Taming the Broken Playboy Alpha

Episode 3

A soft wave of perfume ascended from the polished floorboards and glided through the room; the passing moments I knelt there had me whimpering from my knees.

I stepped out of the claustrophobic storage closet only when the roistering throng had completely dissipated. At that moment, I imagined that by a strange turn of fate I might have stepped into a room altogether different.

Through the rest of the day, an ethereal gauze of reverie glided by. A tour of Laguna Blanca Academy, quick introductions to the classrooms where I’d be spending the next few months, and then a rushed lunch in which my stomach threatened to consume itself. Scarcely a minute had passed when a woman guided me into my room.

Three queen-sized beds, sumptuous décor, and curtains pilfered from a castle. As the evening’s shadows inched inexorably deeper, I stretched languidly across the luxurious bed and let the undulating floral murals unfurl across the ceiling above my head.

Only a brief interval later, I ran into Sofía Bentancur. She was the kind of girl who could invariably find the perfect words, and it appeared she was also Valeria Solari’s closest friend. That in itself set me on edge. Nevertheless, I smiled at their talk of fashion and the academy’s boys—even though I had no idea what they were hinting at.

Liberating itself from my grasp, the rattle of sleeplessness chased it away. Before our fingers slipped together, the name whose reverberant hum overshadowed every squeak in the corridor burst within my heart and ignited a scorching spark that hurled me headlong through the corridor. Statuesque, I slipped into the window niche, setting my notebook on my knees and play-acting a total absorption in my studies. Handsome enough to be his own undoing. That arrogance was so unbearably strong I felt it could lift anyone straight to the edge of madness.

Finally, savage waves of sleeplessness overtook me, and I lay wondering what the morning that lay before me might hold.

Not yet an instant after the alarm’s first chirp, I leapt from my bed, tugged on my clothes, and sprinted toward my first course—History of the Wolfblood.

Even though the room still lay hushed as I stepped in, every set of eyes still tracked me. Layers of eyes pressed in on me.

Why?

There was no need for conjecture. Ever since I brushed by him, their eyes have stalked me—for the last twenty-four hours. The school’s most feared boy. The future Alpha King of the Crimson Fang pack. That they called the deadly prince.

Thiago Acosta.

Yesterday, I had just clamped my tongue that much tighter between my teeth. Almost.

The way they watched me now felt like they were poised for me to be torn to pieces any second.

Whatever. They could bide their time as long as they pleased. I had no plan to let him come anywhere near me again. Bad tidings, confined behind a sculpted jaw and frosty grey eyes.

Thiago slipping into the room. Once upon a time, the hushed mutterings pressed near, but now they dissolved, seeping back into the room’s hushed stillness. The atmosphere thickened and bit, as if a storm were about to erupt.

I didn’t have to look to know why.

Not yet a fraction of a few nanoseconds had slipped by since our eyes first met when the masterpiece I’d crafted for her came apart before my eyes.

He strode like the room belonged to him. Light-footed as a dancer cued to perform, Valeria slipped beside him, a vivid burst of laughter flashing across her mouth, her scent drifting by as a weightless, feather-light veil. Hemming their footsteps, Bruno Fernández and Mateo Pereira eased in, smirking as though the room were theirs, too.

All the breaths in the room stopped—each one hovering in the hushed silence that had grown breathless. Desks slithered, chairs groaned, and within moments the back row was empty for them, as though a cadre of servants was clearing the way for a king.

I pressed my eyes forward.

Still my wolf declined. She glided toward him, purring with anticipation, the scent that suffused the room bearing her hushed hum along with it. I tightened my jaw.

What the hell is wrong with you? Stop it.

She let out a whine even more plaintive, her claws gouging the walls of my mind.

Bee-hivering giggles floated behind me. My head swivelled of its own accord.

She stepped close to him, her hushed giggles no heavier than the slightest breath. He pressed words to her ear, then clamped his teeth against her lobe. Playful. Teasing.

A sharp stab locked in my chest. I whirled my head back around—much too swiftly, much too conspicuously.

My wolf issued a hushed growl and contorted, writhing with pain.

The teacher drifted in, and the very instant of her arrival heralded the start of the lecture. Scorching the pages of my notebook with savage strokes of the pen, I watched the letters fading before my eyes. Even so, that thought remained:

They’re together.

Should she weather his mood swings, she might well weather mine. Perhaps she is only blind.

Could any woman ever love a man like that?

Thiago’s POV

Her head jerked away. I spied the rose tint that washed her cheeks.

Good. That was the girl who’d confronted me.

I slid my mouth along Valeria’s neck. A hushed sigh slipped from her lips, lingering there, and she kept pressing on unflinchingly, steadfast in meeting whatever lay before her. I drew back. Already bored. The perfume she wore lingered, adhering with tenacity to her and proving entirely out of place.

She stopped being my mate. She’d never be.

Still the voice of my father reverberated in my thoughts. “Respect her. Bruno’s voice wound its way into my head.

He had no clue how little I cared. I’ve never once been afforded the choice of anything. Before I could set foot in my shift, the hefty weight of expectations restrained my thoughts—heavy steel chains binding my mind. The succeeding Alpha King of Crimson Fang—the one everyone dreaded, the one whose feet could never slip.

Since I wasn’t going to shape my own destiny, I’d seize any fun I could get. I let my claim collapse.

I let my eyes wander about the classroom.

There. Her.

Silenced and stunned, I flittered Valeria’s advances aside with the featherlight brush of my fingers. She bent over her notebook—as though it were a prized artefact—and in a single flash lashed her pen across the page. I scoffed.

Nerd.

Still, I could not tear my eyes from her. A shadow-like liquid slithered beneath my skin. I despised that feeling, as though her stare had swept over my skin the instant I’d entered the room. As though anything of consequence could be achieved.

For the life of me, what is it that you think you’re gawking at? I trained on her a catlike stare so potent I imagined it could hew stone into nothingness with but one glance.

I wrenched my eyes away. “Nothing.”

He smirked. Doesn’t look like nothing.

Before the span of a handful of minutes had passed, Mateo and Bruno strode into the room, moving side by side, their footsteps in perfect unison. He raised his arms and kept his unshakeable smile in place.

A peal of the bell reverberated. Do you understand what is unfolding? Jimena Cabrera would be waiting, and she invariably knew how to soften the edge. Thundering through my veins, victory exploded as a brilliant jolt of electricity that coursed across my body.

For the second time Bruno spoke, his voice sounding abnormally deafening.

I repressed a wordless smirk and lifted my eyes to the ceiling. Thiago found himself utterly unable to pull his gaze from the new girl.

Mateo’s chuckle trailed in its wake. Not for a million years.

“Swear. He was drilling holes into her with his stare.

I groaned. The two of you are morons.

Mateo arched an eyebrow in a single, languid stretch. I was hardly gawking.

Naturally not. I’m only saying that she blocked my way. At last, the celebrated Thiago comes upon a being worthy of his attention.

Isn’t she the one who spelt out, in clear terms, just what she thinks of you? Mateo slipped an even wider grin. At last, it all comes into focus. Perhaps those lips continue to buzz in your head.

Forget it.

Bruno smirked. A shadowed wave of heat coursed through my chest.

I stiffened. Mateo’s tones fell into a silky purr.

She’s exactly the same as the rest.

The throb of my pulse accelerated. Prove it. An impish curse brushed my lips.

BET split the air. Inside this school cage, it was only wagers that provided excitement. What, exactly, is the game?

Everyone is talking about how she confronted you.

She fancies herself untouchable. And what, in all this, is in it for me? Prove to them she isn’t. Make her bow. Make her beg.

I weighed it. Three months, at most. Easy.

Should you win, we will comply with every order you give for an entire month. Should you triumph, our faces will be tattooed across your back, and for the subsequent three months you’ll stroll the streets bare-chested.

Still, pressing my ears against the wall, the unwavering zeal that coursed through my head demanded I pick up every word.

“Three.”

“Fine. I gave a measured three days as my reply.

“Idiots.” And yet I possessed not the slightest desire to back out. Upcoming weeks will most assuredly be anything but simple.

Hot on our heels, a hush of mutterings was already just beginning to surface.

Bruno chuckled. The taste had already begun to slide slickly across my tongue.

A ghost-tremor ran down my spine the moment I felt the wall’s ears—two sets of them—unseen but fixed there, listening in on our speech. She’ll beg for more.

Put another way, I will. Her lips will split first.

A shadowed glow, all but invisible.

That was the instant I heard it.

Even so, my ears flushed against the wall, hungrily straining to overhear. Even so, two pairs of ears clung to the wall, ears straining with razor-sharp focus to overhear every word. Even so, I felt two pairs of ears flattened against the wall, voraciously straining to hear every word. I spun around.

Empty hallway.

And I could still sense two pairs of ears pressed flat to the wall, greedily straining to eavesdrop on every word.