“Uh-huh. Oh, look. You’re being compared to your brother. A new bad boy is in town.” Tyler laughed at my expense.
Great. Just another time I was being compared to Saint ‘the Savage’ Masters. It didn’t matter how I played the game. Saint would always be better than his little brother.
“And another one where I could swear you’re about to turn into a fucking wolf. Imagine what everyone seeing this picture thinks. Man, that’s not cool. Look at your damn teeth.”
While I hesitated, I finally glanced at what he was talking about. Fucking fantastic. A photograph had been taken of me pretending. Although if I seemed to remember, someone had pissed me off. I almost corrected him that when in shifter form, I had canines, but I didn’t think that would go over well. He’d never discriminated against me or any other shifter, but why give him reason to start?
“Let’s see how well the Beast is trending.” As a man considered to be a social media guru, he set his coffee mug down and continued scrolling.
“Unbelievable. And I don’t fucking bite.”
“Yeah, yeah. You love all the hype and you know it. Plus, you do more than bite, buddy.”
I once thought I did, but ever since the day the existence of a massive shifter population was exposed, my career had been in a holding pattern. All while my brother had reached GOAT status. Greatest of all time.
A bitter taste formed in my throat as Tyler continued surfing. I could tell by his look of amusement he was having way too muchfun delving into the catastrophic media fodder that had become my career.
“Whoa. You bet the name is trending,” Tyler chuckled. “‘The Beast’ has experienced a widespread surge and the number of likes and comments I’ve seen are just wow.” He lifted his head toward me, arching both eyebrows.
“Why are you looking at me that way?”
“Like what way? Hey, here’s another one you might appreciate. ‘Is Steven Masters the most talented brother of the two?’”
“Now, you’re just taunting me.”
“No, I’m not. It’s right here written in black and white. The article had two full paragraphs.” He held out the iPad and I almost reached for it.
Before I laughed. “Two big paragraphs. Wow. I’m famous. In what newspaper?” Every word out of my mouth dripped of sarcasm.
He coughed and rolled his hand across his mouth, muttering a name into his fingers.
That I heard clearly given my various wolf shifter attributes.
For some insane reason, my mind drifted to something that had occurred the night before. Puck bunnies were always hanging around the locker room, hoping for a quick and hot round of nookie. After fueling my playboy reputation by doing a little dance move I’d perfected before heading out, I’d overheard one reading a passage in a book she’d been holding.
Only she replaced the character’s name in the book with mine.
“Steven didn’t just walk into the rink; he stalked, his movements liquid and unnaturally quiet despite the heavy, dense muscle that created a beast on the ice. His ice blue eyes, a shade too bright to be human, didn’t blink as he took in the scent of fear in the stadium, his nostrils flared slightly. When he spoke, his voice was a low growl, and for a split second, I saw his sharp canines. He wasn’t just a man, he was a powerful, dangerous wolf held back by a thin layer of human skin.As my eyes drifted lower, I noticed the huge bulge between his legs, his cock twitching magnificently. And my mouth watered in anticipation.”
You bet shifters were born with attributes surpassing all humans. With more than two times the strength and four times the speed, extreme dexterity, the ability to see in near total darkness, and hearing keener than any other species on the planet, we were the physically superior race.
And there were those who’d just as soon see us relegated to zoo specimens, kept locked in cages and nothing more. How many times had ethics and rules organizations, law enforcement and senate oversight committees tried to drive us back into the shadows?
Dozens, and our kind had only been outed a year before.
We’d certainly had our share of threats, although the most horrific had died down during the last few months. They hadn’t been able to rile us, which was all the assholes had wanted to do.
Plus, the various pack leaders had warned us through our communications system to be on our best behavior. Which we’d mostly adhered to.
Now, I grabbed the iPad from Tyler’s hand, scrolling up to find which publication. “Oh, yeah.The Sioux City Beacon?”
“Hey, you know what they say, all publicity is publicity.”
“That’s not what they say.”
“Well, the article is very positive in comparison to the other one. Who knows. Maybe you’ll finally get called up to the Wild Dogs.”
“You seem to forget I signed with the Philly Lightning as a free agent. Which means I won’t automatically be called up to the home team. Besides, the Wild Dogs can’t handle two Masters brothers at the same time. What’s the other article you mentioned?”
