dress suit with gray hair in a tight French braid waved the security team toward the door. The men crowded behind us, moving forward.

One of the muscle dudes tried to take the wood trunk from my hands.

“I’ve got it.” I pulled back.

“We have to check it.” His voice was robotic as he tugged again. If I wasn’t a shifter, he might have knocked me on my ass.

Reluctantly, I handed it over. “You have to wiggle the latch on the lid, but be careful. It’s old and belonged to my gram.”

“He means put it under the plane in the cargo area,” Trenton spoke through our pack link, giving me a look of disgust as the cart of luggage was pushed toward the glass doors.

“Right. I knew that.” I nodded as more sweat dripped down my back. This was nuts.

“You said it was your gram’s trunk?” One of the reporters leaned over the ropes, holding his cellphone out. “Was she a Luna too?”

I turned in his direction, blinded by another flash. “No, but she–”

The security team moved me forward with their arms outstretched, cutting off my response to the reporter who asked about my gram. I gave him an apologetic smile as we were ushered toward the terminal.

“No questions.” The woman in the suit held up her hands. Groans from the reporters followed us into the air-conditioned airport and the glass doors slid shut behind us.

“I’m Molly. Head of Public Relations and your liaison for the show.” Her heels clicked along the floors as the security team formed a barrier between us and the rest of the travelers. “No official interviews until you sign the contracts and try not to speak with anyone before we get to Fountainhead Resort.”

We followed her onto an escalator. Thankfully, I’d been on one of these before. My wolf ignored the moving stairs and focused on the people staring at us.

Better get used to it, I told her as I discreetly shook my sweater to let some of the deliciously cold air dry my skin.

“We have a direct flight to Denver, but we don’t have the security available to wait at baggage claim. Your luggage will follow us in a second vehicle to the resort.” Molly stepped off the escalator and we followed. “If you have any requests, write them down now. We won’t have time to waste once we arrive.”

Stef nodded, pulling out her phone to make some notes as we were whisked through airport security. I couldn’t think of any requests. Hopefully we could take a bathroom break soon though. Trenton stared straight ahead, keeping his strong and silent type persona. It amazed me how calm both of them seemed.

Molly waved what I assumed were our boarding passes as she paused in front of an attendant, turning to look us over with a strange gleam in her eyes. I hoped I imagined her sharp gaze lingering a little too long on me as she sized us up. “This is your official welcome to Mating Season. Once you’re on the plane, there’s no going back.”

Wait a minute…

The muscular guard behind me didn’t seem to hear my silent plea as he guided us forward down a little hall that rocked under our feet.