Chapter 2

Elizabeth Summers

There was still some time before class was due to start so I cut across campus towards the art studios. It was my and my friend’s favourite place to hang out. I wasn’t friends with anyone my age from the pack. Everyone in the pack knew that the future Alpha hated me and as none of them wanted to get on his bad side they stayed away from me. None of them bullied me like Jasper and Nico, they just pretended that I didn’t exist.

All of my friends were humans from the smaller human town which was about ten kilometres away from our pack’s border. That was fine by me, I love my friends. We have even made plans to move in together once we have completed this academic year. Providing that Jasper didn’t prevent me from leaving after he takes over as Alpha, I will be out of the pack in less than a year. Hopefully permanently.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I entered the art studio. My friends were already there. Mia was painting a picture on an easel in the centre of the room while Oliver and Patti were chatting about some TV show they watched last night while standing near the window.

“Elizabeth, what’s wrong?” Patti asked as I entered the room.

“The same thing that is always wrong,” I replied, trying not to sound too bitter.

“Jasper?” Oliver asked, I could see the concern in his eyes.

“Yes, He wanted to have a word with me about the way I was dressed.”

I was purposely vague. Oliver already hated Jasper, because of the way that he treated me but things had gotten worse in the last couple of months. That was around the same time as Oliver had decided that he wanted us to be more than just friends.

He had been practically begging me to go on a date with him for the last few months. I have been doing my best to let him down gently because I didn’t want to lose him as a friend. It was such a shame that the only man who had ever taken an interest in me in that way was one of the very few friends I had.

“What did he say?” Patti asked.

“Let me guess, was it something mean?” Mia said, without looking up from her painting.

“That much is pretty obvious,” Patti rolled her eyes.

“He implied that I was dressed too provocatively.”

“He needs to back off.” There was an aggressive edge to Oliver’s voice and he clenched his hands into fists at his side as he spoke.

“What are you going to do about it?” Mia didn’t even bother trying to hide her amusement. They might not know what Jasper was but his size and his strength were clear to see. Most of the humans felt uncomfortable around werewolves generally but when it came to Jasper most of them were afraid to get close to him. It is why I had such trouble making friends, even among humans.

“I am going to tell him to leave Liz alone,” Oliver asserted.

This was bad. Jasper had never hurt anyone, outside of training anyway, but that was only because nobody had been stupid enough to challenge him. As the future Alpha, he had to answer any challenge and he couldn’t stop fighting until they conceded to him. Even if the challenge was from a human who didn’t realise the danger he was getting into.

“That is not a good idea.”

“Why would you say that?”

“I know him better than you do. He won’t listen to you, it will probably just make him treat me worse.” I replied, my voice trembling slightly as I spoke.

A smile spread over Oliver’s face. I had known him long enough to know that this was the look he got when he came up with some kind of plan, and I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like this particular plan.

“I promise that I won’t say anything if you agree to go to the game with me on Friday.”

Oh, I see what he was planning.

Jasper was the captain of the football team. Oliver wanted me to go to the game with him so Jasper would see us together. I had never told Oliver that Jasper was the reason behind my reluctance to date him, he had come to that conclusion on his own and he was wrong. Why would Jasper even care if I was dating someone?

“Oh OK, we can all go together,” I suggested. Nobody said anything but I could feel the atmosphere in the room change. Mia diverted her full attention back to her painting and Patti started to look out of the window. Traitors!

“I think everyone else is busy so it is just going to be you and me,” Oliver observed.

“That is a shame.”

“I will take that as a yes, we can arrange the details later.” He didn’t try to hide his excitement from me. He had a huge grin on his face, it had been a long time since I had seen him this happy. I guess that was because I had just agreed to give him the very thing he had spent the last few months coveting.

We spoke for a while longer before heading off to our classes. Oliver wanted to walk me to class but I just laughed it off and left with Patti instead. On my way out I glanced back at Oliver, he was still smiling but his smile wasn’t as bright as before.

“Why are you so resistant to going on a date with Oliver?” Patti asked once we were far enough away that Oliver wouldn’t be able to hear us.

The only problem was, we were walking down a busy corridor surrounded by other students and many of them were werewolves. I hoped that none of them would report this conversation back to Jasper. I didn’t think he would care who I dated but that didn’t mean that I wanted him to know any more than he had to about my life.

“I don’t have many friends, I don’t fancy losing one of them.” I replied, keeping my voice low.

“Do you think that would happen if you dated Oliver?”

“How many times have you known people stay friends after breaking up?”

“What about Samantha and Chris?”

“I think that proves my point for me.”

Samantha and Chris had been so close all the way through high school. That was until they dated for a couple of months at the end of last year. They broke up after Chris cheated on her with one of her friends. They stayed friends afterwards but their relationship has never been the same. They went from being inseparable to not being able to be in the same room for more than a few minutes without arguing. It was hardly the ringing endorsement for the virtues of dating your friends.

“So what are you going to do?” Patti asked.

“I am going to keep denying his advances until he moves on to someone else.”

I was sure it wouldn’t be too long, I wasn’t all that special. Besides, I had seen how quickly some of the men in my pack changed their girlfriends, I had no reason to think he would be any different. In a few weeks, he would be dating someone else and things could go back to normal.