Chapter Nine
Tristan grabbed the slightly terrifying face of a demon with a massive ant head, and threw him clear across the room. “Get the fuck out of the way.”
Stalking to the table, he picked up a howling monkey-like demon by the collar and sent him flying too—emptying the table. Turning to me, he lost his hostile snarl immediately in favor of a sheepish grin.
I could only stare dumbfounded as he set my plate down and pulled out the seat for me, gesturing for me to sit down.
“All yours, Charlie.”
“Um... th-thank you,” I stuttered out, “but you didn’t have to throw them out. I would’ve happily sat at literally any of the other dozens of empty tables.”
“Nah, this one’s the best.” Tristan took my hand and guided me down. “It’s right next to the dessert table.”
He said that and then darted over to said table and started loading up another plate with all the sweet treats he could get his hands on—most likely for me.
Once again, I could only sit there in stunned silence like an idiot. I’d been doing that all day—ever since I walked out of my dorm room that morning and almost had a heart attack, because Tristan was right outside the door waiting for me.
I didn’t think it was possible for him to be even more stuck to me, but since telling him he was my friend and I liked him, he’d been on me even better than my shadow.
While the rest of the school was buzzing over the murders of the vampires and the second sighting of the witches’ sign, Tristan was shoving people out of my way, growling at anyone who stared at me too long, holding textbooks for me, pulling out chairs for me, and all-around acting like the world’s most violently obsessive boyfriend.
If Ronin was still pushing me around, they’d have both no doubt been violently butting heads, but my demon tormentor was still pretending like I didn’t exist.
Tristan returned to the table with a tray piled high with more cookies, cakes, muffins, and brownies than a whole sleepover party could’ve eaten by themselves.
He sat down, and I stood up.
“Tristan, can I speak to you in private, please?” I jerked my chin at the door. “You and me. In my room.”
Tristan flushed the deepest red his dusky cheeks could muster. “Wha—? Alone? But— we can’t!”
“Can’t? What do you mean we can’t?” Laughing, I grasped his wrist and tugged him along.
For someone who was protesting as much as he was, the big, buff wolf let my tiny self drag him along easily.
We made it back to my room and I shut and locked us both in.
Then, I stuffed my hideous metallic jacket at the bottom of the door.
Sabrina snoozed on her armchair, not in the least bit worried about either of us.
“Okay,” I announced, spinning around. “What’s up with you? Why are you being so nice to me?”
Tristan’s bashful expression broke long enough to let a frown through. “Nice?”
I groaned. I forgot about hell’s limited vocabulary for a second. “Dude, why are you opening my doors, pulling out my chairs, and gouging the eyeballs of anyone who gives me a dirty look? Is this all because you found out I’m a girl?”
“Yes,” Tristan dropped. “Obviously. It’s not like I’d be doing all this for a guy.”
“I— Well—” My jaw worked trying to get something out. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting him to fess up to it so easy. “Why?!” I burst out. “I’ve got boobs, not glass bones! Why are you being so weird with me?”
“Weird?” Tristan cocked his head, looking at me like I was the strange one. “I’m not being weird. I’m treating you how I’m supposed to. Everyone knows that you treat a woman like a queen on your best days, a goddess on your worst days, and a person every day.”
My brain came to a sputtering, jerking halt... and then died. “Huh...”
“And the person you are is mortal,” he went on.
“Meaning that your glamour only makes you look like a demon. You don’t have the strength or the magic of one.
Which isn’t great since you’ve made an enemy of the fairy boys, and you’ve pissed off everyone who thinks you’re cheating your way through the academy.
“All of them are wanting to challenge you. I’m making sure they know it’s not worth the violent death they’ve got coming if they even think about it,” he explained calmly.
“I don’t know if this is what... nice...
is, but I do know that a real man doesn’t stand by doing nothing when a woman’s in danger. ”
If one could have tumbleweeds in their brain, they’d be blowing through my empty skull right about then. What I was supposed to say to all of that, I had no idea.
“I... Is this some kind of alpha-wolf thing?” I finally got out. “All that queen and goddess stuff. Do you treat every woman you know like this?”
He shrugged. “I would, if I knew any other women.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Tristan looked at me steadily, then cracked the barest grin. “You really aren’t from around here, are you?” He chuckled. “Werewolf men and women live apart from each other. Female werewolves can’t shift in the late stages of pregnancy. They’re also slower and can’t fight at full strength.
“Which makes them the perfect target for vampires.”
I almost threw up right there on the carpet. “Holy hell! Are you serious? They actually attack pregnant women!?”
“Without mercy.” Tristan turned away, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his loose, ripped jeans.
As always, he wore beat-up pants and the simplest of simplest tight black tees.
And as always, he looked like a freaking supermodel.
“In the first few decades after my people were banished to hell, we were driven to the brink of extinction.
Women killed. The next generation of wolves killed.
“To save our people, the elders had no choice but to hide the women and children in a location so secret and guarded, I wasn’t allowed to know it until two years ago when I became the alpha of my pack.
It was then I met my mother again for the first time since I was ten, and my sister for the first time at all. ”
I could only gape at him as my heart broke in two.
“The only other women I’ve been around since I was separated from my mother are vampire women.” He brushed the back of his neck, and I knew he was touching the scar of the vampire bite. “And they were trying to kill me at the time,” he said drily.
“When it’s my time to mate, I will be allowed to visit the women again, and one will grant me the honor of mating with me and allowing me to father the next generation of wolves—assuming she finds me worthy of doing so.
” Tristan closed the distance and took my hands in his, tearing a squeak from my lips.
“That is why women must be respected and cherished like the beautiful treasure they are. We men are nothing and can be nothing without you. I’d be the lowest form of trash if I didn’t follow you, serve you, and protect you with every ounce of strength in my body.
“But you know this,” he breezed. “Mortal men must worship and protect mortal women even more strongly, considering how”—I burst into giggles when his poked my ribs—“breakable you are.”
“Uhh, no, actually,” I admitted, blushing down at our clasped hands. “Mortal men opt for a different approach with women. Negging being one of their preferred methods.”
“What the hell is negging?”
“It’s when you beat a women’s self-esteem down with backhanded compliments, veiled insults, and comparisons to all the other women she supposedly doesn’t measure up to. The goal is to make her feel so insecure, she seeks validation from the person making her feel worthless.”
“What?!” I swear Tristan’s golden eyes straight caught on fire. “That’s fucking disgusting!”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
“Bastards! Why would they—!” An expression so terrible darkened Tristan’s face, it made me take a step back. “No man has treated you that way, have they? Those fuckers,” he growled, maw elongating, “I’ll rip out their throats!”
“No, no,” I cried, waving my hands. “No fuckers need their throats ripped out. Trust me, I’d never mess with a guy who negged me. You and I are in definite agreement about women deserving to be treated like a person when they’re not being treated like a queen.”
“Still,” he gritted. “That those shitheads would even think it—let alone treat a woman like that. Fucking worthless cunts.”
Ah, and this is how I got Tristan to hate a whole species of men he’d never met.
“Is that why you came to hell?” he asked, brows furrowing. “Because the men above aren’t worth the shit on my boots.”
“No, of course not. And for what it’s worth, there are plenty of decent guys up there.
My dad was one of the best.” I smiled thinking of my dad and all the times he told me that all the fairy tales he read me were real, because if any little princess was going to get her Prince Charming, it was me. “You would’ve liked my dad.”
“Would’ve?”
“Yeah, would’ve,” I rasped, looking away. “He died four years ago.”
“I’m sorry.” Calloused fingers brushed my cheek. “My father died too.”
“And now all you have is your mother and sister who you never get to see?” Tears filled my eyes. Tristan’s family was just as broken as mine. “That’s awful.”
Tristan smiled gently, and wiped my tears away even more gently. “Well, I used to have my pack. They were all the family I thought I needed but... I lost them too, so I guess I am the pitiful, tragic figure I appear to be.”
“No, not pitiful or tragic.” I tipped my head, gazing into his eyes. “Because you’re not lying down and taking it. You’re here fighting to get your family back. You’re not letting anyone tell you you’re not strong enough to try. What’s pitiful about that?”
Tristan cupped the back of my head. Drawing me close, my chest stopped rising and falling entirely as it molded to his. “This friend thing that you were talking about... Does it only mean that you like me?”
“We— I— It—” It was my turn to stammer and blush like a moron. “Each individual friendship is unique. Ours can mean”—my heart thumped so hard, I knew Tristan heard it—“whatever we want it to mean.”