Page 7 of The Alpha’s Chosen Mate

Chapter Four

EMILY

17 Years Old, September 1990

I hate alphas. It doesn’t matter if they’re a future alpha, current alpha, former alpha, or just alpha-blooded. I hate them all. Alphas are cocky, conceited, controlling, and cruel. Every last one.

“You know, future alpha Harrison…” I have an entire speech ready for this arrogant son of a bitch who somehow knows my name. I don’t care if he’s the future alpha of my new—and only—friend. He needs to be put in his place. And since I can’t do that with my alpha, I have to settle for dishing it all out on this jerk. “You can’t just expect everyone to fall at your feet and—” I reel back, his question catching up to me. “Wait, what did you say?”

He laughs. It’s a soft laugh. An attractive laugh.

Is that a thing? Attractive laughter?

“I asked if there’s still a troll under the bridge.”

I stare at him, utterly confused. It’s been years since I believed there was a troll living under the bridge. Only members of my pack—Lupine River—know about the creature concocted by my overactive imagination.

Except…

The male in front of me is suddenly much younger, with untied shoes, dirt stains on his knees, messy brown hair, and a crooked half smile. He’s telling me to climb onto his back, holding my hand as we walk through the forest, and teaching me to catch blackberries in my mouth.

That little boy—the one I thought I had imagined after he disappeared and I never saw him again—is the only non-Lupine River member I ever told about the troll.

The memories fade until all that’s left is the male in front of me. The male who is definitely not a little boy anymore but who has the same crooked half smile, the same slightly too long hair, and the same kind brown eyes he did eleven years ago.

I clap my hand over my mouth and lean forward, meeting him halfway across the table’s top. “Is it really you?”

“It’s really me, Emily.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or hide under the table. “After you disappeared that day, I convinced myself you were a figment of my imagination.”

“I promise you, I am absolutely real.” He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear as if to prove his point.

“But where did you go? I turned around to get your name, and you were already gone.”

“I had to get back to your packhouse foyer before my dad knew I’d left. He told me not to go outside, and we were in the forest longer than I realized.”

So like an alpha, to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Even as a kid.

“Why was your dad at Lupine River?”

“He came to meet with Alpha Justin and offer him assistance and guidance, since Alpha Justin was barely eighteen and had only recently taken over the pack.”

That’s why I never saw him again. Alpha Justin refused help from any of the packs. Not even from the Silver Ridge alpha, whose pack shares a border with ours.

Alpha Justin has very rigid ideas on how an alpha should run their pack. In Lupine River, we keep to ourselves. Anyone who isn’t a member is an outsider, and outsiders are not welcome. He almost didn’t let us go to the public high school down the mountain with the humans and the other three packs this year after our pack school shut down. I’m not sure what changed his mind, but three days ago he announced that we’d be attending.

It’s the first time I’ve left Lupine River since my parents died when I was five.

Brad—his light-blue eyes glittering with trouble—leans in front of Harrison, shoving him out of the way. “Not to interrupt this joyous reunion—”

“You’re literally interrupting,” Harrison mutters.

“—but I’ve been dying to know what you were about to say to my best friend earlier.”

Harrison’s annoyance flips instantly to teasing curiosity. His brown eyes take on the same sparkling glint of mischief that’s in Brad’s gaze.

I feel my blush all the way to the tips of my ears. “Oh, well, I uh—That’s not… it’s not… I wasn’t—”