by Leia Stone
“Some days, I am more wolf than woman and I am still learning how to stop apologizing for my wild.” Wolf and Woman by Nikita Gill.
What the hell, he knew poetry? And what did that mean? That I shouldn’t be sorry for who I was?
“Hey.” Sage called, bringing my attention back to reality and I jumped a little.
“Hey.” I quickly “liked” the photo, and then slipped my phone back away and into my pocket.
Sage handed me a plate of chicken fingers and French fries with extra ranch and I grinned.
“Thanks.”
We sat on a bench and Sage popped a fry into her mouth. “So the rumor mill is in full effect.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
She nodded. “Some people saw you and Sawyer go back to his place last night. Then they heard about the vampire attack. You’re a banished wolf.” She gave me a sly grin. “So naturally everyone thinks you are really in league with the vampires and are here to assassinate Sawyer.”
I gasped and a French fry lodged right into my windpipe. With a huge cough, I was able to spit it out, but it took a moment for me to gather my composure.
“Say what now?” I looked at my redheaded friend.
Sage laughed. “It’s ridiculous. No one believes it.”
I frowned. “But maybe they do. Maybe the alpha does, ohmygod maybe Sawyer does.”
Maybe that’s why he dropped the class…? But no, he was there last night, he saw the vampires try to kill me.
I sighed, throwing my head into my hands.
Rumors were powerful, and Sawyer dropping the class he had with me spoke volumes.
I liked him, like I had really allowed myself to like him, and now I felt a little crushed.
Stupid Werewolf Bachelor, not everyone came out of these things happy.
Sawyer would.
Another girl would…
And forty-nine of us would be heartbroken.
Sage waved me off. “Trust me, babe. Everything will blow over by next week.”
I wanted to believe her, but I just couldn’t.
That night I was fully prepared to just sit around and eat ice cream all night, but Sage had other plans.
“You just need to dance your way out of your funk. Let’s go to Moonies tonight?” she asked.
Moonies was the campus dance club and bar. I’d walked past it a bunch of times and written it off. But I did like to dance … Raven and I took a hip-hop class all through high school that was offered at Delphi and it was something I was good at. Getting lost in the music, moving your body to the beat, there was a therapeutic nature to dancing.
“Maybe for like one dance,” I told her, and she squealed.
After dressing me in quite possibly the shortest black dress I’d ever worn, we walked to Moonies with Walsh and Brandon trailing behind us.
“I can’t believe you’re still wearing those fucking white tennis shoes.” She scowled at my feet, causing me to grin.
“First of all, Converse are not tennis shoes. At least I don’t think they are. And second, I can’t believe you care so much about my attire.”
She laughed, hooking her arm through mine and looking over her shoulder at Brandon and Walsh. She’d been doing that a lot lately, sneaking glances at the two men.
I lowered my voice, leaning into her. “Which one do you like?”
Her eyes went wide and she swallowed hard. “Is it that obvious?”
I shrugged. “Just to me.”
She chewed her lip. “Walsh, but he’s Sawyer’s best friend and would never…”
I yanked her arm, pulling her closer to me. “You don’t know that.”
She nodded. “I do. He told me this summer when we kissed.”
Oh. Well, shit.
“Just one kiss? Or was there repeated kissing?” I questioned, raising one eyebrow.
She chuckled. “Just one, amazing, Earth-shattering kiss.”
A frown pulled at my lips. “I’m sorry.”
She gave a casual shrug, but I could see how much it bothered her. “I’m one of the guys, ya know. Girls like that don’t get dated. Anyway, enough about me, did you know that Werewolf City drinking age is eighteen?”
I smiled. “I did. My mom has a really funny story of getting hammered on her eighteenth birthday and my grandma making her sleep it off in the barn with the goats because she kept vomiting.”
Sage burst into peals of laughter, but before we could say any more, we’d reached the door. I slipped my hand into my purse, prepared to show ID, when the bouncer just winked at Sage and opened the door.
“Miss Hudson.” He nodded, and let us in.
Sometimes I forgot her dad was the alpha’s little brother—until someone said her last name.
The flashing lights and deep bass music filtered out to us as we crossed the threshold.
A young woman in her twenties with bright pink hair stood behind a hostess stand and handed us two free drink tickets. “It’s ladies’ night,” she told us with a wink.
Sweet.
I surveyed the club, taking it all in. Moonies was cute, not a huge place; it wasn’t sure whether it wanted to be a college bar or a high-tech dance club, but it had a special something, a vibe. The walls were all, surprise, glass, and the floors were stamped concrete, but the bar which took up the entire right side of the space was deep rich wood and had stacks of schoolbooks in shelves near the ceiling as decoration. I kind of dug it. I was scanning for two seats at the bar since the place was packed, when my gaze landed on two searing blue eyes.
Fuck.
“Sawyer’s here,” I mumbled to Sage. “Let’s go.” I yanked her arm.
“I can’t hear you!” she shouted over the loud music.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of his, he was just … watching me, drinking me in while a familiar blond hung on his arm, talking to her friends.
Darth Vader.
Oh my God, was this their date night? Of course he chose her first.
“Shit, Sawyer’s here with Meredith!” Sage screamed into my ear and I nodded.
Sawyer stood, shaking Meredith off of his arm as she continued to talk to her friends, and he just … stared at me.
“Who goes to a bar for a date?” I yelled in Sage’s ear.
She grinned. “Meredith. She’s a lush who loves attention. This is like her favorite place.”
“We should go!” I told Sage, yanking her arm again.
She pulled me on the dance floor with surprising force, ignoring my plea. “Don’t worry! He’s faking that he is into all these girls because he has to. Trust me,” Sage said.
She had no idea. No idea what went down with the vamps, and no idea what I was or that he’d dropped his class to escape me.
Fuck it.
Sage was right. Screw planning my every minute around Sawyer. I was here to have fun and I wasn’t going to let him being on a date with another chick bother me. Turning my back to him, I started to dance. I mean, full-on pelvic thrusting, rolling my body with the music as I threw my arms up in the air to music and let my hair whip around.
“Yes, girl!” Sage screamed in laughter as I gestured to her and shook my boobs at her, causing her to laugh. Dancing with girlfriends was always the best, you didn’t have to worry about them hitting on you, and you didn’t have to worry about being an idiot. I just let go of everything, let go of what I might be, of Sawyer, of all my stress. I moved my body to the music and owned that dance floor, rubbing up against Sage with my butt as she smacked it and laughed.
Zero. Fucks. Given.
A bunch of guys had started to form a circle around us, cheering us on and ogling like the stupid assholes they were, but we didn’t care, we just kept on dancing. This music was my jam and I was living my best life.
When I spun in the air, I risked a glance behind me, searching for Sawyer, and my wolf rose to the surface when I noticed two yellow eyes standing twelve inches from me.
I skidded to a stop, heart pounding in my chest either from dancing or t
he fact that Sawyer was a mere foot away from me.
“Uh … hey,” I huffed, panting.
He blinked, eyes flashing from yellow to blue. His gaze flicked to the guys standing in a circle watching us and his jaw clenched. He leaned into me, pressing a hand at my lower back and pulling me into him. When his lips grazed my ear, heat traveled down my spine and settled between my legs. “Please go home,” he said. “Don’t make me rip their eyes out.” He gestured to the men who were now watching Sage dance.
My blood went cold.
Sawyer Hudson was jealous. I would smile, but there was no humor in his voice and I thought he might actually be serious. Alpha males were known for being territorial with women they were dating, but this was next level. I couldn’t even be looked at? Just because I was one of fifty women he was dating?
Anger flared inside of me and I pulled away from him. “Why did you drop photography?” I yelled.
Regret crossed his face. “My mother made me. Said it would interfere with getting into med school.” He looked embarrassed and I actually laughed at that a little.
“Future alpha lets his mom tell him what classes to take?” I winked playfully.
He normally liked my humor, but right now he wasn’t smiling, he was watching the men in the circle around us and then looking back at my dress, his gaze bouncing to my thighs, my cleavage, my neck. His eyes flashed yellow again and he pressed in on me one more time.
“Please … go home, Demi.” His voice was thick with his wolf and I frowned, crossing my arms in defiance.
“Why?”
He took a deep breath, leaning into my ear, his lip caressing the lobe. “Because you’re mine, and if I have to watch these guys look like they want to fuck you any longer, I will go insane.”
Shock ripped through me.
You’re mine.
Okay, that was normally such an annoying male wolf thing to say, but on Sawyer’s lips it was hot as fuck.
I swallowed hard and nodded, genuinely afraid he would hurt someone now. His wolf was close, I could smell it.
“Sawyer, what the hell!” Meredith’s shrill voice cut into the song and I turned away from him, from her, from all of it. I just grabbed Sage’s hand and left the bar more confused than when I’d gotten there.
The next three weeks and six days passed by painfully slow. Sawyer had quite literally gone on a date with every single eligible female here at school but me. I would say he was ignoring me, but every time I saw him he went out of his way to walk over and say hi. When I was eating alone or in the library, he plopped right down next to me and asked how my day was going. He also left comments on all of my Instagram photos and genuinely seemed interested in my art. It was … infuriating. Why couldn’t he just be an asshole so I could get over him? Instead, he was traipsing around campus with the entire female school body. Every single girl wore full-on clubbing attire until Sawyer picked them for a date. Then they went back to their regular Barbie clothes, which were just a step down from clubbing attire.
Me? Oh, I’d had Raven mail me my prized custom t-shirt collection, and currently I was wearing Single but not interested. It matched my fishnets and jean shorts look.
I didn’t give a fuck anymore. Sawyer could pick me tonight for dinner, as it was the last slot open, and I wouldn’t even change. That’s how much I didn’t care. But seeing as though it was 4:30pm and I was in the developing lab, processing my negatives, I might not even say yes. I clipped the 8x10 pictures I’d taken of Sage up on the drying line with more force than was necessary and checked my phone for the twentieth time.
Obviously it was too late! He was going to skip over me like an asshole and cut me from the top twenty without even giving me a chance.
What a hot and cold asshole. One second he’s all possessive and the next he isn’t into me.
I was so mad, I barely registered the knock at the door.
“Room’s taken!” I growled.
They knocked again.
Ugh. Taking off my apron, I crossed the room and pulled the blackout curtains closed before opening the door.
My tongue went dry when I saw Sawyer holding a dozen red roses and wearing a black suit and tie.
“Hey,” I said stupidly.
His eyes roamed my body, starting at my Doc Martens, up my fishnets and then resting on my shirt, where he grinned.
“I hope that’s not a message for me?”
Fuck. Why did I wear this?
I crossed my arms. “Saving the best for last again?” There was more hurt in my voice than I intended and I regretted it, because his playful demeanor changed. Eugene and two other guards I didn’t know were at the far end of the hallway waiting for him.
He shook his head, looking at the flowers before handing them to me. “This time it’s different.”
This time it’s different? What the hell did that mean?
I took the flowers as an awkward silence descended upon us.
“Demi?” Sawyer’s voice was rough, his eyes hooded.
“Yeah?”
“Would you do me the honor of being my date for dinner tonight?”
He was so serious, and also so charming. Dammit. “Extra carbs, extra gluten?” I raised one eyebrow.
He grinned, and fuck me he had a dimple in his cheek that I didn’t realize was there before. “Extra whatever you want.” His voice was deep and I’m pretty sure my cheeks went bright red.
I really wanted to whore out in this moment and say, “Whatever I want?” in a sultry voice, but I decided playing hard to get was better.
I looked at my bare wrist, which didn’t have a watch on it. “I dunno, I mean it’s getting late and you’re all dressed up. I’m not sure I have time to get ready.”
His eyes flashed yellow for the slightest second as his wolf came to the surface. “I think you look amazing.”
Dammit, he was so sweet.
“Alright, well, I guess I could run home and change. Where are we going?”
He grinned. “Eugene will bring you. Just be ready by six?”
I nodded and he lingered for a second, looking down at the flowers in my hands. “Are you happy here, Demi? I know it’s probably a lot different from Delphi … but my intention was to bring you here for a better life. You’re happy, right?” He frowned and I found myself mystified by his genuine goodness.
Hah! Yes, this place was different from the reject magic school. He had no idea. Banishing a wolf was the cruelest thing you could do. Being the only wolf at Delphi had plagued me from kindergarten.
“I miss my parents and my best friend Raven … but other than that … I’m happy.” I gave him a small smile.
He nodded, seeming relieved. “Good. I’ll see you tonight.” When he turned to walk away, I found myself wondering if Sawyer was happy. No one probably asked him that. I decided to do just that tonight on our date.
“Holy shit you look hot.” Sage admired me from where she sat on my couch eating Oreos.
“Really? It’s not too … revealing?”
Sage snorted. “Have you seen the other girls on their date nights?”
Yeah, I had, they fucking advertised it to everyone and made sure we all got a peek of what they were wearing: short dresses, cleavage, six-inch-high heels. I was modest, so this was a bit much for me. Sage had let me borrow a baby blue lace tube top that ended just below my breasts, and then I wore a high-waisted black silk skirt with a bow in the center. That all looked too Barbie for me, so I threw on some black fishnets and my Doc Marten boots and I was ready to go. I showered in like four minutes, managing to shave and not cut myself, but there was no time to do my hair, so I let it airdry in beachy waves.
The clock struck six p.m. and Sage jumped from the couch. “Okay, you have to kiss him tonight. I’m sure the other girls have and he needs to know you have chemistry.”
I frowned. “Eww, you think he’s been kissing all the other girls?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, not all of them, but I’m sure some are tr
ying. Look, just be your amazing self and let him know you’re interested, that’s all.”
Was I interested in a guy who might have potentially kissed forty-nine other girls?
Gross.
But my thoughts went back to what Sage had told me when she’d found him in Montana.
About wondering if anyone would ever love him back.
Walking over to the door, I threw it open to find Eugene and Walsh both dressed in suits. “Hey.” I hadn’t really seen Eugene much since that night with the vampire attack.
Walsh’s gaze flicked behind me to Sage. He nodded once at her and then focused back on me.
Poor Sage.
“Good evening, Miss Calloway.” Eugene gestured for me to walk with him and I did, letting the door close behind me. Sage would find her way back to her dorm eventually. Or not and she’d be there waiting to hear every word when I got back.
Either way, I wasn’t worried about it.
One by one, the girls came out of the dorms to glare me down as I passed. As we strode by Meredith and her evil clan, who were playing pool, they all stopped what they were doing and stared.
“Assassin,” I heard one whisper loudly.
Oh God, are you serious? Nearly a month later and this assassin thing was sticking?
Great, just freaking great.
When we stepped outside the dorm, I paused, my breath catching in my throat. A long sleek black limousine was waiting for me, with a driver opening the back door.
As far as I knew, Sawyer didn’t send limos for the other girls … but maybe he did and I just didn’t watch. I mean, I saw like five girls go out to dinner with him before it made me sick and I stopped watching. He could have…
Before I could overanalyze it, I stepped inside and expected Eugene and Walsh to follow me in, but they didn’t. I was so used to having a shadow now, being without them was weird.
“Wow,” Sawyer said from deep inside the limo and I jumped a little. “You look…” He paused, seemingly at a loss for words. In the dark car, all I could see were two amber eyes staring at me from the black depths.
“Beautiful?” I offered nervously.
The shadows moved as he crawled along the bench seat, making his way over to me slowly. When he reached me, the seat dipped with his weight as I leaned into him and he met my gaze. “Ravishing.”