Chapter 8

Sten

Walkingbeside her tonight instead of following her back to her room felt good.

Really good.

Yeah, I’d been making sure she returned to her dorm every time she left my room.

How could I not?

She was so soft, so fragile, and there were big, bad things at Blackthorn Academy, and on Northumberland Island. Scary, dangerous things that could hurt her, which was completely unacceptable to me.

I wasn’t a total stalker, but yeah, I stood outside Amrin’s dorm for a few—hours, not minutes. But that didn’t make me a psycho or anything. Well, maybe it did.

How the fuck was I supposed to know?

I never did anything like that before. Never cared about another person’s well-being, physical and emotional.

But with Amrin, I cared. I cared a whole fucking lot, and I don’t know if that made me stupid or crazy or both, but the gods themselves could not help the person who tried to hurt her. I would destroy anyone who touched one hair on her precious head.

For over a week, I’d walked in the shadows, silently following her. Pretty little butterfly that she was, my Luna was rarely aware of her surroundings. Something that should have angered me, but only made me want to protect her even more. She flitted from here to there, her eyes on shiny things, her brain likely filled with so many thoughts, I could hardly keep track of them. So, yep. That was my new designation—protector. And really, I did not mind it.

Welcome to the stalker life, Sten.

Besides, it wasn’t like anyone saw me. One of my powers was blending into the night. I had the ability to cloak myself in the dark, hide from whoever might be afoot. The faculty would have an issue with me skulking around the dorms, especially after I’d gone to such lengths to ensure I did not have to live in them.

Whatever.

No one could see me, and I was not giving up my post. I didn’t really like that Amrin’s room was on the third floor. Any of the Monsters attending Blackthorn could leap right up there with hardly any effort at all.

Shit.

There was no fucking way I was leaving now.

Growling audibly, I startled a group of Witches walking together before I cut the sound.

Oops.

Forgot they couldn’t see me.

Oh well.

I found a tree with a sturdy enough looking branch and jumped on, making myself comfortable as I staked out my—fuck, what did I call her?

She was nothing as mundane as a girlfriend, but it was way too soon to call her mate. Well, for her, anyway. For me, I was sort of getting used to the feeling. I’d been walking around in an angry haze for so long, it was positively life altering discovering you were wrong.

I mean, how did I ever think anyone other than my Luna was the woman for me?

Her soft, curvy figure, pale moonbeam eyes, and daydreamy ways were nothing at all like Ingrid. When I had walked in on my brother Erik and Ingrid fucking, I thought my life was over. Our Clan blessed them with a mating ceremony, and Mani himself seemed to shine down on their union. It was like another nail in my coffin at the time.

I was the future Menon Blau, but Bjorn had stolen the woman I thought would complete me and my circle of powers. Only, it seemed, in my youth and anger, I’d been horribly wrong.

I watched intently as Amrin moved toward the window, her gaze studying the shadows below.

Was she looking for me?

The thought our kiss had affected her as much as it had affected me was satisfying. Like a balm to my Monster’s heart. I craved the Witch. Wanted her with me, but I had to give her some time. I’d been wrong before about a woman, but everything inside me seemed to light up around Amrin, and I knew, I just fucking knew she was the one for me.

I thought about the chart she was working on for our Astronomy class, and I exhaled slowly. I didn’t necessarily think Professor McEwan’s belief in charting true love could actually be true, but suddenly I was curious.

I pulled my tablet from my pocket and opened the app I’d developed. Making a copy of Amrin’s files, I started adding what I knew about us both. Charting our astrological signs, GPS coordinates, and a number of other things the professor’s instructions had asked for.

My heart was thudding in my chest, and breathing became difficult. Sure, I’d broken some rules, hacking into records to find facts like Amrin’s date of birth and the latitude and longitude of where she’d been born, the placement of the stars during that time. I cross-referenced it with my own statistics that I already had in the app in my saved profile when I’d been testing its functionality.

After a few hours of inputting as many numbers and variables as I could find, I clicked the button that would run our information. My mouth went dry as the tiny spinning hourglass moved, a sign the app was working on the task. Finally, a button appeared, the words read report blinking in the center of it. I clicked it, waiting for the multi-layer map to be generated right in front of my eyes.

I knew magic existed. I mean, duh. I was a creature from a realm Amrin had never seen and likely never heard of, save for some pretty funny movies made back on Earth.

Triumph filled me as I stared down at the screen. The chart showed our stars, and yes, they fucking aligned. I knew it. With or without the map, I knew it. Amrin was mine. She’d been made for me. Our futures were entwined. I just had to convince her we belonged together. Even the Fates and the stars thought so.

“Mine,” I growled softly, looking up at her window and wishing I could see inside.

* * *

The next day,I went about my business, ditching my last class because I could not stay away from her any longer. Amrin didn’t see me lurking in the shadows as she left one of her classes late the following day.

We had two days left till the Spring Equinox and I was desperate to show her the graph I’d calculated for us. But I knew she needed to do that part herself. It was important for her and for me that Amrin believed in her abilities.

Still, I’d missed her throughout the day. And I didn’t feel like waiting till evening to see her. I thought we could maybe share lunch. My palms were sweating, and I was just about to reveal myself when Amrin tugged her phone from her pocket. Her face lit up with surprise as she answered it, and I frowned. Hard. It wasn’t nice of me, but I couldn”t help eavesdropping a bit.

“Hi,”she said breathlessly.

Her cheeks were turning pink, and I growled.

Who the fuck was that on her phone?

Jealousy was not a good look on me. Blue was my color, not fucking green, but damn me if I didn’t feel roaring through me like a wildfire.

“Really? Oh my gods, I can’t wait to see you. That’s great! Yes, I’ll be at the festival. Okay, bye bye.”

She was practically glowing with happiness, and my own petty jealousy made me blind to the dangers around. By the time I saw who she was about to bump into, it was too late.

Amrin turned, colliding with the brick wall of a Shifter. The force was so great, she stumbled back, almost falling on her perfect ass.

“Oh, watch it there, Witch,” he snarled.

“S-sorry, I didn’t see you,” Amrin replied, her face paling visibly.

“No shit. But I see you, flaunting that fat ass and big tits, just begging me to bend you over, aren’t you?” Gunner growled menacingly, stepping into her space.

Jealous of a phone call or not, that fucking Wolf just touched mine, he was whispering dirty things to mine, and I wasn’t about to take that. I jumped from the shadows, my fist flying into Gunner’s jaw. The Wolf flew back, bumping into his mangy buddies.

“Don’t ever fucking touch her, you piece of shit,” I growled.

Gunner spun around, a snarl on his face as his Wolfish eyes zeroed in on me. Our mutual animosity was ages old, but the stupid prick did not even realize it. He did not know who I was or why he hated me so. He just did.

Fucking animal.

“Oh, it’s on blue boy,” he snapped, his face elongating into a half-lupine half-human abomination.

“Sten!” Amrin screamed, and I cocked my head to show her I heard. I could not turn to her, that would mean opening myself to this asshole’s attack.

She grabbed at my shirt, but I used my tail to wrap around her waist and set her gently back. This fight had been brewing a long time, and it was going to happen. But that did not mean I would ever risk her being hurt.

“You know, ever since I got here there’s been something about you that makes my Wolf fucking salivate, blue boy,” Gunner growled.

“Maybe you should invest in a bib,” I grunted, ducking his fist as I shot out with my own right to his gut.

We exchanged more blows, and my arm ached where he’d managed to scratch it with his claws.

Fucking Shifters.

I snarled, anger turning my vision white as we destroyed an art display from one class that had been floating above the floor in the hallway.

“Stop this violence right now!” Headmistress Blackthorn’s voice whipped across my face like a slap, or maybe that was her magic.

Suddenly, I felt myself being tied up and tossed back against the wall, I looked to see Gunner in the same situation, only the Werewolf was half-shifted, and his clothes were torn, giving everyone and unfortunate view of his half-formed dick.

“Ohmygods!”

“What the hell is that?”

I could only hope someone was taking a picture to blast across supernatural social media pages everywhere. Not Amrin, of course. But someone.

That reminded me, I turned to find her and was surprised to see my sweet Luna trembling as she stared at me. She did not look scared or hurt, but she was shaking with some emotion. Took me a minute, but I figured it out.

She was pissed.

At me.

I knew it was wrong, but seeing her so incensed was hot as fuck. I kept that image of her burned in my brain as the headmistress dragged Gunner and me to her office. I would undoubtedly be punished, but it was worth it. I needed the Wolf dickhead to know, hell, I needed everyone to know, Amrin was off limits.

Jealous of one stupid phone call or not, she was mine. Mine to protect. No one better ever lay a hand on her, or else I did not think I could promise not to retaliate with all my strength. Oh, my pretty butterfly had no idea who I was or what she’d unleashed with her sweet, soft submission when she’d so willingly pressed her lips to mine. But there was no going back now.

Mine.

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