Alpha Betrayed: A Dark Shifter
Defiant Princess Chapter 16

FORD

I hold my tongue through Natalie’s fight with the general who insists I’ll contaminate the crime scene and her debate with two professors worried that seeing a dead body—even if it’s not technically a human body—will traumatize both me and Juliet.

They clearly have no idea what the two of us have lived through.

We’ve seen our share of dead bodies. Hell, we’ve both created corpses ourselves. Less than a month ago, I spent an evening tossing people we’d both killed in a dumpster.

But we’ve never had to get up close and personal with the corpse of someone we cared about. With a friend. An innocent friend who’d done absolutely nothing to deserve being ripped apart.

Diana wasn’t just shot or stabbed or something relatively normal when it comes to murder. She was ripped in half from claws to beak, and her insides scattered across the grass leading deeper into the graveyard. The scene is disturbing to say the least, but I force myself to shift and get my nose as close to her feathers as I can without leaving my own scent behind.

I sniff and sniff, searching the ground around the body, too, for good measure. I sniff some bloody footprints I replace near the corpse, but the b***d belonged to Diana’s owl and the only wolf smell I replace is several days old. If a Lupine shifter was in this graveyard tonight, he or she must have done something to conceal their scent. With enough layers and a face mask to protect against any saliva spray when they spoke, the murderer could have done this without leaving a trace, but it still wouldn’t have been easy.

And if Diana was able to fight back, chances are she ripped a few holes in their gear. Making a mental note to look around my dorm for people with claw marks in their jackets, I trot back to sit on my haunches beside Juliet, who’s just completed her own turn around the cemetery, and shake my head from side to side.

Natalie sighs. “I was afraid of that. I didn’t smell anything, either, but I was hoping maybe your nose was younger and sharper.” She reaches out, giving Juliet’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Want me to walk you back to your dorm? And maybe we can stop by my apartment and have some tea on the way? It’s been a while since we had a real chat.”

The last time they spoke was when Juliet pretended to be upset about being forced to keep her implant in until after the trials nearly two weeks ago. She elected not to tell Natalie, or anyone else on staff, that she’d removed it herself until after the trials had started, and it was too late for anyone to insist she put it back in.

“Thanks, but I should get back to Layla,” Juliet says, moving her hand to stroke the top of my furred head in a way that’s comforting, despite the horror still splayed out in front of us. “And Ford will make sure I get home safe.”

I rumble low in my chest in agreement and Natalie nods.

“All right,” she says, glancing between us. “But go straight home and listen to your counselors and the teachers who will be staying with you tonight. Your safety is our top priority. Until we replace out who did this, we’re going to be keeping an even closer eye on all our students.”

Which means it’s damned lucky Juliet finally learned how to shift today. I seriously doubt we’ll be allowed beyond the walls until long after the trials are over.

“Thanks, Natalie,” Juliet says, gathering my clothes in her arms. “Talk to you later.”

“Reach out anytime,” Natalie says, pulling her sweater more tightly around her as a cool breeze gusts through the graveyard, making the leaves on the trees hush and sway. “I’m always here for you. Both of you.”

Juliet lifts her hand in weary farewell, and we start up the path, leading back through the woods toward the main part of campus. We move beyond the circle of the two searchlights flooding the graveyard pretty quickly, but the moon is bright in a nearly cloudless sky, making it easy to see the change in Juliet’s energy the moment it happens.

She stands up straighter, walks faster, and motions me to one side of the trail, behind a clutch of cedar trees.

When we’re both hidden from sight, I shift back into my human form, sensing I’m going to need a voice Juliet can understand. “What’s up?” I ask.

“While you were sniffing around, I took a lap around the graveyard,” she says, her gaze momentarily straying below my h**s before she jerks it back to my face. She clears her throat and fumbles my clothes into my hands. “Here.”

“Thanks,” I say, tucking my shirt under my arm as I step into my swim shorts. “What did you see?”

“I don’t think she’s dead, Ford,” she says, hope bubbling in her tone. “I don’t know how, but I think she’s okay.”

I emerge from the neck of my t-shirt and pull it down with a furrowed brow. “What? How?”

“Like I said, I have no clue, but I saw bloody footprints, female footprints, leading away from the owl. They got lighter as they moved across the graveyard and disappeared entirely by the time I reached the tree line.”

My frown deepens. “I saw those, but I assumed they belonged to whoever killed her. How could you tell they were female? Could have been a guy with small feet.”

Juliet shakes her head. “I don’t know. But as I walked around the stones it was like I could see it replaying in front of me. Diana bursting out of her owl form and just…walking away from it. Well, running. The steps got farther apart as they got lighter. Like she was picking up speed.”

I finish stepping into my shoes and prop my hands on my h**s. “Which would make sense, in a way, I guess. She wouldn’t shift from the owl to her human form—”

“Because the owl isn’t her shifted form,” Juliet finishes, her excitement catching. “She’s actually a wolf. The owl was a curse. Maybe she figured out how to break it somehow.”

“We should get back to your dorm, see what the others think about it,” I say.

“You have to go back to your dorm,” Juliet says as we start back down the path. “If they’re sending teachers and extra staff to lock everyone down, they’ll be looking for you.”

I curse beneath my breath, knowing she’s right. “I f*****g hate it there.”

She slips her fingers through the crook of my arm. “I know. But it isn’t for much longer. Once you’re in, you can request a move to the older student dorm.”

I glance down at her. “I can. But upperclassmen with families have first priority. I’ll only have a chance if they have a spare room left over. Unless you want to get engaged. It could be a fake engagement,” I hurry to add. “Just to get us set up in a sweet apartment with our own private bathroom and kitchen and no loud parties in the basement to disturb our beauty sleep.”

She meets my gaze in the moonlight, her voice husky as she says, “Yeah, I’m sure we’d be great at faking it. We wouldn’t end up sleeping in the same bed or f*****g like bunnies or anything.”

“I f**k like a wolf, not a bunny,” I say, but the joke falls flat.

It’s not a night for jokes.

But it is a night for a hope, a truth Juliet proves as she says, “I’ll think about it. I do hate sharing a shower with twenty-five people, only half of whom care about not leaving the drain clogged with hair.”

I point to my head. “Not a problem with a guy with a buzz cut. Just one of the many qualities that would make me an incredible fake fiancé.”

She stops at the turn off to her dorm, which is just visible through the trees, surprising me by pushing up on tiptoe to press a soft k**s to my lips. “Be careful and watch your back on the way to your dorm. Just in case I’m wrong and there is a crazed killer on the loose.”

“Will do,” I say. “Text me later? Let me know what Catherine and Layla think about your theory?”

She nods. “I will. And thank you again. For earlier. That was one of the best experiences of my life. I can’t wait to take my wings out again.”

“My pleasure,” I say, cupping her face in my hand. “Truly. I was so happy to be there and share it with you. You’re a smoking hot bird. Literally and figuratively.”

She leans into my touch with fondness as she whispers, “Pervert. You’re hot for a bird.”

“I’ll seek professional help at my earliest convenience.”

“You do that,” she says, pressing a k**s to my palm before stepping away. “And don’t you ever die or disappear on me, okay? That’s not part of this relationship, my friend. Not ever.”

“I promise,” I say, praying it’s one I can keep. Both because I’d prefer to stay alive and because I don’t ever want to leave Juliet alone. Honestly, I just want to hole up in a little cabin with her somewhere off the grid and make love to her for a couple dozen years. The harder I fall for the woman she’s become, the less I seem to care about getting revenge on Hammer or reclaiming the throne he stole.

Yes, I miss my pack, but I could be happy if it were just the two of us. I just want to be with my girl, somewhere it’s safe to let our guard down and stop fighting.

Stop fighting the bad guys and the injustice and, most importantly, stop fighting this pull we both feel. There was love in her k**s tonight. She can call me “friend” all she wants, but we both know there’s so much more between us now.

I turn that palm k**s over and over in my mind, letting it warm me as I head into the Lupine dorm, where there’s a distinct lack of sobriety in the face of a classmate’s murder.

There are more teachers and counselors present on each floor, but the usual crowd is still shouting at the televisions in the rec room, more interested in whether their baseball team is going to win than grieving the loss of Diana or fearing the person who killed her is still on the loose. The giggly girls in the triple down the hall from my room are still giggling, the younger guys are still arguing about who gets to pick the eight o’clock movie, and the showers are already full when I pop my head in to check.

The only nod to increased safety that I can see is a note from my floor’s counselor on my door, asking me to make sure my window is closed and locked from the inside tonight.

I’m heading over to do just that when my phone buzzes.

I pull it out to see a text from Juliet—She’s alive! She left a note for Layla and me in our secret hiding place in the dorm! It’s a long story, but basically, she has a two-week window to be herself again. If she can replace the woman who cursed her and get her to call off the black magic before midnight on the fourteenth day, she’ll get to come back to school next year as a wolf shifter.

Thumbs moving fast, I reply—That’s such a relief! I’m so glad she’s okay. But why didn’t she tell the staff what happened? Is there some reason she wants everyone to think she’s dead? Her family’s going to be devastated.

Unfortunately, yes,Juliet shoots back. If she doesn’t break the curse…it’s over. Now that she shed her owl body, she can’t go back into it again.

I send Juliet a succinct, F**k.

She sends back, Agreed.That’s why she asked me and Layla to keep this a secret from everyone but our group. She figures it will be easier to let her family think the worst. Just in case. She doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of hope for breaking the curse in that short amount of time.

Understandable, I reply. But not the best way to start a quest.

The screen fills with bubbles then, No, it’s not. I wish she’d stuck around long enough for us to help her figure out where to start looking. Catherine says there’s a lot of stuff on the history of modern witches in the library. We could have done the deep dive like we did on phoenix stuff. After all Diana’s done to help me while I tried to shift, I wish I could have helped her back.

Pacing back and forth in front of my window, I type, Then let’s do it. Let’s do the research, see what we can dig up, and if she checks in sometime in the next two weeks, we’ll be ready. Or I can play hooky and try to track her down if we replace something really good. We’ll have a couple days off between each trial.

That’s perfect,Juliet says. I’ll tell Catherine and Layla and we’ll start digging tomorrow. Looks like our written tests are going to be postponed until after the physical trials due to the death on campus. Everyone here is so upset, Ford. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many people crying at once. I hate that I can’t tell them Diana’s okay. At least for now.

I don’t tell her that my dorm couldn’t give less of a shit that an innocent girl was murdered. Now isn’t the time to pile more trash on top of an already garbage night.

Instead, I encourage her to get some food and rest and take comfort in knowing she’s honoring Diana’s wishes. She warns me again to be careful, even though there isn’t a killer on the loose, after all, and I can’t help but tease, If I didn’t know better, I’d think you liked having me around.

Juliet sends an eye-rolling emoji, one of the only ones she ever uses, at least with me, and—You’re all right. At least you smell good and give good hugs. There are worse wolfy allies to have around.

She’s flirting with me. Actually, flirting back instead of telling me to shut up and reminding me of her plans to remain a virgin until the end of time.

It’s not a huge step forward, but it’s a step.

I’m so grateful for it that a part of me wants to say something sappy and real in return.

But I know my audience, so I settle for—Right back at ya, Growly. Sleep tight.

This time I get a smiley emoji, the first she’s ever sent, and—You, too.

I lie on my bed and stare at that little yellow face for way too long, letting myself daydream about a future where Juliet is my fiancée, we have a cute apartment in the upperclassman dorm, and she sends me things like hearts and eggplants when we’re apart and other silly things normal couples do.

The rage-filled beast I was just a few weeks ago would loathe the person I’m becoming. My old self grew up believing that going soft isn’t acceptable for an Alpha and that losing your sharp edges only leads to one thing—death.

But maybe I don’t have to be hostile territory anymore. Maybe I can be a refuge for myself and for her, this girl who’s already such a big piece of my heart.

But even as I sink deeper into my daydream, a part of me knows this is just the calm before the storm. I’m not even close to being able to choose anything but violence and neither is Juliet.

We’re both going to have more b***d on our hands before this is all through.

Maybe sooner than I think…