He's the alpha's son!?
I stare at him in disbelief. So that's why he always acts so superior.
Still, being the pack's heir doesn't give him the right to be such a jerk!
Everyone else is staring at him as well. But unlike me, they all have wonder twinkling in their eyes.
His black hair is swept across his ridiculously symmetrical face, and he wears a stoic, humble expression. Okay, stranger. Where's the condescending smirk?
His suit is impeccably tailored; sitting squarely on his shoulders with shiny satin lapels. A slim-fitting black button-down is tucked into his pants, which he fills out perfectly, and the look is topped off with stylish patent leather shoes. He looks every bit a prince. Not at all like the jerk I know.
"Ladies and gentle-wolves," the man to his left says, projecting his voice across the hall. "May I present the alpha's heir, Jasper Apollo!"
The room erupts in applause. I'm the only one who doesn't seem to be going crazy for this guy.
Jasper––because I guess that's his stupid name––holds his arm out and the girl to his right slips hers through it.
I've barely noticed her as I've stood like a stunned meerkat. She has dark, wavy brown hair that falls over her exposed, muscular shoulders.
She's wearing a pastel green dress which contrasts nicely with her bronzed, terra cotta skin. She's beautiful but the thing that catches my attention is how strong she looks. The muscle definition in her arms is ridiculous. The girl works out!
The two of them walk slowly down the stairs as the music starts again. People begin to move around the room once more but there's a new energy in the crowd, like a collective held breath. Everyone is aware they're in the presence of royalty.
I grab Katie and pull her to the side.
"That's him!" I say.
"Who? What?" she asks looking around, super confused.
"The alpha's son, Jasper Apollo."
"I know they just announced him," she says, staring at me like I've grown a second set of limbs.
"No…" I shake my head and try to refocus. "Jasper is the guy who knocked me on my ass in Times Square."
"Ohhhhh," she says, catching on. "That's him?!"
"Yes!"
"And there's more…" "Oh Moon Gods…" "I ran into him in the forest this afternoon and he was a complete jerk. I called him an asshole stalker."
"What were you doing in the woods?"
"What? Drawing. That's not important. The point is he hates me.
The alpha's son hates me!"
"Okay," Katie says, placing her hands on her hips, puckering her lips like she's trying to solve a difficult math problem. "What should we do?"
"I just...we have to avoid him at all costs!"
"Yes, you're right. Oh, look…" Katie points behind me and I turn to see the hall starting to empty.
The crowd is heading through a large set of double doors into another room.
"Dinner is being served!" Eleanor says, popping up out of nowhere.
"Are you two coming? Remember, no funny business before the Mating Run."
"We're...we'll be there in a second, thanks," I say.
Eleanor runs off and I look back to Katie with a panicked, pleading expression.
"It's fine," she says, sounding exactly as if it is not, in fact, fine.
"Let's just go to dinner. There's so many people here there's every chance he won't even notice you."
"Is he still looking?"
I glance up from behind Katie where I've been trying to hide for the entire dinner.
We're sitting at a table about halfway up the room. It's not quite as wide as the Alpha's Hall but just as long, with two smaller chandeliers hanging above us. The festival-goers have all been assigned seats at circular tables, draped with white tablecloths that probably cost more than my entire yearly allowance. A rectangular table is positioned at the end of the room, it's diners facing the rest of us. This is where Jasper is sitting, dead center.
The girl who entered with him is to his right and a selection of wolves–– wealthy kids or the kids of wolves in power, I assume––sit on either side.
Our plan to go about dinner and hope for the best hasn't worked quite the way we thought it would. I'd just taken my first bite out of a juicy looking chicken thigh when I felt his cold stare land on me.
"What's he doing?" I whisper from my hiding spot.
Katie attempts her best nonchalant over the shoulder sneak-peek.
"Max he's...he's not looking."
"What?" I sit up and risk a peek for myself. Jasper isn't looking anymore. He's staring at his food, looking like it just insulted his mother. I don't want to risk him catching me staring so turn my attention back to the succulent piece of meat on my plate.
Barely a moment passes and I can't help myself.
I want to see what he's up to, so without turning my head I glance in his direction. He's saying something in the ear of his date. She nods solemnly and they both stand. He drops his napkin on his half-finished meal, nods to the guy on his left, and they exit the banquet hall.
"Huh." He hadn't even finished his meal.
"Great, can we just eat now?" Katie asks.
"Yeah, I guess."
I should finish the drumstick on my plate, but instead I stay staring at his empty seat.
Why would he just leave?
After dinner, we all head outside to the grassy patch between the alpha's lodge and the cabins. A bonfire is blazing in the middle of a circle of log benches.
The charming, sedative string quartet has been done away with, replaced with speakers blaring some seriously cheesy pop bangers.
Someone passes holding a red cup and then suddenly it's like everyone has one. People are drinking and dancing and starting to let loose.
You can tell it's about to be a blue moon, from the amount of people who are already crying or making out.
"Here roomie," Todd says, splashing me as he shoves a red cup into my hand.
"Oh no thanks, I'm not old enough…" "S'no problemo, bro. Neither are we. Just don't tell anyone." My roomie is already slurring. "I got your cute friend one too."
He stumbles a little as he tries to hand Katie the cup in his other hand.
"Whoa, cool it, bud. I've got the little lady taken care of," Simon says, saddling in and getting a cup in Katie's hand before his friend can manage it.
"You guys wanna come party? We're gonna play beer pong over by the payphones."
Katie and I look at each other before smiling and shrugging.
"Let's party!" I say.
It turns out I'm really good at beer pong! Or really bad. I'm not sure. Either way, I drink a lot of beer and within the space of less than an hour, the world has become a big, fun, blur.
I'm not even hating hanging out with Todd and Simon. Yeah, they're total cavemen but they're pretty fun and they're really good at partying. Katie seems to be getting on with them both as well.
If the festival is just four nights of this it might be alright!
"Scooooooore!" Simon yells after sinking yet another ping pong ball into one of my cups. "Drink, drink, drink!"
I grab the cup and pour the stale, room temp beer down my throat, spilling about half of it on myself in the process.
From the corner of my eye, I spot a girl in a green dress and I spin around––nearly losing my balance. Is that the girl who was with Jasper earlier?
She crosses past the doors of the main cabin, heading for the bonfire. Without thinking, I start to follow her, leaving the boys and Katie and beer pong behind.
"Hey, where you going, dude? We haven't finished!" Todd calls out.
I ignore him. Suddenly, on a mission. It is the girl from earlier and wherever that girl is going there's a chance Jasper will be there. My drunk self wants to give that jerk a piece of my mind.
The Moon Gods must be on my side because sure enough, I find the girl in the green dress, standing a ways from the bonfire in the shadows, speaking to the alpha's son.
I watch them for a moment, swaying from foot to foot. From where I'm standing it looks like they're having some kind of disagreement. With blurry vision, it's hard to make out exactly what they're talking about but it looks like the girl is encouraging Jasper to join the party and he's resisting.
"Good luck, girlfriend," I slur to no one in particular. "He's just a big, antisocial jerk."
And that's enough to get me riled up. Before I know it I'm stomping over.
Jasper spots me first and holds up a finger to the girl as if to say hold that thought.
"Can we help you?" he asks, without a shred of recognition, like he doesn't even know who I am.
"Ohhhhh, so now that we all know who you are you're too good to call me bonehead?"
"Olivia, can you excuse us?" he asks his friend in green.
"No way, chico," she says, raising an eyebrow, looking wildly amused. "I'm staying for this."
"Don't pretend like you don't know me!" I say, pointing and nearly losing my balance. "You know meeeee. I'm the bonehead! Remember!?"
"You're the what?" Olivia asks.
"You're drunk," Jasper says, reaching out to grab my arm. I'm not sure if he's trying to keep me upright or pull me aside to stop me from making a scene but either way I'm not having any of it.
"No, you don't get to touch me!" I say pulling away and stumbling backward. "You don't get to treat people like this just because you're a...a...handsome prince or whatever."
"Handsome?" Olivia says, chuckling. "Jasper, do you know this guy?"
"Yes," he growls. "Someone was too busy looking at their phone to see where they were going and crashed into me in the city a few weeks back."
"Right," Olivia says, catching on, sort of.
"Yeah, and you...you...hurt my butt!"
Olivia bursts out laughing. Jasper looks mortified and then really, really mad.
"You did what, Jasper?" she asks, giggling.
"That's enough," he snaps at me. "You need to go back to your cabin."
He tries to touch me again and I pull my arm away super over-dramatically. The force sends me stumbling backward, and finally, I trip and topple into the grass. It's the third time I've fallen on my ass in front of the alpha's son, but who's counting, right?
I'm so drunk and embarrassed I don't even try to get up. I just want to lie there and die.
"Poor kid," Olivia says.
Jasper doesn't say anything in response but I feel a pair of strong hands lifting me up.
I want to protest and tell him to get his hands off me but it's all finally too much. I pass out in Jasper's arms.