Chapter five

Marcus point of view

Joe and Kenny just told me Alina was coming to Mia's party, and I knew I had to be there. I don't know what it is, but I'm fascinated by her. It's not that I like her or anything—I'm just curious. There's something about her. No wonder Evan likes her. Evan is actually one of the reasons I'm interested in Alina. I was looking for the perfect opportunity to approach her, but as luck would have it, she approached me first.

It was cute seeing her try to defend her friend. Wait, did I say cute? I mean, it was... interesting. Yeah, interesting. No one ever challenges me, and that prank she pulled on Mr. Thompson? Epic. I enjoyed every minute of it. Mr. Thompson deserved it for giving me detention just because I called him bald. I mean, come on, he is bald!

Anyway, back to Alina. She really impressed me, and that's when I decided I was going to steal her from Evan. Not that it's actually stealing since he's dating Kendra now. Speaking of Kendra, wait till Evan finds out she's been trying to seduce me behind his back.

She has been all over me, but she's not my type or my mate.

I, Kendra, and my three friends—Zack, Joe, and Kenny—saw our wolves when we were sixteen. Yes, you guessed right: I'm not on anyone's level. I'm an Alpha. I had already undergone Alpha training and learned everything needed to run the pack, including the rules and traditions governing it.

As I was saying, I can never be with Kendra. Even if I wanted to, A.J. wouldn't agree. If you don't know, A.J. is the name of my wolf. He's pretty awesome, just like me. A.J. wants us to find our mate, but the Moon Goddess is dragging her feet on that part.

Both Joe, who is my beta by the way, and I are yet to meet our mates. I know Kendra found her mate, but when he turned out to be human, she rejected him cruelly. She's ambitious and wants to be the Luna of a pack.

I want to be free until I find my mate. I'm turning 18 soon, and I'm hoping I'll find my mate then. I already have a guess who my mate is—it has to be her. Sasha. Sasha was my first girlfriend. She didn't see her wolf when we saw ours. It's so obvious: that's why I haven't seen my mate. I'm guessing when she sees her wolf, we will both recognize each other as mates.

She's the only girl I've ever loved, but she's not here anymore. She traveled to Europe with her parents. But I'm planning to go to Europe when she turns 18.

But for now, I just want to have fun. I don't need any girl to hold me down. Even when I find my mate, if it turns out not to be Sasha and she's not up to my standards, I'll reject her straight up. Now, back to Alina.

I want to make her choose me over Evan. What does she even see in him? Evan is trash. He's good at pretending and playing the good guy, but one day he'll be exposed for the fraud he truly is.

Well, I know you are wondering why I despise Evan and call him a fraud. For one, he doesn't really like Kendra. He's just going out with her because it makes him look cool. They call them the 'it' couple."

And another reason is because he wants to use Kendra to spy on our pack. Their pack has been looking for a way to overthrow ours and be the superior pack. This is all my dad's fault. He's too soft. I told him to make a rule forbidding any of our pack members from dating a rival pack member, but he's all about not wanting to be an obstacle for love. Well, now I'm Alpha, I will abolish that stupid law.

Back to what I was saying: I know Evan doesn't give a damn about Kendra. The person he truly likes is Alina. But it sucks for him because I'm going to make sure I take her for myself. And at this party, I'll start my game of stealing Alina from Evan.

When it was time for the party, I told my friends to hop in my sports car. My uncle got it for me last birthday—by the way, I'm expecting a new one this year. I hope my dad won't disappoint.

When we arrived at the beach, the first person I spotted getting down from my car was Alina. She was wearing this green beach dress that made her look like she'd just stepped out of a forest fairy tale.

She was with her friend Lizzy, discussing—wait, I think she spotted me already. My heart did this weird flip thing again; it does that every time I see her. I think I've got some kind of heart problem or something. Anyway, look how scared she is—she just hid under an umbrella the moment she saw me. Hilarious.

I saw Alina and pretended I didn't. I wanted to swim first; since I'm at the beach, why not have some fun? But, oh my God, all the girls around me were giving me a headache. Yes, I know I'm handsome, but sometimes I just want to be by myself. Anyway, I took off my clothes and decided to swim first before starting my game. Alina has no idea what I have in store for her.

"Marcus! Marcus!" someone called. I turned and saw Joe, Zack, and Kenny—my three best friends. If you don't know, they're werewolves like me. We do almost everything together, and they're completely loyal to me since I'm the Alpha.

"What is it now?" I asked Joe. "Can't you see I want to swim?" He looked kinda sad and worried at the same time. He turned and looked at the girls around me.

"Can you tell the girls to go? We need to talk to you in private," he said in a somber, low tone.

Immediately, I knew something was wrong. Joe rarely got serious, and if he did, something serious had happened.

"Alright, ladies, show's over," I said, clapping my hands. "Give me some space, will you?" The girls groaned and reluctantly walked away, but I could still feel their eyes on me.

I followed Joe to a quieter part of the beach where Zack and Kenny were waiting. "What's going on?" I asked, trying to keep my cool.

Zack looked around to make sure no one was listening. "It's about Evan," he said.

"Evan?" I scoffed. "What about him?"

"He's been sniffing around our territory," Kenny said. "We think he's up to something."

"That's not news," I said, rolling my eyes. "Evan's always up to something. Did you drag me away from my pre-swim meditation for this?"

Joe shook his head. "It's more than that. We think he's planning something big. Maybe trying to challenge you for who is the better Alpha."

I laughed. "Challenge me? That's rich. Evan couldn't challenge a wet noodle, let alone me."

"Speaking of Evan, I heard he is leading his own pack run tonight," Kenny said, rolling his eyes in disgust.

"What did you just say?" I asked Kenny excitedly. This was the kind of gossip I was interested in. "Did you say Evan is leading his pack run tonight?"

"Yes, I did. I heard it from a reliable source," Kenny replied, looking at me with surprise and confusion. I guess he's wondering why I have such a big smile on my face. "What are you planning to do? I don't like the look on your face, Alpha Marcus."

"I told you that would be what he was thinking about. How do you guys feel about crashing a party?" I said, laughing out loud.

Joe raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking?"

"Life's no fun without a little danger," I replied. "Don't worry, guys, we're going to get Evan back," I was saying when I heard Cole shout, "Watch out!" only to turn and see Alina getting hit by a ball on her forehead. Hilarious. This girl won't kill me. In fact, let me go see her—I've had enough of swimming today.

When she opened her eyes, she looked around bewildered. She didn't see me at first. She looked so stunned—how could a ball hit her on the forehead out of everyone on the beach? I decided to shock her.

"So you came and didn't bother to say hello?" I asked her.

Her face was priceless, predictably startled. She probably wished she could disappear. But I didn't care—I liked playing with Alina. It made me happy, and it was perfect because I could be happy and piss off Evan at the same time. It's like killing two birds with one stone. This is going to get so exciting.

The game had officially started, and I was ready to play. Today was going to be a great day.