After rising, she walked out into the hall, careful to not wake her roommate. The industrial carpeting irritated the bottom of her feet, and she leaned against the wall. At three a.m. on a Tuesday night, most people would be sleeping. But not Alex, not since she’d agreed to help Kieran take down Mellee Martin’s family.
She stared down at the card. The ROAR Hotline. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and texted the number on the other side. Someone had to tell her what to do, and if this desperate step made her even more pathetic, she had to live with it.
Hello. It seemed a dumb text, but she sent it without thinking too much about what she said. When texting perfect strangers in the middle of the night to ask for assistance, a greeting seemed in order.
Hello, Alexandra. The reply came fast, and she gasped. How the hell did whoever answered her know who she was?
No. No. No. She stood up and went back into her room, turning off her phone. Maybe they had some kind of caller ID. But her cell phone was registered to her mother. There was a logical explanation. She crawled back under the covers and forced her eyes closed. Hell would bang down her door the next day. Another Rush event. More smiling and God knew what skirmishes she’d have to face with Mellee.
She certainly couldn’t do it exhausted. Somehow she had to sleep. She dug deeper under her covers. How had whoever had been on the opposite end of the phone known her name?
***
The rest of Rush Week went by in a blur. Soon, she found herself wearing a white dress and standing in a circle while she held a lit candle. The sisters sang and offered each one of the potential pledges a hug before handing them their bid to pledge Lambda. Despite her best attempt to stay stoic, tears swam in her eyes.
She’d craved this for so long it almost didn’t bother her when Mellee skipped hugging her. Almost. She stared at the back of Mellee’s head and suddenly didn’t feel so bad about the deal she had struck with the ever stranger Kieran.
With weeks, maybe months left ahead of her of pledging, she couldn’t let her guard down. Before the end of the evening, she was surrounded by her fellow pledges in sleeping bags on the basement floor of her new sorority house. Everyone giggled and laughed as they sipped champagne. None of them seemed to hate her or resent her presence there, at least not yet.
They were supposed to get to know one another, so they could go through the next few months as pledge sisters, and then, maybe someday, be part of the same packs. A cohesive pledge class got through the process a lot faster. The more divisive the class became, the longer the sisters would drag out the day to initiation. Or so they said. With everyone’s schedules, Alexandra suspected they had the end written in bright red letters on a PDF document somewhere.
One of the other new pledges, Livie, a girl with brown hair and glasses, said something, and Alex laughed. They were taking turns around the circle talking about themselves.
Alex would be up next.
Truthfully, she had no idea what she would to say. Not in the slightest. They’d all had interesting lives, funny times with a pack. She supposed she had a couple of amusing anecdotes about the time her mother and she had snuck into a movie theater to see the cartoon movie Up and had gotten caught. Her mother had sweet talked the police.
But that was about it.
All eyes turned on her, and she knew she had to talk.
With a deep breath, she started. “Hi, my name is Alexandra O’Henry.”
“And her mother is a raving slut.” Mellee’s voice resounded in the basement, and Alex jumped in her sleeping bag. She hadn’t had much interaction with the woman other than being ignored, and she flinched at the sound of her voice.
“Listen up, bitches.” Mellee stepped forward.
She had two women behind her, Sisters of the House named Cher and Lois. They were both dark haired although Cher was tall and lanky while Lois appeared small and curvy. The three of them standing together were quite a striking threesome. Men would definitely take several glances if they walked around together. As for Alex, the fact they stood there together made her shudder. This couldn’t be good news.
“This is Alexandra O’Henry. Her mother disgraced her pack and this House. She had a mate she left to take off with another male. A lone wolf with no pack and no affiliation. She humiliated her mate and her family. In disgrace, she had to raise this packless bitch alone.”
One of her pledge mates gasped. Alex heard the sound, but didn’t turn around to see who had produced the noise. She didn’t care. Her emotions warred inside her, making her skin buzz. She didn’t know whether to weep or dart forward and attack Mellee until she ripped apart her face.
Who cared if she couldn’t shift until the full moon? Human hands could do plenty of damage. She had long nails. They could scratch out Mellee’s eyes.
“I’m going to put it to you this way. Any of you who want to be my sisters, who dream someday of being the type of sought-after pack mates that you know I can make you, will never speak to this packless, worthless cunt again. Any who do speak to her in any way will never be made sisters of this House. She might be able to force my hand; we have to give her pathetic legacy ass a bid here. I can’t say the same for any of you. Do you understand me? Not one word. Ever.”
The tears finally won their war and streamed down Alex’s face.
“And remember one more thing. If any of you leave here tonight, you’re out. Legacy or no legacy, if you take one step outside this door tonight, you’re done. Got it?” She smiled brightly as if she’d just told them all the world consisted of pancakes and lollipops. “Night. Get some good sleep.”
Alexandra waited. Not one pledge sister in the room said a word. She looked around the group. Whereas before, they had all been friendly and open, not one of them would make eye contact with her anymore. She sat alone, in a circle of people, weeping.
She sniffed and tried to stop her tears. It took a minute, but she regained control.
“Not one of you will speak to me now, will you?” She waited a beat, and no one moved. “Right. I guess we’re all subscribing to the idea of the sins of the mother being placed square down on the head of her daughter. Well, you can all screw yourselves. I’m not leaving.”
She sat back against the wall. Kieran’s plan seemed better and better. She’d get the horrible woman if it were the last thing she ever did.
***
“And that was it?” Kieran took a sip of coffee, and she watched him drink as if it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. “You just sat there all night, and no one spoke to you?”
“Correct.” This had to be a terrible idea. She should call the whole thing off. Give up and go home. Enroll in community college so she could get her prerequisites done and then finish off at her local state school. It made more sense. At some point, she bordered on unredeemable to herself. She’d look back on this for the rest of her life and just know she should have gone home.
“Well, we’ll make her pay for treating you so badly.”
His statement stopped her thoughts immediately. “How?” When had she gotten so vengeful? She groaned at the internal question. She’d begun wanting the revenge the second Mellee had told her pledge sisters not to speak to her.
“You’ll have to trust me. I’m not without my resources, and I’ll use them to help you assist me.” He tugged her into an embrace, and then he paused. “Oh, what the hell.” Kieran wrapped his arms around her. “Listen, this woman, Mellee, is in a position of power. And maybe she’ll always be the woman filled with the false admiration of others. Nothing about her role in life will change the fact that she’s small, uncertain, and weak. Not to mention she’ll regret the day she ever spoke to you with anything but respect.”
She closed her eyes and let him hold her. She was a werewolf, and he was a human. Granted, he knew about her kind, which didn’t change anything. She shouldn’t like being held. Not by him.
Only she did, and nothing good could ever come from it. Humans and werewolves did
n’t mix without serious consequences. But, really, what did she know? Her plans seemed to be falling apart.
Chapter Three
Kieran watched the scene in front of him play out with a mix of happiness and disgust. He couldn’t decide whose emotions belonged to whom. Was he annoyed, or was it his human host—who should be dead—feeling conflicted? In any case, he took a pull from his beer and tried to not slam his hand into the wall.
His fraternity brothers were paying all kinds of attention to Alexandra just as he’d asked them to do. She giggled at something one of them said and flipped her hair over her shoulder. He’d taught her how to flirt the night before and had been hard as a rock ever since. His balls ached so badly he thought they might fall off. This was a special kind of torture inflicted on the human male. It must have been sent up from hell as some kind of joke.
With another long pull of his drink, he turned his attention to Mellee. She stared at Alexandra with so much hate in her eyes she might explode from it. He knew hate, knew it well. It had been his bread and butter growing up.
A wave of sadness surged through him, and he almost dropped his drink.
Don’t you pity me, human. I’ll defeat you one way or another.
He walked toward Mellee and stood next to her. She smelled of coconut oil, and it made his nose itch. Apparently, Kieran’s human body didn’t enjoy manufactured scents. His head started to pound, and he took a deep breath while he tried to smile. The attempt only brought in more of her scent, which made the headache much worse.
What the fuck? How can she stand it? Werewolves should hate the scent even more than I do.
“Hi.” He tried to ignore how being so close to her made him want to gag. “Having a good time?”
“You’re Kieran, right? You were just elected to the student council, weren’t you?” Mellee eyed him up in the way so many girls on campus did as if he was a spreadsheet, not a person. Brown hair. Check. Green Eyes. Check. Over six feet tall. Check. Good fraternity. Check. Demon…. No, he imagined she had no idea they even existed, let alone that she was talking to one.
“Yep….” He nodded. “Having fun?”
She sipped whatever drink she consumed—it looked girlie and very pink—while her eyes caught Alexandra again.
Obsessed much?
“Not at the moment. You initiated this party, right? You called our social director and set this up. Why?”
She walked right into that. He hadn’t even had to work very hard. “Because I wanted to see Alexandra.” He pointed to her. “Well, everyone in my fraternity did. She’s hot.”
He sauntered away from her. They were werewolves; they shouldn’t care what a bunch of human guys thought, but they were also women, and he’d watched their gender for thousands of years. It would drive her slowly crazy if men thought Alexandra was hotter than she was.
Plant a seed…watch it grow.
Kieran waited for his inner conscience to object, but none came. His human had either died, finally, or he didn’t mind this little power play with Mellee. Only time would tell him which one it was.
***
She knocked, and he opened his door right away. He’d been waiting for her to arrive.
“I got three date offers today. Were they real, or did you tell them to ask me?”
“They were real. I told them to flirt with you, not to ask you out.” He’d called in about a hundred favors, but having people owe him was a useful tool. “Which ones did you take?” So he’d know whose heads he needed to remove from their bodies.
“None.”
He raised an eyebrow. Intriguing. “Why not?”
“Not interested. Too much to do, and I wasn’t sure if any of them were real.”
Kieran leaned against the wall. “How does a girl who looks like you not know how spectacularly attractive she appears? How can you question it?”
She opened and closed her mouth before she spoke again. “Kieran.”
Unable to resist the urge and not willing to question why, he tugged her against him. “You make me desire things I shouldn’t. You make me want to let the other part of me in and embrace it. Do you understand?”
“No.”
He laughed. “Of course not. How could you?”
His mouth pressed down on hers, and she gasped. Did she want this? He was many things, but he wouldn’t push her into sex if she wasn’t interested. No matter how much he craved her.
She softened in his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck. His heart rate kicked up. Yes, this would happen. She made small moans, and he plunged his tongue into her mouth. She tasted of cinnamon, and he growled when he pulled her tighter against her.
He jerked back, breathing heavy. Where had his growl come from? It had been he who had made the noise, not her.
“Are you okay?”
He blinked fast, his eyes dry. “Fine.” He yanked her against him again. “Don’t mind me. I’m weird.”
“I like your weird.”
Her mouth was soft, but he kissed her hard, knowing it wasn’t right. She deserved gentleness, easy loving from one of her kind. Instead, she had him. He pulled back, running his thumb down her cheek. “Are you sure you wish this?”
“Are you?” She licked her lips, and his cock jumped. “You’re the one who keeps pulling back. Maybe you don’t lust after a werewolf.”
“Shut up.” He shoved her against the wall and kissed her until he couldn’t see straight, until the world became nothing but their bodies pressed together. He roamed his hands all over her body, stopping at her breasts, squeezing them until he’d memorized them through her shirt.
She squirmed until there was enough space between them she could get her shirt off. He stared at her, and then ran his hands down to her abs. They were sculpted, and he whistled at her until she laughed.
Alexandra tugged on his clothes, and in no time flat, they were both naked. He picked her up and carried her to his bed. He’d love to have had more space to roll her around on a big luxurious king sized mattress, but the twin would have to do.
He had condoms in the drawer next to the bed. Humans had to worry about these things, and he didn’t need to screw up his planned future by making big mistakes in the present. These were human problems, and as long as he wore the body, he had to take the precautions.
Kieran took one of Alex’s nipples in his mouth. He sucked until she bucked her back beneath him. He pulled off to smile at her. He’d had sex a few times since he’d taken over his body, but none of them had been this intense for him.
She was so fucking beautiful, curves in all the right places and her pussy covered in manicured dark hair. He couldn’t wait to get closer. She had done something to her hair. It took him a second to realize what it was, and then he grinned, knowing he probably looked a fool.
“Did you wax your pussy to resemble a heart?”
She ran her hands over his chest. “As a lark. Is it good? Bad? Ridiculous?”
“You’re hot as hell.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
He scooted down until his face positioned right on the outside of her pussy. “I think the word I used was hot.”
She gasped when he found her pussy with his fingers. He squeezed the bundle of nerves, loving the noises she made. Her juices coated his fingers, and he took them out to suck on them. “You taste of honey.”
He could be addicted to her taste.
Kieran wanted this woman, and he was going to have her. Right then. The rest could wait until morning.
***
Alex couldn’t believe how well he played her body, as though she were a musical instrument. She’d always liked sex since she’d discovered it at sixteen. Getting to orgasm had never been a problem for her. She could even bring herself to the big O with five minutes alone in her room. But not like this.
Kieran made her body buzz. Every nerve ending called out for more, and he gave it to her as he stroked, pulled, and bit down on her just where she needed him to. Finally, he be
nt over and licked her clit. She gasped and arched off the bed.
“Wow.”
He laughed, the vibration moving through her. “I aim to please.”
“You sound self-assured, and I’m not willing to complain.”
Kieran didn’t answer with words, replying instead with his body. He moved his head away and replaced it with his cock. She had a second to register how big it was when he dressed himself in the condom before he pushed inside of her, balls deep.
She cried out, taking all of him at once. Her muscles stretched, accommodating him immediately. She dug her fingernails into his back at the new sensations of pleasure travelling up and down her spine.
“Sshhh.” His voice wrapped around her soul, taking hold. If he’d been a werewolf, she would have wondered if he was her mate. She pushed the thought away. Kieran was a human. No amount of musing would make him otherwise. This was great sex, and she shouldn’t be trying to make it more.
“Are you okay?” he whispered in her ear. She could see the strain on his face as his jaw muscles clenched. Was he holding himself back from moving? Did it hurt?
“Yes.” She kissed him gently on the lips. “More please.”
“Gladly.”
He pulled out before thrusting back inside her. She cried out as she lifted her hips to meet his. This was what she needed, what she craved. A true joining with him. These moments, she could be whole; during this time, she could just be with him and shut out the rest of the world completely.
It might have lasted only minutes or perhaps hours. She really didn’t know if time mattered anymore. Their tongues dueled while their bodies joined in a dance she knew millions of couples had engaged in for more time than she could imagine. Yet it felt new to her, as if they’d shared something no one else ever had before.
Sorority Wolf Page 3