Alpha’s Baby(5)

Todd was referring to my being a new transfer to NSU. Back at South State, I had been the top player on the lacrosse team. One of my teammates, Jared Stroing, another freshman hotshot, couldn’t handle all the attention I was getting, so he started taking shots at me.

Naturally, I responded by letting him know in no uncertain terms that I was the top dog, and any attempt to get in my way would result in his ass getting kicked.

Well, Jared didn’t seem to get the memo and continued taking cheap shots at me during games, nearly causing us to lose and making me look bad in the process. Finally, I had enough and got into a fight with him in the middle of one of our very important matches against a rival team.

The fight ended up costing us the game and Jared suffered a broken nose. For punishment, I was forced to apologize and was suspended from the lacrosse team.

But that wasn’t enough for Jared’s parents, who had watched me ruthlessly pummel their pussy son into the ground, and they wanted to press charges.

Eventually, after much back and forth between our legal representatives, our family lawyer hammered out a deal. I was to leave South State, and in return, the Stroing family would drop all charges against me.

My parents immediately wanted me to agree to this deal. After all, it would save them a whole lot of money and spare the school a scandal. I fought against them for a while. I didn’t want to give Jared what he wanted from the beginning—to be head of the lacrosse team. Fuck that. I’d kicked his ass, and South State was my territory now.

In the end, though, I gave in. It wasn’t worth the time, money, and stress my parents and I were likely to go through if we got embroiled in a drawn-out legal battle. Besides, everyone at the game had seen me totally wreck Jared’s face, and I would be hard-pressed convincing a bunch of jurors that Jared had been the one who had started it.

So I packed up and went to the nearest university that would take me, which happened to be NSU, actually transferring in without losing any credits. I’d even gotten into Alpha right away, since they had a partner chapter at SSU that I’d been friendly with. In a lot of ways, I couldn’t have had it any easier.

The one thing that bothered me about the whole affair, though, is that I did not receive one call of support from Bella. She had to have known what happened with me, with her and my stepmom keeping in contact, but she didn’t care.

I guess she was still in bitch mode. Still, it pissed me off. We were close at one time, and she didn’t even have the decency to pick up her phone and call me when I was down.

To make matters worse, I still had no idea what university she was attending. For some reason or another, Bella had lied about what school she would be going to when she left home, telling me that she was going to Guilford, which turned out to be bullshit when I looked like a total asshole poking around campus in my South State team gear trying to find her, only to be told there was no Bella James at Guilford. I had no idea why she lied, but it hurt.

“Stefan?”

I tore myself out of my reverie and shrugged, looking at Todd. “What can I say? I play to win.” I looked around the room in a lazy, cocky manner that I was sure would piss a lot of people off. I’m not always that way, but these guys expected it. “I bet my left nut sack that I can beat anyone here.”

“You sure about that?” asked a deep voice. Jace Randall, dressed in just grey sweats, his chiseled abs on display, stepped into the middle of the room and eyed me with challenge. Jace, a pretty boy with looks that got him into more panties than he could count, was rumored to be the biggest badass in the entire school and was the last contestant I had yet to beat.

Judging by his ripped abs and cut arms, I had finally met a worthy opponent. My body thrummed with excitement as I coolly studied him. I had been anticipating this from the moment I began the challenge, top dog against top dog.

Even though I had only been at NSU a short time, I knew Jace to be a major prick who thought he was better than everyone. Then again, if the cheap ass tin foil trophy on the mantle with his name scribbled on it was to be taken seriously, he had a good reason to think that way.

I also knew that if I defeated Jace, I would become the undisputed alpha of Alpha Gamma.

Nothing would make me happier.

“Yup,” I said in a nonchalant manner that I knew would have Jace’s blood boiling. “Beating you will be like a walk in the park.”

Jace’s jawline bulged as he clenched his jaw and I laughed inwardly. I was already getting under his skin.

“Let’s go,” he growled, heading over to the table and sitting down with a grunt. Jace began flexing his arm and slapping himself on his bicep.