Banished by the Alpha

Being Watched

Cory POV

“Em, I gotta go. I’m pretty sure someone’s watching me. I’ll buy the book I’m reading and head straight to you. K?”

“Oh jeez, of all the excuses Corinthia. You don’t need to lie to me. Just say you lost track of time.” She just loves using my full name to scold me and I hang up before she can continue.

I had barely answered my sisters phone call when I heard a low growl come from a nearby stack of books. I knew that not only was someone watching me, but they had to be another wolf, who else would growl at me? I needed to make sure I didn’t bring any trouble home with me and figure out why someone was watching me instead of just approaching me. Anyone who would have recognized me would have been a family friend and most likely taken the opportunity to find out how we were doing and then go about their life as if we hadn’t seen each other.

Our family had only been banished after all and since we weren’t on pack lands, we had done nothing wrong. Not that any of us believed that Alpha Lucas would feel that way. After all, he banished us when he didn’t actually have to; we could have simply moved out of the pack house to one of the other dwellings and left him alone.

That’s when it hit me, the amazing new smell, and Opal started pacing and begging me to follow the delicious scent. It was like summer sun and fresh, sweet fruit. I needed to find that smell, it was making my mouth water and my wolf anxious. I started to walk towards where I had heard the growl and made it to the stack in time to see someone’s back rushing around to the next aisle. I quickly headed for the same aisle from my end. I got there in time to smack face first into a man who was practically running in my direction but looking over his shoulder.

My face was at his chest, and I wasn’t short at 5’6” but he was towering over me. I’d guess he was at least six and a half feet tall and the amazing smell was radiating off of him. He had on jeans that were comfortable loose below his knees but fit oh-so-perfectly in all the right places. I could only imagine what his backside must look like in them. His shirt was just slightly tight over his fantastic, muscular chest and stomach muscles but stretched to its limit beneath massive biceps that rivaled the size of my thighs. He was just slightly tan with a dark brown buzz cut and somewhat maintained facial scruff. As he looked down to see what he had hit, his beautiful, deep green eyes looked straight at me. Opal practically screamed, MATE! inside my head. The word almost came out my mouth even. It was then that I realized it was Lucas Raven himself standing before me.

“s**t” is all I manage to mutter before darting out of the store. I throw my book on the floor so I don’t steal it as I run.

I run all the way to the shoe store and grab Emily, yanking her away from the six pairs of shoes she has laid out for me to pick from. How does she even like buying such uncomfortable things, and so many at that?

“We have to leave NOW! Forget the shoes!” I yell as I yank on her arm.

“What the hell Cory!? It’s not going to kill you to pick a pair of shoes and wear them to your graduation ceremony!” She’s definitely mad and thinks I’m just trying to get out of this.

“That’s not it, we have to go! I was being watched in the bookstore! It’s Alpha Lucas! He saw me, well ran into me and WE. NEED. TO. LEAVE!” I emphasize the last words hoping she will understand why this is so urgent.

“Oh my god! For real?” I watch her eyes widen as she finally realizes why I’m so frantic.

As we rush towards the exit and the car, we hear him yelling after us in a slightly rough and sexy voice, “Stop, please, I just want to talk to you!” I actually want to hear him out for a moment before I remember why that’s a bad idea.

Emily grunts, “yeah right, just ‘talk’ and then declare our family are attacking rogues and have us executed or something. Like we’d believe him.” She says the last part to me.

We make it home in record time and, amazingly, without getting pulled over for speeding. Em and I make a deal in the driveway to act like nothing happened and Emily even decides that she has a pair of brown strappy sandals that would go perfect with the outfit she picked for me, so we have an answer if mom asks about that. We walk in the house just in time to drop the bags off in my room and get washed up for dinner.

We proceed to act as though it was a regular trip to the mall for us and I had simply been annoyed the whole trip by having to try on so many clothes and deal with my big sister for a whole day. We eat our food with minor chit-chat and start to clean up from dinner. Home stretch.

We almost get away with it when there’s a knock on the door and I nearly come out of my skin. It doesn’t help that Opal’s been on edge, since I ran from the person, she claims is our mate. It’s just one of our egg customers picking up a few dozen but my anxiety’s through the roof. Dad and Connor noticed how on edge I am when I jumped and nearly dropped the dished I was carrying, all because someone knocked on the door. Crap. jeez, of all the excuses Corinthia. You don’t need to lie to me. Just say you lost track of time.” She just loves using my full name to scold me and I hang up before she can continue.

I had barely answered my sisters phone call when I heard a low growl come from a nearby stack of books. I knew that not only was someone watching me, but they had to be another wolf, who else would growl at me? I needed to make sure I didn’t bring any trouble home with me and figure out why someone was watching me instead of just approaching me. Anyone who would have recognized me would have been a family friend and most likely taken the opportunity to find out how we were doing and then go about their life as if we hadn’t seen each other.

Our family had only been banished after all and since we weren’t on pack lands, we had done nothing wrong. Not that any of us believed that Alpha Lucas would feel that way. After all, he banished us when he didn’t actually have to; we could have simply moved out of the pack house to one of the other dwellings and left him alone.

That’s when it hit me, the amazing new smell, and Opal started pacing and begging me to follow the delicious scent. It was like summer sun and fresh, sweet fruit. I needed to find that smell, it was making my mouth water and my wolf anxious. I started to walk towards where I had heard the growl and made it to the stack in time to see someone’s back rushing around to the next aisle. I quickly headed for the same aisle from my end. I got there in time to smack face first into a man who was practically running in my direction but looking over his shoulder.

My face was at his chest, and I wasn’t short at 5’6” but he was towering over me. I’d guess he was at least six and a half feet tall and the amazing smell was radiating off of him. He had on jeans that were comfortable loose below his knees but fit oh-so-perfectly in all the right places. I could only imagine what his backside must look like in them. His shirt was just slightly tight over his fantastic, muscular chest and stomach muscles but stretched to its limit beneath massive biceps that rivaled the size of my thighs. He was just slightly tan with a dark brown buzz cut and somewhat maintained facial scruff. As he looked down to see what he had hit, his beautiful, deep green eyes looked straight at me. Opal practically screamed, MATE! inside my head. The word almost came out my mouth even. It was then that I realized it was Lucas Raven himself standing before me.

“s**t” is all I manage to mutter before darting out of the store. I throw my book on the floor so I don’t steal it as I run.

I run all the way to the shoe store and grab Emily, yanking her away from the six pairs of shoes she has laid out for me to pick from. How does she even like buying such uncomfortable things, and so many at that?

“We have to leave NOW! Forget the shoes!” I yell as I yank on her arm.

“What the hell Cory!? It’s not going to kill you to pick a pair of shoes and wear them to your graduation ceremony!” She’s definitely mad and thinks I’m just trying to get out of this.

“That’s not it, we have to go! I was being watched in the bookstore! It’s Alpha Lucas! He saw me, well ran into me and WE. NEED. TO. LEAVE!” I emphasize the last words hoping she will understand why this is so urgent.

“Oh my god! For real?” I watch her eyes widen as she finally realizes why I’m so frantic.

As we rush towards the exit and the car, we hear him yelling after us in a slightly rough and sexy voice, “Stop, please, I just want to talk to you!” I actually want to hear him out for a moment before I remember why that’s a bad idea.

Emily grunts, “yeah right, just ‘talk’ and then declare our family are attacking rogues and have us executed or something. Like we’d believe him.” She says the last part to me.

We make it home in record time and, amazingly, without getting pulled over for speeding. Em and I make a deal in the driveway to act like nothing happened and Emily even decides that she has a pair of brown strappy sandals that would go perfect with the outfit she picked for me, so we have an answer if mom asks about that. We walk in the house just in time to drop the bags off in my room and get washed up for dinner.

We proceed to act as though it was a regular trip to the mall for us and I had simply been annoyed the whole trip by having to try on so many clothes and deal with my big sister for a whole day. We eat our food with minor chit-chat and start to clean up from dinner. Home stretch.

We almost get away with it when there’s a knock on the door and I nearly come out of my skin. It doesn’t help that Opal’s been on edge, since I ran from the person, she claims is our mate. It’s just one of our egg customers picking up a few dozen but my anxiety’s through the roof. Dad and Connor noticed how on edge I am when I jumped and nearly dropped the dished I was carrying, all because someone knocked on the door. Crap.