The Alpha's Queen

Chapter 13: Liam

Beckett

Allie and Pria leaned against the car with their hands shoved in their pockets and their shoulders touching. Every so often, Devany snuck a glance at the two, her attention lingering on Pria longer than Allie. During the car ride over, I told her Pria had been revealed as my mate during a mate run and the fact that we suspected someone had faked it. I had hoped it would help her lower her guard around me, or at least not believe me to be a cheater; instead, she had raised her walls higher, shutting down and not speaking the rest of the ride.

"Where is he?" I demanded, gravel crunching under my boots as I marched over to Pria.

"He'll be here."

"When?"

Allie wrinkled her upturned nose. "Someone is antsy."

"Someone is sexually frustrated," Pria whispered in return.

"Watch it," I snapped, glancing across the road.

Devany sat under a tree, picking blades of grass and shredding them between her fingers. She wasn't looking at us, but her pink cheeks suggested she heard what Pria said. It took a while to get used to the enhanced hearing.

"Why didn't you tell her the rest of it?" Pria asked, thankfully lowering her voice until I had to lean forward to hear her.

"The rest of what?"

"That it's not just that I'm not your mate, but that you think she's your mate."

"I think she would run for the fucking hills if I told her that right now. It's barely been twenty-four hours since she shifted for the first time. Let her process one thing at a time. Besides, without a claiming sign from the goddess, it's just a guess."

"And how you do you expect to receive a sign from her?" Allie asked. "It's not like you can participate in the mate run."

"That's not really my biggest concern right now," I muttered.

Pria folded her arms over her chest and raised a brow. "That's literally why we're here. To figure out how someone faked our claiming. I don't know about you, but I fully intend to make it public when we have proof. I'm tired of stealing moments with Allie."

Allie cupped Pria's face and kissed her tenderly. For a moment, Pria didn't respond, but then she sank into the embrace with a moan that sent me walking in the opposite direction. They had no qualms about PDA, even borderline pornographic PDA. I'd stake my life on them being true mates.

"Hey," I said softly, lowering myself onto the grass beside Devany.

She dusted dirt and leaves off her hands and pulled her knees to her chest. Instead of responding to my greeting, she jerked her chin toward the couple making out against the car. "So you two really aren't together?"

"It's never been like that for us, and not just because Pria has zero interest in men. She's like a sister."

"But why would someone go to such trouble to make you think you were mates?"

"To keep us from our true mates."

She looked at me then, and all the air whooshed out of my lungs. Her beauty had awed that first night in the bar, but it was nothing compared to how she looked now. The sun bathed her face in a golden light that revealed every tiny freckle across her nose, and her lavender hair hung loosely around her shoulders in soft curls. Her plump bottom lip bore teeth marks from where she'd been chewing on it. Another freckle rested in the deep v of her Cupid's bow, spilling into the rose pink part of her upper lip.

But that wasn't what made her look so different. It was the awakening of the magic in her blood. Every human flaw was gone, and behind her pale purple eyes, the beast that lived inside of her stared back at me. Hungry. Powerful. Intoxicating.