Throughout the game, Gage kept glancing at the stands. At first he couldn't find Mia but once he spotted her red hair he couldn't stop stealing peeks at her. Her skin was flushed from cheering on the team, her hair was damp from the muggy air, and her eyes seemed to gleam. God she was pretty. He had to force himself to stop thinking about her though. He'd already asked Stacy out, that meant he wasn't single anymore, so he couldn't stand around staring at another girl.
Just before the half-time show he stood on the sidelines against the fence. Stacy sidled up to him and he draped his arm over her shoulder. She was taller than Mia and didn't fit as snugly under his arm. He really needed to stop comparing them to each other.
“... the party?”
Gage realized she was talking to him but he'd missed almost everything she'd said. “Sorry, what?”
“Boys,” Stacy said and rolled her eyes. “I asked if you wanted to go to my house instead of the party. My folks are out of town this weekend.”
He should say no. That wasn't what came out of his mouth though. In his defense, hewasa teenage boy. “Sure.”
Stacy smiled up at him. “Good. We can have our own private little party,” she murmured.
Gage nodded and when the team headed into the locker room for a brief pep talk from the coach he tried to put the conversation out of his mind. Focus. He needed to get his head in the game.
By the time the game was over Gage was starting to question whether or not he really wanted to go through with going to Stacy's house. He'd tried to move away from her so he could go say hello to Mia a few times but she kept finding ways to distract him. Even now, when Mia was talking with her brother, he couldn't extract himself from Stacy's side. “Crap, I forgot something in the locker room,” he finally said in desperation.
“Well go get it. I'll be right here.” Stacy gave him what she thought was a sexy smile.
“Be right back.” He moved away from her just as Mia stepped away from the fence and headed toward one of the exits from the football field. “Mia!” He tried to get her attention and for a moment he thought she heard him but she didn't stop or turn around. Maybe he'd imagined the hesitation he thought he saw. Then she was gone. Eventually he returned to Stacy's side and then left the field with her. It was probably a bad idea to go home with herbut he went through with it anyway.
Caine
Caine watched as yet another woman left his Alpha's home, money tucked into the top of her dress. Zachary Eitenne disliked humans, he thought they were beneath shifters, and yet he had no qualms about fucking them. It was disgusting. Not because they were human but because they were whores, prostitutes who were leaving the compound with money that could have bought food for the Pard. A low growl escaped him and he turned away. If he spent too much time around his Alpha he was going to challenge him before he was ready.
To distract himself from his growing frustration, Caine decided to go into New Orleans to do some shopping. He bought food for the older Pard members who couldn't get around as easily anymore. It had become a weekly routine for him. Going into the city gave him time to distance himself from his anger.
“You headin' into da city?” Remy Delacroix knew Caine was working up to challenging their Alpha. If anyone could defeat Zachary Eitenne and fix all the damage he'd done to the Pard, it was Caine.
“Yeah. I might do someting stupid if I don't.” Caine cocked a brow at him. “You headin' in as well?”
“Yeah, mama has a package waitin' at da post office she asked me to get for her.”
“You can help me wit' da groceries for da elders.” Caine was already thinking ahead to the way he wanted to do things when he took over as Alpha. He knew he needed leopards he could trust and depend on to help him. Remy was several years younger but the leopard was tough. He'd make an excellent lieutenant.
“A'right.” Remy stepped onto Caine's boat and was silent as they headed out into the swamp. “So, how much longer you tinkin' it'll be before you're ready to challenge him?”
Caine snorted. “Soon. I tink. A year or two, maybe. I need to be sure our people are taken care of and I can't do dat if I'm not stable. Another year or two and my investments will have paid off enough to be able to get da Pard back on it's feet quickly.”
“Can't come soon enough,” Remy countered. “We'd have lost some of da elders already if not for what you've already done.”
Caine nodded, face grim. “I know, Remy. I know.” Soon, he promised his leopard. Soon we'll make things right.
Chapter Four
Mia
Mia stared at herself in the mirror. At fifteen she barely reached five feet and had finally resigned herself to being short. Sometimes she wished she was taller, maybe then Gage Delacroix would notice her. It was hard for her to accept that someone she'd been so close to before they both hit high school would be so distant now. They still said hello to each other in the halls but in the last two years he'd gotten so wrapped up in being a jock and hanging out with his buddies on the team that he'd pretty much turned his back on his 'old life'. The only time she really saw him was when the Pard got together on the full moon to go for a run. It was sad, really, considering they lived in the same compound.
It was Homecoming weekend, everyone was still riding high from the win against their rival the night before, and the dance was supposed to be really amazing. They'd gone with a 'Blue Moon' theme and, according to one of Mia's friends who'd helped decorate, it was gorgeous. “Tell me again why I agreed to this?” She glanced at her twin.
“Because you want to go to da dance but you don't want to go alone and I can't take anyone else,” Jules replied. He'd recently come out to his family and was grateful they accepted that he was gay. His classmates, on the other hand, would never accept it so, since neither he nor Mia had a date to the dance, he talked her into going with him.
“You know everyone's gonna talk, right? Dey'll say we're pathetic, couldn't even get a date to da dance so we had to go together.”
Julius snorted. “Dat or dey'll tink we're committin' incest.”
“Ew! Gross. I really didn't need you puttin' dat in my head, Jules!” She punched his arm and shook her head. “I guess we better get out of here.” In a way she was dreading the dance but she chalked that up to the fact Gage would be there with his latest girlfriend. In the last two years he'd probably dated half the girls in school. Every single one of them was the complete opposite of Mia. Where she was short, they were tall. Where her hips widened, making it hard to find pants that fit right, they were all lean and slender. Where she was pure tomboy, they were the epitome of femininity. The only attractive thing about her, in her opinion, was her hair. Most girls in school had to use curling rods or chemicals to get the curls she had naturally. Not that most people got to see them since she often wore her hair in a braid or ponytail.
