by Lola Gabriel
A yawn interrupted her train of thought. Apparently, having sex had taken all her energy, and she found her eyes closing themselves without her conscious input.
“I think I’ll take a little nap,” Sadie mumbled, nuzzling closer to him until her face was pressed to his side, like he was a stuffed animal she couldn’t sleep without. She heard Raven chuckle and say something else, but she was already falling into slumber and didn’t understand what he told her.
It didn’t matter. She would ask him tomorrow.
---
When Sadie woke up the next morning, Raven was nowhere to be found. All that was left of him was a note on his pillow that read, in scribbly handwriting and in black sharpie:
Sorry, had to take care of an emergency!! But I wanted to let you know I had an amazing time last night. Hope you did, too. I’ll see you later, yeah? – Raven.
P.S. Feel free to order room service or anything you want! Just say you’re in room 801 and don’t worry about anything, okay?
Sadie inhaled a deep breath and exhaled it through her nose. She was disappointed but not all that surprised. They hadn’t really discussed if this would be a long-term thing or if it had just been a one-night stand, and as things usually went, Raven had most likely assumed it had been only for last night. Sadie didn’t really blame him.
She’d had fun, yes—actually, she’d had more than an amazing time—and yes, she had also thought, for a few moments, that perhaps she would wake up and Raven would be there, still asleep, and that they would talk about the deep, inexplicable connection Sadie was sure they both had felt. Maybe it had only been her. Maybe she had been the only one who had felt it, and Raven was letting her down gently.
Sadie shook her head to herself. Letting her down gently? There was no reason for him to do that. It wasn’t like Sadie had expected them to start dating and fall in love and get married. He hadn’t promised her a relationship. After all, they only knew each other’s names and ages, and that information was not a guarantee for anything. They’d had one night of meaningless sex, and now it was morning, and so the magic had faded.
Except it didn’t feel meaningless, Sadie thought with a sigh. No, the sex hadn’t been meaningless at all. If it had been any other random stranger Sadie had hooked up with, then yes, sure, it would’ve been just a random, meaningless hookup. With Raven, though…it was difficult to describe why it had meant something to her, but she knew it had, and that was really all that mattered to her.
She reached for her clothes scattered on the floor of the hotel room and noticed her purse. With a gasp, she snatched it from the ground and looked inside it for her phone, suddenly remembering that she was supposed to have texted Ellie to tell her she was okay. The display showed three missed calls and nine text messages, all from her roommate.
Sadie groaned to herself and read the first few texts.
Hey sweetie!! Just wanted to make sure you were ok!! Smooches!
OK I’m gonna give you two hours, but then I’m expecting to hear from you!
Sadie, I’m starting to worry that you never learned how to tell time.
I was expecting you to answer to that but you DIDN’T, are you there??
OKAY, the only explanation is that you’re still having sex, which I DON’T THINK but whatevs, I hope you’ll tell me if he was that good when I come back.
I DON’T BELIEVE YOU’RE STILL HAVING SEX SO YOU BETTER LET ME KNOW YOU’RE ALIVE ASAP!!!!
SADIE IF I DON’T HEAR FROM YOU TODAY I’M GONNA CALL THE COPS I S2G!!!!!!
She felt horrible for not having checked her phone until right now. From those first seven messages, Ellie must’ve been worried out of her mind for her, and even though Sadie wanted to wait until they were face to face to tell her all about her night with Raven, she also wanted to let her friend know that she was safe and sound.
ELLIE OMG I’M SO SORRY!!! she typed. I’m perfectly okay! Just woke up and I’m going back to EMU. Tell you about it tomorrow?
Ellie was probably on her way to her parents’ place by now, so Sadie didn’t think she was going to get a response soon. She finished getting dressed and left the room, not feeling up to ordering any room service, despite Raven’s assurance that she could. The sooner she walked out of this place, the sooner she could put this adventure behind her and go back to her usual life: The one where she was just a boring college student who finished her assignments two weeks before she had to turn them in and spent her weekends watching movies on her computer.
On the elevator, Sadie heard her phone ping with a text from Ellie.
BITCH!!!! I FCKN THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!!!!!! I know I told you to go and have fun BUT!!!! I WAS WORRIED SICK!!!! Omg is this what moms are supposed to feel like when their kids don’t answer their phones???? Anyway I’M GLAD you’re okay and YES I guess you can tell me about it tomorrow. Be good (AND SAFE) out there!!
Sadie chuckled to herself. She was lucky to have someone like Ellie looking out for her.
The elevator stopped and dropped Sadie off at the reception, where she saw Thomas still behind the desk. He looked up when the elevator doors opened and smiled at Sadie.
“Good afternoon, Miss Sadie!” he greeted her. Sadie blinked in surprise and stared at the clock behind Thomas. Checking the text messages, she hadn’t actually seen the time, and she was shocked to see that it was past midday. Had she really been sleeping for so long?
“Good afternoon,” she replied. After a second, she blinked again. How did Thomas know her name? He hadn’t asked for it last night, and Sadie hadn’t even said a word to him. Had Raven told him?
“Can I help you?”
“Um, no, that’s okay, thank you,” Sadie said. “I was just leaving.”
Thomas frowned. “You’re… leaving?”
“Yeah,” she said. Noticing that Thomas was still frowning at her, she added, “Your hotel is lovely, really, but I have to get going—”
“Oh.” Thomas went back to smiling cordially. “I apologize. I was under the impression that you were staying with Mr. Raven today.”
It was Sadie’s turn to frown. Why would she do that? Raven’s note had been clear: they’d had fun, but now it was time to move on with their lives, and she was perfectly fine with that.
“No, I’m… I’m not,” she mumbled, unsure of what else to say.
Thomas didn’t seem to mind. He had to be used to weird guests by now. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay at Hotel Delmore and consider us again in the future. Have a lovely day, miss!”
“Thanks, you too,” Sadie told him, heading to the sliding doors.
When she walked out of the hotel, she suddenly felt like someone had reached into her chest and ripped out half of her heart, and she had to stop and get her bearings. She was out of breath, like she had just run a marathon without stopping or slowing down at all.
She ran her hands through her hair and inhaled slowly and deeply.
“Get a grip, Sadie,” she muttered under her breath. “You had your fun. You had your night of letting go and being free. Now you have to go back to reality. Go back to your usual life.”
She kept repeating that mantra to herself all the way back to EMU, but by the time she arrived at her dorm, the words still didn’t sit well with her. Hopefully finishing the last essay she needed would be enough of a distraction, and if that didn’t work, she could watch the mid-season finale of The Fast and the Immortal. She was going to anyway, but she hoped it would help dissolve the sudden knot of uneasiness inside her.
---
At exactly 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sadie heard the telltale stomping of Ellie’s arrival and braced herself, closing the lid of her computer and leaning back against her pillows.
Ellie threw the door open and immediately slammed it closed behind her. She was grinning like a maniac, and she dumped her two bags at the edge of her bed before she leapt onto her mattress.
“I had a really crappy weekend, which was to be expected, but I don’t even care because I’ve been so
excited to hear all about your night with your mystery man!” She sat cross-legged and stared expectantly at Sadie, like she was a little kid about to listen to a bedtime story she had been waiting for all week. “So! Tell me all about it! How you met him, what happened, how he seduced you—” Then she let out a tiny gasp. “Or maybe you seduced him! I don’t know; I want to hear everything!”
Sadie couldn’t help laughing slightly. She had spent the entirety of Saturday trying to think of anything except her night with Raven, because whenever she remembered their time together, she felt that hollowness in her chest, and she absolutely hated it. It was unreasonable of her to feel that way, and she had attempted to get rid of that hollowness through logical reasoning. She had only sort of succeeded. But now that she saw how enthusiastic her friend was, she was surprised to find that she didn’t feel as hollow anymore.
“Okay, so, I met him at the club,” Sadie began. “He came up to me while I was sitting at our table eating the nachos we ordered. He asked if he could keep me company, and I jokingly told him that you had warned me of the dangers of talking to strangers.”
She was about to say that she hadn’t felt like Raven had been a stranger, but something made her pause before the words were out of her mouth. That little detail felt important to her—too important, as though it was too personal to tell even her best friend. Besides, what Ellie didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Sadie was planning on telling her everything else.
“So he introduced himself, and then I introduced myself, and then he asked me if I wanted to dance with him,” she went on.
Ellie raised an eyebrow, staring skeptically at Sadie. “Wait, so a ten-minute conversation and dancing for what, like ten more minutes was enough to get you to go home with this guy?”
Sadie blushed in embarrassment. When the situation was put like that, it did sound silly and ridiculous and like nothing that Sadie would have ever done of her own free will.
“He must’ve been a real sight, huh?” Ellie teased her.
“It wasn’t just that,” Sadie replied hurriedly. “I mean, yeah, he was…he was really hot, but it was more than him just being good-looking. It was…” She bit her lip. “I don’t know how to explain it. I’d never met him before in my entire life, but it kind of felt like I had, you know? Like I already knew him.”
The excitement had returned to Ellie’s eyes. “That’s what I’m talking about! So did he seduce you, or did you seduce him?”
“I think it was a sort of mutual seduction, in any case,” Sadie said. “When I kissed him…” She sighed contentedly despite herself. “It was like I could barely keep my hands off him, and he was the exact same way. We both just really wanted to get out of there. That’s when I went to find you.”
“Okay, so,” Ellie said, “was he any good?”
“Ellie!” Sadie cried, feeling her cheeks heat up.
“What? Did you seriously think I wasn’t going to ask?” She shook her head in disapproval. “Sadie, you completely ignored me three times, and then you ignored me another nine times! I want to know if he was that good!”
Sadie crossed her arms over her chest and bit back a smile. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
“Oh, my god, of course you don’t.” Ellie threw her head back and groaned out loud. “Okay, okay, okay. If you’re not going to tell me about his sexual prowess—” Sadie winced at the wording, “—then at least tell me if you had a good time.”
“Oh, Ellie,” she said, her smile overcoming her mouth. “It was one of the best nights of my life.”
Ellie pressed her hands together in front of her. She looked like she was about to cry tears of joy.
“Sadie, I don’t think I can tell you how incredibly happy I am for you,” she said, and her voice was wet and wobbly. “This is all I wanted for you. Are you going to see him again?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Sadie answered, and watching Ellie’s expression fall matched the way her heart dropped into the bottom of her ribcage. “I think maybe Raven and I were only meant to have one night, you know?”
“You—” Ellie blinked several times, like she hadn’t quite heard Sadie and was trying to figure out what she’d said. “I’m sorry, did you say ‘Raven’?”
“I… guess I did,” Sadie replied. She hadn’t even realized she’d mentioned him by name.
“As in, Raven Lancaster?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. We didn’t really go past first-name basis.”
Ellie pulled her phone out of her pocket and furiously typed something on it. After a second, she turned it around and showed Sadie the screen. “Is this him?”
Sadie leaned in closer to look at the display and her eyes widened. The guy in the photograph on Ellie’s screen was him, all right. In the picture, Raven was dressed in a black suit and tie with a white, button-down shirt underneath, his arms folded behind his back, and he was smiling tightly at the camera. His hair was combed back, and his eyes seemed cold and distant. He looked so different from the man Sadie had met two days ago that she almost didn’t recognize him.
“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “How…h-how do you know him?”
“I don’t,” Ellie replied. “He’s the only Raven I know, and I’m pretty sure he’s the only immortal Raven in all of New York, so I just took a guess.”
“Wait, wait,” Sadie interjected, holding up her hand. “You know him?”
“Since we were kids.” Ellie rolled her eyes as though annoyed. “Do you remember I said that my dad was really close to the alpha? Raven and I basically grew up together, at least up until we were, like, fifteen. The good thing is that he spends all of his time with the guys at the Wolf Fraternity, so I don’t have to see him literally all the time. Oh, okay, now I’m really glad you didn’t tell me if he was any good. Ew.”
Sadie repeated Ellie’s sentence over and over in her head, realizing what it implied, what it meant. Raven was the alpha’s son. Raven was the son of the wolf shifter alpha of New York.
Even if she’d known his last name, she wouldn’t have put two and two together. All she knew about New York’s alpha was that he was one of the most powerful pack leaders in the world, and all she knew about his son was that he had a stained reputation: out-of-control parties, immortal girls on each of his arms, very nearly a disgrace to his family name. He was the embodiment of the bad boy clichés and stereotypes, and Sadie had slept with him.
It was a good thing she wasn’t planning on seeing him again.
Wait. Ellie had said he spent his time with the shifters at the Wolf Fraternity. Did that mean he went to EMU? Did that mean there was a chance Sadie might encounter him again?
Calm down, Sadie ordered herself. You hadn’t seen him before Friday. He’s older than you, so he’s not in any of your classes. If you went through an entire semester without seeing him, you can get through your entire academic career in the same way. You just need to be more careful now.
“Are you okay?” Ellie asked all of a sudden, leaning forward. “You look like you just saw a ghost, and I don’t think we have those here.”
“I’m fine,” Sadie said, though it was more like a squeak and she was anything but. “It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, absolutely.” She turned to her computer, pulled it onto her lap, opened the lid, and continued scrolling through the articles she had saved when she’d been working on her final essay of the semester. Ellie looked like she was about to continue the conversation, or at least try to, but in the end, she simply sighed and turned to her bags to start unpacking, no doubt confused about Sadie’s change in behavior.
No wonder Raven had left her that note. No wonder he had been gone when Sadie finally awoke. No wonder he had a hotel room where he could ‘be alone’, and that was where he’d taken Sadie. He probably frequented the dance club to pull the same move on every single girl he approached, and Sadie had just been his latest conquest.
She felt so unbelie
vably stupid. Now she would have to look over her shoulder whenever she moved throughout campus just to ensure Raven was nowhere around her. Just being in the same school as him was humiliating after what had happened, and Sadie had no plans of being the punchline to his joke.
Next time you do something so reckless, she scolded herself, you’ll think about the consequences of your actions.
She didn’t know yet how absolutely right she was.
5
“What do you mean, she left?” Raven demanded.
“That she left, sir,” Thomas repeated. “She came down in the elevator and then said she was leaving.”
Raven drummed his fingers on the reception desk of the Delmore. He’d gotten a call from his mother early in the morning, asking him to please come home (“Your father needs to talk to you, he says it’s urgent, you know how he gets”), and Raven had had no other choice but to go and listen to his father repeat the same goddamn spiel about Raven being a shame to the Lancaster name, what with his partying and his hotel rooms and his complete disregard for the pack’s traditions. Raven had borne it all, the only thought in his mind being that he wanted to return to Sadie as quickly as he could.
But when he had finally gone back to the hotel, Thomas had greeted him with the news that she had walked out without leaving so much as a phone number behind, much less an address or anything else that could be used to locate her.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Thomas said. “I thought you were aware of it. I would’ve tried to convince her to stay.”
“Nah, don’t worry,” Raven said. “I’m glad you didn’t. Thanks, anyway.”
When he had first seen her at the club, he had felt the need to go talk to her, perhaps see if he could convince her to get out of there and go somewhere more private, but as soon as he had exchanged a few sentences with her, he had realized she was…different. For one, she didn’t seem to know who he was, which was, to be honest, a breath of fresh air.
