Rise of the Alpha
Chapter 15

Zeke

F**k! F**k! Fuckity f**k! I’m dead . Deader than dead once she finds out what I am. That it was me in the woods. She’s going to hate me. Any chance I had with her is gone for sure now. I can tell she’s putting the pieces together now that this little bit of information has been made known to her. If only I had known she didn’t have a clue about all the shifter types that day, I wouldn’t be in this f****d up situation.

When she looks over at me, I can feel the color drain from my face, and even without seeing, I know I’ve gone ghostly white. I can’t make out the whispers back and forth between her and Blaine, and immediately, I feel frantic that they’re talking about me. He’s spilling my secret to her before I even have a chance.

Slow down, Zeke. Just breathe. Your best friend wouldn’t do that to you. You need to get yourself in check and calm down.

I have a plan. When class is over, I’m going to bolt from this room. Just get through classes today, then I’ll go to her room, confess and pray she forgives me. I mean, it was a total misunderstanding.

The more she looks at me, the more jittery I become. Mr. Godrickson keeps going on, showing slide after slide as he talks about the different supernatural species. I just wish he would shut the hell up, so I can bolt. My prayers are answered fifteen minutes later when he announces class is over and the assigned reading for our next class. It’s my chance. Standing quickly, almost knocking my chair over, I snatch my bag from the floor and the books off my desk and run.

“Where’s the fire, man? Wait up, where the hell are you going?” Blaine yells out to me.

“Bathroom!” I call back to him, throwing my one free hand up in the air, brushing him off. I glance over my shoulder just long enough to see a look of hurt, or is it concern, on Magnolia’s face. Blaine, well, he knew why I was running and was fighting hard to hold back the laughter.

I do stop by the bathroom, long enough to throw some cold water on my face. I need to get my shit together. But most of all, I need to think long and hard about how I’m going to explain this to Magnolia.

Heading to my next class, which of all things was freaking English. I mean, do we really need to take a mundane course like this? We’re shifters, not humans, when will the proper tense in a sentence, pronouns, passive voice, or any of that shit be of any importance to us.

What was going to be the only bright spot of the class has now become nothing. For a week, I was excited when I found out that even though I had to take this course, Professor Carlson was teaching it. I met her at orientation and let’s just say she had my d**k hard the entire time, it may have been because she was a succubus, but still. She was tall, almost six feet, with curves in all the right places. Unlike most women who want a flat stomach, hers was soft with a little pooch. Her emerald green eyes and fiery red hair had me begging to have her looking up at me as she sucked my c**k. That was pre-Magnolia, though. Professor Carlson doesn’t hold a candle next to the beautiful white wolf that’s torn my world apart.

I make my way to a seat in the back of the class and drop down into it, letting my bag hit the floor, then place the books in my hand on the desk. Looking up, I see Jude walking into the room. He looks over to Professor Carlson, and I wait for him to hit on her like he normally would any woman he saw that was drop-dead gorgeous. He looks, but only for a second, with no wink or flirty smile, before he heads to the empty seat beside me and sits down.

“What’s up with you, man?” Jude’s look tells me he wants to know why I ran the way I did.

“Dude, you heard, so don’t act dumb. She knows about ferret shifters and is thinking back to the day in the woods. The better question is what’s up with you? You walked right by the professor and nothing,” I whisper to him, not wanting anyone to overhear.

“First, just talk to Magnolia. Explain everything, she may be mad at first, but then she’ll understand and forgive you. Second, I already have the two women I want. That lady is nothing, hell, any other woman is nothing.”

“Easy for you to say, man. You didn’t do what I did and kept it a secret from her. I’ve run into her enough times that I could’ve told her if I wanted to. But I didn’t. So I don’t think she’s just going to be ‘aww, that’s okay, I forgive you’. Add to that, I’ve been a f*****g d**k more than once to her.”

“Class, I am Professor Carlson, and I will be your English professor this semester. Many of you are probably wondering why you need this course. Well, I’m here to tell you. English…” she continues on, but at this point, I’ve tuned her out and opened my notebook, writing down my different options of how I can tell Magnolia my side of things.

Class went on, and I prayed to hell Jude was at least taking some notes. The girl in front of me giggled as she turned in her chair to place the syllabus on my desk. That quickly changed to fear when she saw my death glare and abruptly turned back to the front.

“Ease up, man. Just grow some balls and talk to her,” Jude leans over, whispering to me.

“Whatever, just take notes. I’ll need to copy them later.”

“Good luck then. I was counting on your a*s to take notes. Guess we’re both in deep shit.” Jude says nothing new. I should’ve known his notes would be shit. It’s one of the reasons he was excited he was in this class with me, so he could copy mine.

Focusing back on my notebook, I continue writing down quick notes and different ways I could explain this clusterfuck of a situation. This class can not end soon enough.

I opted to skip lunch with the guys, and instead, I grabbed something from the vending machine and headed out to the quad. I found a deserted spot under a tree to go over what I’d spent the day writing down. Rehearsing, as if I were talking to her and going through what her responses could potentially be. I want to be ready.

I lean my head back against the tree as I gaze up into the branches and see a squirrel scurrying across the branch, its mouth is swollen from the acorn it’s holding. Why the f**k didn’t I just tell her that day? I know why. It’s because I thought she knew and was putting on a show. Just a tease, waiting to see what I would do. But the more I thought about it after it happened, I realized she didn’t, especially when she cuddled me in her arms and spilled all her inner thoughts.

Looking at my wrist, I freeze when I see the time. Class starts in twenty minutes. Standing up, I slap the dirt and leaves from my pants. Reaching down, I stuff the book I had into my bag and pick it up from the ground.

Last class of the day, Introduction to Psychology, then I need to fess up to what I did.

It takes me ten minutes to walk across campus to the classroom. It’s empty when I get there, meaning I get the pick of seats. I head to the back and take the last one in the row, which just so happens to be in a corner. Perfect.

I slide into my seat and place my bag on the floor before pulling out my notebook. None of the guys were in this class, so I need to stay focused. All attempts at that are lost the second she steps into the classroom, smiling when she looks around the room and her eyes land on me. She beelines straight to the empty desk beside me, dropping down into it, and breathing heavily as if she’d run all the way here.

“Missed you at lunch, Zeke. Blaine said something about you having to work out or practice something. At least, I think that’s what he said when I asked about you. He was being kind of dodgy with answers though.”

She asked about me. Shock and excitement overtake me. “Yeah, I needed to work on something, to make sure I know exactly what I’m going to do.”

“Ohh, okay. Well, I missed you. I was worried about you after you ran out of Supernatural History class like that.” Her voice is soft and tender, as she speaks, filling me with warmth. She cares.

“Yeah, I’ve got some stuff on my mind. Umm… Can I talk with you after class about something in private? Just you and me.” I can’t believe how nervous I am, asking that. I can’t even imagine how it’s going to be when I tell her the truth.

“Of course. Is everything okay?”

God, can this woman be any better? I just give her an ‘I don’t know’ shoulder shrug, as the instructor for the class begins to lecture.

It was hard focusing with her beside me, her cotton candy scent swirling around me, driving me mad with desire. Her sneaking glimpses at me throughout the class didn’t go unnoticed.

Looking at my watch, I see there are only a few minutes left of class. The instructor finishes up discussing the group project we would be working on over the semester. Turning to Magnolia, I give her a forced smile, knowing the potential outcome after I spill the beans to her.

So engrossed in my thoughts, I miss the instructor ending class until I hear the clamor of the others in the class stirring as they go to leave. It’s now or never.

“So you wanted to talk after class. I’m free now,” her voice chipper as she speaks.

“Yeah, perfect. Let’s grab something from the vending machine and then find somewhere to sit down where we won’t be disturbed.” I stuff my papers and notebook into my bag, placing the strap over my shoulder as I stand. Magnolia does the same. Reaching out, I take her bag from her and place it over my shoulder as well.

“Thank you. To the snack machine,” she says with a jump, pointing her fingers toward the door.

We stop at the machine at the end of the hall, get a variety of snacks and some sodas, and head out to the door. We walk around aimlessly in quiet, neither saying a word before she finally breaks the silence.

“There’s a bench over by that big oak tree over there, no ones there, how’s that spot?”

Casting my gaze over to where she mentioned, I see it’s indeed how she described it. “Perfect.” Taking her hand in mine, basking in the feeling of happiness that spreads through my body, I lead her over to the bench.

She sits down, taking her hand and patting the spot beside her. “Come on, talk to me. What’s wrong?”

Moving and taking the spot beside her, I take a deep breath and tell her my story.

“Okay, first though, promise to listen and not interrupt.”

She raises her eyebrow, giving me a curious look. “Okkaayy,” she drawls out.

“So, first, I want to apologize for acting like a d**k to you more than once. When you hear my story, you’ll understand even though it doesn’t place me in a good light.”

“Ze…” she starts to say, reaching out, I place my fingers over her lips, stopping her from finishing what she had to say.

“No, you promised. Are you going to be quiet and listen?” With my fingers still in place, she can’t answer but nods her head yes.

“Okay, so. The time I ran into you by the bathroom wasn’t the first time I saw you. I’d run into you before, except you didn’t know it was me. I was in my shifted form, and I assumed you sensed I was a shifter, and when you did what you did, I thought you were putting on a show. It wasn’t until after that I realized you didn’t know, but it was too late. I was so drawn to you, and then when you cuddled me to you, I caught wind of the delicious scent of your arousal on your fingers, and I couldn’t help it. I stayed in my shifted form and nibbled on them. I never thought I’d see you again.”

She pulls back from me, as everything I said sinks in. “You’re the f*****g ferret from the woods?” she asks, her voice quivering like she wants me to say it wasn’t. All I can do is nod my head confirming it was me.

“You f*****g watched me finger myself and didn’t say a word. F*****g christ! What the hell is wrong with you? Did you get a good show? Laugh about it with your buddies afterward when you knew who I was.” I’m letting her yell everything at me, taking it all in. I don’t know until her hand slams across my face that she’s slapped me.

“It wasn’t like that, Magnolia. I didn’t know, I thought you wanted it. Forgive me, please,” I plead with her, taking hold of her wrist trying to keep her from rushing away.

She places her hand on my chest, pushing me away from her, causing me to let go of her wrist, so she doesn’t stumble.

“F**k you and your friends. Tell them their time of making fun of the ignorant wolf is over. I never want to see any of you again. So stay the f**k away from me.” She takes off, running as fast as she can away from me. The sound of her crying rings in my ears. She was strong the whole time, never shedding one tear until she took off. Walking back to the bench, I drop down onto it, noticing she left her book bag.

Pulling out my phone, I start a group video call to the guys. Each of them picks up within moments.

“What’s up?” Blaine asks.

“So, I f****d up. I told her everything. About being in the woods. How I thought she knew and was playing a game until I realized too late she wasn’t. About being a d**k to her and how I never thought I’d see her again.”

“And she was mad but forgave you right?” Jude asks hopefully.

“No, much the opposite. She hates me and the two of you as well. She thinks we were playing some game with her, and she was the butt of the joke.”

“What the f**k!” they both scream out in unison.

“I tried to explain there wasn’t a joke, but she wouldn’t listen, she slapped me and ran off, leaving her bag.”

“So she pulled a Cinderella,” Jude smirks.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know she left something behind, so we’d have to find her,” he finishes explaining.

“Whatever, I’ll see the two of you back in the room, so we can figure out how to fix this shit. And before you say anything, you’re part of this bullshit, so yes you will be helping me.”

Finished with the whole day, I end the call and take a deep breath. Picking up my bag and hers, I throw them over my shoulder and head back to the room.

Being a ferret shifter f*****g sucks. If I was a wolf, I wouldn’t be in this f****d up situation.