He was crass. He was crude. He was...pretty dumb, really.
But he was the alpha Lexi Blackclaw was set to marry.
“So,” said Shana Bitterfoot, Lexi’s best friend and fellow member of the Thundertooth Pack. “You excited or what?”
Lexi said nothing at first, instead watching Chad Bloodmaw, her betrothed alpha, from the far side of the bar. He was at a table with some of his betas, the group of them carrying on and slamming drinks, other females of the pack around the edges of the table, all seemingly entranced by the lunk-headed masculinity on display.
“There’re plenty of words I’d use to describe how I feel right now,” said Lexi, her fingertips on her glass of beer. “But ‘excited’ sure as shit isn’t one of them.”
Shana laughed, knowing exactly what was on Lexi’s mind.
“OK, I get it,” she said. “Chad isn’t...um, well, he’s not really the type of guy that I’d imagined you with.”
Right as she finished, as if making her point, Chad stood up, let out a roar, and smashed an empty glass on his head. The other betas let out yells of approval, the women all regarding each other with excited expressions.
Shana was right, considered Lexi. Never in a million years did she imagine herself with someone like him. At six-and-a-half-feet tall, with shoulders like bowling balls and massive biceps, his neck as thick as a tree trunk, Chad was the ideal physical specimen of an alpha male. His black hair was buzzed short, his jaw was wide, and the gray T-shirt he wore looked on the verge of being ripped right off his body with a single flex of his powerful torso.
“But hey, you’re the not the only one set to get hitched. Maddie Blackclaw’s paired up too, remember?”
“Shit,” said Lexi. “I forgot all about that. Totally insane that she’s going to be marrying Jason freaking Rainbringer. Gotta say, he’s probably the second biggest asshole in this pack next to Chad.”
“Spends his teens making fun of us, then goes off to Seattle to work for his uncle. Not a single doubt in my mind that he’s going to be even more arrogant than he was before.”
Lexi sighed. “I still can’t believe the pack’s doing arranged marriages. Can’t we be trusted to pick out who we want to spend the rest of our lives with?”
“Nope,” said Shana, rolling her eyes. “Gotta follow tradition. I swear, if it was tradition to walk into traffic on our twenty-first birthdays instead of getting married, they’d make us do that too.”
One of the betas shoved another beer into Chad’s huge hand, and Chad didn’t waste any time pouring it down his throat and whipping the glass across the bar, where it shattered against the wall, the crisp smashing sound momentarily rising over the rock music playing from the jukebox.
“That’s...that’s the man I’m supposed to marry,” said Lexi, shaking her head, her bright blonde hair tossing around her shoulders.
“Marry and have kids with,” said Shana. “Lots and lots and lots of kids. That’s your omega duty, remember?”
Chad, still standing, still the center of attention, focused his dark eyes on Lexi from across the bar. His eyes narrowed, and a sly smile formed on his lips. He flicked his chin up to Lexi as if wanting to let her know without words exactly what was on his mind.
“Don’t remind me,” said Lexi.
Shana smiled. “Come on—it’s not all bad. I mean, he’s handsome, right?”
“Fine,” said Lexi, turning her eyes away from Chad. “He’s handsome. But that’s all he is. And it’s not like I’m some kind of snob, you know? I don’t need the man who imprints on me to be some kind of genius.”
“Well, that’s good,” said Shana. “Because I’m pretty sure you’re the smartest girl in this pack. If you want a guy who’s smarter than you, then you’re going to be single for a long, long time.”
“Smart would be great,” said Lexi, turning her attention back to her beer. “But yeah, I know the difference between high standards and realistic ones. But Chad’s not just a caveman, he’s totally cruel.”
“How do you mean?” Shana was curious.
“Did you hear about the battle with the Razorfang clan? Those wolves right across the Oregon border?”
Shana shook her head. “You know they don’t keep me in the loop. What happened?”
“Chad led the assault on the pack’s last encampment. By that point, the Razorfangs were done—we’d beaten them at every battle, and no one was left but the last few betas and their alpha. They were ready to surrender.”