The Alpha Triplets And The Rogue
Chapter 12

Bryce’s POV

I rest my head on top of Erica’s for a few moments. Our bodies are barely touching but I can feel her heart pounding in her chest as we stand together in silence. I knew that I was going to k**s her but I didn’t expect it to feel so… right. When my lips touched hers I could feel tingles spread throughout my body. It is like every cell in my body caught on fire and the only thing to extinguish the flames is being close to Erica.

I am shocked that Erica didn’t push me away or slap me. Instead, she leaned into the k**s like it is something that she has been waiting for her whole life. Suddenly I feel like I don’t want to leave this room. It feels like everything I need is right here.

The clock on her wall chimes loudly and we both turn our head to look at the time. Awkwardly Erica clears her throat and takes a step away from me. “You should get to your party before you are missed,” she refuses to look me in the eyes and keeps them trained on the floor.

“Hey,” I say as I tilt her head back up to meet my gaze. “I want to come back after my party. Will you wait for me?”

“Wait for you?” Erica tilts her head to the side and looks at me in confusion.

“Yes. Will you wait here for me?” I ask her one more time.

Erica begins to laugh loudly. “Wait for you?” She says one more time except this time she smacks my hand away from her chin and her eyes turn cold. “Are you joking? First you come in here and uninvite me to your party, then you insult me, and then you steal my first k**s. And you want me to wait here for you? While you party the night away with other females and you expect me to sit here and wait for you?”

“That was your first k**s?” Is the only thing I can think to say at the moment.

“Get out,” she screams at me. I stand frozen in the same spot just looking at her. I cannot help but feel heartbroken. “Get. Out.” She screams at me again.

I turn on my heels and rush out of her room. For the first time in my life I feel guilty for the way that we have treated Erica over the past eighteen years. As I make my way through the pack house and out of the back door, I can see that our eighteenth birthday party is in full swing. Ace and Chris are standing in the middle of everyone surrounded by a bunch of she-wolves that are trying to get their attention. Usually I would want to be right in the thick of it with them but something makes me hesitate. I can still feel the tingle of Erica’s lips up against my own. It is almost as if that delicate k**s has ruined me for all other women.

Standing at the bar, I order a whiskey and coke, and I watch the party from the sidelines. Several she-wolves approach me but I shrug them off and continue to sip on my drink.

Ace makes his way through the crowd and stands next to me at the bar. “Where have you been?” His eyebrows are knitted together with concern.

“Just watching the festivities,” I respond as if I am bored.

“That’s not like you,” Ace eyes me suspiciously. “With all of these she-males running around I am surprised that you aren’t in the middle of it.”

“I’m not in the mood,” I admit.

Ace takes a sip of his drink and nods his head. “I know what you mean.”

We both watch Chris from the bar and he is trying to fight his way through the group of she-wolves that is surrounding him. They all know that tonight is the night we can finally sense our mates. I know that each one of them is hoping that they will be one of the next Luna’s of the North Pack.

“Do you think we will find our mates tonight?” I can tell that Ace is trying to act uncaring about the whole situation, but I know that he is nervous. He has been waiting to find his mate for the last year. He is the one of us that is dying to find his mate and settle down. Chris and I have been having a good time living the single life.

“I hope not,” I say jokingly. “I am not ready to settle down.”

“Of course you aren’t,” Ace says with a smirk on his face. “You probably won’t be ready to settle down even after you find your mate. I feel sorry for whoever your mate is.”

“If she were the right woman,” I say as I think about the k**s that I shared with Erica. “I could be persuaded to settle down.”

I shrug my shoulders not wanting to give anything away. I promised my brothers that I would stay away from Erica and I couldn’t even manage to do that. I think about her blue eyes shining as she looked up at me from behind her dark eyelashes. She was too tempting to resist.

As I relive the k**s over and over in my mind. The music suddenly stops and a hush falls over the crowd. I look up to the stage and see my father standing there with a very proud look on his face.

“Tonight is a very important night,” my father’s voice booms loudly through the speakers. “Tonight your three Alpha heirs finally shift into their wolves and are able to find their mates.”

When my father mentions our mates, several of the she-wolves begin to squeal with excitement. I shake my head in frustration as I watch the unmated women of the pack swoon over the idea of being one of our mates.

“The moon is almost at its peak,” my father yells over the shrieks of the women in the crowd. “It is almost time for the boys to shift for the first time.”

My father gestures for my brothers and me to head to the stage. The crowd parts as we make our way to the stage. There is a large curtain set up for us to shift behind for the first time. We take our places behind the curtain and strip off our clothes and wait. The full moon reaches its peak and a sharp pain erupts through my spine.