Chapter 9: Chapter 9

EVERLEE

~

Watching Harlan walk out of the cafeteria, humbly leaving me alone to go meet my other mate, made my stomach turn in nerves. Bryiar watched me closely as I ate, taking slow bites. “Stop staring at me,” I said.

She shoved her plate to the side. “You’re supposed to meet him in like five minutes. Are you going to get up? He left. He’s probably already waiting on you.”

Dramatically, I let my forehead drop to the table, and I sighed loudly. “I don’t even know what to say to him, Bryiar. He walked up on me making out with Harlan, and he’s dead set on winning me over.”

Bryiar chuckled. “Listen, Ever, I love you, girl, but you’ve got the life right now. You have the lycan king and the alpha king’s sons fighting for you. It could be worse. You could have no mate.”

I lifted my head. “Bryiar. It doesn’t matter how I choose, someone is going to get hurt.”

She twirled a piece of hair around her finger and shrugged. “Would it hurt to test drive both of them? ~Hey~,” she said, putting up her palm. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m just saying. You have to choose whom you’re going to be stuck with for the rest of your life. I know you’re partial to Harlan, but that’s just because you don’t know Rage. Maybe you’ll like him more, or less, or equally, but either way, you won’t know if you don’t try.”

She stood up and gestured toward the door with her head. “I’ve got your plate. Go meet your other mate.”

Nerves slithered up my spine as I walked toward my dorm room from the cafeteria. Every step I took another invisible hand wrapped around my neck to strangle me.

The sidewalk turned to the cobblestone walkway when I veered right toward Hellman Hall, and the weeping willow in the front swayed in the humid breeze, giving the gothic university an extra kick on the haunted campus list.

His scent drifted over, and his silhouette shadowed over me as he pushed from a brick pillar. “Hey,” he said, his voice gravely and deep.

It felt like satin over me, making my wolf cower and bow to his voice alone. It was an alpha’s voice. I’d have to say it felt different from my dad’s alpha voice, by far, this one warmed me in the most sensitive places.

“Hi.”

I felt two feet tall compared to him, small and dainty, my nerves showed clearly on my face.

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck carefully before standing up straight. “Okay,” he said, nodding. “Let’s start over. I’m Rage,” he said, offering me his hand.

Carefully, I took it, feeling the warm pins and needles slid underneath my skin. “Everlee.”

The corner of his mouth tugged into a smirk, and he eyed the dorm room next to us. “You want to drop off your bag?”

Nervously I eyed the building. “Where are we going?”

“I thought I’d take you to the alpha house, show you around. We could grab something sweet if you have a sweet tooth. Or we could talk out here. I’ll take whatever I can get.”

Rage watched my throat as I swallowed. Being alone with him was trouble. I knew it, my wolf knew it, and I was sure he knew it. But my wolf pleaded for it.

~Go to the alpha house,~ she begged.

~No, I don’t want to go to his room.~

~Yes, we do.~

~No—we don’t.~

“You can show me around the alpha house,” I blurted out. “Because I know most of the other alphas do, but I don’t want to go to your room. I’m not there yet.”

There was a dark twinkle in his eyes that I tried to ignore, but my wolf wouldn’t stop panting. “~Noted~. Then lead the way,” he said, gesturing toward my dorm.

The RA glanced up from her book at me when I walked in and did a double take. Both of her brows lifted to her hairline when Rage stepped in behind me. “How goes it, Everlee?” she asked.

I tossed her the side eye. “It’s fine.”

I ignored the smirk on her face while finding the stairs. The elevator was being repaired, so I opened the door to the stairwell, feeling Rage hold it open over my head.

Suddenly the tight stairwell felt like a wooden box, with no breathing room, and a sweat broke out on my hairline. As if a zombie was after me, I jetted up the stairs to the third story, hearing Rage’s footsteps growing closer behind me.

Four fingers gripped my elbow, and he spun me around. “Hey,” he said carefully, his scent heavy on me. “Is everything okay? You’re sweating.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Silence enveloped me, and my wolf became restless at his touch. I tried to stop it, begged her to calm down, but she began to go crazy.

I’d given in and kissed Harlan, easily, she didn’t have to beg or prod me. This time, I was denying her what she felt she needed. It was different. All of this felt so wrongfully perfect that my body lit fire.

Rage sensed my confusion; his eyes danced a purple color, and his gaze dropped to my mouth. ~Oh no…~

~No. No. No.~

His fingers tightened. “If you don’t want me to kiss you, then you need to walk out of the door…now. I can’t hold my wolf in right now.”

~Kiss him, please,~ she begged. ~Don’t be stupid.~

~Don’t be a slut! We already have a mate.~

She growled inside of me, and Rage sensed the argument between the two of us, and carefully stood back with his palms out. “Please open the door,” he said in a desperately deep voice that made my thigh quake.

I jerked the door open, rushing to take a deep breath without being drowned in his scent. My fingers nervously unlocked my dorm room door, and I stepped inside. Rage lingered in the doorway, his gaze traveled over my side, and he inhaled deeply. I tossed my backpack onto my bed and pulled out my cell phone to charge it on my dresser.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and gestured toward my room. “This is it. I hear the alpha house is much fancier than this.”

Rage smiled. “A bit. The luna house is better than ours is though. You’ll get invited if…”

If I mated with him. If I choose him, I would be his luna.

“If I choose you,” I said softly.

He gave me a clipped nod. “Yeah, you ready?”

I followed him out of the dorm room, ignoring the Cheshire smile on the RA’s face on the way out. The campus looked beautiful in the daylight, without the casting shadows and moonlit cobblestone.

My mother always hated it, but I thought it had charm.

“How do you like classes so far?”

“They’re good. Most of it is common knowledge right now. Growing up in a pack really gives you insight into the rules. Though,” I said. “My pack is different than others. We have lycans.”

Rage looked down at me. “I’ve heard. Your mother is a hybrid, which makes you a hybrid as well. Your wolf is beautiful, she’s strong.”

“Thank you.”

He cleared his throat. “So, Harlan, he, uh, he was raised with you?”

I cringed. “It’s weird, I know. My mother killed his father, her father tried to take over, he died, and now we live in a merged kingdom.” I didn’t really care what he thought about it, but I asked. “How do you feel about being mated to a hybrid?”

Rage smirked. “I love it. You’re beautiful, your wolf is beautiful, I think it’d give our pack an insight into many things. I’d gladly welcome you into our pack, and I’d kick out anyone that doesn’t like it.”

My wolf loved the sound of that. She adored his understanding and dominance of protecting his mate.

Rage opened the door to the alpha house, and a few voices came from the living room. I stalled in the lobby, remembering everything that happened just a day ago. The smell of his skin for the first time, and the longing he had in his gaze for me.

Seeing me straddled on Harlan’s lap, my tongue in his mouth, must have hurt, and yet, he still kept himself together—mostly.

“The living room is in there,” he said, jabbing his finger toward the right. “I’m not sure if you want to go in there or not, but our gym is this way. It’s my favorite spot.”

I’d heard a story or two about my parents in the gym, and mostly it made me want to gag. Rage opened the door down a small hallway that led into a huge gym. A few wolves were lifting weights but didn’t seem to mind that we walked inside. “Yup. They put a lot of money into this. Our rooms aren’t that great. I know you don’t want to see it—”

“Maybe for a second,” I blurted out.

I bit my tongue after I said it, watching the look on Rage’s face as he weighed my response. “You’re sure?”

~No. I’m not sure who I am at the moment.~

“Yeah.”

Rage, carefully, walked past me, sliding his index finger down my wrist to gather my hand in his. He watched my reaction, and when I didn’t pull away, because my wolf was enjoying this too much, he guided me up the grand staircase and toward a long hallway of rooms.

My pulse quickened in my eardrums the further we went down the hallway, the more unsteady I felt with my emotions. Rage unlaced his hand from mine, unlocked his room and swung open the door.

He gestured me inside, not moving when I slid beside him, and walked into his room. You could definitely tell he’d been here longer than me, and the place was his own. Posters of his favorite football team, memorabilia from his youth, a small howling wolf statue on his bookshelf.

A fuzzy white blanket rested on the foot of his bed. It looked out of place with his dark blues and grays. He noticed me looking at it and reached forward. “My grandmother made this,” he said, handing it to me. “For my luna, when I find her.”

I took it into my hands, and chills raced over my body, forming a knot of uncontrollable guilt in my stomach.

Here I was, torn between two mates. They’d both waited for their mate, for it to be me, someone who doesn’t know what to do, and has to choose.

A tear escaped my eye, and Rage stepped in front of me, his thumb swiped the tear away, and he tilted his head to the side. “Don’t cry, Ever. You don’t have to take it.”

“I want it,” I said, a sob hanging in my throat. “I’m sorry you’re stuck with me.”

He scoffed, and I turned to look at his angry face. “Why are you sorry? This isn’t your fault. It’s no one’s fault. You can’t help you’re having to choose.” He stepped forward. “When I saw you at the party, even though Harlan had his hand on your ass,” he cleared his throat, “I knew I’d never seen such a beautiful girl in my life. You’re perfect for me. I’ve been around she- wolves for three years, tons of them, and none of them are you.”

My bottom lip trembled. His jaw tightened in pain, in frustration of not doing what he wanted, and anger lifted from my feet, until my entire body was hot. Rage’s steely blue gaze dropped again to my mouth.

My wolf cried—sobbed—for him to kiss her.

~Harlan~, I said. ~I can’t do this to him.~

~We have to choose. How do we choose if you’re not giving him a chance? Kiss him before I explode~, she begged.

Rage shook his head slowly. “Don’t feel pressured,” he whispered.

But it was too late. My wolf shot me forward, knocking him back onto his desk chair. My hormones unleashed like a bat out of hell, and I fell forward, bracing my palms against his large deltoids and chest, feeling his hand curve over my ass, and bring me to his lap.

He groaned deeply, tangling his hand into the root of my hair, he angled my head, his gaze lingering on my parted mouth. His actions were rough, his words soft, but his eyes held a promise.

He would give me anything I wanted.

I knew he could soar me above the damn clouds with a touch, just as I knew Harlan could. “Give me the word,” he said softly, though it hung on me like a weighted blanket. “Give me the word and I’ll put both of us out of our misery.”

A small gasp slipped from me, and he seemed to enjoy it. A wolfish smile greeted me, and he bent forward, sliding his nose against my neck, inhaling my scent. “~Three. Two. One~—”

“Word,” I whispered.