I followed Evan from the river down toward campus and met him by the football field, where he was packing up his stuff. He motioned for me to follow him.
I opened my mouth to say something, but he turned and yelled to his team that he wanted them to show up early for the next practice. Evan was the team captain, and he loved to show off, bossing the other guys around whenever he had a chance, especially if there was any kind of audience there to watch.
He stayed a few steps ahead of me as we walked home.
Evan was like that sometimes. Ignoring me. Too cool.
But I have to admit that overall, he’s been a good brother to me. I know he has a good heart. He’s always been embarrassed to be the fat girl’s big brother, especially since he’s always been popular.
But he’s been there for me when I needed him. And he does nice things to surprise me, remind me he cares. Like buying my favorite chocolates for me and sneaking them into my bag when I’m not looking.
I had to hurry to keep up with Evan, but found that I actually felt very light-footed, and the quick pace was easy. I couldn’t help but notice that my hips felt sexier, too, as they swayed with each step. I remembered what Lily said about my becoming more beautiful — it still seemed like a fantasy, but I couldn’t deny I felt different in my body today.
Could this really be all because I had sex with that werewolf last night?
The wolf inside me roused at the mere thought of him. My heart started pounding, and not because I was walking fast. Lily didn’t speak to me in my mind, but I felt her in my body, and I remembered the smell of that incredible man.
The glow of his piercing green eyes.
Even in that awful condition, with bruises on his face and his body nearly torn to pieces, he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.
#
Evan’s mom cooked us dinner, a big meal of meat, potatoes, and vegetable stew, which I really needed after the night I’d had. Tina was a great cook, so I didn’t mind living at home with her and Peter, my adoptive parents, while starting my freshman year.
“Are you alright, Yena?”
Tina was looking at me with concern in her eyes.
“Oh,” I said, clearing my throat. “Yeah, just hungry. The… camping trip was pretty tiring.”
She nodded. I was relieved she didn’t keep pushing, asking about any changes she might have noticed in me.
When my mother died, she left me with Tina, who was her best friend. I grew up with her family, and they treated me well. I was so grateful when she told me she and Peter would pay for my education, and I enrolled at the Werewolf Noble Academy a year behind Evan.
I was already used to being an outsider before I started at WNA. I’d always been picked on for being fat, and I learned a long time ago I couldn’t let it affect me. The noble werewolves at school looked down on me in a new way, though, and if this weekend was any indication, they were more savage bullies than I had expected.
I glanced at Peter. He was staring absently at his plate while gnawing on a big piece of meat, paying no attention to any of us at all. He’d been working a lot of late nights recently, and it seemed like something at work might’ve been troubling him.
I ate fast and escaped upstairs to my room.
My thoughts kept floating back to the stranger.
I wondered if I would ever see him again.
#
I was heading into the elevator in the Arts building when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Well, well, well,” the voice said.
I turned around. It was Caryn, one of the girls that had stranded me on the mountain.
I pushed the button, but she stepped into the elevator behind me before the door closed.
“If it isn’t Big Yena,” Caryn continued. “Looks like you survived that big hike down the mountain. That’s almost impressive.”
She bared her perfect white teeth in a cruel and self-satisfied grin.
Her two lackeys crowded into the elevator and flanked her on both sides. I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“What’s wrong, big girl? Lose your voice up there on the mountain?”
Caryn giggled at her own stupid joke, then looked to the other girls for validation. They laughed on cue. The elevator door started to slide closed.
“Hey!”
Someone stuck their foot against the door and it halted to a stop with a metallic thud.
“Just leave her alone, okay?”
It was Susan, my one and only friend on this campus. I had never been happier to see her.
Caryn turned to Susan and quipped, “Oh, here to save your fat friend?”
“Yena’s my friend, period,” Susan said. “And I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with tormenting her, but seriously, get a life.”
Susan shoved past the girls, grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the elevator.
The door rolled closed, leaving the girls inside.
“Come on,” Susan said, and we ducked into the first-floor library.
We found an empty reading room and sat at a big wooden table. She told me she’d heard about what the girls did to me on the mountain and asked if I was okay.
I told her about my night.
About the wolf. And the man he turned into.
Her jaw nearly hit the floor when I told her about the sex.
“Honestly,” she said, “I am so jealous. He sounds hot!”
I shook my head and laughed. “It sounds crazy, but I almost want to thank those stupid whores who left me in the woods. Because that night turned out to be the most amazing thing that’s ever happened in my whole life.”
Susan squeezed my hand.
“Okay,” she said, “this doesn’t really compare with your thing, but I have some news too and I can’t hold it in any longer.”
“What?” I asked.
“They just announced that Prince Nolan is coming here next week to choose his future Luna!” She squealed with excitement.
“Wow,” I said. Susan had told me more than a few times about her dream to marry Nolan, the eldest prince in the Lycan royal family. That would mean someday she’d be Luna Queen.
“You have to help me,” she pleaded, her eyes wide.
“Help you? How?”
“Make me a dress. He’s coming to the Full Moon Ball here on campus, and he’s going to make his selection at the dance. And… well, you know my parents probably couldn’t give me money for a dress, at least not one that would be good enough to catch his attention.”
“Of course,” I said. Susan and her family came from a noble werewolf lineage, but she confided in me recently that their beautiful mansion was just about all her parents had in the world. They had noble titles, and enjoyed the social life of the aristocracy, but privately were pretty much broke.
“Make it red,” she added with a smile. “Blood red.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’d do anything for you, you know that.”
“On that note,” she replied, “there’s just one other thing. I was hoping that maybe you could come with me?”
“Oh.” I was a little surprised. “Why? You know I’m not really interested in all that.”
Marrying a prince really wasn’t the life I was looking for. I wanted a career in fashion — maybe even to be famous for my designs someday. But Susan had been obsessed with Prince Nolan ever since she saw him once at a royal dinner.
“First of all,” she said, “how could anyone not be interested in Prince Nolan? I swear to the Goddess, he is absolutely perfect.”
I raised an eyebrow at her.
Being handsome was just part of a prince’s job description. I couldn’t really imagine this one being anything spectacular.
“When you see him, you’ll know what I mean,” she continued. “And please, just come to support me. I’ll be so nervous.”
“Okay,” I conceded with a sigh. “But I thought you had to be a virgin to be eligible for the selection party? And… remember that other thing we were just talking about?”
“Who cares?” she asked, shrugging her shoulders. “If you don’t tell anyone, no one will know.”
She winked at me and smiled.
"Don't promise her." At this moment, I heard Lily say to me.
"She's my best friend, and I should support her unconditionally, whether she wants to marry Prince Nolan or whoever." I frowned, resentful that Lily was trying to interfere with me.
"Well, just satisfy her! You will regret not listening to my advice, hum." Lily said angrily.
Maybe Lily will be my best friend, but for now, Susan is my best friend. I firmly believe.
The week went by in a flash, and next thing I knew, Susan and I were walking into the dance hall for the Full Moon Ball. The stage was lined with a red carpet that flowed down a few steps to the center of a well-polished dance floor. Golden chandeliers were heavy with candles that lit the room with a warm white glow. There were huge bouquets of red roses everywhere. A band was playing quietly at one end of the stage. The conductor was leading them to a slow tempo, waving his arms in a way that made them look boneless. “Thank you,” Susan said to me. “Thank you for this amazing dress. I knew you were good, but this is really next level.” She did look amazing. The dress had a fitted bodice onto which I’d hand sewn what felt like a million garnet colored beads that shimmered in the candlelight and almost looked alive. The skirt was crimson, floor length with a slit up one leg that stopped just below the knee. “It was nothing,” I replied. But the pale purple circles under my eyes betr
My stomach sank. This could not be good. The crowd fell silent, as if everyone were holding their breath. Evan, still near the stage, stepped forward. “Susan,” he said. His voice echoed in the now eerily quiet hall. “What are you doing?” Susan’s eyes, wide with rage, were fixed on me. “My dear friend Yena,” she continued, her volume increasing with every word, “has a dirty little secret. She told me she had a one-night stand with a rogue wolf just last week. She’s no longer a virgin.” All the air left my lungs. I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. Over and over again, by a swinging pendulum I couldn’t get out from under. Every moment, the reality of this situation felt more and more unbearable. I began to shake. My legs felt as though they were about to go limp. Everyone was looking at me. Then I was hit with a wave of that specific kind of anxiety I’ve felt often in public — the shame about my weight, my appearance — and had the strange thought that if I’d have known this w
“But she’s a human, not a wolf. How can she possibly marry a Lycan?” It was Caryn. She asked her question loudly, but with what could be mistaken for a polite and reverent tone. She flashed me a cruel, toothy smile before stepping back into the crowd of girls that were now encircling me and Nolan on the stage. Whispers coursed through the audience. Then a single voice rang out from the far end of the hall, crying, “This fat human girl has tricked and seduced our prince!” The crowd roared in outrage. Another anonymous voice shouted, “The Gamma warriors should arrest her! Lock her up at once!” A cry of support rang out amongst the nobles. The armed guards posted at the entrance paced a few steps forward into the hall. They were members of the king’s guard, known as Gamma warriors, and they were heavily armed. I swallowed hard. My palms were sweaty. Nolan smirked at the crowd. He withdrew his hand from mine, reached up, and ran it through my hair, letting a long golden curl sli
I couldn’t help it. I kept thinking about that night in the cave. The shockwaves of pleasure the stranger sent through me. The primal sounds he made. It was hard to reconcile that memory with the man I saw before me now. I remembered the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around me. His big hands on my hips. His hot breath on my neck. And his big dick. He seemed to have a good idea how to use it. “Wait…” I said, snapping myself back to reality. “Were you really a virgin before that night?” “Yes,” he replied flatly. “Seemed like… you knew what you were doing.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you complimenting me?” His mouth twitched, resisting a smug smile. I hadn’t really meant to do that. “Alright,” he said, “If that’s the case, then what’s the problem? I would guess that this” — he gestured to the laurel crown, which he’d set aside, having missed the opportunity to put it on my head during the ceremony — “is the best offer you may ever receive.” I cleared my throat and said
His face was close to mine, and I felt his breath on my neck. It sent a shiver running down my spine. The reporters, kept at bay on the sidewalk, were snapping away with their cameras and talking loudly into microphones. I turned away and reached for the front door, but he kept pace with me and slipped his arm around my waist. It felt like it belonged there. His hands fit themselves around my curves so naturally. I guess because… he knew them. His arms were so strong. Every muscle along the whole length of them bulged. He smelled like pine and sandalwood, like he’d just stepped out of the forest. I remembered this smell from the morning after our night together in the cave. But no. I had to stop letting my thoughts drip down into that memory. Every time, it made me feel like I was melting. Every time I thought about the feeling of his hot, rough hands all over every inch of my body. The way he’d fucked me. Shameless and giving and desperate and wild. His incredible strength.
“You stop right there,” Tina said. She put my coffee down on the table in front of me, a little too hard. A blob of whipped cream slid off the top and started melting down the side. “Peter, you are not going to sell our daughter to settle a debt,” she said, staring daggers at him. “It’s okay,” I said, and I reached out to Tina. She pulled away. “It’s not okay,” Evan snapped. I already had the gold business card, and my cell phone, in my hand. “It’s actually my choice, alright?” I said. That got them to quiet down. I made the call. While it rang I took a few shallow breaths and tried to prepare what I was going to say. I didn’t plan to, but when the line picked up I just started talking before the prince could answer. The words just rushed out. “Hello Nolan — I mean, Your Highness — I changed my mind and I’m so sorry about what I said last night. If you’ll still have me, I’ll marry you, but I’ll need your help with something first and I just have to get it out, I need ten millio
YENA We hid out in the house all morning. Peter had been taking calls from his lawyer, his partners, and his creditors. He told them he was doing everything he could, but that he needed more time. Then they showed up at the house. Evan went around and locked all the doors. Tina pulled the curtains closed over every window. Men were knocking on the door nonstop — banging it hard — trying to wear us down, get us to open up. Peter told us not to be scared. They’ll go away, he said, if we ignore them. I was pretty sure he was wrong about that, though I really couldn’t guess what would happen if we just kept on hiding there in the dark. Peter turned his phone off. He hadn’t told anyone the whole story yet. Hopefully, no one besides us and the prince knew yet that I’d rejected his proposal. Not that anyone would believe it, anyway, if we told them. How could an ordinary girl — a commoner, and a fat girl at that — not take the prince up on such an undeserved offer? I stared at the phon
Evan’s face flushed, going beet red. “My relationship with Yena,” he said, is none of your business.” Nolan knew full well what kind of relationship Evan wanted with Yena. He could smell it. It almost made him laugh, to think that the boy actually felt he was fooling anyone. The way he followed his sister around, watching her every move… Nolan’s blood felt hot. It gave him a tight, unpleasant feeling in his chest, thinking about Yena and Evan. He took a step toward the door. Yena was still standing there on the porch in an embrace with her adoptive mother, oblivious to the conversation taking place inside. The prince turned back to Evan and looked him dead in the eye. “Why is it,” Nolan asked, “that you are so obsessed with her?” Evan was silent for a few seconds. The two stared each other down, neither one flinching. “Yena,” Evan finally said, “is the most beautiful girl in the world to me. If you can’t see that — if you can’t see how amazing she is, then let her stay here wi