Chapter 14 #4
I looked up at the dorms as I passed them, deciding to keep walking despite the short walk up the hill. I wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t ready to deal with any of it yet. As I walked through the cold winds, I found myself almost going numb, physically and mentally. It was what I needed at the moment.
It surprised me when I finally looked back and found that I had made it a good way from campus.
What I didn’t expect to find? A tall, dark-haired frame making its way towards me across the frozen beach.
I turned to face the man, tears streaming down my face already, because I wasn’t even positive I could control them.
“Effie.” Ryder’s voice echoed between us, his dark jacket framing his large body perfectly and making me want to curl against him. I was positive I looked like a hot mess.
I stepped up one of the ice caps slightly, needing distance from him, not wanting to be swayed by his magnetic presence.
In fact, for the first time since arriving, I really just wanted to be left alone.
“Effie! Get the hell down.” His voice was a low growl as I looked down from where I now stood on top of the frozen, uneven surface, half rocks, half frozen waves.
There was enough distance that I was able to view him clearly.
See the panic in his gaze. I looked around me, realizing I was a bit high up, so to ease both of our fears, I didn’t move any further like I’d planned.
Instead, I tucked my hands into my jacket.
“What?” I demanded softly.
“Get down now,” he growled, his voice sharp.
“Just go,” I whispered, my voice filled with pain. “I don’t want to be around you right now. I came out here to get some space.”
“What the hell is going on?” He stepped closer, his eyes turning into almost a coppery fire shade, tinted with some pink.
“What is going on?” I asked, my voice edged in panic.
“Where do I start? Today I somehow found myself locked in the presidential area of the building with another blood-bonded pack, who was there for a meeting with the president. The president, who was trying to convince his son that I was his pack’s mate, despite all of us agreeing that wasn’t the case. ”
Ryder let out a low growl as I continued my rant.
“Not that I would have even known, considering Ruby and your sister were the ones that told me the boys were my mates in the first place! Apparently they just decided that was on a ‘need to know’ basis? On top of that, the president said fated mates didn’t matter and that he bought me— literally purchased me—from my home pack in the city.
He wanted to make sure that I came here because I was a good—” I inhaled sharply, “—breeding option.”
I swallowed down the bile that was forming in my throat.
“I don’t belong here, Ryder. I belong back in a two-bedroom apartment with people that clearly were keeping me around for monetary profit.
I don’t deserve four mates, I don’t even deserve friends, although they may only want me around because apparently I have been told wrong my entire life and being a bitten wolf— surprise, it is important!
I apparently have value, and it is making babies, whether I like it or not!
“Add in the sprinkle of the fact that I have almost no social experience, no way to support myself, and am completely at the whim of a school system that wants me here for only one purpose… and I’m screwed.
I am so screwed. I don’t belong. You literally marked me, Ryder, something I still don’t understand, and you want nothing to do with me. ”
My voice broke as I looked at him, feeling angry and heartbroken.
“What is wrong with me? Why doesn’t anyone just want to be around me just because?
Why doesn’t anyone just want to be my friend?
I don’t even care about the other stuff, but it seems like everyone wants a piece of me, and it’s exhausting. I just want to be alone.”
Finally, I inhaled and shook myself. “So no, Ryder. I am not getting down. Not until you leave so I can be by myself.”
Ryder’s eyes were black as he stared at me in true shock, his mouth opening and closing as if not knowing what to say.
His voice was rough and almost as sad as mine when he finally did speak.
“Kitten, I don’t even know where to start with what you just told me, but I promise you that the guys, and even myself, very much want you here.
It has nothing to do with fucking breeding or whatever bullshit President Hastain has worked out in his head. ”
I took a deep breath, wanting to believe his words as my eyes started to leak again.
His voice was low as he stepped forward.
“I promise we can talk about this, but I need you to do me a favor and climb off the ice cap before it gives out or you fall through. It’s going to send me into cardiac arrest—”
“Fine!” I threw up my hands, giving in as I stepped forward. Apparently, that was exactly the wrong move. A scream broke from my throat as the snow underneath me gave way and my body dropped.
Immediately, I hit icy water.
A broken, choking noise broke from my lips before my entire body went rigid, being dragged under into the darkness.
Clearly this hadn’t been a beach, because the dip in the depth was enough that I was still sinking.
I tried to move, but my muscles were in shock and frozen as everything seemed to slow at once.
I felt dread fill me as I tried and failed to kick or move.
Something or someone moved in the water next to me, but I couldn’t make sense of it.
I couldn’t make sense of anything, my heartbeat seeming to pound in my ears as everything turned lethargic and heavy.
My eyes focused on the small amount of light breaking through the water above, as everything suddenly went dark.
A connection suddenly snapped into place, my body turning into a fiery inferno that had life surging back through me.
Purple and orange danced across my vision as hard arms wrapped around me, my wolf letting out a whimper as something exploded out from my chest. It was painful and pleasurable, causing everything to swarm.
Purple danced around the edges of my vision as I let out a startled gasp, my body breaking the surface of the water.
I couldn’t tell you what happened next, except that everything around me seemed to heat and melt away.
There was yelling, and suddenly everything turned into a cocoon of darkness that I welcomed.
The scent of citrus and tobacco filled the space, leaving me with a sense of security.
But there was another feeling. A feeling of something having been released and changed in me. Something I didn’t understand in the least.
Something that I knew would change everything.