Chapter 2

Toby woke up with a start.

He was in a bed. A bed that was not his. Sure, that has happened before, but he usually remembered what occurred the night before. And it was never empty. Now, daylight broke out through the window of whoever’s room he was in.

He was alone.

And no sign of the woman he headed upstairs with.

The bedroom door swung open, and Toby jumped and turned to find Garrett Hoover, his best friend, peeking inside. Green eyes widened in surprised relief when they landed on him.

“There you are, man! I thought you bolted last night.”

“W-What?” Toby scratched his hair as he looked around at his surroundings. “What happened last night?”

There was nothing to indicate anything crazy ensued. Just a boring master bedroom with pictures of Callie Hill, a fellow classmate and varsity cheerleader, and her family. She must have been out of it as well if she had yet to be up here to kick him out.

“Seriously?” Garrett gaped. “You don’t remember. Sheesh, either she wasn’t as good as she looked, or she fucked your brains out so hard you forgot you were supposed to be having a good time.”

That was the thing. Usually, this wouldn’t have been a problem if it were a couple of days later. He never dwelled on a hookup for very long. The nights got wild, of course, but none of them were memorable. A few times, he would even forget the name of the fling, having drunk a bit too much

“Probably drank too much,” he shook his head.

Garrett shrugged and walked in, leaving the door open. “Must have.”

Toby moved to climb off the bed. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was in the same clothes as the last time he was cognizant, not an article of clothing missing. “Where’d she go? You see her come back down?”

“Nope. You went up here and never came back down. How many rounds did you go before you blacked out?”

He tried to bring the night back in his head, going frame by frame of the events proceeding the sudden appearance of the mysterious but gorgeous woman. It was a bit odd how she strutted up to him, but he was essentially the prince of Sheffield, and he was instantly attracted to the poise and assertiveness she displayed that made the nearby females steaming with jealousy. Toby couldn’t recall the last time he had been that quick to take a girl upstairs.

And how embarrassing was it to not summon up a hint of what went down?

“I-I don’t know… I don’t remember… anything. It’s like a big blank in my head.”

“You for real?”

Toby blew out a frustrated breath. “Yes, dude. I’m not joking. I can’t remember shit!” He started out the bedroom, stomping down the messy hallway. Red solo cups, cigarettes, and a couple of unconscious bodies littered the floor.

“Alright, chill,” Garrett put a hand through his spiky blond hair. “Maybe you got roofied and she-”

“What!? No! I didn’t even drink anything!” the brunette adamantly shook his head, refusing the very thought.

That kind of shit did not happen to him. No one would even dare be dumb enough to touch the son of Emerson Irons.

This time, it was Garrett who exhaled in exasperation. “Well, what do you think happened if that wasn’t what might have happened?”

“I-”

Toby stopped short, freezing in the middle of the stairs. He hated the idea that someone took advantage of him. However, it was too credible to refute.

“You don’t know? Gotcha,” his friend nodded smugly.

Pursing his lips, he wondered aloud. “Why would anybody want to roofie me? I’d probably be willing anyway?”

“Maybe it was one of the ugly ducklings at Hadleigh. Either they’re desperate to lose their V-card or…”

Hadleigh High didn’t have too many outcasts. It was a hierarchy. The elite were on top while peasants hung low. Then, there was below the “poverty line,” which was what Garrett called it. They were everyone’s bitch, but Toby was so high up on the totem pole, he didn’t have time to mess with the lower class.

“Or…” Toby waited warily.

“Well, you’re pretty much the resident golden boy of Sheffield. And you haven’t exactly been a… merciful ruler to the rest of us mortals.”

That was true. He was quick to be ruthless to the point of cruelty when getting back at someone who crossed him. He had a reputation to maintain. Sophomore year, he dedicated three months of the entire year to making friends with some guy on the football team who assaulted one of his lady friends in her sleep. Behind the scenes, however, he was busy converting the piece of shit’s home into a trap house. The drugs weren’t real. Just three hundred bags of white powder, but the pending investigation wasn’t a good look for Hadleigh. After a good beating, the guy was kicked off the team, got his house foreclosed, and his shamed family ousted from Sheffield.

Good riddance.

But he only delt that kind of brand of justice to those who deserve it.

“So, you’re saying someone might have roofied me… for revenge?”

Garrett nodded. “And they might blackmail you with the images or post them online to ruin your reputation. Yeah, you know how this goes.”

Toby was silent for a moment before waving his hand in dismissal, resuming the trek across the chaotic aftermath that was the living room. Even more party paraphernalia and sleeping bodies were scattered about the area.

“Whatever. Dad has a team of guys who do nothing but search my name on repeat to keep pictures from leaking. If they post it, that shit will get deleted in the next nanosecond.”

“Team of guys?” Garrett grinned beside him. “Don’t you mean-”

“Sure. Robots.”

“I don’t get how you don’t see how pretty freaking cool that is! You’ll be spending the rest of your life being catered to by robots. Robots, man!”

“Dad called them… androids,” Toby mentioned.

Garrett snorted. “Same difference. Just think about it, though. You could take over an entire continent with that kind of power.”

The two walked out of the house. The front yard wasn’t in any better condition than the inside. Toby could only imagine what the backyard looked like.

“Would you take over an entire continent?” the brunette asked curiously.

“Nah. It would be a nice kink, though. Always willing and never tired.”

Expected answer. Garrett was Toby’s best friend, but he barely had a cold bone in his body. His light leveled out the latter’s darkness.

Toby chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Loser.”

“I didn’t fuck him,” Gillian exclaimed, shooting off her seat to glower at Thallon.

Said man crossed his arms and tightened his lip to hold in a smirk, getting out a reply coated with sarcasm. “Believable.”

“I didn’t! I wanted to. God, I wanted to! He smelled so good! But I didn’t. I’m not a pervy pedo like you!”

“You wanted to! You wanted to do an underaged teenager.”

Gillian balked. “He was not underaged!”

“He’ll be eighteen in a month. February 22^nd.”

It was Beau who blurted that out. He usually didn’t contribute in any way to their daily arguments, but when it came to Toby Irons, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. That topic always hit too close to home.

“There you go,” Thallon nodded at Beau in appreciation.

Gillian rolled her eyes to heaven high. “Oh, shut up. That’s practically an adult.”

“Yeah. Practically. Meaning ‘almost.’ You just keep incriminating yourself left and right.”

“Why don’t you just-”

The door to the small, neat office opened up, and in walked a tall, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair. Behind the business suit, he had a muscular build, slightly bigger than Thallon, but his movements were smooth as if he glided on air. The atmosphere in the room changed in an instant, his mere presence snapping the three into attention.

“That’s enough, you two,” he spoke in a baritone voice. “I swear, you guys bicker more than any mated wolves in Radon. And poor Beau here has to listen to it,” he gestured to the expressionless young boy.

“Just trying to get us both on equal footing, Alpha Ardglass,” Thallon said before winking at Gillian.

The woman scoffed as she sat back down.

Alpha Ardglass trudged past them to take a seat behind his desk. The sun shined through the wide, glass window behind him, making his form glow. It was the perfect image that represented the kind of power he had.

“You guys did well,” he gazed at the three of them, gratitude in his steel eyes. “Stage one of the plan is complete. You successfully tracked the Irons heir and examined his physiology for any anomalies. We aren’t dealing with a superhuman this time. Stage two, however, is a longer process. Beau?”

Beau straightened, anticipation bubbling below the surface. “Yes, Alpha?”

“Are you sure you can get this done on your own? I know Sheffield doesn’t hold up too fondly in your thoughts.”

The boy snuffed out the spark of anger that lit in him just by hearing that name. “I can do it, sir. I’m ready.”

Alpha Ardglass stared into the boy’s eyes, searching for anything that could bring cause for doubt. Beau kept his eyes on the man, willing himself not to waver in the face of such a powerful being. He was determined to show his leader what he was capable of, no longer wanting to be the newbie who needed his hand to be held.

Ardglass nodded rigidly, his attention still on the boy. “You have five months to play nice with the Irons heir. Make him trust you enough that he’ll spill his family secrets to you.”

“Don’t you have classes at Ironward, Fresh pup?” Thallon asked. “That’ll be double the workload.”

The Alpha waved at that in dismissal. “Don’t worry about that. A while back, I already planted a few of our own into the Hadleigh school staff. They’ll know who you are. Leave the homeworking and grading up to them.”

“Thank you, sir,” Beau said, gratefulness flowing through him. “I’ll take care of everything.”

And he was not going to disappoint. For the last five years, Ardglass was like a father to Beau, saving him from the world of humans and molding him into a strong-willed, self-reliant lycanthrope. He was the man who saved him after all.

Ardglass’ lips curled into a small smile. “Good. It’s time we reignite the war between wolves and humans. And this time, we aren’t stopping with a cup half-full.”

And it all starts with Tobias fucking Irons, Beau thought. Soon, he’ll pay for what he did.