Falling Hard

by Shelly Bell

  DEDICATION

  To my loves – Ryan, YaYa and Justin.

  Thanks for tossing food into my office when I write all day.

  Chapter 1

  There was never a bad night to hunt. Particularly when the girls at HayU were so plentiful and ready for the picking. Mitchell Rowland, or Mitch, as his friends called him, scoured the living room of the Alpha Beta Omega Fraternity House. In the midst of the air thickened from marijuana smoke, Mitch prowled for all the bad girls.

  Men from the Rowland family did better the longer they managed to stay single. Despite his predilection for the young ladies at Hayvenwood University, he’d remained just that, thanks to a few clever excuses and a whole lot of elusive maneuvers. And as much as he enjoyed the company of a few of them, it was just safer if he left them alone. While some of them didn’t like his decision, it just had to be that way . . . unless he found another werewolf or some other supernatural.

  So far during his two-year college experience, there’d only been one person who fit the bill—but Hazel was like a sister. A strong-willed, witchy sister. Thanks to her and her potions, he’d managed to keep his secret safe.

  His whole life had centered around needing to keep his secret safe and ensuring that women weren’t the reason he ended up dead.

  A Marilyn Manson concert played out before him as a hundred or so members of the student body gyrated to the pulsing, hypnotic beat. Everywhere he looked, he found bodies in motion—two boys on one girl, two girls acting out a Katy Perry song, dudes in every corner of the room watching as some random chick popped and shook her ass in front of them, and any other combination one could think of.

  Mitch loved being out on the weekends. It was rare, considering he worked in one of the local restaurants. Billy’s Blues and BBQ, where Mitch was a short order cook, didn’t afford him many weekends off. Hazel, or Zee as he’d nicknamed her, must have been feeling generous. She was his manager at the restaurant, and she preferred to keep him out of trouble if she could, but every now and again, she took mercy on him.

  Best not waste it . . . he thought.

  His woman for the night hadn’t immediately jumped out at him yet. Lauren Dillion was there, but he’d hit that so much, it had become annoying. As sweet as she was, he didn’t need to keep poking the bear. Sleeping with a woman more than five times who had no shot at being anything more to him was a no-no.

  Too many of his friends and family had suffered from falling in love, and Mitch wasn’t in a hurry to become the latest victim. Or worse . . . to have the woman of his dreams be tortured or killed for the ultimate crime of loving him. So he kept them at bay, refusing to share his life, or his heart.

  Mitch had learned that the hard way. Too late to keep Katie Lynn Delmar from dumping an entire bag of Domino sugar in the gas tank of his beat up Jeep Wrangler. He’d known it was her since he’d just dumped her the night before and she kindly left the empty bag on the ground next to his recently deflated tires and written ‘Screw You’ in big white letters on the windshield in her signature bubbly handwriting. He’d been paying for that break up for weeks, and still wouldn’t be getting his car back from Joe’s Auto Repair for another week and a half. Fortunately, Katie Lynn had transferred to another college at the start of the semester, otherwise Mitch might have still been being terrorized.

  The outcome was far better than if she’d found out about him. As a result, each day he put on a suit of armor to guard his heart. Falling in love made you take too many chances. His mother and father had found out the hard way.

  His initial scan of the living room had turned up empty. No one captured his fancy and there was nowhere else to look for women since the chill of the early fall air was already nearing the freezing mark.

  Since the KLD experience, as Blake, one of his roommates, referred to the victimization of his truck, marauding for girls took on a whole different light. Not only did they need to be funny and engaging, Mitch also looked for crazy in their eyes. He’d never been able to avoid insane women in the past.

  There was no shortage of psychotic women at Hayvenwood. He wouldn’t have even considered attending if it wasn’t the only acceptable school for people like him and the members of his pack—if they were interested in college at all. Mitch studied molecular biology. Finding a control to stave off some of the ales of his kind was paramount, while still maintaining a good camouflage. Hayvenwood provided the necessary cover. And a person had to be pretty fucked up to choose to live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during the winter months.

  Add to that the magic surrounding the Upper Peninsula, and you had one mixed up bag of nuts.

  “Sup, loser?” Blake had all the appeal of a lion—a loud-ass roar and living purely off his base instincts. He stood immediately in front of Mitch with a beer in his hands and rocking back and forth in his half-dance, half-cool way.

  “Sup, dude,” Mitch responded. “Where’s everyone else?” he asked, elevating his tone to rival the loud music on their side of the room.

  “Shit, looking for sorors in a sea of sorors. And the river is full of fish,” Blake said. He had a tendency to view women as one-dimensional with a hole in the bottom.

  “Man, I’ve fished these waters before. I’m looking for something deeper,” Mitch said.

  “You hit the bong too, huh? All right. I’ll see you later. We can talk after your trip to Mecca. Later, homie,” he said. Blake turned and walked away in his designer ensemble that would have taken Mitch a month of working at the restaurant to pay for.

  “Deuces . . .” Mitch was already scanning again, looking for something more interesting than being mocked by Blake.

  Then he found her. She stood alone in the corner, a beer in her hand and a mischievous smirk on her lips. She was captivating. Enough to make him start moving toward her without really even being aware of it.

  Primal and assured, he walked in her direction. The fitted white dress seemed to illuminate in the dark. She was a ray of sunshine—her dark mocha skin against the cotton dress arrested him. His dick throbbed and his throat grew dry the closer he got to her.

  And fuck yes, her eyes were loaded with all kinds of crazy. They seemed fake almost, brown nearly celestial eyes. Long legs ran into purple shoes that were encrusted with iridescent stones. She had full lips and high cheekbones. Her curly brown hair looked like it belonged in a commercial or something, each strand swirling its own special way as it seemed to have a brilliant mind of its own.

  It only took him about thirty seconds to realize it didn’t matter what her eyes looked like. He needed to be with her.

  Why the fuck was she just standing there like she was average, completely oblivious to her goddess status? Mitch would find out if he could just reach her.

  Time stood on end, crawling by and belaboring his trek to her. When he was finally standing in front of her, he realized how tiny she was.

  His heightened senses allowed him to hear her heart, beating in tandem with his own. He was utterly captivated with this vision and no words would come out of his mouth. There were so many ways to start the conversation, but none fit the mood. It needed to be something related to capturing her, possessing her soul, keeping her from the world so he could worship her. All of the shit he thought of fell on the stalker-maniac side of the street.

  “Are you just going to stare or are you gonna talk to me?” she asked.

  Mitch normally thought of girls as angels, but in her case, he knew she was definitely not. Something about her was sinister. Down to her DNA, she was calculating, but her eyes read kindness. A goddamn walking contradiction.

  “Hi, I’m Mitch,” he said. “What’s your name?” Mitch knew he sounded stiff and contrived, but in his current state, it was the best he could do.

  “Aurora. It’s good to meet you Mitch.” Her lips labored over the words. He was lost in her full, sensual lips. She didn’t extend her hand and almost looked bored.

  “Can we step outside for a moment? It’s hard to hear yo
u, and something tells me you have things to say that I might want to hear.”

  “I can hear you fine.” She took a sip of her drink. He wasn’t even sure where she could have gotten the white plastic cup. The party only had red plastic drinking cups, as per usual for campus parties.

  Mitch surveyed her, completely unsure of what to do with her next. Most girls didn’t hesitate to do what he asked. A challenge. It was nice to run into one for a change.

  Chapter 2

  Hazel had warned her not to get involved with the boys on campus. And she was to especially avoid the sexy ones. Aurora Tanner had told herself that she wouldn’t get into any trouble. She’d been friends with Hazel since she’d arrived, and with the assistance of Hazel’s witchcraft and multiple safety wards at the bridge to keep her father at bay, Aurora had managed to stay out of trouble.

  This Mitch was trouble on a stick. He had the swagger of a hip-hop star, the looks of an actor, and the body of a god. When he’d walked up to her, the awkward moment of silence had made her want to jump him with both hands and feet. He sent her demon intuits into overdrive.

  Something about him cracked her exterior. “Well, you’re standing here. What can I do for you, Mitch?” she asked, glancing around the room. There was no sign of demon handiwork, so she relaxed a little.

  Mitch stepped into her personal space. Inhaling deeply, he stared at her. Unlike most men, he focused on her face. “Oh, baby, you’ve done a lot for me already,” he growled.

  His eyes were different. The deep coal black of them reminded her of her father. Alchoe, her incubus father, had those eyes, along with the rest of their kind. Mitch wasn’t a demon, but she could tell that he wasn’t fully human. His dark hair languished in his face, making him look somehow both deadly and safe. “That was classy,” she said.

  This man stood before her, seizing her and making her want to latch onto him. His deep-set eyes were Superman blue with an icy edge, framed by thick, full brows, giving him a sexy, dark look. His jaw line was pronounced. Thick tufts of dark brown hair framed his face, the close-cut sides highlighting his chiseled features.

  Her panties were suddenly uncomfortable as he leaned into her, too close.

  “If I had a choice, I would apologize. Doesn’t seem that I do. I noticed you from across the room. You’re . . . different than the other girls,” he said.

  Aurora stepped back, if for nothing more than to catch her breath. His broad shoulders and strong arms would feel so good around her. “Oh, I’m not sure that’s a compliment. Is it because I’m black?” she asked. While it was trite, she needed to toss him something to throw him off guard and regain some footing. Her breath caught in her throat.

  “You know that’s not what I mean. And it was damn near offensive,” he said, the scowl on his face nearly audible.

  Aurora had moved as far as she could away from him into the corner. Leaning against one of the farthest walls, she placed her hand against the other to steady herself.

  “I know. I just don’t really like being called different,” she told him. It was honest and came out before she could stop herself.

  “Aurora, you’re beautiful and you make me feel something. That’s very rare.”

  Instead of responding, she shifted on her feet and leaned further away. “I need to ask you something,” he said. His body heat was palpable against her naked thighs. “Are you a demon?”

  It was the first time anyone at the school had made her. Between the witch hunters who’d kill anything that wasn’t human, the seekers who seemed to pick a different species to kill off weekly, and the Catholics, her life was way too tricky. She only had minimal powers. Thanks to her human mother, her defenses were low. “Half. My mother is human,” she said. As soon as the words left her, she wanted to kick her own ass. It was too dangerous. In addition, Mitch hadn’t done anything to make her trust him.

  “Oh . . .” He regarded her closely.

  Aurora looked away from him, the weight of his glare off-putting. Across the room, people were drunk and dancing. Before long, someone would call the police and the party would be ending. It was the way it always happened, and since the police usually came with some asshole Seeker, she didn’t usually go to the parties. “Are you a threat to me?”

  “Not unless you’re a threat to my pack. I’m Lycan. I shouldn’t even be telling you that,” he said.

  “Well, join the damn club. So, what do we do now? As of a few seconds ago, there was only one person on campus who knew.”

  “Same here. I have an idea though, if you’re down for it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Come have a few drinks with me. I didn’t chase you across the room to confront you about what you are. I really just wanted your phone number,” he said with a laugh.

  Aurora looked at him, his face softened with a smirk as he leaned against the other wall. He had to easily be one of the tallest men at the party. “All right,” she said. When she walked closer to him, it was her turn to take a whiff of him. While she’d known werewolves existed, she’d never met one. Her mother had tried to keep her away from other supernatural beings. A damn lot of good that did. Aurora had been a wild girl in high school. If puberty was bad for humans, it was a triple threat for demons. “You smell different, too.” After her statement, she brushed past him and walked in the direction of the kitchen through the entangled bodies on the dance floor.

  Aurora could sense him behind her, the heat coming off him seeming almost a thousand degrees to her. Everything was more intense to her.

  She reached the kitchen and tossed her empty cup into the sink. To the left, some sorority girl was puking into the garbage can. Grabbing one of the fifths of vodka and two red plastic cups, she turned to find Mitch right behind her. He continued to invade her space and seemed determined to push her over the edge.

  “I know where we can go, Mitch. But tell me, are you afraid of heights?”

  “Will you be there?”

  “Yup,” she said. He mouth went dry and she licked her lips to moisten them.

  “Then it doesn’t fucking matter,” he said.

  Aurora loved his foul mouth and the way he spoke his mind. Sin appealed to her, try as she might to change that fact.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  Secretly, she wished she could read minds the way some of her kind could. It sure as hell would have made her life easier.

  The pulsing music had only grown louder since they’d been talking. The bodies had become more and more entwined. There was a haze of sex in the air. Someone had lit another blunt and the scent of marijuana added to the cloud of iniquity.

  The stairwell held two or three newly united couples as they made their way up the flights of historic steps in the old mansion turned frat house. The fourth floor had the attic ladder. The flights of stairs had ended and all the furniture was covered with huge white tarps. She walked to the middle of the hallway and looked up to see if she could find the catch to pull down the stairs. The music didn’t quite reach them and in an instant, it was dark and still. “Can you catch it?”

  “How’d you know about this place? I’ve been here a few times and haven’t been past the second floor,” he queried.

  “It’s my power. I can sense things. Usually, it’s trouble coming and how I can get out of it. Tonight, I’m not really looking to get out of trouble.”

  Chapter 3

  Mitch followed her voluptuous ass all the way up the stairs to points unknown. And he would have kept on following her. Between the Belvedere vodka in her hands and being so high above the rest of his roommates and what seemed like a million other people, he couldn’t see anything but her. Aurora did things to him he’d never felt before. Even if he’d never touched her, he knew she would turn his world upside down.

  Three shots of liquor in, he really didn’t give a damn about anything else. They could have been heading straight to hell and it wouldn’t have mattered.

  He pulled the cord down and a cloud of d
ust surrounded them. There was no telling when it had last been opened. Aurora coughed a bit, and Mitch found himself wanting to kick the attic’s ass for harming her. “Sorry about that,” he mumbled. Stretching to reach the bottom rung of the ladder, he pulled it down and placed it on the floor, pressing on it to ensure it was stable.

  “It’s okay. Do you want to go first?” In the dim light, he couldn’t see her mouth as well as downstairs, but he knew she looked sexy as hell.

  “Hang on, you can go first. Ladies always should,” he said, then stepped to the side.

  Aurora sauntered over to him and handed him the cups and bottle. The scent of her perfume grabbed him, and without any ability to fight against his animalistic instincts, he grabbed her.

  She didn’t resist as he seized her, pressing his mouth to her own. Her petite frame against his felt as if she were made for him. Mitch pulled her close to him, deepening their kiss, sinking his free hand into those wild curls. Her hair was as soft as cotton and he delighted in the contrast to her strong will and yielding body.

  Her hands slid around his waist and beneath his sweater. She wrapped her arms around his back, pressing her sharp nails into his flesh. The sting of it only forced him further into her mouth. Her mouth tasted of mint and tequila, a sweet and sharp mix he didn’t mind indulging in.

  When his head started swimming, he pulled away, completely unaware he’d stopped breathing. Aurora ran her fingers through her hair and smiled. “Wow, you’re good at that,” she whispered.

  “I could easily say the same for you,” he said.

  She turned to start up the ladder. Mitch couldn’t resist a gentle tap on her ass as she passed him. He followed her, careful not to drop the bottle of liquor on the way up. The ladder had steep steps and he needed to concentrate to ensure his large foot fit into the rungs and he didn’t fall backwards. It was no easy task, considering her inviting ass was wiggling just inches in front of his face.