Chapter 15: Chapter 15

EVERLEE

Harlan’s rough hand held mine, tugging me through the brush of the woods surrounding us. My heartrate spiked the further we grew from the university.

We weren’t in high school anymore, but it still felt like someone would come by and reprimand us for doing this.

I’d never done this.

Harlan looked over his shoulder at me, a twinkle in his dark eye, and a smug smile spread across his jaw. “Is Little Everlee having second thoughts?” he teased.

I laughed, though part of that was true, my curiosity of stepping out of bounds won me over.

The trees broke, and Harlan pulled me into an opening. The pond had a small deck as if someone owned it at one point in time. Or lived nearby. I didn’t smell or hear anyone, so I figured the latter wasn’t anything to worry about.

Harlan dropped my hand and shimmied out of his shirt. I was thankful we didn’t shift to get here. I would have missed the opportunity to see him undress. Sometimes it was better than the actual end product, but this time, I figured seeing Harlan naked would beg to differ.

“Aren’t you coming, or are you going to stand there and ogle me all night?”

“You wish,” I said, sliding out of my dress. “Are you sure this water is clean enough for me to take this underwear off?”

Harlan chuckled deeply. “Is this water sanitary?” he asked in a nasally voice, making me laugh. “Maybe you shouldn’t ask your mate that, Ever. Every time it will be ~take them off~.”

Heat vined its way up my arms to my neck. Harlan had seen me naked many times over our life. It was second nature to shifters. Somehow, this felt different.

Harlan kicked off his clothes. “Come on, Allaire. I don’t bite.”

The twinkle in his eye lured me without his enticing dare. Harlan knew I couldn’t back down from one. Slowly, I climbed out of my clothes, the humid Louisiana breeze teasing my skin.

Harlan dove into the water from the dock. I listened to the cicadas in the distance and sliced in behind him. The cool water enveloped me. Being a wolf, and having those senses, it made every situation more extreme.

This one had my body humming with anticipation of not knowing where he was in the water. I stilled, watching the random bugs hit the top of the surface, and then Harlan’s body jump up behind me, sliding his arms around my waist.

My yelp echoed in the forest around us. “Jackass,” I hissed, turning in his arms.

The reality of our situation hit me hard in the stomach.

I was naked right in front of my mate. Harlan’s blond hair was wetted back to his head, showing his strong forehead and sharp jaw. “This feels different now, doesn’t it?” he asked. “All those times we shifted in front of one another.”

I chuckled. “~Definitely~ different. I wish we hadn’t made that promise.”

Harlan’s eyes flashed. “You have no idea.”

Slowly, I placed my arms around his neck, keeping an appropriate distance, despite my need to wrap my legs around his waist. “Do you ever want to just leave?” I asked. “Just make a run for it. Leave Werewolf U and run away together.”

Harlan smiled, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I can’t imagine anything more perfect than that. But,” he said.

I sighed. “Are you going to say something logical, ~Dad?~ Bring me back from my fantasy?”

“He’d find us,” he whispered, his face suddenly sober. “I hate to admit it, Ever, but he’s mated to you, too. If you ran, I’d find you. So will he. Unfortunately, we can’t outrun him. You have to make a choice.”

Closing my eyes, I let the humid Louisiana breeze hit my skin. “Wishful thinking on my part.”

Harlan laced his fingers on the back of my neck. “This is going to be the hardest thing we’ve ever went through,” he said. “But I have faith that we’ll end up together.”

I rested my forehead against his and inhaled his scent. It fed my soul. Minutes ticked by when Harlan broke away and shoved me under the water. Laughter spilled from me. Reaching out, I grabbed his ankle and pulled him backward.

Playing in the water like we were kids made my problems float away. Even when he pushed me against the leg of the dock and kissed me until I couldn’t breathe, my problems evaporated.

Until midnight came, when we walked back with damp clothes, and breathless laughs. It all swirled around into the madness inside of me. Harlan let me shower first, and I noticed he’d hidden the fairytale that I planned to read when I got out.

It was a good idea. My life wasn’t some made-up fairytale by some author with a twisted imagination. We had real feelings, real souls, and I planned not to break anyone’s along the way.

***

Seeing Rage leave the field day event in a mad dash away from Harlan and I made my stomach twist into a hard knot. We’d beat the other couple we raced, but my wolf refused to try again.

Her resistance dug into me like physical nails. Stopping by the blowup slide, I braced myself to get a good breath. Harlan raced over, a smile wide on his face that suddenly dropped. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, fine,” I lied, standing up.

Harlan’s gaze softened, and it twisted a knife into me. “It’s him. Your wolf is upset because he is.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re ~not~,” he said, palming my shoulder. “Your wolf is hurting. You can’t compete with your wolf going against you. Go see him. I’ll meet you for dinner at the cafeteria tonight.”

“Harlan.”

“Just go. I’ll go with Bryiar.”

The sadness in his voice was hard to detect. I’d spent the night with him, wrapped in his strong arms, naked with him in a pond, but yet, he was strong enough to let me go after Rage. Swallowing the heartache, I nodded, and walked toward the alpha house. I didn’t run, I followed his scent, and pulled out my phone. I needed to give my wolf time to calm down.

I typed out several texts asking if he was okay, before I settled with, ~Can I come see you?~

~Thank God~, my wolf huffed.

I wanted to fight against her. Pull her from my body and drown her in the pond I’d swam in the night before. She was the culprit of all of this for me. The moon goddess had given me two mates, I understood that, but her consistent pull back and forth would slowly kill me.

~I’m in my room,~ he answered. ~You’re always welcome.~

I sighed heavily and slipped my phone back into my wet jeans’ pocket. The alpha house was vacant when I walked in the front door. His scent was heavy. I followed it up to his room, and the door swung open before I had a chance to knock.

He stood in the white tank top I’d seen him in, and he’d changed into a pair of sweats. “Hey,” he said, opening the door to let me inside.

I walked in, watching him shut us in together. “Everything okay?” he asked, resting against the corner of his desk.

His intense blue gaze stripped me of the lie I thought I would tell him. “I’m checking on you, Rage. You left in a hurry, and my wolf felt your distress.”

“It sucks that you know everything,” he said with a smile. “I can’t even be a pussy without you knowing.”

“Same here. It sucks not being able to keep your feelings to yourself.”

Rage’s gaze traveled down to my wet T-shirt and shorts. “You were winning. I can’t imagine your team is happy that you’re here.”

I shrugged. “My wolf resisted.”

He swallowed. My gaze dropped to my tennis shoes when Rage’s gaze became heated. The urge to run my fingers over his large deltoids surfaced, my wolf feeding the fire. “So, you’re okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. I am. Just needed a little distance from that.”

“Right.”

“I’m glad you’re here. I have something that I need to ask you.”

“Yea?” I said.

Rage pointed toward his desk chair. “You can sit down, Ever.”

Harlan’s nickname for me, coming off Rage’s lips felt wrong, but I didn’t correct him. “Do you have plans this weekend?”

“Not that I know of, why?”

He reached forward and captured my fingers as I played with a string on my jean shorts. “My family is having a get-together with a neighboring pack this weekend, and my dad wants you to come.”

My heart hammered. I’d never gone home with a boy before. My wolf loved the idea, and many thoughts about staying the night with him. “Would I stay the night?”

“It’s a bit of a drive, so yeah. But if you’re not comfortable with that, I can drive you back, but it’ll be late.”

I bit the corner of my mouth, and Rage followed the action, his eyes dancing a dark color. “No pressure if you don’t want to come.”

“I do,” I admitted. “I do want to come and see where you were raised. Your parents want me to come?”

“It was my dad’s idea.”

“Then yeah, I’d like to come,” I said.

Rage leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the side of my mouth where I had just bit. “We’ll leave Friday afternoon. I can pick you up at your dorm.”

I nodded. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m curious to see how other packs operate. I’m kind of clueless to a traditional pack.”

He smiled that lopsided grin. “We’re definitely traditional.”

Unable to stop my insecurities, “Do you think they’ll like me? I’m a hybrid.”

“You don’t worry about that. The alpha king doesn’t explain himself to anyone. They fall in line. They will love you. What’s not to love, Ever?”

“True,” I said with a smile.

He chuckled. “Plus, I’m looking forward to some time away from campus, and distractions.”

I knew he meant Harlan. And though I would miss him, it would be nice to spend time with Rage without Harlan being so close. I didn’t want him to accidentally get so close that he could feel or sense everything.

This way we could truly be alone.

“Me too.”

Rage glanced over at the TV in the corner of his room. “I was going to go to the gym and let off some steam. Do you think you’d want to watch a movie? Your pick.”

I chuckled at the image of Netflix and Chill with the soon-to-be alpha king. “Anything?” I asked with a sly smile.

“I don’t like that look.”

“Oh, I’m a movie guru, Rage. You should have never agreed to this.” I hopped onto his bed, grabbed his remote, and patted the spot next to me.

He walked over and crawled beside me. His body was big next to mine. Slowly, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and tucked me into his shoulder.

Suddenly, I wasn’t as worried about forcing him to watch Grease. But my wolf’s naughty desires would wait until this weekend.

I’d fight her as long as I could. I wanted to be far away from Werewolf University before I let things go to the next level.

He cleared his throat. “You gonna turn the TV on?”

I batted away the fantasies and turned it on.

~You’ve got this, Ever.~

~Maybe.~