Alpha Raiden stared into my eyes from across the ballroom through the sea of glittering attendees. A shiver of anticipation ran down my spine as every nerve ending in my body awoke with the sole purpose of focusing on him. His eyes were as intense as the midnight sky, and I could not drag my own away from them.
He stalked towards me as if I was his prey. My heart pounded in rhythm with each step he took in my direction.
Then he was directly in front of me, the barest hint of a smile curving his lips. I had to tilt my chin back to continue to hold his gaze. Even with him so close, even with his blue gaze burning down on me, I couldn't believe that I was truly the centre of his focus.
But there was no mistaking it. Even though I had never met him before, I could already tell that he was not the sort of man to pretend to an interest that he did not feel.
Over the sounds of the people dancing and talking all around us, his surreal words were clear to my ears. "You're mine."
As he spoke, he stepped even closer. I didn't protest, even though I should have. I wasn't able to, I was already under his spell. I already was his. My father was going to be furious, but...
His huge hands found my waist, and he tilted his head down until there was barely a hair of space between us. My heart quivered at the first slight brush of his lips against—
"Reese! What are you doing!" The voice of Harley, Reese's friend and roommate, rudely yanked Reese from her beautiful moment of literary escapism. Couldn't she just have an hour to herself to escape from stressful reality?
Resisting the urge to sigh impatiently, Reese slapped her phone face down on the top of the table. The force was harder than she should have used and she instantly regretted the action. She swept her eyes over her interrupting friends and the mundane reality of the coffee shop where she took her little breaks from reality.
The coffee shop wasn't much to look at, with standard green tables and cream walls that didn't quite look good together even though they probably should have, at least in theory. After yanking Reese out of her sweet escapism, Harley had made her way to the counter and put in her own order.
Reese closed her reading app. Her guilty pleasure was no one's business but her own. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her choice of literature, per say, but she didn't feel like explaining it to anyone.
Harley returned to the table with a steaming chai latte, and Reese forced a smile to her face. The appeal of this particular location hadn't been the appearance, or even the refreshments, but rather the location. It was tucked away off the main campus, and no one she knew frequented it, so it was a nice little oasis of being left alone.
The perfect place to take a break from all the stress of school. At least until Harley had discovered her there a week prior.
Harley meant well. It wasn't her fault she was inflicted with excessive extroversion.
As Harley talked at a rapid pace, Reese listened with half an ear. Oddly enough, the green of the tables actually complimented the green of Harley's eyes perfectly. She also had glorious flowing strawberry blond hair, high cheekbones, and a figure that often stopped people in their tracks.
Reese didn't stand out the way that Harley did. With brown hair and eyes just a shade darker, Reese wasn't insecure about her own appearance. She was curvy, but not too curvy, and just pretty enough that no one could find fault with her appearance, but not so much she attracted too much unwanted attention.
A lot of people who didn't know Harley probably envied her, but Reese was happy to let her have the spotlight.
Except when she was interrupting guilty pleasure reading time.
Oh well. She supposed that Alpha Raiden would still be there to sweep his future luna off her feet when Harley was done with Reese.
"You've got one class left today, huh?" Harley asked, deftly turning the conversation back towards her.
"Yeah, just history of American literature." She enjoyed the class, and halfway through the semester she had already made her way through all the assigned course materials. She glanced woefully at her phone, wondering what was going to happen next in the juicy story.
"So, you should totally come out with me to a party tonight."
Reese wrinkled her nose. She could do that. It was Friday night and she'd probably have fun. But then, she wouldn't be able to spend six hours reading through this latest gem she'd found. She shot a mournful look at her abandoned phone. "Where is it being held?" she asked, buying time to consider if she actually wanted to go or not.
"North of the university, there's a few guys who share a place there. I met Chris through a guy in my prokaryote bio class, and he's kinda cute." The nonchalant tone might have worked, except for the slightest blush on Harley's cheeks.
Reese smiled, suddenly understanding the reason for Harley's intrusion into reading time. Fussy Harley had actually found someone she liked, but she was trying to play it down.
"Yeah, I'll go with you." Reese would go if for no other reason than to observe how Harley interacted with this Chris guy. Socializing didn't appeal that much to her, but watching other people do it could be fun.
"Sweet! You're the best!" She glanced at her phone. "Well, I've got to get to my lab. The chemicals aren't going to react themselves."
"Me too, soon. See you later!" Reese waved slightly as Harley left like the whirlwind that she was, the door bell ringing with her departure.
Glancing at the time on her phone, Reese decided that she could spare five more minutes without cutting it too close.
The bell above the coffee shop door rang again.
She glanced up, hoping it wasn't Harley come back to interrupt her again. She loved her friend, but everyone needed a little—or a lot—of alone time.
But it wasn't Harley, and Reese suddenly didn't feel at all interrupted.
For one second, she imagined that the alpha had literally stepped out of The Feral Alpha. His features were superficially similar to the love interest from the book, ash-blond hair, slate-blue eyes, and a clean shaven jaw of clean angles, but it was so much more than that. Dressed casually, he had the appearance of a handsome athletic jock from a movie, but more serious, and he looked sharp. He possessed the space he was in like it was his territory along with everything else he surveyed.
His eyes swept through the small cafe, running over the girl working behind the counter and then over the handful of customers sitting around and quietly talking or studying.
And then his eyes finally reached Reese and caught her staring at him.
Cheeks burning, she grabbed her phone like it was her lifeline. Gluing her eyes to the blank screen, she just had to wait this awkwardness out, and then she could go on with her day like he had never entered it. He'd grab whatever beverage he came here for, and leave, and she could run and hide in her classroom.
Unlocking her phone, she didn't dare go to her reading app. Instead, she pulled up the history of American literature syllabus to pretend to be doing something productive with her time.
Except, for some reason, the shoes, followed by the jean-clad legs of the guy who had caught her gaping entered her field of vision.
Eep!
Hopefully he wouldn't call her out. Surely he was used to having people struck dumb by his appearance wherever he went. A gawking girl should just be a normal Friday morning for him, she was sure.
He didn't move.
Involuntarily, she followed his legs up to his plain grey t-shirt to look up at his face. He really was handsome, the lines of his face masculine, and his lips just full enough to be absolutely perfect.
"Hey." His deep and even voice sent shivers through her. He didn't look angry, just a bit amused and surprised about something.
"Hey?" she echoed, because she apparently needed to say something in response and her brain had abandoned her.
"I'm Nathan Auger, and you are...?"
"Reese Defranco?"
"Nice to meet you," he said, and held out his hand for her to shake.
She mimicked his action, reaching for his hand. His was so much larger than hers, but thoughts of that went out the window when his warm rough palm contacted her own with an explosion of tingles. It was so strong that it was painful enough she would have ripped her hand away if she had the slightest will to do so.