Chapter 8
Zoey
Monte was acting suspicious, but I didn’t know why.
It made me a little nervous being trapped in a room with him like this, but not like the scared or bad kind of nervous. It was more like my body was on fire for him and I didn’t trust myself this alone with him kind of nervous.
He’d come to my rescue just when I’d needed him most. That asshole wasn’t going to leave me alone no matter how many times I told him I wasn’t interested.
Maybe coming here had been a bad idea. I’d done it to put space between me and Monte and now here he was.
I looked around the room and realized just how tiny it was.
“Are all the rooms this small?” I blurted out.
He shook his head. “No. The guest rooms are quite spacious, but, as you probably figured out already, they are booked solid tonight.”
I glared at him. I wasn’t stupid. There was a reason I was hanging out in the lobby with dozens of others.
“But don’t worry. You’re safe here.”
I gulped. I might be safe with him, but I wasn’t certain he was safe with me.
Pictures of his naked body flashed through my mind again.
Stop it, I warned my wolf.
“So if this isn’t a guest room, then where are we exactly?”
“Staff quarters.”
“You work here?”
That didn’t seem right. We were a few hours away from campus. There was no way he could possibly work here.
“Sort of. Well, on occasion when they need help.”
“Help with what?”
“Rock climbing.”
“Oh. You really are into that kinda stuff then?”
“You could say that.”
“That’s cool. I wasn’t expecting all this snow, though.”
“It might be okay for tomorrow. Definitely not your best bet for a beginner, but if it clears off, then by the afternoon you might be fine.”
“Would you go out in this weather?”
“Of course. I don’t mind snow.”
“You don’t?”
“Not at all. I’d planned to camp this weekend.”
“What made you change your mind and come here?”
It had to be worse out there than he was saying if he’d come to stay in a lodge with a bunch of humans instead of camping.
His jaw locked and his eyes grew darker.
Or maybe there was more to the story he didn’t want to share.
“It’s kind of hard to go camping in my skin in this weather. I do get cold.”
“So why not shift then and sleep in your fur?”
It seemed like a sensible question. I’d run with him. I knew damn well there wasn’t anything wrong with his wolf. So why not?
“That’s a bit complicated right now,” he finally said.
I had no idea what he was talking about.
“You were fine earlier,” I pressed on.
He sighed and his face scrunched up in frustration. I had this ridiculous urge to reach out and smooth it. Instead, I clasped my fingers together behind my back to keep from giving in to the impulse.
“There isn’t anything wrong with me,” he snapped, sounding a little hurt.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate there was. I just meant that we ran together earlier this evening and you seemed fine.”
His shoulders relaxed some and he looked almost embarrassed when he spoke again.
“He’s on edge, that’s all. It makes me jumpy when he is like this, and I knew that if I shifted out there for the night that he wouldn’t sleep. He would just try to get back to you. So here I am instead.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say to that.
An awkward pause settled between us. I stared down at the floor while he seemed to favor the ceiling.
We were mates, yet we didn’t know anything about each other. People talk about how wonderful it is to find your true mate, but no one mentioned this part to me. What was I supposed to do? What was I supposed to say?
Hey, should we just seal this deal now and get it over with?
So . . . looks like we’re stuck together.
I’m yours. You’re mine. Let’s do this thing.
I blushed furiously. No way in hell could I actually say something like that to him.
Something shiny hit the floor at my feet and spun. I bent down to pick it up.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he said.
I looked up at him with wide eyes. “Nope.”
He chuckled and some of the tension between us lifted.
“Not even a hint? I just confessed that my wolf would have tracked you down if I’d shifted and I get nothing in return.”
“Nope,” I said again, without even giving it a second thought. There was no way in hell I was going to admit to what I’d been thinking.
There was a part of me that didn’t want to fight this bond between us.
I mean, why bother if the outcome was still going to be the same?
But there was also a piece of me that wanted to actually know the man I was destined, or maybe even doomed, to share the rest of my life with before making that leap.
To distract myself, I glanced down at my phone. It was nearly three in the morning.
“It’s late. We should just get some sleep. It’s been a crazy enough day.”
Throwing the party between Theta and Delta Omega Gamma and everything necessary to make it happen, meeting my one true mate, choking in front of everyone, running with his wolf, seeing him naked, sneaking out of his bedroom window like a coward, then escaping campus to deal with it all only to find him here too. All of that in one day.
Over three years we’d managed to avoid each other on campus, now I couldn’t even leave town without running into him.
Looking around the room, I suddenly realized there was only one small bed in the room.
My breath caught and made me cough.
“Zoey!” Monte yelled.
I held my hand to signal to him that I didn’t need help.
Sucking in air and trying to recoup, I managed to get a few words out.
“I’m . . . okay . . . air.”
Instead of giving me the space I needed, he grabbed a glass of water and brought it up to my lips.
“Sip slowly,” he ordered.
His free arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me into his hard chest.
“Breathe, Zoey.”
My body trembled. How the hell was I supposed to remember to breathe when he was this close?
Forcing myself to take a few deep breaths and calm down, I started to relax just a little.
For the first time since meeting Monte, my wolf was at peace. She wasn’t growling in my head or causing high levels of aggression, keeping me on edge. Being wrapped up in his arms calmed my beast in ways I wasn’t prepared for. Tears pricked my eyes. My emotions were all over the place.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” he said, mistakenly thinking I was upset about nearly choking again. That had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
His hand rubbed up and down my back, soothing a part of my soul in the process.
Get it together, Zoey.
What the hell was wrong with me?
“I’m okay. I think I just need some sleep. It’s been a really long and crazy day.”
“Tell me about it,” he agreed. “Let’s just go to bed. I think we could both use a good night’s sleep.”
I gulped hard, suddenly remembering why I had started coughing to begin with.
“But there’s only one bed,” I blurted out.
He appeared confused as he stepped back and looked back and forth between me and the bed.
“I’m not going to claim you tonight, Zoey. I’m exhausted, and I think you are too.”
He had no idea. I barely slept last night and was struggling to wrap my head around the fact that we’d just met today—technically yesterday.
“I am. It’s late.”
“Yeah. My point exactly. Can we please just crash and not make a big deal about it?”
“You want to sleep in the same bed?”
“That would be nice.”
“Oh.”
An awkward silence fell between us as I nervously rocked back and forth on my feet.
“I’ll just sleep on the floor,” I finally blurted out.
The thing was, I trusted him for some reason. But I didn’t trust myself alone in a bed with him. The way he made me feel was overwhelming me. I was torn between wanting to lean into it and turn tail and run away again.
He growled, making me jump.
Relax, Zoey, this isn’t that big of a deal. Stop making it one.
“You’re not sleeping on the floor. I will. You take the bed.”
I started to protest. It didn’t feel right taking his bed when he’d been nice enough to rescue me and let me stay here. But before I found the words, he was already pulling a blanket from the closet and grabbing a pillow.
The floor suddenly looked so hard, and I was filled with guilt.
“Take the bed, please,” I argued.
“I’m fine,” he stubbornly insisted.
I sighed, then grabbed a pillow and blanket for myself and tossed it next to him.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I can’t take the bed from you. This is your room. So if you’re going to be stubborn about it, then I’m sleeping on the floor too.”
“Are you kidding me right now? I told you it wasn’t a big deal to share the bed.”
“Well, it feels like a big deal, after everything. You know?”
“I’m too tired for this. You won’t share the bed with me, but you’ll share the floor?”
“I guess so.”
“My mate is not sleeping on the goddamn floor,” he cursed.
The next thing I knew, he was back on his feet, swooping me up in his arms, and unceremoniously plopping me down on the bed with a little bounce. Then he picked up the pillows and blankets and threw them at me.
“Go to sleep, Zoey,” he ordered. His tone left no room for argument either.
My jaw dropped open in surprise. I wasn’t used to people talking to me like that.
He fixed the bed, pushed me to one side and laid down while I just stared in shock.
“You have your blanket. I have mine. Build a damn pillow fort between us if it makes you feel better, but we both deserve a good night’s sleep, so again, go to sleep, Zoey.”
He laid as close to the edge of his side as possible, giving me most of the bed.
I was tempted to build a pillow wall just out of spite.
His tone and actions were confusing me. Was he not a night guy?
Is that why I’d never seen him at a party?
Or was all of this just as stressful for him as it was for me?
And why the hell was I so curious for answers?
Within minutes and before I had even settled in, Monte was lightly snoring.
There was a part of me that wanted to wake him up and talk. I had so many questions, but the way he was snapping at me before he fell asleep, I didn’t dare. But boy did I want to.
One thing was very clear—I was far more interested in learning more about my mate than I wanted to be.