things like education and policy, diversity and the differences and similarities between shifters and non-shifters. That part of being on the council, I liked. Being a part of educational opportunities, cross-cultural appreciation and understanding, that was enjoyable. Going to parties, because as not only an alpha but a cyne I was supposed to be actively searching for a mate or offering for an omega, that part I hated. And then it got worse.
It was bad enough being forced to attend events where I was trotted out like a prize bull for the omegas to gawk at before I’d been disfigured, but when I nearly lost my left eye defending my cousin Remington in an altercation with another family and was left with a particularly horrific scar, the whole thing went from annoying to downright agonizing while all the pretty, preening, insipid, gold digging omegas who wanted to be kept in wealth and splendor, aspiring to little else, not only had to pretend to find me attractive but also had to try not to stare in open revulsion and sometimes outright fear.
It wasn’t easy. The scar was a canyon. The other alpha had grabbed my muzzle in his powerful jaws, held me down with his claws near my eye, and then ripped forward with his teeth. It was fortunate that he’d been so focused on trying to tear my head off that he didn’t notice when I got both my front paws up under his throat until it was too late. He drowned in his own blood, but even with my shift, the damage was done. Irreversible. The greatest plastic surgeons in the world could remake my visage, but the first shift would return the mutilated skin. It was one of those tricky peculiarities about being a shifter.
So I was now forced to stand there, with my ravaged face, to meet these vacuous omegas who did nothing for me. I knew I had a type, I preferred my men strong and virile, but there was a reason two alphas were never seen together, at least not for long. One of them had to submit, and that was not in the nature of an alpha. It wasn’t that I wanted to fight a bed partner, but having to exert power to hold another man down got me off like few other things could or did. The issue was that only other alphas caught my eye and earned a second look. All other wolves were hardwired to defer to me, and that quick submission left me cold.
Yes, I had taken many betas and gammas to my bed over the years, but the temperament of a beta was so gentle and docile, a peacemaker, like my brother, that I was not, as a rule, drawn to them. A gamma was similar, though with a somewhat wilder streak, but both always succumbed. And while I enjoyed humans, they were not a long-term option. I’d shared my bed with more than a few, especially during my undergraduate years, but as they couldn’t heal damage like a shifter could, I ran the risk of biting and clawing, of mauling, or of outright killing them. The last time I took a human to bed, I got so caught up in a frenzy of arousal and bloodlust while my partner begged me for harder and faster that I nearly eviscerated the man. I had tried to be careful after that, but tepid lovemaking for a shifter was not sustainable. There were only two times a wolf could be fully free: during a shift and in bed. I wasn’t about to sacrifice either, no matter how beautiful I found the human. Being alone seemed to be my destiny.
“Graeme.”
I groaned, returning myself to the present as Miss Holt, Kat to me, came into the kitchen. She was dressed not in yoga pants or threadbare jeans, an old T-shirt or a sweatshirt with a butchered neckline, but instead in a suit and heels, looking crisp and terribly polished. I girded for what I knew was coming.
“Did we forget that we have a gathering to attend at the home of Alexander and Elira Huntington? They are this quarter’s hosts of the presentation of the omegas.”
Her patronizing singsong voice wasn’t helping in the least.
“Well?” she demanded.
I regretted giving her so much leeway to bait me, but even though I’d given keeping her at arm’s length my very best shot, her warmth and caring and sarcasm and loyalty had won me over years ago. Now