Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Ifinished up my shift around ten, and then I set out on foot back to Blackstone to get the car. Ben had texted when he finished up practice to say he was headed over to Tyson's to do homework and play video games with a bunch of his teammates, so he rode with them and left me the car.
The night was quiet in the downtown historic district, and it had finally started to cool off enough that the temperature would actually dip below eighty degrees at night.
I enjoyed the pleasant walk back to school much more than I'd enjoyed the walk over to work, as I was no longer battling the rage at Knox's crass words and the Elites' plotting.
As I walked into the deserted student parking lot, I noticed that the Tesla was not the only car there. Blake's BMW was parked haphazardly at the front of the lot where the Elites usually park their various luxury vehicles.
What in the world is he doing here this time of night?
I tossed my backpack in my car then debated whether I was going to just drive home or give into the temptation to investigate.
In all likelihood, he could have just left his car here and gone off with Ben and the other guys after practice, but it was odd that his car had been moved up front to the Elite parking.
I could text him, but I kind of felt like being nosey.
If he was up to no good, I wanted to know.
What if he was meeting a girl here somewhere?
I shook that idea right out of my head. One, it was his prerogative to fuck anyone he wanted anywhere he deemed convenient, and I refused to be a weak, jealous bitch about it. Two, I was the one who was keeping him at a distance, so I wouldn't blame him if he was trying to move on.
But I was still going to go be nosey, just to see if he really was here somewhere, or else I'd be wondering all night long what he could've been up to.
Still operating under the pretend theory that he was here to have a covert hump session with someone, I headed for the library, as that was generally the only building easily accessible after hours by students, and it had many private rooms and dark nooks and crannies for getting it on.
I scanned into the library with my Blackstone Academy app on my phone, then snuck quietly through the open door, closing it gingerly so as not to announce my presence.
It was pitch black in here, with only the moonlight streaming through the large stained glass windows providing a faint, soft illumination of the long study tables below.
I crept quietly toward the back of the library where the offices and private study rooms were located.
There was a little bit of illumination back here from small light fixtures that remained on at all times, like emergency lighting.
I started listening at every door to see if I could hear any signs of life, but as I moved past each silent study room, I was growing convinced I was the only one in here.
Suddenly, I heard the faintest rustling coming from one of the librarian's offices in the back hallway. It was only because of my slightly enhanced wolf hearing that I was able to detect it, and I was on a mission now.
I crept quietly through the shadows of the hallway and paused at the office of the librarian we all knew to be a wolf-shifter.
Her door was closed, but she had a small window to the left of her door that allowed her to look out into the hallway.
I ducked under the window, then I slowly peeked just over the edge of the casing to see if I could spot anyone inside.
At first the office appeared to be completely empty, and I couldn't make out much in the pitch-black interior. I was about to move on and chalk the noise up to my imagination, but suddenly the bookcase furthest from the door, which sat just behind the librarian's desk, began to swing open slowly.
Oh shit. Was that the entrance to the secret shifter library?
Who in the world would be messing around in there this time of night?
Warm orange light illuminated the bookshelf/doorway as it inched open, and out crept the man himself: Blake Agnon, carrying a dusty old book and casually palming a small floating orb of softly glowing orange fire in his other hand, like he was just too cool to use his phone flashlight and was using a fireball instead.
My jaw dropped open, but I froze so as not to alert him to my presence.
What in the ever-loving fuck?
I watched him shut the bookcase door, and then he set the book down on the desk.
Still holding his little fireball, he made a sweeping motion with his free hand.
Papers and books rustled, and the bookcase door clicked closed with some finality.
He murmured a few words in a language I did not understand, then he closed his eyes for about five seconds.
His whole body lit up with a faint white glow, but as soon as it happened, it was gone.
I'd seen enough in those ten seconds to know a few things.
One—Blake was one hundred percent not a regular human.
Two—he knew how to get into the secret library, which meant he probably knew about the existence of wolf shifters.
And three—this might just change everything I thought about the possibility of us being together.
I didn't know exactly how yet since I was still processing the utter shock of Blake just walking around with a fireball in his hand like a fucking Mario Brother, but my gut was telling me that this was a pivotal moment.
I hurried out of the hall as quietly as a mouse, then out into the main library area. I paused at the first table I came to.
Did I want to run from Blake?
Did I want to disappear from the library tonight and continue to keep him at a distance tomorrow?
Should I follow him around some more to see if I could figure out just what the fuck was going on?
Or did I want to see this as a good enough reason to relent?
To give into the feelings and the curiosity I'd already cultivated for him, now that I knew he might be strong enough to weather the shitstorm that currently was my life with me?
That he was an "other" like me, so maybe he would actually understand it all?
I had two seconds to make my decision because my wolf ears heard him about to exit the hallway.
With that, I parked my ass on the study table closest to the door, and I crossed my long legs as I dangled them off of the side of the table.
The faint light of the moon reflected off of my shiny combat boots.
I leaned back on my hands and eyed the door as he emerged.
He was dressed in all black, like the bandit he was, wearing a plain T-shirt that fit tight across his broad chest (did he own anything else?), and ripped jeans that clung to his muscular thighs. He had on his black Chucks today—and I was briefly sad we weren't matching.
Luckily he'd put his fireball away, so he wouldn't have to worry that I'd seen something I shouldn't have. He took three steps out of the hallway, then came to an abrupt stop when he saw me sitting there.
"Wild Girl? Is that you?" he asked, a little breathless.
"Were you hoping for someone else?" I replied, teasing him.
"Fuck no. I'd know those legs anywhere."
He stalked toward me until he was standing right in front of me. He dropped his backpack on the floor next to us, then he grabbed my knees and uncrossed my legs so he could stand right in between them. He cupped my neck with one of his big hands.
"What in the world are you doing here?" he asked me, peering curiously into my eyes.
I shrugged. "I saw your car in the lot when I walked back over here from work to pick up the Tesla.
I didn't know if you were actually here or if you'd just left it and gone off with Ben and the team.
I thought I'd investigate on the off chance you were here doing something naughty.
" I eyed him. "So... were you doing something naughty? "
He grinned at me. "No, I just left my backpack in one of the study rooms down the hall, so I stopped back by here to grab it. I did just get back from hanging with the team."
Plausible lie. Clearly he wasn't going to come right out with "Oh, I was just breaking into the secret shifter library that I shouldn't know anything about." I'd get to the bottom of it.
Later.
He pushed in closer to me. He moved his hand up from my neck to my cheek, and he leaned down so that we were nose to nose. I wrapped my legs around him as best I could from the angle of the table I was perched on, and he let out a contented sigh.
"There's still time for me to be doing something naughty, though," he said, now rubbing his nose up and down the column of my neck.
"Mmmm" was all I managed to get out. I was tingly all over. Drunk on Blake. Strung tight with anticipation. High on whatever this new thing about him was, even though I didn't even know what it all meant.
My brain cycled over some of the things he'd said to me over the past few weeks.
There was the way he dressed down Knox at the party somehow using the right words, and how he was able to say them without tipping anyone off that he might actually know what was going on with Knox.
And there was the way he'd looked at me with sympathy and understanding in his eyes.
Fuck, maybe he knows?
Could he have figured out what happened to me?
Could he really have known what's been going on and still be here, with me, like he has been this entire time?
Now he had his lips on my neck, and he was pressing light kisses into my skin on his journey back up toward my mouth. I reached up and ran my fingers through his silky dark hair, then I pulled his lips to mine, and I devoured him with all of the hunger I'd tried to smother over the past two weeks.
He groaned and reciprocated with equal fervor. Our mouths opened and our tongues tangled. The intensity bloomed like a sudden explosion as we both surrendered completely to this thing between us.