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  The Alpha Wolf

  Werewolf High #9

  Anita Oh

  Werewolf High #9: The Alpha Wolf

  © Anita Oh 2018

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, places or events, is purely coincidental.

  This book, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

  Contents

  Werewolf High series

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  ALSO BY ANITA OH

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Werewolf High series

  Book 1: The Truth Spell

  A dastardly spell. Mysterious billionaires. An ordinary girl thrust into an extraordinary world.

  Lucy O’Connor is more IT girl than “it girl” but even though she’ll never fit in, the scholarship to elite Amaris High is an opportunity she can’t refuse.

  The day Lucy arrives at Amaris, she sees her best friend, Sam Spencer. But Sam had died three years ago, on the night that had changed Lucy’s life forever. The more Lucy looks for answers, the worse things get for her, as she makes an enemy of the richest, most popular boy in school, Tennyson Wilde.

  When the entire school is hit by a truth spell, it seems like the perfect chance to find out what Sam and Tennyson are hiding, but the closer Lucy gets, the more she realizes that the truth is stranger than she ever imagined.

  A Very Werey Christmas: A Werewolf High Short

  When Lucy is kidnapped by a creepy old man in a red suit and transformed into a reindeer, it will take a Christmas miracle to sort things out.

  Book 2: The Tiny Curse

  A powerful enemy. An estranged love. And only one tiny girl to make things right.

  Life isn’t going so well for Lucy at elite boarding school, Amaris High. Classes are a struggle. She has no leads on the evil magic user. Sam’s avoiding her, and the entire student population hates her.

  But someone hates her more than the rest. Rumors start spreading that lead to Lucy being bullied worse than ever before. Just when she thinks she couldn’t feel smaller, she’s hit with a spell that shrinks her down to only two inches tall.

  Forced to rely on Sam, Tennyson and the other Golden to survive, Lucy is determined to get to the bottom of things once and for all. But the more she learns, she finds that being tiny might not be her biggest problem.

  Book 3: The Body Swap

  A shocking betrayal. An impossible deadline. Everything is about to change.

  Lucy's world is turned upside down when she learns that her enemy is the one person she never suspected.

  Although she has Sam and the Golden on her side, she no longer knows who to trust. Then, when she's hit with one final spell, she has no choice but to put her faith in the person the she despises the most.

  Stuck in Tennyson Wilde's body, Lucy and Tennyson must work together to break the curse or risk becoming each other for real. But in order to fix things, Lucy will face the greatest betrayal of all.

  Book 4: The Soul Bond

  A new threat. An unexpected ally. And a spark of unwanted power.

  Sophomore year isn’t shaping up to be the cake walk that Lucy had hoped. Everyone still hates her. She can’t forgive Sam for his secrets. Her father is back and she can’t forgive him either. There’s been no sign of Hannah, and Lucy can’t help but resent her new roommate because of it.

  And Tennyson Wilde is everywhere. In the dining room. In her dorm. In class. Even inside her head. She thinks it’s just a residual effect of being in his body, the fact that she can hear his thoughts, feel his feelings. But the more it happens, the worse it becomes and it seems to be awakening something inside her.

  Lucy never wanted powers. She never wanted to be anything but a normal girl, but the longer she stays at Amaris, the more impossible that seems.

  Book 5: The Love Potion

  A lurking danger. Untamed powers. And a tangled mess of feelings.

  Being a werewolf is hard work. Lucy just wants to frolic in the forest chasing butterflies, but real life won’t give her a break. Classes are a drag, classmates even worse. Her dad is trying to kill Tennyson again and being part of a pack has its own problems.

  Sam is complicated, Tennyson is a jerk, and her new alpha has no time for her. When a threat on Tennyson’s life goes wildly wrong, Lucy ends up the victim of a love potion, and that’s when things get really messy.

  Book 6: The Time Loop

  An unbreakable bond. A magical trap. One bad day that never ends.

  Lucy is having a bad day. Things are awkward with Sam. She's failing history. One of her roommates is missing and the other is crazy. Her evil dad is at it again, and this time, he's not playing around.

  Lucy has a choice: leave the pack or stay trapped in this day forever. What do you do when the only way to save the people you love is to abandon them? Will Lucy fight to stay in the pack or fight to save them?

  Book 7: The Fake Boyfriend

  An old friend. A new pack member. Faking it has never been more deadly.

  Lucy's junior year starts off on totally the wrong foot when Tennyson's cousin Henry arrives at school to spy on them. Lucy and Sam thought it would be easy to fake being a couple, but Lucy's feelings for Tennyson aren't so easy to ignore, and Sam is acting weird. They need to be convincing or she's out of the pack but Lucy isn't sure of anything anymore.

  To top it all off, her dad has escaped police custody, Hannah is back, and Lucy has a bunch of new powers to deal with. If Lucy thought things were tough before, that's nothing to what's in store for her this year!

  Book 8: The Rival Pack

  Unrequited Love. An overlooked traitor. A whole new pack of trouble.

  It’s not easy being the newest wolf in the pack. Lucy’s just no good with pack hierarchy and werewolf politics. The alpha hates her, Tennyson’s giving her the cold shoulder and she still hasn’t mastered her powers.

  Things get even worse when evil Cousin Henry allies with another pack and two of their members show up at school. Lucy’s sure they’re up to no good, especially when one catches Tennyson’s attention. Harper York is funny, beautiful, stylish and 100% werewolf… all the things that Lucy isn’t.

  Even though she’s officially joined the pack, Lucy feels more like an outsider than ever. The rival pack has to go, but the threat might be bigger than even Lucy suspects.

  Book 9: The Alpha Wolf

  A new alpha. A pack divided. Sometimes there is no right choice.

  Lucy’s world is thrown into chaos now that all the packs have merged under one Supreme Alpha. The alpha is annoying, but he’s just a puppet. Lucy knows the real problem is her father. He wants to take over the world, and so far he’s doing a pretty good job of it.

  And that’s not her only problem. Everyone’s fighting. Sam’s in a coma. Harper York is kidnapped, and finals are just around the corner. The only thing that’s going well is her relationship with Tennyson, but they can’t be together until the alpha is gone.

  Lucy has the power to defeat the alpha, but to use it, she might have to become the thing she fears the most.

  Chapter One

  The night was dark, the moon covered by thick clouds. That made it easier for the five of us to sneak across the school grounds and into the train tunnel.

  “Do you remember the password?” Julian whispered, holding the door open as the rest of us entered the staircase to the underground platform.

  “Of course I do,” Althea whispered back from in front of me. “I thought of it. Fibonacci.”

  It had been a month since the alphas had been murdered and Henry Hawthorne had proclaimed himself Supreme Alpha, and in that time, security measures at school had gotten much stricter. It was a pain in a lot of ways, but at least Headmistress Wu was taking the threat seriously. The same couldn’t be said for the other four councils. They passed it off as a werewolf problem, none of their business, no matter how much they were warned that they’d be next. And honestly, as far as werewolf problems went, we had enough to be dealing with to worry too much about anyone else.

  “They should all be here by now,” said Nikolai, shining the light on his phone ahead of us into the train tunnel.

  “They’ll be farther down,” said Althea. “We probably won’t be able to see them until we pass through the magical barriers.”

  Tennyson nudged me with his elbow. “It will be fine,” he told me.

  I wasn’t so sure. Other werewolves didn’t like me much. I couldn’t blame them, not when my father was the one who had caused all the trouble in the first place. At least if things got out of hand, I could hide behind the magical barrier, I supposed.

  My skin seemed to fizz as I passed through the ma
gical barrier, and then I saw them. I’d thought it would be a small thing, just a casual meeting between the head honchos of what had formerly been the five main packs. I was wrong. There had to be a hundred of them crowded into that tunnel, different werewolves from different packs. All different types of people. We were the youngest, but not by a heap; there were people of all ages, and some of them looked ancient. Some looked rich, some poor. All different races and religions. The only thing they seemed to have in common was that they were all angry.

  I stayed near Tennyson, close to the barrier. Being stuck in a tunnel with a bunch of angry werewolves was not my idea of a fun Wednesday night.

  “Is everybody here?” Althea asked.

  “We are now,” some crotchety old guy grumbled.

  “We need to make this fast, Franklin,” an older lady said in a fragile voice. “There’s no time for your complaints. He’ll know. He’ll know we were all here, plotting against him.”

  “How could he know, Irma?” growled another man who was obviously related to the Wildes if the size of his eyebrows was anything to go by. “We’ve got people watching him, and it’s not like he’s that bright. He’ll only know if one of your lot tell him.”

  The lady with the fragile voice shook her head. She must be from the Livingstone pack, I thought. Apparently, most of them had gone over to Henry’s side without much persuasion.

  “We need a plan!” yelled someone from the back of the crowd.

  “Yeah!” said grumpy old Franklin. “How are we going to stop Henry?”

  That was the question. It had been a month already, and it wasn’t as if people hadn’t tried. There had been a bunch of assassination attempts by people who wanted revenge, wanted order. Henry had dealt with them swiftly and brutally.

  I’d thought it would be easy, that we could just all leave Henry’s pack and then he’d be the alpha of nothing. It had been a good idea in theory, but in order to leave a pack, there needed to be another pack to join, another alpha to accept you. I had no idea how to create an alpha from nothing.

  Even though I was out of ideas, I was in the minority. Everyone else had a bunch of suggestions on what we should do. It was impossible to make out what anyone was saying. Their voices echoed off the tunnel walls.

  “Quiet, everyone, please!” Althea called out. “The magical barrier protects the school, but that doesn’t mean those inside won’t hear you. You do not want to be found down here.”

  Before anyone else could speak, Julian pushed past Nikolai and Althea and into the crowd. He grabbed a guy by the collar and pushed him up against the tunnel wall. Everyone moved out of his way, too shocked to see Julian lose it like that. He was normally such a placid guy.

  “Have you seen her?” he asked the guy. “Tell me, Ryan. Where is Harper?”

  Julian’s face was turning red, like his head was about to explode.

  “I haven’t seen her,” Ryan stammered. “Nobody’s seen her. I’m sorry, Julian. I just don’t know.”

  For a moment, I thought Julian wasn’t going to let Ryan go, but then he stepped back and took a deep breath. Ryan’s shoulders slumped in relief.

  “They’ve fired all the staff from Hawthorne House,” Ryan said. “They don’t even let anybody into the main house, except some hired guards. I’d bet she’s there with Henry and his family.”

  Julian flinched, and Ryan shrank away.

  “I’m sure she’s fine, though,” he added.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” piped up someone else, one of the Marlowe pack. “Henry’s getting stronger at giving the alpha command. It’s getting impossible to resist him.”

  Julian turned to look at Althea. “We need to get her out of there.”

  The crowd started weighing in again with their opinions, but Tennyson raised a hand to stop them.

  “What about Daniel O’Connor?” he asked. “Has anyone seen him?”

  There were a few mutters, things like “evil warlock” and “murderer”, and several people shot me nasty looks. Tennyson moved in front of me as if he could make everything better by shielding me from their view.

  “I heard he’s got a secret lab on an island off the west coast,” said one person.

  “No, he’s working for the CIA,” said someone else. “He’s infiltrated the government.”

  “I heard he’s building an army of clones,” said another person who was scarily close to the truth.

  “Why don’t you ask her?” said grumpy old Franklin. “Surely, his own daughter knows where to find him.”

  That grumpy old jerk. I suspected he was from the Ellis pack, since Althea kept grumbling about them and how they were against anything reasonable. He might have been the highest-ranking werewolf they had left, but that didn’t mean it was okay for him to accuse me of treason.

  “Oi!” I said, stepping out from behind Tennyson. I had no idea of what I actually wanted to say to this crotchety naysayer, only that I had to stand up for myself. “I’ve done everything possible to help find my father. What have you done besides sit around criticizing everyone’s honest efforts? Maybe you should shut your piehole if you don’t have anything constructive to say!”

  Me losing my temper didn’t help the mood of the crowd. It set everyone off again, yelling over the top of one another.

  At least my father’s evil plan had managed to overcome the rigid hierarchy and formality that was usually so ingrained with everything lycanthropic. There were young women yelling at old men and guys in flannel shirts shaking their heads at people in suits. They weren’t even making any sense; one lot was going on about how their pack had seniority, another bunch was arguing over who should succeed Henry as Supreme Alpha, and another guy was mad that one of the Ellis pack had eaten too much roast chicken the last time they’d come to dinner. It was chaos. Nobody was making long-winded speeches; they were getting right to the point and definitely not politely. Even though I’d hated the long and boring pack meetings at Wilde Manor, I couldn’t say this was better. Maybe all that formality hadn’t just been because alphas liked the sound of their own voices. Maybe it was so stuff could actually get done.

  “ENOUGH!” Althea yelled.

  Everybody stopped and stared at her. She’d sounded so much like her mother, and the fierce look in her eyes had more than a little alpha in it.

  “If we’re going to just fight among ourselves, this is pointless. We’re accomplishing nothing here. We need to approach this calmly and rationally, and once we’ve decided on a course of action, present a united front. Even though he has power over us, if we stand together against him, we will beat him. But if we direct our fear and anger toward each other instead of him, we’ve already lost.”

  I stared at her in awe for a moment. Where did she pull that stuff from? She was the same age as me, she went to the same school, had the same friends, and yet there were times when she seemed so much older, so much wiser.

  “What do you suggest we do?” Irma Livingstone asked meekly.

  If I’d been put on the spot like that, I’d have been nervous, have looked to my friends to see what they thought, but Althea didn’t hesitate for a moment.

  “We may not agree on a lot, but I think everyone here wants the same thing overall,” she said. “We want Henry to face justice for what he’s done. Anything else can wait. Pack structure, alpha succession – all of that is irrelevant while Henry is Supreme Alpha. Our primary focus should be on removing him. Do we agree?”

  Everyone mumbled their agreement.

  “Like Flynn said, we need a plan,” Althea continued. “At the moment, we’re just taking shots in the dark and hoping one of them hits, and every time we do that, he gets stronger and we grow weaker. There’s no point taking action unless it is precise, focused. We need to find his weak point and aim for that. What we need is information. He’s not letting anyone into Hawthorne House because he knows we’re only following him by force. He doesn’t trust us. Ryan and Dana, you’ve known Henry a long time. I want you to get together and figure out who from the other packs he is most likely to trust. People who are loyal but are known to be outspoken against their own packs. He’s full of hubris, so it shouldn’t be hard to make him think people are coming around to him. Do it slowly, cautiously. Don’t put anyone at risk.”