“Can you fucking stop?” Braxton growled across the table, loud enough to garner everyone’s attention, including the target of my stalking.
“Yeah, sorry.” As I spoke, movement caught my eye, and a twinge of nervousness fluttered through my stomach.
Jade scribbled something down on one of the pieces of scratch paper the library provided, got up, and disappeared between the stacks. I swallowed against the boulder in my throat and grabbed the edges of the table, so close to getting up and making my move, but also, so scared for her to turn me down, or worse, reject the mating altogether.
Fuck, who was I? I’d dated plenty of girls at the Lycan Academy and slept with my fair share of them, too.
But Jade. She scared the fuck out of me. She wielded so much power over me, even the chance of being denied sat in my stomach like sour milk.
If I continued to be an ass, I’d never know.
That would be the real tragedy in all this.
Rubbing the back of my neck with more pressure than necessary, I tried like hell to focus on my textbook. I’d forced myself to write down notes on Shifter Bio 102 when my gorgeous magnet returned to her table. Her black hair fanned out, curtaining her face so I couldn’t see her expression.
Braxton glanced up from his book and followed my gaze. A smile brightened his face, and he pushed his books over then came to occupy the seat next to me. “I see now why you’re so distracted. You made a mistake.”
“Like you didn’t know she was here,” I remarked. Her scent was all over me, but not deep enough. One day, her scent would seep into my pores and mine into hers.
Ours?
Shit.
“Oh, I knew. That’s why I sat over there. You sat right where you could see her.”
Now we both were staring. We might as well have been drooling for the palpable pheromones coming from us both.
Her eyes flicked to us as the last word came from Braxton’s mouth, and then she rolled them.
Now we’d done it.
She got up and, after knotting her hair up in some kind of bun on the top of her head, began to walk toward us. I could feel my eyes widening with each step. She was wearing an oversized black sweater and some tight dark-wash jeans. Damn that sweater for hiding her glorious figure.
Except, when I finished scanning her, I saw the danger—maybe murder—written all over her face.
She sat in the seat Braxton had once occupied and squinted for a second then leaned over the table. Both Braxton and I leaned in, mostly not being able to help ourselves, like she had nooses around both our necks.
“Look…” She waited, and I assumed for our names.
“I’m Aramis and this is Braxton,” I whispered, and my voice cracked. Fuck. I sounded like a prepubescent idiot. My voice had never cracked before.
“Aramis and Braxton.” Our names rolled off her tongue like warm honey, and I swayed forward a little at the sound. “You’ve got to stop this.”
Braxton, blushing hard and furious, spoke next. “Stop what?”
“Stop staring at me. Stop following me in your little two-man huddle. Stop ogling me in the cafeteria, and now…stop interrupting my studying with your eye-fucking.”
Was that what I was doing? Sounded like a good time.
“I…I’m sorry,” I croaked out.
“Don’t be sorry,” she said and bit down on her bottom lip then released it slowly from her teeth, making it red and all pouty. Fuck, I needed those lips on mine. She breathed out a sigh like maybe she was nervous, too. “But I won’t put up with this much longer. You want me?” She looked at both of us while my heart nearly jackhammered out of my chest. “Say something. Do something. Enough of the games.”
“I…we…” Braxton stuttered, and I was glad I wasn’t the only one clearly affected by her nearness.
“Like I said”—she leaned in closer, and her sweater left a gap between her skin and the fabric, giving me a peek at the lacy black bra underneath, fueling my desire—“you want me? Make a move. I won’t wait forever.”
She walked away, swaying those perfect hips. She gathered up her books and tossed them into her bag before winking at us and then leaving.
We were gobsmacked.
And I could only speak for myself, but fucking turned-on beyond belief.
“Fuck me,” I murmured, and Braxton nodded.
“Ditto.”
Chapter Four
Jade
“You want me? Make a move. I won’t wait forever.”
I could barely breathe. I’d started out planning to tell them to stop stalking me, but then I heard myself saying words I’d never dreamed possible. Why didn’t I just strip naked in the library and throw myself on one of the tables for their delectation? Instead, I accused them of “eye-fucking,” a term I actually didn’t know where I’d picked up.
Me. Jade. Made it this far in life without even a serious make-out session.
Listening to my heart pound in my ears, I used every ounce of control and will I could muster to grab my stuff and sashay out of the library without looking back. I thought perhaps I might turn into a pillar of salt or something if I did otherwise. Why was it always the woman who had things like that happen, anyway?
I’d been going along, minding my own business, trying to get through the semester and go home for break, when Braxton and Aramis’s casual perusal got serious. At first, I’d thought it was in my mind. After all, there were so many girls here to attract the attention of two very hot men. I didn’t think I was ugly, but neither was I a raving beauty. I avoided big parties and preferred evenings alone with a good book or with a few friends and a smuggled bottle of wine, relaxing.
But after a while, even dense me could no longer deny the fact that every time I looked up, one of them was within eyeshot, focused on me. Even with my low romantic expectations, if they’d approached and said something, I wouldn’t have been weirded out. So…finally, I took the bull by the horns, or the wolf by the muzzle, and acted out of character.
It felt remarkably good.
At least we’d exchanged a few words like human beings now. Awkward human beings. But it was a start. And I’d used all my bravado, leaving the ball to continue solidly in their court.
As the library doors closed behind me, I pressed my back against the huge wooden slabs with their hand-carved wolves and waited for my body to recover enough to continue on and find somewhere else to study because damn! I still needed to get through the semester with decent grades, or my parents would not take kindly to it. They weren’t thrilled at my continuing education, expecting me to go straight from the local high school to the family bakery. Like all my siblings. For generations, our family had produced delectable breads, pastries, and other baked goods. Right now, with Yule around the corner, they’d be working long hours to produce all the seasonal specialties.
My mouth watered at the thought of their snowball cookies, chocolate-ganache frosted yule logs, and some of the items like the caraway cakes and pork pies the human community probably wouldn’t think of. I’d be helping while on winter break, but by the time I arrived, most of the hard work would be completed. Wolven Bakkerie shipped worldwide.
Even if I had no skill or talent for the family business and therefore would only be trusted to box up orders, I certainly had an appreciation for it. Maybe that was why the thought of food could distract me, sort of, from almost anything else.
I’d been on the dean’s list every semester since my folks reluctantly allowed me to attend the academy, and I firmly believed my success to be a contributing factor to my remaining here. Most of the students came from upper-class backgrounds, and my attendance dented the budget, so I felt it critical to prove to my parents their sacrifices were worth it. I might have been the odd wolf out, but my family never made me feel unloved.
However, they were also all about arranged marriages…
The sturdy wooden door behind me suddenly disappeared, and I tumbled backward into the library and the arms of
someone whose deep voice uttered, “Oof!”
Please don’t let it be one of them…
“Jade, all you all right?” Nora came racing toward me, Fury on her heels. “What happened?
“I’m afraid it’s my fault,” Braxton said, standing me upright and brushing me off as if I’d gotten dusty or something by falling into the library. Every graze of his hand lit up more of my body. “I opened the door to come out, and she fell right inside.”
My cheeks were ablaze. “No, my fault for leaning there. I…I have to go.” The second he released me, I ran toward the main lobby, humiliated and wanting to put distance between me and the scene of the embarrassment.
Probably looking ahead of me would have been good.
“Oof!”
No…not again. “I-I’m sorry.”
Big hands closed on my arms, holding me upright while I swayed and waited for my cheeks to catch flame. “You okay, Jade?”
“Fine, Aramis.” His chest had been a wall of solid muscle, one my wolf suggested we stay close to and appreciate, but I was still tingling from Brax. “Hey, how did you get here? I left you in the library.”
“Outer door.”
“Oh, right.” Duh and super duh.
He released one of my arms and brought his hand under my chin to tip my face up. “You sure you’re not hurt? You’re trembling.”
His eyes were intense green. Deep and warm and holding concern. His hair waves of ebony, and I clenched my fists to avoid reaching for. And I was shaking like a leaf. If Brax had sent electricity through me, Aramis’s touch was more like flowing water, rolling over my skin, making me want to melt into his arms and dwell there.
“No, I was surprised. Sorry to bump into you. I have a lot on my mind.” Understatement of the century.
“Jade!” Nora came up behind me and eased me away from Aramis. “I’ve got you.” She gave me a squeeze and addressed Aramis. “She’s been studying way too hard for finals. You know how it is.”
“Uh, sure,” he replied but even though we weren’t touching anymore, our gazes were still locked. “I have a lot of studying to do, myself.”
“I’ll bet.” Her cheerful tones brought some normalcy to the moment, and I shook myself free, turning away. “We are going up to the dorms now, but we’ll see you around, right, Jade?”
“Uh-huh.” I let her lead me away, noticing she’d left Fury behind somewhere, and only the two of us ascended the stairs to the dorm levels. The more distance between me and the guy I peeked over my shoulder at, the more I felt like myself. By the time we reached our floor, I was out of their spell. Mostly.
“Want to go in my room? AJ is already there, and she’s got a new flavor of Oreo. I hope it’s not turkey or something. She really finds the strangest things.”
Back with just my friends, I giggled. “No M&Ms?”
“Probably those, too. Spam-flavor.” Nora propped open her door and preceded me inside. “We’re here, AJ, ready to study and brave your snacks.”
The redhead flashed us both a big smile from where she sat cross-legged on her bed. “I’ll share, but first I want all the details.”
I groaned internally, but climbed up beside her and accepted a cookie. “What kind are these?”
“Ranch!”
Nora and I both groaned—aloud.
“But the M&Ms are vanilla chai…”
Chapter Five
Braxton
Her touch singed my every nerve, awakened every cell, roused within me a desire to enfold her in my embrace and carry her off to…to…
To our den.
We don’t have a den. Which the silly wolf knew.
Mate. Must have den for mate and pups.
I closed down the line of communication. Pups? I had not so much as laid a hand on Jade beyond keeping her from tumbling to the floor when she slammed into me, and no sooner had I prepared to be chivalrous than Nora zoomed in and carried her off. As if I needed more competition.
Aramis had it all. Looks, wealth, brains, and a complete lack of interest in a serious relationship with a girl. He joked they’d have to fight over him when he was finally ready to settle down and get married—which he anticipated being sometime in a few decades. He was great at sports, the fastest wolf at school when we went on runs, and half the girls giggled when he walked past.
Me? I’d hoped to find one girl I liked who liked me back. Someone steady and easygoing, studious like me. Jade did study, all the time, but she was also fun, exciting, and very pretty. Not at all someone I’d expect to look at me. So why did I continue to focus on her?
Mate.
Sometimes I couldn’t avoid his comments. But I saw it, too. So, why, out of all the possible female type wolf shifters in the world, did Aramis have to want the same one? We’d agreed not to let it come between us. But even when we had the discussion, I had to suppress the wish to say, “Why bother?” because who would choose boring me over the school stud muffin—not my word, I’d heard the coeds using it. With the Volkovs off the market, they’d set their collective caps for my roommate.
I’d left my books and notes in the library, having just stepped out to make a pit stop when I ran into Jade. Rather, when she ran into me! So I headed back to my studies and settled across the table from Aramis, who was at least pretending to read the assignment from our biology class. Fifteen or so minutes later, he left, after whispering something about going for a quick run before the sun set. I finished what I had to do then filled my bookbag and exited in hopes of dropping everything off before dinner. Taco Tuesday was a big deal around here, even when it wasn’t usually on Tuesday, and sometimes, they ran out of my favorite soft carne asada variety if I was late.
I made a right instead of a left, intending to cut through the girls’ wing on my way to my room, a shortcut with no intent whatsoever of hoping to catch a glimpse of Jade.
Because lying to myself was something I did well.
I ran up the stairs, two at a time, after seeing other students marching toward the dining room. The enticing scents of grilling beef and chicken, roasting pork and frying tortillas made my mouth water, but did not stop me from screeching to a halt when a door opened and three girls came out. Nora, AJ, and Jade. The other two scooted around me, but Jade stopped, facing me, and met my gaze.
“We’ll save you a seat,” AJ called from partway down the first flight of stairs. “You, too, if you want, Braxton.”
I swallowed hard. Yes, I wanted to eat with Jade, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to swallow a bite with her so close.
“Both of us please, right?” The little warble in her voice conveyed she was also less than sure of herself in this situation. Probably the only one totally confident was my roommate. Whom I usually ate with. Not tonight.
“Great,” I said, still standing less than two feet from her. “If you don’t mind.”
“I-I don’t mind.” Another long moment before she cleared her throat. “I guess we should go?”
But when she took a step forward, as if to move past me, her scent flooded my senses, and I reached for her. I backed her up against the wall and brushed a stray lock of hair from her brow. “You are so beautiful.” The words came out without my realizing they were coming, but the little smile I received in return made me very glad they had.
“Nora is beautiful, and AJ. I’m just me.” Her cheeks flushed, and I bent to press a kiss to one. “It’s nice of you to say so, though.”
I braced a hand on the wall on either side of her head, inhaling her scent. “I only said it because it’s true. You really don’t see it?”
A few other girls passed us on their way to the stairs, giggles trailing behind them.
“Braxton, did you think about what I said? It seems as if you did.”
“About the eye-fucking?”
She gave a little gasp, her breasts lifting her shirt. “I cannot believe it was me. I was…”
“Frustrated? Feeling a little stalked?”
The smile came back. “
Yeah, a little. You two can be overwhelming. You’re both so handsome, and my wolf is going nuts. She’s never showed the slightest interest in anyone before.”
“But she likes me?” Encouraged, I cupped the back of her head and tilted her face a little, descending toward her parted lips. She rested her palms on my chest but did not push me away. If anything, she was kneading like a happy cat. My heart beat in rhythm with her massage, slow rolling thuds that sped up when I kissed her. Our lips sealed, moving but never lifting from each other’s while we explored one another’s mouths, learned the shape of teeth and tongues, the taste… Jade was flavored with a blend of exotic spices I’d never noticed on her before, but it was intriguing.
We probably would have missed dinner entirely, bodies pressed together, hands beginning a mapping of curves and valley, my cock hardened to steel in preparation for its part in the mating ritual…if sanity hadn’t stepped in. We had places to go and things to do and a long future together.
Hopefully.
Chapter Six
Jade
I gasped as my elbow slipped off the desk, causing me to almost headbutt the student in front of me.
All because of Braxton.
“Dude, are you okay? You’ve been…” AJ moved her hands around her face and rolled her eyes, simulating I was crazy or in la-la land. Or Braxton-and-Aramis land. “All day. Do you need some sugar? I’ve got these.” She shook her backpack, and I knew for a fact the girl had a supply of odd-flavored snacks in there.
Probably donut-flavored chips or worse. Usually, AJ only went for M&Ms and Oreos, but she’d decided to branch out a little.
“I’m good.” Heat rose in my cheeks as I said it.
“Liar.”
As she said the word, movement from the front of the classroom caught my eye. Braxton, with his messy brown hair and golden eyes, looked over his shoulder, and I nearly melted into a puddle of goo right there in my desk.
Jaded Love (The Lycan Academy Book 4) Page 2
