Winning the Alpha Read Online Free PDF

smiled, pleased to see that she was grinning broadly at me. Her hair was long, red and curly and she had a lovely face.
    “I’m Julia,” she said, extending her hand. I took it gladly.
    “I’m Nikki,” I said.
    Julia leaned in and whispered, “Stay close to me. I think there are some serious bitches here.”
    I looked around. A couple of the women looked sour, but I wasn’t sure if it was a personality issue or pure fear.
    “I think they may be as scared of us as we are of them,” I said charitably.
    “You’re nicer than I am, Nikki,” said Julia. “I’m ready to brawl as soon as someone makes a snarky comment. When you came in, though, I liked the look of you. You’re the only one without a scowl on her face. But I suppose you’re right, I should give them a chance before I judge.”
    “Yeah, probably. But maybe I’m being t oo nice. I’m trying not to be too hard on anyone since I’d prefer not to be judged myself. When you’re less than skinny, people tend to make all sorts of assumptions about you.”
    “Well, I think you’re gorgeous. And believe it or not, peop le scrutinize redheads too.”
    I laughed then. “Well, you probably deserve it, don’t you?”
    “Absolutely,” she said. “We’re the bitchiest of them all.”
    Other women started filing in now, one after another. Soon enough the r oom was full of chattering females who’d lost their shyness and managed to break off almost immediately into small cliques. There were the blondes, of which I wasn’t a part for some bizarre reason; the brunettes, the rich ones (you could tell by the clothes since we’d all come in wearing our own) and what Julia called the plastics. Some of the last group overlapped with the blondes and the brunettes.
    Julia stuck by me as promised as we went around and introduced ourselves to the others. She was an aggressive , friendly girl, and very helpful to have around.
    We met several of the candidates . I immediately liked Diana, a dark-haired beauty who seemed gentle and sweet, and Bree, who was a brunette who seemed uninterested in the others of her ilk. Neither of them seemed to fit into the stereotypical notion of a reality show babe, though they were each very attractive.
    The ones who stood out immediately were the women who would no doubt become the show’s “villains.” There was one named Noelle, who had a permanent scowl on her face. When someone told her to cheer up she declared, “I’m not here to make friends.” I wanted to tell her to save her clichés for when the cameras were rolling. I pictured her at home practicing her lines: “No one comes between me and my man.” “The other girls don’t understand me; I’m really very nice in spite of the venom and forked tongue.” “My plastic surgeon is going to be the best man at our wedding.”
    The frozen-faced woman I’d seen at the production meeting was called Brittany, which was far too pretty a name for such a grumpy-looking girl. She didn’t seem to have anything to say to anyone, but finally sidled up next to a large-breasted plastic and seemed to want to make friends. I was almost surprised that she hadn’t tried to hang out by me; I would have thought that she would have liked to pose herself near a woman who might make her look extra-thin and extra-gorgeous. At one point I made eye contact with her, and she responded by simply narrowing her eyes at me. Well, at least those muscles worked. I simply stared back and smiled, and finally she turned her head away, flicking her long extensions as she did so.
    “Well, she’ll be the favourite for sure,” I said to Julia. “She’s one hundred percent fake and men seem to love that.”
    “Men on these shows, maybe. I’ve never met a man who’d rath er have a handful of fake woman-flesh than a handful of real.”
    “Then I should make a lot of men’s han ds very fucking happy,” I said.
     
    A young man I hadn’t seen before walked in when all the women had assembled. He