Chosen by Their Heat

Oliver Barnes, an 11th-grade Beta, finds himself forced to retake algebra alongside ninth-graders after failing the course. In class, he encounters the exact type of person he detests most: Ethan Holloway—brilliant, arrogant, rigid, and sharp-tongued—a carbon copy of his own insufferable childhood friend, Alan White. Knowing that someone like Ethan would view a slacker like him as less significant than the very air he breathes, Oliver decides to keep his distance. However, at the teacher’s insistence, Ethan begins tutoring him. Oliver soon discovers that Ethan is nothing like he had imagined—and, in a shocking twist, realizes that Ethan was the very person who once saved his life. As Oliver’s academic performance improves under Ethan’s guidance, the tension between Alan and Ethan reaches a breaking point. Caught in the middle, Oliver tries to play peacemaker—until Alan and Ethan agree to a temporary truce, deciding to settle their rivalry fairly once Oliver moves on to the next grade level. On the night of the end-of-term celebration, Oliver drinks too much. As Alan and Ethan each take an arm to help him out, his body suddenly erupts in heat, and he collapses to the ground—he is undergoing a "secondary differentiation." This means he must receive a temporary mark from an Alpha before he loses all control. Standing before him, one man clenches his fists, while the other kneels down and takes his hand.