Jason ran into the safety of the highschool's hallway after a football hit him in the head. A chorus of laughter followed him as he made his way to his locker. It has always been this way, tortured by his fellow pack mates. It didn't matter that he was the Alpha's son. No, his status made it worse. The pack already had a crowned prince in his older brother Quinton, so he was the unwanted alpha who posed a threat to the stability of the pack.

Jason scoffed at the idea. He never wanted to be Alpha, especially not to a self-centered pack full of ass-lickers. Not that it mattered, he was a nuisance and his pack made sure he understood that. His brother, in particular, had a chip on his shoulder. To Jason, his brother was the mold in which the gods cast clichés out of. A jock and a manwhore to boot, he screwed more pussies than a sex addict in a whorehouse.

Opening his locker, Jason sneaked a glance at his brother, chatting up another victim. Over six feet three inches tall, Quinton towered over most people. His bulging muscles attracted most of the students to him, regardless of gender. Poor girl. After all this time, most of the girls would have had the common sense to see that his brother only used them as cum-dumps, but the fact didn't deter them one bit. Virgins were a dying breed.

"What are you staring at, fuckface?!" One of Quinton's friends shouted, slamming his head into the lip of his locker's shelf, cutting the bridge of Jason's nose.

Jason clamped down onto the cut, slammed shut the locker, and ran to the men's restroom. The usual snickers and homophobic chants hounded after him. It didn't matter to him; he wasn't gay but bi. Most of the jocks would never admit it, but Jason knew that most of them had their dicks in an ass once in their lives. Hypocrites!

Jason could have easily kicked the jock's ass, but the last time he tried, his brother joined them and beat him into a bloody mess. So much for an Alpha, right?

Jason never understood why his brother came to despise him so much. However, if he had to guess, it all started after an incident when Quinton collapsed to the floor and clutched onto his chest, screaming his lungs out. Days later, the Elders of the pack declared Quinton mateless. He had lost his mate. The news floored the pack, but especially their father. Quinton, his heir, wouldn't find his mate and reproduce to continue the Brooks bloodline. Well, there was Jason, but his father told him to his face no less that he'd never be good enough to lead the pack.

Jason rushed up to a basin at the end of the line and started splashing the blood off his face. Thank the goddess he wore his maroon pullover sweatshirt; the blood wouldn't show. The cut across his nose had already sealed. Only a faint line remained behind. He walked over to the paper dispenser and wiped his face dry before he walked out of the restroom.

"What's up, bestie?!" shouted a short, pink-haired girl who ran up to him.

Jason flinched and cried, "Damn, girl! You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days."

The girl with a pink pixie-cut hairdo punched Jason playfully on the shoulder. "Stop being melodramatic. You're an alpha." She flung her arms around his waist and began squeezing the life out of him.

"Well, I don't have to worry about a heart attack while I'm being strangled to death." He could feel his ribs staining under her python grip. "Mallory! Come on, you're crushing me."

She quickly released him, much to his gratitude. For a short person, she packed a bitch of a punch.

Mallory reached up and stroked the scar on Jason's nose. "Who's the dipshit? Who did this?"

Rage simmered under her forest green eyes as she scanned the hallway. Unfortunately, the dick who slammed Jason's head into the locker was standing at the end of the hallway boasting about his accomplishment to the rest of the zombie squad. Seriously, the group, including Jason's brother, had next to no brainpower. Quinton only saw the inside of his senior classroom because the school belonged to the pack. The principal had to cook a lot of tests to save Quinton's ass. His report cards caused most of the gray hair on their mother's head.

Jason groaned and caught Mallory before she stormed off to kill the jock. "Mally, don't. The ass isn't worth it." Most people who met her wouldn't have believed that she was a beta at first glance. She was short and curvaceous, yet as gorgeous as fuck. Most of the guys at school lusted after her, but she was quick to step onto their dicks if they got too pushy with her.

"Jase! You can't keep on letting them walk all over you." She pointed to the group. "You're an Alpha just as much as your idiot of a brother is. Hell, you're even better."

Jason quickly dragged her away and into their homeroom. "You can't talk like that. If one of my brother's lackeys hears you, I'll end up with a knife in the back." He plunged down into his seat in the back corner of the classroom. "My brother already hates me. I don't need you adding more fuel to the fire."

Mallory sat down beside Jason and said, "Then leave and start your own pack."

Jason laughed at her comment. It felt alien to him somehow. He never saw himself as a leader. Probably because his father never trained him to be one.

"Come on. Stop being a pussy and listen to her," Oz told me. "Petition the Collective. I'm sure they'll consider it."

"It's not as easy as it sounds, Oz." Jason rubbed his chin. "Being responsible for hundreds of lives is daunting as hell. I'm not ready and I don't think I'll ever be. What if I fail and get the pack killed?"

"Oz is right, you know," Mallory jumped into our conversation.

Jason glared at her and said, "Stop eavesdropping. It's rude."

"Then stop letting your metal barriers fall. You're lucky we share a private mind-link, otherwise you would have broadcasted your conversation to the rest of the pack." Her words dropped a pound of ice into his lap. Shit, I needed to work on that.

Jason didn't consider himself lucky. He was the outcast. Since he was also an alpha, his father had cut him off from the pack's mind-link. A practice abolished decades ago by the Collective, but his father enforced it, regardless. His father didn't want him to 'brainwash' (his father's words) the pack into following him rather than his brother. Mallory was the only person he still had a connection to. Even that connection came under threat, but Mallory confronted the Alpha and told him to go fuck himself. She would not break her mental link with Jason like the rest of the pack did. And for that, Jason loved her more than ever. She was the only bright light in his life.

"Earth to Jason." Mallory snapped her fingers in front of his face. "You should stop spacing out like that," she said, giggling. "So... How do you feel about tomorrow?"

"What?!"

"Tomorrow, genius. You know, your birthday and the day you meet your mate."

Jason slumped down onto his desk. The dreaded D-Day. Jason had a terrible feeling about tomorrow. Most likely his mate would reject him, even if he was an alpha.

"Stop thinking like Oz growled. "Have faith in the Moon Goddess. She wouldn't gift us a mate that'll reject us."

He had high hopes.

"I don't really care," Jason lied to Mallory. His birthday meant next to nothing. His family never celebrated his birthday. "I just want it over and done with."

"Don't be like that! It's your eighteenth birthday. We should celebrate it. Let's say dinner at Raven's diner." Mallory suggested while pulling out her cellphone.

A smile appeared on Jason's face. He could celebrate it with the only person who cared about him. "Great. That sounds great."

Just then, the first bell rang out. Well, let's get this day over with and hope for the best.

***

Jason walked into the cafeteria with Mallory tied to his waist. He hated the place. Jason had to endure all the sneers and name-calling from the rest of his peers. It usually took every restraint he had not to shift into his wolf and to rip every single one of his so-called pack to shreds.

"Just ignore the idiots and let's get some grub," she said out loud, earning a few scowls from the students. She dragged him to the lunch line. Jason didn't trust the lunch ladies. He wouldn't put it past them to spit into his food just for the fun of it.

"I'm not hungry," Jason mumbled as he eyed the lunch lady who stared butcher's knives into his neck as they approached. "You never know what they did to the food."

Mallory slapped him on the chest. "Don't worry. I'll beat these bitches to a bloody pulp. And then I'll use what's left of them to cook sloppy joe's for the rest of these jerks to choke on." She took six pieces of pizza, four burritos, two cans of Dr. Pepper, and two chocolate cups from the line. She then paid for them.

They made their way back to the end of the cafeteria, evading several legs who tried to trip them. Once they reached the table, Mallory divided the spoils between them and started eating.

Just as the last bite of a burrito passed Jason's lips, the cafeteria's doors flung open. A silence swept over the cafeteria. The one person waltzed into the cafeteria that tied a knot into Jason's stomach, Lexi Summerton.