Page 14 of The Alpha’s Chosen Mate

Chapter Seven

HARRISON

18 Years Old, January 1991

“Emily.” My head pounds from my lycan’s withheld fury and the thought that Emily’s never shifted and thinks she can’t. “Emily, listen to me.” I grab her shoulders, keeping my touch soft yet grounding. “ Omega is an outdated term for a werewolf without a rank.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Most packs stopped using it because of the derogatory undertones of the word and because assholes like your alpha would use that lack of rank against those wolves. All wolves can shift, no matter if they’re ranked or unranked.”

Emily’s breathing quickens with every word she hears. Confusion and disbelief furrow her brow. “All my life I’ve been told that all unranked wolves are omegas, and all omegas can’t shift because they don’t have a wolf.”

“And you never thought to question it because your pack makes sure outsiders aren’t welcome. Your alpha and his predecessors were very thorough in their brainwashing of your pack,” my dad says as the classroom door shuts behind him.

We were both so wrapped up in our discussion that we didn’t hear him arrive.

Emily flinches and leans into my chest again. Her heart races, and an almost inaudible whimper passes through her lips. I wrap my arms around her to ease her fears, rubbing her back in long strokes as I speak to my dad over the top of her head.

“You got here fast.”

“I was in town. Mr. Martin caught me on my car phone.”

His gaze lingers on the way I hold Emily and the way she clings to me as he meanders down the row of desks, but he doesn’t comment on it.

“Emily”—he lowers himself into a chair so he’s not towering over her—“I know you don’t have the best experience with alphas, but I promise you have no reason to be afraid of me.”

“Why should I believe you?” Emily rasps.

“Because I’m here to help you, not hurt you.”

“Help me how?”

“By making you a member of Crescent Lake.”

Instead of the relief I expect from Emily, she begins to cry again. “I c-can’t.”

“You’re eighteen now. The law states that you can choose your own pack once you’re eighteen,” I remind her.

She shakes her head vehemently and gazes up at me with a storm of pain in her gray eyes. Her fingers curl into my sweater, and she gasps for air. “Y-you d-don’t u-understand.”

Emily’s sobs intensify until she’s almost hyperventilating. She tries to speak, but she’s too panicked, too hysterical to communicate with us. She sputters and trembles until her teeth chatter.

“I can’t,” she forces out between her sobs. She stares at me pointedly as she cries and shakes in my arms, as if she’s trying to convey some hidden meaning.

It hits me with the force of a sniper’s bullet, what she’s trying to tell me. Why she can’t join our pack.

“There was more to his alpha command than you told me, wasn’t there? He ordered you not to join a new pack, didn’t he?” I keep my voice as calm as I can even though I want nothing more than to scream and rage against this injustice.

Emily sniffles and nods. Her gaze lowers to my chest, and she refuses to meet my eyes.

She shouldn’t do that. She has no reason to be embarrassed for what her alpha has done to her. It’s not her fault.

If anything, it’s mine. I should have kept her money safe for her. If I’d kept it, then her alpha wouldn’t have found it. If I’d kept it for her, she’d have met me at Brewed Awakenings on her birthday, and she’d already be a member of Crescent Lake.

“What exactly did he say? How did he word his command?” My dad leans forward with his intensity.

I glare at him in warning. She’s clearly in no shape to speak, yet he’s attempting to interrogate her about semantics?