Prologue
Aria
“You know what you need?” she says pointedly. “Sex.”
My head jerks up, my gaze finding my friend who lounges casually on my bed, magazine in hand. Her head is tipped down the side of my bed, blonde hair spilling across my bed sheets.
Alexa. Our parents were friends before we were. Back in preschool, she was super intimidating with all the friends and her own personal sandpit at home. Our friendship was forced upon us, and on the first day of primary school, we realised we needed one another, and haven’t left each other’s side since.
She still intimidates me though. Not only, in my opinion, is she flawless, but she is so confident and impressive. I was often told I was charismatic and easy to talk to, but she was another story.
Some people knew me as Alexa’s friend, since she was my barrier to cling to when it came to meeting the outside world. Although we were stark different in our looks, for the most part, we were known as the two A’s, and that was that.
“I don’t-“
“Yes you do,” she declares. “This magazine says so.”
I watch her flip off my bed, bringing half the sheets and my pillow with her. She tosses the magazine at me in a whirlwind of pages and tester perfume. The page she was talking about had a quiz leading to a set of three possible answers.
“If you look here, it says that girls who like books, bake, and won’t go out on Friday nights are in desperate need of hot, rough-“
I slam the magazine shut, letting the glossy pages slip from my fingers.
“You’re delirious…The world isn’t about sex, it’s about finding your mate, and falling in-“
“Love,” she finishes, cutting me off. We were good at doing that to each other. “Yeah yeah, I get it.”
Standing from where I had been kneeling on the floor, trying to wipe away the stain Alexa’s wine left, I toss the magazine onto my desk. Why Alexa thought those things worked, I don’t know. But they aren’t about to tell my future.
“I’m willing to wait for mate, and if that means not going out to get drunk and dry hump strangers, then fine,” I snap.
Alexa rolls her eyes at me. She had just put on some relevant song I haven’t caught onto yet, and it just adds to the situation. This isn’t the first time we have had this conversation. In High School, she would skip class and I would stay home to finish homework. It’s how it’s always been.
“You’re just so…Boring!”
“No,” I reprimand, pushing my hair back, straightening my shoulders. “I’m safe, and level headed.”
The eye roll again. Alexa stands in front of me, grabbing a hold of my shoulders. The seriousness in her eyes was a little frightening, as she shook me slightly, as if maybe it would get some sense into my head. I believe I’m thinking just fine.
“You need to do something crazy…” she decides, raising her eyebrow in a way that a serial killer might to when you beg for your life.
Suddenly she glances at my desk, where she dumped her backpack the moment she walked in. I watch her rustle in it, bottles of wine and scrumpy she brought with her clinking together.
“You’re clearly drunk or something,” I mutter, shaking my head at her. “Remember when I let those strangers into my house to stay that time? Then they just disappeared and I was left looking like an idiot?”
That time Alexa tried to convince me that having people to stay in one of the rooms in my house to make extra cash was a good idea, I was proved wrong. It shut her up about things for awhile. Till now…
“Look!” she breathes, thrusting a piece of paper in the air. “You’re going to apply for this!”
I take the paper. A picture of the Alpha of Love was printed there, but in black and white. He looked dashingly handsome, despite the ventures everyone knows he commits to…Under it, was printed writing about some kind of competition.
“He’s given up on finding his mate, so he is holding a competition to see who will become the next Luna! She could be from any Pack, including this one. She could be you, or me!”
The excitement wasn’t passed on. In fact, I screwed my nose up. “No thank you.”
“Listen Aria, he’s the Alpha. The Alpha!” she exclaims, cheeks bursting with colour. “When do we even get to be in mere feet of him, let alone in his bed?”
“Never,” I grumble begrudgingly.
Alexa squealed in a way that hurt my ears. She’s had a crush on him before he was even named as Alpha-when she found out he is around our age. I just couldn’t believe it…A competition for his love?
“Exactly. If one of us gets in, it means instant wealth and fame…And…And a hot Alpha…”
She kept going. On and on about the man I saw as a leader, rather than a lover. I knew he played around with plenty of girls, and admittedly, I didn’t like that. Why would I want to go and fight against girls wanting as much as Alexa, when all I want is to find my mate?
“But what about my mate? That means giving up all hope of finding him,” I say, exasperated.
“Too bad, this is an Alpha! I applied yesterday, and you must to!” she insisted, stabbing her finger against the page.
Swallowing, I looked at the small writing. One girl from each Pack will be selected. He really doesn’t have a type, as long as she has a vagina, I guess.
“One from each Pack,” I echo. “That means we would literally have a one in a million chance of being selected.”
“That’s my point. The likelihood of you being selected is so low, we would actually have a summer in this Pack,” Alexa says, so excited she was basically quivering.
I sigh, glancing out my bedroom window. Snow fell peacefully, coating the streets with the perpetual winter we lived in. Summer would never come…And I would never be picked for something like this.
“If I do it, will you shut your mouth?” I question.
Alexa claps happily. “A million times yes!”
“Fine,” I say airily. “I’ll do it.”
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