Read fate of the alpha - episode 3 for Free Online Page B

stood just about four feet tall. A simple white shift enveloped her round form. A roadmap of lines and furrows crisscrossed her wizened face. A blue haze of cataracts clouded her right eye, but the other, a brown so deep it was almost black, danced with mischief.
    “Hi, Miss Simkins,” Bonnie said loudly. “I brought a friend, this is Erik.”
    “Come on in out of the cold,” Miss Simkins hollered back, winking at Erik with her good eye.
    He smiled politely and stepped inside behind Bonnie.
    Instantly, he was hit with a sweltering wave of dry heat, and the cloying smell of marijuana. Not an uncommon odor when you live in a college town, but not exactly what he had been expecting from this visit.
    “This is Erik Jensen,” Bonnie told Teresa. “A wolf from Tarker’s Hollow pack. He’s here to help with the mine. We have some questions we were hoping you could answer.”
    Teresa eyed Erik up and down. He wasn’t sure how much she could really make out with with her vision.
    “He may be from Tarker’s Hollow,” the old woman said, wrinkling her nose disdainfully. “but he’s no wolf.”
    A cold sweat formed on Erik’s brow. How could she know that?
    “Miss Simkins,” Bonnie said defensively. “He was sent by the Federation. I assure you—“
    “It’s alright, Bonnie. She’s right,” Erik admitted, surprised by the feeling of relief that accompanied his confession.
    “ What? ” Bonnie spluttered.
    “I was a wolf,” he explained. “Up until a week ago. Now I’m not.”
    “What do you mean you were ?” Bonnie asked. “How is that even possible?”
    “It’s complicated,” he said.
    Bonnie shook her head incredulously.
    “And that’s not why you two came here in such a rush,” Teresa continued without any regard for the tension building in the room.
    “No, it’s not,” Erik said, still searching Bonnie’s face for a sign that they were still friends even though he had allowed her to think he was a wolf.
    “Miss Simkins,” Bonnie said, without sparing Erik a glance. “You were close with Jake. We were wondering if he mentioned anything out of the ordinary to you lately.”
    Cold sweat trickled down Erik’s back now. It was too hot and Bonnie was definitely mad at him.
    Teresa gestured for them to follow her. They walked through a long hallway that Erik would have sworn was longer than the whole house looked from the outside, and into a circular sitting room. Dark wallpaper with a vine pattern covered the walls from floor to ceiling. Three ancient arm chairs with doilies over their arms faced off with a rickety-looking love seat.
    Teresa pointed them to the chairs. Bonnie chose the one closest to the door — probably a prudent decision in this crazy house. Erik chose the chair in the middle, next to her.
    Teresa sat on the love seat across from them. It gave a terrific creak and a snake darted out from beneath it and disappeared into the shadows along the edge of the room.
    Erik had jumped up and swallowed a scream before he could gather himself.
    “Sorry,” he explained, sitting back down and staring at his knuckles. “I had a bad experience with a snake recently.”
    “What bit you was no snake, Erik Jensen. It was no part of nature at all,” Teresa declared.
    “How do you know about that?” he asked, forgetting his embarrassment and looking up to take in the expression on her small face.
    Instead of answering, Teresa fished a pipe out of the ashtray on the little table next to the loveseat. She struck a match and lit it in one practiced motion.
    The sweet, heavy odor intensified. Erik began to wonder how a wolf could handle such an intense smell.
    Ruefully, he remembered the time he’d taken a few draws of a joint being passed around by older kids he wanted to impress. It never did anything for him, his wolf metabolism probably processed it too fast. And of course his dad had smelled it a mile away and punished him as sternly as you’d expect a military man to do. It hadn’t