5

KADE

“I’m nothing like Lucian,” I muttered under my breath as I made my way down the hallway and took a right turn. I walked past some students, but they seemed too engrossed in their phones to notice me, and I was grateful for it.

An added advantage was leaving Lucian behind, since he was being extra lazy. He didn’t mind, and I would be free from being clustered among people whose guts I couldn’t stand. I liked it that way.

It was a quiet morning in school, which was unusual. I started to wonder if we would find out something the other students thought was newsworthy. I better not be mentioned in any column or gossip, or I’ll have to find that Harper girl and make her pay.

I groaned at the fact that she had become a part of my life. We were mates, and although Lucian and I had rejected her, I could still feel the bond tugging at me. The difference was that the feeling wasn’t as deep as it had been that day.

When we rejected Ella, I felt the pain shoot through my chest too. We were just strong enough to take it, unlike her, whose knees buckled as soon as the words were said.

I chuckled and pushed the door open to the first class I had today. As we waited for the teacher to show up, my mind drifted to a different moment in time. I thought about the day we discovered she was our mate.

I wondered if she had thought we would accept her. Lucian and I never gave her the impression that we liked her, at least, I didn’t, so it was kind of upsetting that she had even considered the possibility.

When she bolted off into the woods, I was visibly irritated because it was so unnecessary. How far did she think she could go as an omega trying to outrun two alphas?

I remembered how it all started. Neither of us had expected that twist, and it upset us a lot. That morning had begun with the usual banter between Lucian and his knuckle-headed friends. I stood in the corner, waiting for them to finish goofing around, when I smelled her scent from a mile away.

Lucian sensed it at the same time, and we slowly left the small crowd and walked to her locker. We had started paying attention to her because we were bored, and it was easier to pick on the weaker links in the pack.

Of all the weak links, she was the weakest. That was my biggest annoyance with her, she never seemed willing to put in any effort to be a better person or a stronger wolf.

During meetings, she barely spoke and went along with everyone’s opinions. In school, she blended into the crowd to hide. I don’t like people who don’t take these things seriously.

We are a pack. If you aren’t strong enough, the others have to make up for it by protecting you while trying to protect themselves if the need arises.

I couldn’t wrap my head around how comfortable she was with being that way. But Lucian enjoyed it. It gave him some sense of accomplishment, like he was playing with a toy. The amusing thing was that he couldn’t see how much of a puppet he was in the grand scheme of things.

He’s my brother, and I will stand by him anytime, but the pack can’t be seriously considering him to lead. All he does is rush into things headfirst, the classic tale of leaping and looking later.

Giving him the role just because he was the first twin wasn’t a good criterion in my book. I would do a much better job, and I was willing to prove it.

Planning how I could get the other werewolves to willingly suggest that I take over leading the pack in his place was a slippery slope. I needed to be sure I had their loyalty, so everything had to be carefully planned.

I didn’t want anyone getting any ideas about harming Lucian, just a gentle nudge, and he’d be out of the way. If I could get the majority of the pack to vote against him during the ceremony, that would be great.

I sighed as the teacher walked into the class, and the room became quiet. As he spoke, I tried to listen as attentively as possible, but I eventually zoned out and became lost in my thoughts once more.

I looked around and noticed that Ella wasn’t in class that morning.

If she was trying to stay away from us, that was a great decision. I needed her to be as far away as possible. The idea that she would be my mate was underwhelming. There were much better options in the pack, and I would be with anyone but her.

She had no ambition or fight in her. I didn’t need that mindset around me, and her vote didn’t count in the grand scheme of things. “Pathetic,” I muttered and tried to focus on the class.

Lucian finally showed up at school, and people started to flock around us as he sat next to me in the open field. I felt irritated and wanted to leave, but I sat still. He was a people magnet. The annoying part was that he drew people who didn’t necessarily like him to his side.

And I don’t think he realized that, because the possibility of turning the minds of the others in the pack wouldn’t even be an option if there weren’t people who knew how to hide their intentions and pretend to be allies.

I knew this because I had stumbled upon a meeting with some other alphas-in-training who felt like they deserved the position. I listened to the plan they had hatched.

Later that evening, I decided to visit the leader of that meeting and told him that the only reason my brother and I hadn’t killed him was that I felt he could still be useful.

He was terrified when I told him that I would inform the council of their plan if anything happened to my brother. If push came to shove, I would fight beside Lucian.

That was enough to seal the deal. In their foolishness, they were focused on taking Lucian out of the way, forgetting that I would be next in line.

I wasn’t sure if it was because they underestimated me or if they just weren’t smart enough to consider all the angles in their scheme. If it was the latter, I was in luck because I decided to use their disloyalty to my advantage.

They were terrified of being reported to the council, which would result in death or banishment from the pack. But I wanted them to hold onto that thought for a while. They were going to be useful tools for my plans. That was the difference between Lucian and me.

While he was bigger and more popular, I was quick on my feet, the better fighter, the one who came up with perfect strategies, and I couldn’t wait to execute my plan.