I sit in the chair pulled up beside Neil’s bed while one of his doctors gives Neil a checkup. Even though I’m not a big fan of medical procedures and stuff, I force myself to watch diligently as the doctor checks his pulse and then inspects the spider web of poison across the Neil’s chest. The doc
I sigh a little more, because yeah, this has turned into the speech I expected. You are going to lose, Chloe, he says, albeit with much nicer words. “Though I will tell you this,” Neil says. The worry falls away, solidifying into a cruel sort of darkness hallowing his features. “When the fight is
I’m down in the exercise room, practicing my punches on a punching bag when Beau comes in behind me. He watches me for a while. I feel the heat of his gaze on my back. Maybe I through a few punches extra hard just to impress him, but I’ll never tell. Either way, he doesn’t seem all that impressed.
My legs are wrapped around Beau’s waist. My arms are over his shoulders. Both of his hands are cupping my ass, at least until we come to a door. Then, we have to break, so that he can throw it open. When we are inside, he turns us. He slams the door closed, then pushes me up against it. His mouth
When I go to class the next day, I’m very surprised to be suddenly approached by Debbie. All I did was walk two feet through the door and she’s suddenly at my side. She whisper yells in my ear, “Is it true that you are challenging the Hayes’s Beta, Wyatt?” I stop walking, frozen down to my core.
He glares down at me. I’m used to it now so I glare right back at him. “I assume you’ve heard the rumors,” I say. He growls a little. Okay. Yeah. He heard them. And he’s pissed, more than usual. “You have to back out of the fight,” he says. “To hell with the consequences.” “Back out? I’m not
The morning of the fight, Angela knocks on my bedroom door. She smiles when I open it, and I pull her into a quick hug. It’s good to see her, though I’m always a little surprised when she makes time for me. Is this what it feels like to have a friend? “I want to show you my support,” Angela says.
“Archer, Beau, and Steven will be there,” I say. “Me, too!” calls Angela, reminding me of our audience. “Angela too,” I add softly. Neil pulls back, I think because of the mention of Angela. But instead, he only goes so far as to look down into my eyes. “It’s not the same as being there myself
I’m happy because I have four hearts beating alongside mine.“Do you feel it, too?” I ask. “My connection to each of you?”I blink my eyes open once more. I want to see their faces, their reactions.Neil has his hand over his own heart. “It’s strange. It’s like part of you is inside of me.”“Me, too
In the darkness of my mind, I floated, surrounded by the comforting embrace of love. Distantly, I could feel another presence, one that grew stronger and stronger, the more I focused on it: my wolf.As I thought of her, she appeared before me as if I willed her into being. Maybe I did. We are in my
Damn alpha wolves and their heightened senses.“I’ve already made my choice,” I say. “Honestly, I think I made it a long, long time ago.”Archer relaxes marginally. Steven starts to smile.Neil turns to me, worry still on his face. “You say that now, Chloe. But the pull could be strong…”“I don’t ca
The eve of my birthday, I rest in bed and stare at my ceiling. It’s late, near midnight, but I still have my bedside light on.With my feelings shared and grown with Neil, Archer, and Steven, I didn’t expect to spend any night alone, especially the one right before the day that could change everythi
I awake to a sharp knock on my bedroom door. Neil’s arm is still draped over me but some distance had inched between our hot bodies in the night. I’m able to slink out from under his arm without him waking.Naked, I quickly stop by the bathroom to throw on my fluffy bathrobe. Then, after glancing ba
They.Beau glances at me and see my incredulous look. “What do I need to go out every night? Can’t a man just enjoy staying home for a change?”“You can do whatever the hell you want,” I say.“Good, then.” Beau slumps down on the couch. He stretches out, lifting his feet up and into my lap. “Now tel
For the rest of the morning, I desperately try not to think about Neil. Whoever he’s in love with, I won’t be offended by it. The hurt I feel has nothing to do with this new person. She must be great for her to have won Neil’s affections.The hurt is my own loss, my own problem. I let my feelings fo
After Steven and I have cleaned ourselves up with a quick shower, we fall back into bed together, giggling and laughing all the way. My now, Steven has discovered a few of my tickle zones, which he is exploiting. As revenge, I touch the places I now know make him shiver.For a while, nothing seems l
His hands fumbled with the buttons of his own shirt. Such usually steady hands are rendered useless by his nervousness.“Allow me,” I tell him. I lightly bat his hands out of the way before replacing them with mine on his shirt buttons. My times with Neil have served me well. I’m able to undo all th