Teach Me How to Please, Alpha

(10) WAS ISLA’S INEXPERIENCED ASS TRYING TO PREPOSITION ME?

Isla

I stared at myself in the mirror. The lipstick on my lips made me almost cackle at how ridiculous I looked. I was wearing a pale pink pleated mini skirt and a fitted button down shirt with a blue cardigan on top.

It was a gift from Amy. After a quick rap on my door, I’d opened it and had found a cream colored clothing bag hanging my door handle.

Ryder had been the one to receive it. Normally, I’d thank him but after our fight two nights ago, our interactions were minimal, almost to the point of it being nonexistent.

I wiped the pink lipstick I had on with the back of my palm and within minutes, the skirt and shirt had been replaced with my sensible A-line brown dress.

I couldn’t help but remember my last conversation with Amy as she gave me a ride home:

“Do you think I’m a coward?”

“Yes,” there had been no pause.

“Ouch,” I snorted. “You could have tried to spare my dignity.”

She spared me a glance. “We are all cowards, baby Hayes.” She told me.

I rolled my eyes at the nickname and she grinned. “Just that some of us learn to hide it better than others but sometimes it still shows. It can be small, for example Riley’s absence at the bonfire. Regardless of how much she tries to convince herself that she and Ryder were endgame, coming to a party where she knows that she’d be subjected to watching him flirt and take home yet another girl that wasn’t her? That will destroy her. It can also be big, like being gay and keeping it a secret from your dad…” her eyes were distant. “I’ve yet another blind date with the son of a beta from another pack that seems like such a nice boy. My dad is now going to the outskirts of town to find me a boyfriend and yet… I can’t tell him that I like my partners to have a pair of tits.”

My petty boy problem quickly paled in comparison. I must have seemed so self absorbed to her while I ranted about Jason all night.

“Damn, You’re such an open book.” She said with a snicker. “I already know what you’re thinking. No, I liked hearing you talk about what was bothering you. It felt nice bonding with a girl who doesn’t look for a way to insert Ryder into every line of our conversation. I love Riley like a sister but sometimes talking to her makes me want to remove my own teeth.”

I chuckled. I knew what she was talking about. “I enjoyed talking to you too.”

So yes, being a coward was not the end of the world.

My phone beeped, then again and again.

I picked it up.

Mom: I wanted you to get settled in before you meet Reid and that’s why I tried not to bug you about coming over.

Mom: But he is so curious to meet you. So how about brunch at our place tomorrow?

Mom: I mean the pack house.

My stomach sank. She didn’t mean the pack house. She meant their place. Hers and Alpha Reid’s. I missed when this home was our place.

But I couldn’t think that tomorrow. Because tomorrow, I’d have to look at the man who stole my mother from me and act civilly.

Also this felt like a universal middle finger if there ever was one because why did I have to receive these messages right after my successful internal pep talk?

Sometimes, being a coward was the end of the world.

Ryder

A hesitant knock on my door made me raise my brow.

Isla never seeked me out. In fact now I think about it, aside from preparing a plate of food for me she acted like I didn’t exist.

I spared a glance at the timepiece opposite me and frowned. It was almost ten at night. She should be asleep. She was an early sleeper.

Without thinking, I found myself hiding the pot that I was about to light. There was something fragile about Isla that subconsciously made me want to pretend that I was a better man.

Perhaps it was her mossy green trusting eyes.

Or, maybe it is simply the fact that getting high around Isla was not a good idea. I already acted out of character as it were when it came to her.

Because what was that night at the beach?

She was right. She was nobody to me yet… yet just remembering her crestfallen face as I watched her listen to that little twit and her even more dumb friend had made me bloodthirsty.

I understood violence. I was made by it. Yet the surge of lust I felt for Jason’s blood in that moment even though he had been a complete stranger to me just minutes ago— had almost brought me to my knees.

“You’re alone?” her voice was small when I told her to come in. She had cracked the door open instead and peeked in.

“I do sleep alone sometimes,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. So perhaps, I’d turned down a s****l offer or two to prove a point after she had mentioned my s****l fest but I could sleep alone too.

“Okay,” she whispered, then stepped inside.

Her hair was damp and untied. She was wearing one of her loose ugly knitted sweaters but her legs were bare. Where the f**k was her matching ugly sweatpants?

I sat up, warning bells going off in my ears. “So?”

“I was wondering if you are okay tonight. I mean… if you wanted me to hold you tonight too.”

Was I going crazy or was Isla’s inexperienced ass trying to preposition me?

She knew what happened the last time she was in my bed. Sure, my wolf was horny as f**k, but there had been a part of me in there.

Addled or not, I’d wanted to touch Isla. Had liked touching her. Way too much, if I was being honest.

Perhaps I was just projecting…

“I think I’m good,” I replied. “I took my suppressant.”

She frowned. “Isn’t that supposed to hurt?” She asked. “Trying to suppress your wolf must be uncomfortable.”

No, s**t Sherlock. This has been my life since puberty but you can go ahead and tell me about it.

“Holding me would be easier,” she whispered and my eyes widened as I looked up to meet hers.

Her face was red but Isla’s face turned red at the slightest provocation.

It didn’t mean anything or did it?

“What are you really here for, Isla?” I didn’t have time for games.

“Nothing,” she squeaked. “If you insist that you’re good then goodnight, I guess.”

In seconds, she was gone, the door slammed shut.

I stared at the door for a moment. What just happened now?

Was my brain too perverted or was Isla trying to get into my bed?