Rise of the Alpha
Chapter 17

Magnolia

I’m going to do this!

“Okay, Magz, just sit still, and I’m going to clean the area and mark it. Okay?”

“Yep,” I quip, but I’m nervous as hell. He picks up the needle, then smiles down at me, showing me his pearly whites.

“Good, we’re ready. I need you to take a deep breath. Good, now blow out, slowly and steady.” I do as he says, and he sticks the needle in.

The pain lasts only a moment, then it’s gone. He’s still doing something, but all I can think is I f*****g did it. I went totally against anything my pack would allow me to do, hell, any woman to do.

“Okay, Magz, ready to take a look?” Hex asks, handing a mirror to me. Reaching out with shaky hands, I take it from him. I can feel it in the middle of my nose, but seeing it still has me nervous. Immediately, my emotions are all over the place, not knowing which one they want to settle on; fear, joy, nervousness, or love. Taking a deep, calming breath, I lift the mirror and gaze at my reflection. Love wins out, because, holy hell, I love it.

“I love it!” I cry. Really it was more like a shriek because Hex had to cover his ears as he laughs. “How hot do I look, Wylla?” Turning to her, I give her a cheeky grin.

“I didn’t think you could get hotter, but seeing you with piercings has me creaming my panties. Well, if I was wearing any.” I catch a glimpse of her rubbing her thighs together, which has my p***y throbbing with desire.

“Okay, great. So make sure you keep it in for two months, otherwise, it’s going to close, and you’ll have wasted your money. Are we still doing the tattoo on Saturday?” He looks between me and Wylla as he asks, but all I’m thinking about is how screwed I am now.

“Two months. I can’t take it out at all, not even for a couple of days?”

“Sorry, babe. It has to stay in.” He raises his eyebrow at me curiously. No doubt he’s wondering why I would want to take it out after just getting it.

“Don’t mind her, crow boy, she’s trying to figure out how she’s going to explain this to her strict daddy,” Wylla pipes up, saving me from the uncomfortable answer.

“Baby, you’re in college. It’s time to get rid of the daddy issues or get a daddy to help ease those frustrations.” Hex has a smirk on his face, and Wylla is dying laughing, while I’m left in the dark, clueless as to what he’s insinuating.

Wylla sees my confusion. “I’ll explain later. How much do I owe you, Hex?”

“This one’s on me,” he says with a wink, just as the bell over the door jingles, letting us know someone else has come in. “There’s my next client. See you beauties on Saturday.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Wylla says as she reaches out, taking my hands in hers, and helps me stand. Linking her arm with mine, we head out of the shop and make our way back to the dorm, stopping along the way for some coffee.

I’ve been quiet, only giving her the occasional ‘uh huh’ or head nod when she asks me something. Truthfully, I don’t even know what she’s saying. I’ve tuned her out, focusing more on how the hell I’m going to hide this piercing from my father. Don’t get me wrong, I know I need to grow a pair of massive lady balls and stand up to my pack and my father, but it’s hard to toss eighteen years of conditioning out the window.

My body is pulled backward as Wylla stops dead in her tracks. I stumble a bit since our elbows are still entwined together, barely keeping myself from falling on my a*s. Her heated words pull my attention to her. “Okay, spit it out. What the f**k is wrong?”

“Nothing,” I whine back, not even convincing myself.

“Screw that. Something’s bothered you ever since we left. You’ve barely said a word, and when you did, it was only to agree to anal bleaching, and trust me, I only asked that to see if you were paying attention, which obviously you weren’t. So spill it.” Her voice gets louder with each word she speaks.

“Fine! I know I shouldn’t be worried and I shouldn’t care what he says, but I’m freaking out about how I’m going to hide this from my father,” I tell her as I point to my nose. “The tattoo, it’ll be on my arm. I can handle hiding that. This I can’t.”

“Magz…” she begins, but I’m not done.

“NO! I don’t need a lecture. It’s hard. Trying to break how I’ve been raised to think and act. It’s not something I can wave my hands at and poof, it’s gone.”

“Magz, I get it. We can figure something out, and if we don’t, I’ll be here to handle the aftermath. If I could go home with you, I would, but I have that meeting with my grandmother and I think it would just make matters worse with your father. Just know if you need me, I’ll come running.” She pulls me into her arms, causing me to almost spill my coffee on both of us, and hugs me tightly.

“Thank you,” I whisper into her ear.

“Anytime. Besides, we have time. Let me research and look at some spells. I can probably find a concealing spell that could work to hide it from your father.”

Linking our arms, we continue on to the dorm, the weight on my shoulders lifted slightly as she goes on and on about how Hex was eye f*****g me the whole time we were at the shop. With the dorm coming into view, we’re both hysterically laughing at Wylla’s thought that my dad would simply be okay with it. Yeah, the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.

As we approach our building, we see Blaine, nervously pacing back and forth out front. When he sees us coming, he takes off at a sprint toward us.

“Magnolia, can I speak to you for a moment?” he asks, before glancing over to Wylla and then back to me. “Privately?”

“Yeah,” comes out in a drawn out voice, curious as to what it is he wants to talk about.

“I’m going to run inside and pee, and then I’ll meet you back down here, so we can go to dinner,” Wylla says, before heading up the steps to our dorm and disappearing inside, but not before throwing her arms up in a what the hell motion behind his back.

“What did you need to talk about?”

“Zeke.”