“Can I get something to eat first? Goodness!” I said, happy to have some gossip to share for once in my life.
“Yes. Get food and coffee and then meet us at the table, ready to spill.”
They left me there, rolling my eyes but intent on getting food and making them wait. Because I could.
With a tray laden with two huge breakfast burritos and a larger-than-life latte, I sat at the table and pretended not to look around for my mates. Yeah, weird.
But also, thinking about the both of them made me tingle in all the right places.
“Hello?” AJ snapped and tried to swipe my latte. That broke me from my mate-stupor. “I said, we haven’t seen them come in. Trust us—we were looking for them.”
A growl erupted from me, and I slapped my hand over my mouth. My wolf didn’t appreciate AJ and Nora looking for my mates, no matter the reasons why. They giggled, and she growled inside me this time.
“Why?” I asked before taking a huge sip of coffee, knowing I would need the caffeine to put up with these gossip-starved friends.
“To see if they looked…satisfied, you could say?” AJ giggled, and Nora rolled her eyes and blushed.
She got hit in the face with a piece of egg. “Stop it. It wasn’t like that.”
Nora put her hand on AJ’s arm but was barely managing her laughter. “Let’s stop picking on her. Jade, tell us what happened.”
So I spilled my guts. Told them all the sweet things and about the bathtub and their enormous suite. I told them about how they doted on me, my face flaming the entire time.
Of course, they turned the enormous suite statement into a dick joke, but they did that once in a while. Actually, only AJ did, but I would expect nothing less from her.
“And your wolf? Does she recognize them both as your mates?” AJ asked, taking a stab at her eggs which had gone untouched.
“She does. She loves each one equally.”
Fuck, I’d said love. I’d gotten caught up in telling them everything and had divulged too much. Shit. Did I love them already? Did my wolf?
“How sweet, Jade. I’m happy for you,” Nora said, and I watched her blush as one of the Volkovs, Syn, I thought, came into the cafeteria and, though no one else probably noticed, when he turned to her, he winked.
I tried to be covert and look around for my mates, but they weren’t here. Usually, they strolled in right before the end of breakfast, but somehow this morning, I’d expected them earlier.
Fuck, I was in trouble. We hadn’t even mated, and I was hooked.
Completely hooked on both Aramis and Braxton.
“I’m gonna head to the library. I’ve got study period first today, and I need to cram.”
AJ nodded. “Yep. You missed some days of studying, but your girl has your back.” She pulled a stack of papers with her handwriting all over it, and I gasped as I looked over what it was. A study guide from Supernatural Lore class—all filled out—ready to study. “Volkov gave it to Nora because he’s the teacher’s assistant, and I took the liberty of copying my answers down. Now, go, and don’t say we never did anything for you.”
Goddess, my friends were the freaking best in the world.
Inside the library, I huddled into a prime corner table, one usually occupied but, this morning, was empty. Thanks to AJ’s answers and side notes on the study guide, I finally felt confident again I was going to do okay despite my few days on the mend.
“Hey there.” Braxton pulled out the chair next to mine. His scent had washed over me before he said anything. “Can I sit?”
Goddess, it did things to me that he was such a gentleman, and it seemed to come so naturally. I’d have to thank his mother one day.
“Of course,” I whispered, still kind of breathless from his nearness.
“Can I…?” He lifted his arm, and I didn’t hesitate one single second to squish myself against his side, breathing him in and accepting his embrace along with his warmth. Despite the blazing fireplace in the center of the library, it was always freezing in the corners. “What are you studying?” He didn’t wait for my answer and, instead, reached for the study guide. “Ah, Shifter Lore. I hated the class. They didn’t teach us anything about this, did they? About harems.”
That word. I guessed I would have to get used to hearing it—saying it—being in it.
“No, they do nothing to prep us for the real world, but that’s every school, isn’t it?”
He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. “Probably. Am I interrupting, or can you and I study together?”
“We can try.”
Chapter Seventeen
Aramis
I’d texted Jade sometime after breakfast since my habit of waking up later than most had me missing her in the cafeteria. I would have to fix it. If it meant seeing my mate more, I’d wake up at fucking three in the morning.
As soon as I’d walked in, I scanned the room but only her friends sat at the table. They generously offered up info, telling me she had been there before and was now at the library.
So I texted her and Braxton and asked if they wanted to come to dinner at the suite. Group text for the win.
They’d both agreed, and, in between classes, I’d arranged to have food delivered from, well, New York City. It was a place I’d been to once with my parents and, for some reason, wanted nothing more than for Jade to share it with me.
One day, we would have to take her to the city.
I’d love to take the girl around the world.
After my last class, I hurried back to our room to straighten up and make sure everything was ready. Braxton arrived a few minutes afterward and asked what we were having for dinner. I looked up at him and, somehow, my best friend knew.
“All the way from New York? Dayum. How can I compete?”
I scrunched my nose and cocked my head. He had it all wrong. “That’s the thing, Brax. We aren’t supposed to be competing. We are supposed to work together for the good of our mate.”
Still, I could see my argument didn’t faze him one bit. The corners of his mouth were drawn down.
“Hey, how about some candles or something? Didn’t you buy some to send to your mom for Yule?”
His face lit up in an instant. He scrambled to the closet, candles in hand and placed them at the center of the table. Between the two of us, we would make this dinner right for our mate.
“Okay, what else?” The meal would come complete with plates and silverware. It should at the almost five hundred dollars I’d paid to have it delivered this night. Hell, it should come with a butler for the price.
“I don’t know. We don’t even know what else she likes.” I felt ridiculous, having a mate but not yet knowing her likes and dislikes.
“I have an idea.”
He pulled out his phone and made a call. Nora. How he had her number, I would have to find out, but it was genius. This was how we balanced, I realized, watching him make a list of things while Nora spoke to him on the phone. There were movies, food, music, and everything in between listed.
While I could buy her a Michelin-rated meal, he could provide her the comfort she needed.
I should improve on that front.
A knock on the door made both of our heads snap to attention.
Our mate was here, and my wolf knew. Her scent permeated through the door, and my wolf preened. We were going to feed our female.
Our female. And my wolf had no qualms about the fact. That was how I knew it was right.
This female was born to be taken care of by Braxton and me.
And I fully intended to do it right.
“Hey,” Braxton said, opening the door. He kissed her cheek, and she flushed all the way from her cheeks to her neck. I wished I knew exactly how far the blush extended. One day, I would—we would.
Her hair was pulled into a braid lying over her shoulder. One dark strand hung and dusted her face, and I wanted to reach over and tuck it behind her ear. Gods, my mate was gorgeous. She wore jeans, frayed
at the knees, and a maroon fitted turtleneck sweater with matching shoes.
“Jade,” I called her, and she came to me willingly, accepting my embrace, and I laid a kiss on her temple.
“What’s this?” she asked, and I knew we’d made a mistake. Or Brax had. He had left out the list of things from Nora in his haste. “Oh, this is all wrong. Let me fix it. Was this AJ or Nora?”
Braxton sheepishly told her Nora.
“That girl.” Jade shook her head, grabbed the pen and began scribbling.
After a few minutes of Brax and me both squirming, she jutted the list out at me. I took it and read over it. The music they’d gotten wrong. Apparently, my mate was secret about her most favorite things, and the fact she was sharing them with us made this list something to be framed.
Her favorite things, which Nora had listed as books and reading, had been scratched out and refigured. Number one was now Mates and number two was books and reading.
I could live with that.
“What’s to eat? I’m starved. I skipped lunch.”
As if they knew she would ask right then, the delivery people knocked on the door. Yes, I’d ordered so much food it took a team of delivery people to get it to me. No shame in me trying to impress my mate.
They delivered Styrofoam boxes full of steaming hot food and left after I gave them a hefty tip on top of their fee.
“Where did this come from?” She sat and watched while Brax and I unboxed everything and laid it out on the table.
“From Dimitri’s…” I said, not giving her all the info.
“Where’s that?” she asked, and my neck heated.
“It’s his favorite restaurant,” Braxton tried to cover for me.
“Oh. I’ve never heard of it.” Her adorable eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.
Might as well bite the dust. “It’s in New York City. Have you been there before?”
She shook her head. “How in the world did you get food delivered from New York?”
I shrugged. “Perks of being mated to Aramis,” Braxton answered, again, trying to save me.
“Well, I’m a lucky girl, then.”
Fuck no. We were the lucky ones.
Chapter Eighteen
Brax
I waited until Jade and Aramis were asleep then crept out of bed. Standing over them, I took a moment to memorize how they looked together. Aramis lay curled around Jade, his face buried in her silken tresses. Her lips were parted, and a little bit of drool crusted at the edge of her lips. Completely adorable, and all I wanted to do was crawl back in and lie on her other side, making her safe between us.
We’d studied late into the night, and dawn was only a few hours away. Finals started shortly thereafter. Jade was ready. I was as well. And Aramis, to my pleasure, had buckled down enough to join us and possibly absorbed enough to pass. Who was I kidding? He’d always pass. Royalty did not fail. But perhaps he’d do better this time. I’d never seen him crack a book before, although I did believe he learned enough to pass legitimately. Still, he should be trying harder, and our mate was a good influence on the Prince of Wolves. Which actually was his title, although he’d threatened me with death if I ever used it again. Aramis preferred not to be treated like anything but one of the other students. I suspected some didn’t know his title.
Possibly our mate. Jade’s family lived quite a distance away from other packs and had blended with the local human community better than most. They sold, in addition to some specialties to our people they sold locally and via the Internet, things the folks in town expected like baguettes and eclairs. At least so I’d heard. But what it came down to was Jade might very well not know Aramis’s royal bloodline.
I closed the door quietly behind me and crept to an outer door then shifted. The urge to protect had grown in me since connecting with Jade, and my wolf had been growling all night, demanding I go out and patrol, make sure no dangers lay in our path. We had a dawn run scheduled for the next day, a tradition designed to clear our heads before test time, and unlike the townsfolk, I had little confidence the threat had disappeared. Aramis hadn’t said much, but I knew he shared my concerns.
We’d had a quick meeting while Jade went to her room to shower and change before bed, and agreed we’d stick to her like glue. We considered trying to keep her from running at all, but recognized she’d probably follow us anyway, and we might not be able to keep her as safe as if we knew where she was. We’d be sure to remain in the middle of the pack, alert for danger.
But our precautions weren’t enough. I kept low to the ground until I reached the cover of trees. A full-school run would be a very large group, and my brain insisted nobody in their right mind would take a chance on that many wolves turning on them. Of course, who in their right mind would trespass and shoot at a pack of wolves anyway? What was their motivation?
I padded off along the path we’d take, turning over the possibilities in my head. I’d heard some of the others say their logical thinking clouded when in wolf form, but my wolf was, as far as one could be, similar to me. Wolf logic was a little different, but we usually had no trouble reaching agreement on any issue.
So far, the forest was quiet, not even a breeze stirring the carpet of fallen leaves or a night bird twittering in its nest. A little snow dusted here and there, but the path held none. Some group or other followed these trails most days, so unless we got a big dump, six inches or more, it usually got trampled away by many furry paws.
Rumors abounded of secret organizations or obsessed individuals out to eliminate all shifters, but, somehow, I didn’t believe that to be the case. If they wanted to get rid of all of us, wouldn’t they plant a bomb or something? Use an automatic weapon able to fire multiple shots at once for maximum harm as we’d seen recently in the human world? Poison our water—a popular way of destroying shifter settlements hundreds of years ago. But firing, as a hunter might? Or a couple of hunters?
Predators were not tasty—I gave a shudder at the thought of anyone doing so to one of us—and if someone wanted meat to get their families through the winter, there were enough deer and rabbits around. Our state did not issue licenses to shoot wolves. Outside of shifters, there were only a handful here and there.
They couldn’t have mistaken us for coyotes who had been attacking their livestock, could they? No coyote shifters lived nearby, but the actual animals also found plenty of game, and I hadn’t heard of any problems in town.
What the hell? Someone had passed all the no trespassing/no hunting signs and shot at us.
Why?
I prowled every trail in our forests before morning, hunting for more signs of trespassers or anyone lurking, but by the time the sky began to lighten in the east, the winter sun preparing to make its late appearance, I had nothing.
Except an upcoming run and a full day of exams to look forward to on no sleep. My straight A average was about to tank. Goodbye honor roll, hello explanations. My parents weren’t as concerned as some about perfection, but they did like consistency.
Chapter Nineteen
Jade
I woke up in the dark to the blast of a hip-hop radio station. A jarring awakening if I ever had one. Classes didn’t start until eight, but my muzzy brain gradually processed we had the first-day-of-exams dawn run to look forward to, the music was what my mates considered an appropriate alarm, and the arms wrapped around me were Aramis’s. Technically, I didn’t live here in their suite, but it seemed I might as well. Once we were mated. Usually, mated students lived outside the dorms, but perhaps the size of my mates’ habitation would allow an exception to be made.
I rolled to my other side, seeking Braxton and finding an empty pillow. He was probably in the bathroom, I thought, just as a click and footfalls from the sitting area reached my ears. I slipped out of bed and grabbed a navy-blue velour robe Aramis had discarded over a chair the night before. It trailed behind me as I crept toward the doorway. I prepared to scream if necessary, but what I saw stilled the sound
on my lips.
“Braxton?”
He turned from closing the door behind him and faced me. “Jade, why are you up already?”
“For the run?”
“The real question”—we both jumped at Aramis’s deep voice, loud and jarring in the pre-dawn silence—“is where you’ve been for the past few hours?” It seemed I hadn’t been leaving a sleeping Aramis at all. He’d been awake and aware. What else went on when I was dead to the world?
Aramis stepped around me, wearing only a pair of boxers, and confronted Brax, who wore loose shorts and had bare feet. A clue to what he had been doing. “Go ahead. Did you have something to do you wanted to leave me out of?”
“Aramis, I—”
“Don’t try to explain. You went out there, all alone, didn’t you? Where anything could have happened to you. If you’d been shot, how do you think Jade would feel?”
I slipped into the living room but went to sit on a chair in the corner. No shifter woman grew up without knowing better than to get between two males who had their chests thrust out and fire in their eyes. Besides, I wanted to hear Braxton’s explanation as well. And I’d never seen the fierceness in this studious, sensitive mate of mine. It really got me going.
They argued about whether Braxton should have gone on his own and whether Aramis had a word to say about what he did or not. I actually didn’t know why he would until they segued into another topic.
“My beta has to do what I say.” Aramis ran his hands through his hair, a gesture I’d come to learn indicated supreme frustration.
“I am not your beta yet.” Braxton, my sweet, kind Braxton got right in Aramis’s face. “Prince of Wolves.”
I blinked.
Aramis gritted his teeth. “Do not call me that!”
“Why not? It’s true, isn’t it? You’re the prince and assume I’ll go along with your plans for the future since you’ve always gotten your way. I’ve not agreed to be your beta, yet. And if you continue to be this pushy, I never will.”
Jaded Love (The Lycan Academy Book 4) Page 6