Prologue
It was life or death.
Do or die.
Vivi moved her gaze left then right. The world went quiet around her as she tuned it all out.
It all came down to this.
She grabbed the ball. Crouched down. Arms up. Flick of the wrist as she rose up and the ball flew. Straight through. No fucking net!
“Fuck, yes!” Swinging her hips, she pumped her arms in a victory dance.
“My baby got game! We fucking kicked your sad asses!” Aleki crowed.
“What are you doing?” Wolfe stared at her like she’d grown horns and a tail.
“It’s called a victory dance,” she crowed.
“That is a dance? I thought you were having a fit.”
She stopped and gaped at him. “Aww, Wolfe, did you just make a joke?”
His obsidian eyes narrowed. “No, I did not.”
She had to grin. Wolfe didn’t like joking around. Not that that stopped her from teasing him. Aleki might be her boyfriend. But she adored Wolfe and Caleb.
Probably more than she should.
Vivi pushed that thought away. It was unfair to Aleki. She loved him and she’d never do anything to jeopardize what they had together.
“Don’t listen to him, baby. You got all the moves.” Aleki wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and she giggled. She thought she saw the other boys stiffen but didn’t pay them any attention as Aleki grabbed her and lifted her onto his shoulder.
“Be careful!” Wolfe growled, frowning at Aleki. “Don’t drop her.”
“I won’t drop her, mother hen,” Aleki scoffed.
Wolfe hovered, looking ready to catch her if she slipped. Not that she would.
Caleb held up his arms to her. Mouth dry, she reached down. Nobody denied Caleb. He was an alpha without being a jerk. He didn’t have to rule by barking orders or putting others down.
All he did was crook an eyebrow and people did what he wanted.
She slid down his body until she was trapped between him and Aleki. Her big, gorgeous dark-skinned man at her back, the joker with a huge heart. And the blond, serious, responsible leader at her front.
She shivered in reaction. This was something dreams were made of. If only they were both hers.
Stop it, Vivi.
That shit only happened in books. In real life it would be a nightmare fueled by jealousy and misunderstanding. It would never happen.
The three of them were as tight as a family. Tighter, maybe. She knew that she was only allowed in because of her relationship with Aleki. When it ended, she’d never see them again.
“Hey, you okay?” Caleb raised his hand, as though to cup her face then he seemed to realize what he was doing and lightly touched her arm instead.
“Baby? Vivi? You okay?” Aleki turned her towards him, dislodging Caleb’s hand which had been burning through her clothing to her skin.
Foolish girl.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit tired.” She buried her face in his chest. God, he smelled good. Like sugar and sandalwood. Even sweaty, he was delicious.
“Tired?” Wolfe asked, studying her intently from behind black-rimmed glasses. He was seemingly unaffected by the heat of the day and the fact that they’d just played a fast game of basketball. How was he not even a little bit sweaty? “When did you last eat? Do you feel ill? What about water? You need to keep hydrated.”
Her mouth parted and she stared at him in shock. She’d never heard Wolfe like this. At least not when it came to her. Mostly he either ignored her or scowled and growled at her.
“I’m fine.” Her stomach grumbled. Awesome timing. “Well, maybe a bit hungry.”
Wolfe frowned. “You shouldn’t be doing physical activity on an empty stomach. What if you fainted? Hit your head? Then you might get a concussion. A brain bleed. End up in a coma and die. Is that what you want?”
She blinked at him. “Umm, no?”
Wolfe just grunted as though completely vindicated. He turned and headed towards Caleb’s car.
“What just happened?” she whispered.
Caleb grinned. “You’ve just been wolfed.”
“Wolfed?”
Aleki laughed. “You’re going to get fussed at constantly. He’ll likely be worse with you because you’re a delicate girl.”
“Delicate, my ass.” She playfully punched his arm. Ow. Shit. Was he made of concrete? She had to work hard to hide how much that hurt.
“It’s his way of showing he cares.” Caleb took pity on her and reached for her throbbing hand, massaging it. She stiffened, worried Aleki would be mad at him touching her but he didn’t say a word.
“Are you trying to say he now likes me?” It had only taken close to a year of dating Aleki.
Aleki wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Yep. Last time Caleb had a fever, he nearly lost his mind. I swear he researched every possible illness it could be. He almost had him at the emergency room, demanding that they take out his spleen.”
She giggled. “And what was wrong?”
“Just a cold,” Caleb said dryly. “Come on, we better go before he starts beeping the horn.”
“Are we headed back to your place?” she asked. The three of them lived together.
Caleb shook his head. “No. We’re going to get food. If we don’t get you something to eat, Wolfe will have a coronary.”
“We all got accepted?” Aleki asked in shock.
“Course we did.” Caleb whacked him on the back. “Why wouldn’t they accept us?”
Easy for Caleb to say. The only child of a wealthy, older couple, Caleb had never wanted for anything. Never hungered for something he couldn’t have.
By rights, Caleb should have been a self-centered, stuck-up prick. Instead, he was one of the best people Aleki knew.
The rich, smart kid and the part-Samoan boy with a huge family and a tiny bank balance.
They shouldn’t be friends. But Caleb was his brother in all the ways it counted.
And then there was Wolfe.
Aleki glanced over at his other best friend. Wolfe didn’t show much reaction to the news. Cool as a cucumber as always. Hmm, he needed a bit of messing up.
“We’re gonna be fucking Navy SEALs, Wolfie,” Aleki crowed at him, jumping to his feet. “Navy-freaking-SEALs!”
“Don’t call me Wolfie,” Wolfe told him calmly without looking up from his phone. “And we’re not SEALs yet. We have to get through training.”
“You don’t think we can make it?” Caleb asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Of course we can,” Wolfe replied. “Just saying that we can’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Aleki rolled his eyes. Wolfe was a glass half empty kind of guy.
“Come on, Wolfie. You can be happy about it. Smile,” Aleki wheedled.
“No.” Wolfe glared at him.
“Come on, smile.”
Caleb looked between them but didn’t say a word as Aleki took a running leap and landed on Wolfe who was sitting on the sofa.
“Get off me, you asshole!” Wolfe roared as they fell off the sofa, wrestling across the floor.
Aleki leaped off Wolfe and ducked around Caleb’s chair as though he thought the other man might protect him.