7. Henry
Henry
Iwent to lunch today.
My computer lab didn’t hold nearly the same appeal as our little mate.
I watched her with an obsessive interest as she ate a sandwich from a lavender cooler bag that Ledger had picked out.
Anani had handed her over some Sharpies, and seemingly without thinking about it she’d begun to draw a beautiful set of flowers.
Maker, she was just so…so Maya.
I’d already concluded that Maya had a very alternative upbringing, essentially making her a fresh face in this rather stark world. I felt bad for enjoying that innocence, which radiated off her like sunlight in a darkened cell. It was intoxicating, her light and hope. Something I wanted to protect.
Honestly, I just wanted to protect her. Every single inch of that golden skin.
Mine.
Well, at least that was what my dragon thought. What he obsessed about. Maker, I wished I was better than that, but I wasn’t. At all.
My research had found very little on Maya, and even less about her history. It hadn’t been difficult to arrange for her personal identification, but it seemed as of right now she didn’t have a Social Security number. She essentially didn’t exist. I think Marco loved and hated that.
On one hand, it’d be far easier to protect her without a paper trail in Earth realm. On the other, it meant something terrible had happened to have her life twisted so much.
My lips pulled back in a light snarl as a few football players walked by, all looking at Maya.
Maya, who had no idea how beautiful she was. Maya, who had no idea that she was simply intoxicating and sexy without trying. Maya.
Shit. This was bad.
My dragon snarled under the surface of my skin, and before I knew it, I’d grabbed her hand within mine.
I felt awkward after they passed because my instinctual reaction was very different than how I normally interacted with others.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t known this side of me existed—I was a beta, after all.
I just hadn’t found a need for it to be so damn prominent until her.
Now I felt a range of things that I hadn’t expected to feel regarding her, all of them insanely protective and terribly territorial.
As the twins continued to talk about something relatively unimportant, I studied her.
Intensely. How was someone who was so beautiful and perfect possible?
Maybe she wasn’t real? I squeezed her hand to ensure that she was right here, noticing she’d placed down her sandwich and was frowning down at the table.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
She looked up through her lashes, meeting my gaze, and nibbled her lip nervously. “Henry, do most friends act like this?”
I could see the gears turning in her head, and a small flame had lit behind those golden eyes. I needed to figure out what type of shifter she was. Like yesterday.
It wasn’t completely my fault I kept getting distracted.
It was damn near impossible to try to keep focused when your mate crawls over your lap first thing in the morning in a tiny skirt.
I’d had to grip her hip ridiculously hard just to avoid running my fingers along the silky skin of her legs and ass.
“Act like what?” I couldn’t help but smile because I figured she was probably feeling the mate bond. We had no idea how it would affect her since I had yet to determine what she was, exactly.
She nodded toward our hands. “I don’t think that this is how friends act. But I don’t care. I should care. Plus, I feel…”
I was around the table before I could rationalize my action, turning Maya towards me gently. I cupped her jaw. “How do you feel, sweetheart?”
I wasn’t even going to blame this on my dragon anymore, although he was laughing at my lack of control.
Maya’s plush lip was being tortured, and I tried to not stare at it. Instead of doing what I wanted to, which was nibbling on it myself and then soothing it with my tongue, I simply watched her.
Fuck, Henry. Get a grip. My dragon huffed in annoyance, not understanding the importance of taking our time with Maya. I never wanted her to feel rushed or pressured into anything, especially when it came to her relationship with us. It was a nuance my dragon didn’t understand.
She was about to respond, but then Malloy reached our table. Instead of moving, I tucked her more solidly under my arm and buried my nose in her hair. “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”
Her brow dipped, and she simply nodded, looking more confused than before. “I…I just don’t want you guys to get hurt, and the better friends we are, the more danger you’ll be in.”
There was her protective nature again. Part of me was immensely turned on by it, and the other part was terrified.
What in her life was so bad that she felt the need to protect us so fiercely?
I had a feeling that whatever it was, Atlas had witnessed it firsthand, because Marco had already texted me that we needed to talk privately.
My chest hurt thinking about our mate in danger.
Maya didn’t know it yet, but her time in that goddamn trailer was at an end.
She had four school days until she turned eighteen, and Friday at midnight I was dragging her ass out of there.
She didn’t have to stay with us—I’d put her up wherever she wanted—but I didn’t want her around Jed.
Jed, who had been arrested for drug trafficking and suspected sex trafficking. Somehow the bastard had gotten off, and my suspicion was that he had connections that helped him avoid the human legal system.
“Hey sugar.” Malloy winked while sitting across from us. “Why the long face?”
I was able to keep my reaction to a minimum as Maya scowled. “I don’t have a long face; it’s perfectly shaped.”
Anani chuckled as Ledger shook his head.
Malloy grinned. “You’re an odd one, aren’t you?”
“Maybe you’re the odd one,” she retorted, looking amused.
He snorted and nodded. “Agreed, Maya.”
I felt jealous over their interaction, which was ridiculous because I was nearly positive Malloy wasn’t even attracted to women. My dragon didn’t care, though. Possessive bastard.
I tried to ignore it, but a low rumble escaped my chest. Malloy frowned at me, and I was almost surprised Maya didn’t lose it and run.
Instead, she leaned her head against my chest, her eyes fluttering.
My lips curled, because I’d realized yesterday that the sound coming from my dragon actually relaxed her.
It had been the same way she’d reacted to Marco.
Before anything else could be said, an odd sensation came over me. I frowned, looking behind Malloy…
Shit. This could only go badly.
Even the twins stilled as they watched the bleached-blonde disaster of a problematic student walk her way across the cafeteria.
“Maya, sweetheart,” I murmured.
“Yeah?” she asked, peeking up at me.
“I want you to remember that whatever happens next, I’m not involved with anyone. I’m only focused on our…friendship. Okay? It’s just the boys and you. Alright?”
This was such a weird situation.
Her eyes examined my expression, and she probably didn’t even realize that she was using her energy to search me for lies. She smiled right as a shadow of deranged awfulness covered the table.
“Hey boys.” The high-pitched, scratchy voice was like nails on a chalkboard.
Fucking Becky Ash.