Chapter 6 #2
Then it hit me—they were the other blood-bonded pack from the library that Aanya had told me to stay away from. Considering the malice I could feel radiating off them, you didn’t have to tell me twice.
It didn’t help that the one who had spoken was very clearly a fenrir wolf.
I eyed the other man and found myself having no idea which one he was, probably totemic or lycan.
I swallowed, curling into my seat, and Tore put a protective arm around my shoulders as a threatening rumble left Caedmon’s throat.
“Weylin,” Dakota said by way of greeting, his voice relaxed despite the tension in his frame. He looked at the other man but didn’t greet him. “I didn’t realize that you were still fucked up over that human incident. You obviously are, though, if you are still talking about it.”
Weylin’s jaw clenched. “I have no idea how the fuck you found out about that.”
“Found out about what?” I asked before I could stop myself. Both new men looked towards me and I froze, feeling like I wanted to curl up and disappear. This was horrible.
“So this is her?” Weylin asked, arching a brow. He looked unimpressed, which I was completely fine with. What I wasn’t fine with? How the other man was looking at me. His gaze had the color from my face draining. There was something seriously off about him, I just couldn’t tell you what that was.
“Yes, this is our mate,” Caedmon snapped out, his accent thicker, “and if you don’t stop looking at her, Reamann, we are going to have a fucking issue.”
Weylin snapped around, the two of them exchanging a look before turning back around and smiling. “My apologies for him, he’s probably just focused on her because of his wolf and her scent. You know how totemics can be, right Dakota?” The ending was said with a heavy amount of disdain.
What about his wolf and my scent? I didn’t like the sound of that at all.
Tore tightened his grip on me as I realized I’d spoken out loud. I had to stop doing that. Weylin opened his mouth as if to say something, but Reamann spoke up, his voice sounding raspy and barely human. “You’re a bitten female. You smell…”
“Don’t,” Tore rumbled.
“Fuckable. You smell fuckable.” His words echoed through the cafeteria, which had gone quiet as the other students took notice of the confrontation.
Then chaos broke out.
I let out a small whimper as Tore yanked me back against him, hard enough I gasped, and a crash followed by a roar that sounded throughout the cafeteria caused my stomach to turn.
Tore kept me against his chest, but I heard Caedmon growl something out from nearby, his words being drowned out by the sounds of continuous mayhem and a savage growl that had the hair on my arms standing upright.
My wolf nearly caused me to shift, recognizing that Dakota was close to doing so, if he hadn’t already. A blood-curdling scream blasted through the space right as another presence of magnetic energy flooded the room, causing my heart to skip a beat.
Julian.
“Stop.”
The word was calm and lethal, causing me to let in a ragged breath of relief.
My heart still raced, and adrenaline coursed through every cell of my body, mostly in response to the fear I felt.
Not at Julian, but because of the violence around me.
I was shaking and clinging to Tore, who had tucked my head against his neck, the silence of the room causing me to look up a moment later.
My eyes widened in horror as everything spun around me.
The entire buffet and the glass tops were shattered, blood covering every inch of glass, originating from Dakota.
Not because he was injured, but from where he had Reamann pinned to the floor by his bodyweight, a piece of glass wedged in the man's neck.
He was going to bleed out. The scent of blood had me feeling dizzy as I recognized that Dakota was shaking with anger, dangerously close to a cliff that I knew could change everything.
I pushed off Tore and stumbled forward, noticing that Weylin was backed up against the wall, looking terrified.
Unable to help myself, I moved my gaze to Julian and found him staring at the space between Dakota and me as I attempted to close it.
His eyes were completely black, no whites to them, and I knew that Coffin was mostly—if not completely—present.
“Dakota?” I whispered, my shoes cracking over glass. Reamann offered me a pleading look, a silent call for help. I didn’t feel bad for him though. I just wanted the blood and violence to stop, and I could feel myself getting light-headed because of it.
“Effie.” Julian’s voice was calm and almost serene, urging me to look at him. “I don’t want to use the Alpha commands, but I need you to not approach him. He’s not himself right now.”
I knew that though.
I took a shaky breath and stopped a few feet away, sitting down in the middle of the glass and blood so I didn’t pass out. I couldn’t just leave my mate like this, but I had also made a promise to Julian. “Dakota?”
His head tilted slightly, so I could tell he heard me.
“Can you come here? Please? He’s not worth it,” I whispered.
Somehow I knew it would be bad if he killed Reamann.
I didn’t understand why, but I could feel that it would mean something horrible for him.
I was shaking as Dakota seemed to tense before shifting back from Reamann, the man turning paler by the moment as blood flooded the floor in a pool.
Julian was edging closer, around the buffet, and I knew he was trying his best to get to Reamann.
“I need you here,” I stated softly, feeling my vision turning fuzzy with black spots. “I don’t like blood, and I sort of feel like I am going to pass out, which considering I am in glass— Dakota.”
I felt breathless as Dakota suddenly appeared in front of me, crouched amidst the glass as he grabbed my waist and lifted me up, his face completely void of anything that made him the man I knew.
There was an animalistic energy I could feel surrounding him, and while I should have been scared, I clung onto him as he removed me from the vicinity of their fight.
He kept walking further back into the cafeteria until we were at a table against the back wall, his body shielding us from everyone. I let out a shaky exhale, trying to not focus on the blood on him or me as he gently brushed the glass off me.
When he suddenly stood from where he had been crouched in front of my chair and grasped my face gently, I looked up at him with wide eyes.
“You’re scared.”
I exhaled. “A bit, yes.”
“Of me.”
“No,” I assured gently. “I don't like blood. Really, really don’t like blood. And, well, the other part with the fighting wasn’t great, but it is taking everything in me to not pass out right now.”
“My mate shouldn’t be scared,” Dakota murmured to himself, looking confused before turning his gaze back to the others. “I should get rid of the problem.”
“No! No getting rid of anyone.” I grasped his face and looked him in the eye. “I need you to calm down for me, please? I need your wolf and you to calm down and come back to me. The fight is over; I need the other side of you.”
Call it instinct, but I had a feeling it was the right thing to say, and despite him stealing glances back towards where the fight had been, his frame slightly relaxed.
Well, that was until Caedmon appeared out of what was pretty much thin air, his eyes dark green again, any lightness completely removed.
I let out a panicked sound as Dakota wrapped me up possessively, a growl coming from his chest.
“Mine.”
Oh. Oh, wow.
Caedmon’s eyes widened, a yellow light flashing in them, before he looked towards Dakota’s arms around me, clearly trying to gauge how to handle this.
Mine? Had Dakota called me his? Why did I like that so much?
Finally, looking back at the totemic alpha, his eyes ran across my face with a fierce possessiveness that I felt almost overwhelmed by.
“Reamann has been carted away by medical,” Caedmon bit out before sighing, “We have been ordered to the president’s office.”
That was when I hit my limit.
The pure panic at the idea of seeing the president paired with the blood and adrenaline from the fight caused everything to go black around me.
The last thing I remembered was Caedmon cursing before my knees sagged.
Flashes of silver and pink appeared in my vision as my body heated to a comfortable warmth. A feeling of pure contentment and happiness radiated through every inch of me, and I felt this tug from the center of my soul, pulling me forward.
I could practically feel the connection it was trying to make, a connection that was trying to take me somewhere.
Somewhere familiar. Somewhere I felt safe.
The scent of fresh snow and spices filled the dream space, and I could feel warmth on my skin, like the sun or moon was purely focused just on me.
For just a moment it sounded like someone was calling my name, but before I could look around to find out who, a bright flash of lightning caused my body to seize. A cry left my throat, everything turning dark once again…
A cool cloth on my face pulled me from my odd dream.
My eyes flew open, and I found myself staring up at a far darker ceiling than normal.
It was painted a pretty navy shade and had these wooden boxes that came forward, almost in 3D.
The place smelled like tobacco, and I felt cocooned in luxury.
I knew without a doubt who was in the room with me, it just took a moment to find my voice, even mentally.
Ryder.
“I’m right here, kitten.” His deep voice had me exhaling slowly as a chill of desire went through me, causing my body to warm under the effect of his power.