Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes (Pack Baby #3)

1. Mary

Mary

“What is happening to me?” I asked my reflection as I stopped outside the student center doors, and pressed my hand to my chest.

I looked feral. My blue eyes were too bright and my normally poker-straight dark brown hair now fell in waves because the air had gone so damp. I was also sure that my navy sweater was more stretched over my chest than normal.

A guy in a Bruins hoodie gave me a cautious glance as he passed by.

“Just talking to myself,” I said, trying to sound normal.

“Cool,” he said, walking faster.

I pushed the door and entered the student center.

The heating hit me like a wet towel. Then the smell of fried food, damp clothes, floor cleaner, and coffee, followed by the spiking of my own scent.

The blackberry was there, the way it always was, but now it was wrong.

Sharper. There was also the smell of rain running through it and a thin note of something floral underneath that I hadn’t smelled on myself for a long time.

My skin prickled. My fingers shook against the strap of my bag.

This cannot be my heat. Not now.

I tracked my cycles. I took my suppressants. I was not careless.

My scent rose again, this time stronger.

“Marli?”

I turned too fast and nearly took out a girl carrying an iced latte with my backpack.

“Sorry,” I said, as I rushed to my roommate, Nina, who stood by the bulletin board with her blonde hair in a claw clip and a concerned look on her face.

“You look weird,” she said.

“I was aiming to look mysterious. Weird is more achievable.”

She pursed her lips. “Are you sick?”

“Do I look ill?”

“Your cheeks are red.”

I pressed my cold fingers against them. “It’s the heating.”

“Last week you told me Boston was trying to freeze your organs.”

“And now it’s chosen violence in the other direction. It’s a city of range.”

“Why are you here?” Nina’s eyes narrowed. She was a woman who loved her pastel blush and matching pink lip gloss. She also had the instincts of a border agent. “You’re going to see Damien.”

“He is my boyfriend.”

She sighed, and stared at me for a beat before she said, “I saw him at the football pitch.”

“He said he was at hockey practice.”

“That ended an hour ago.”

I kept my face neutral, which took more effort than it should have. “Did it?”

“Some of the players came through here. I figured he’d texted you.”

“He did text me.” I shifted the bag onto my shoulder. “With a lie, it turns out. Now I have to find out why.”

Nina touched my arm. “Marli. Are you sure you’re okay?”

I hated that name but Mary McCarthy belonged to my father. Marli belonged to Boston.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“You’re normally grand.”

“I don’t feel grand today, just fine.”

“You’ve been off since Wednesday.”

“I’ve been off since birth. Ask my father.”

“Your dad thinks you’re off?”

“My father thinks I’m a traitor. He had a plan for me. He wanted me to marry someone I didn’t love. Instead, I got on a plane to Boston to paint.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’re studying business management and pre-law.”

“I’m painting in private while I do something grown-up in public.”

Nina considered that. “Are you sure you’re okay? You really are weird today.”

“I just need to see Damien.” I hitched the backpack higher. “Give him his book and go lie down.”

“I can give him the book. Go back to the dorm.”

“I’m fine and I need the fresh air.”

“Okay.” She started to walk away, then she turned back to me. “Text me if you need anything.”

“An ice bath would be lovely at that fancy spa in town,” I said.

“I’d love to treat you but I can’t afford it.”

“Neither can I.”

Her laugh followed me as I turned and walked down the corridor. I pushed on the door and the cold hit my face. Slush banked along the edges of the path, and the sky sat low and overcast as I walked to the quad. Students walked past with their heads down, freezing in their puffers.

For me, it was such a relief to not feel so hot.

But it didn’t take long for the heat to build again. Not enough to frighten me, but enough to make my sweater feel two sizes too small and my bra feel like a medieval torture device.

Then I gagged as the smell of coffee mixed with somebody’s cheap cologne.

I should have turned around and gone home, but Damien would take me back to the dorms in his car.

When I reached the quad, he was easy to find.

He was only five foot eight, but he carried it like he was six feet two.

One of his more annoying qualities. Some men disappeared into the crowd.

Damien stood out as he waited near the wall outside the athletic center in a gray hoodie and his team jacket.

His sandy hair curled at the temples. His bag sat at his feet, one hand resting on the strap.

His other hand was on the wall beside a girl in a cropped cheer jacket and a skirt so short that suggested she was not worried about getting hypothermia.

She laughed at something he said.

He leaned closer.

I stopped at the bike rack and gripped the cold metal. My hand froze as she touched his chest and smiled.

Tears would have been the correct response. Screaming, maybe, or running away. But I was calmer than I’d expected as I grabbed the book and walked over.

Damien saw me when I was ten feet away. His smile didn’t drop as he looked from me to her.

“Marli,” he said.

The cheerleader turned. She was very pretty. It would have helped enormously if she’d been ugly.

I held up my hand. “Damien.”

He glanced at my hand. “You brought the book. It could’ve waited.”

“Yes. Well spotted.”

The girl looked between us. “I should go.”

“No,” Damien said. “You’re fine.”

“Is she? I’m about to become unpleasant, and I’d hate for a bystander to sit through it without snacks.”

She took a step to the side. Sensible woman.

Damien’s jaw set. I hated that he was handsome when he was annoyed. Further proof the universe had no interest in fairness. “Can we not do this now?”

“Do what?”

“Make a scene.”

“I haven’t started. I’m merely giving you your book and leaving.”

“Marli.”

“Don’t say my name when you have lipstick on your mouth.”

The cheerleader bit down on her lip and stared at the ground.

Damien stepped closer and dropped his voice. “She just gave me a welcome peck. She does that to everyone.”

“Right.”

“Now you’re going to overreact.”

“Right. The way I overreacted when you canceled on me for three weekends running. Were you with her?”

“That’s not what this is.”

“Or when I asked to meet your friends from home. Or when you told me I was intense for wanting to celebrate your birthday.”

His mouth opened.

“I never said any of that.”

I wasn’t interested in the past. Only now. “You kissed her.”

“We weren’t kissing,” the girl said. “It was just a friendly kiss, like he said.”

Damien dragged a hand through his hair. “We were talking.”

“With your whole body pressed against hers?”

He glared at me. “Jesus, Marli.”

“At home, talking mostly involves the mouth and words, but the lips never join, but I accept I’m abroad and eager to learn new customs.”

The girl put a hand over her mouth. Damien shot her a look. She stopped, but not fast enough to save him.

My skin went hotter as a cramp pulled low in my belly. I kept my face still. “So we’re over.”

He blinked. “What?”

“It’s not a question. I want to leave here with my dignity, unlike you.”

His eyes went to the girl and back. “Can we talk later?”

“Let her stay. She’ll know your intentions that way. She’ll also know how much of a fucking cheater you are.”

“Marli.”

“There’s the voice again.”

His nostrils flared as he breathed out through his nose. “We never said we were exclusive.”

The world did nothing at all. No crack, no respectful pause while my pride went down in public. The cheerleader studied her shoes.

Damien, who had slept in my bed and eaten the biscuits Maeve sent in a care package. The man who had borrowed my notes and kissed the side of my neck in the library stacks and told me he missed me on away games. Well, he had just said we weren’t exclusive.

What the hell?

“That’s your defense,” I said. “We never formally signed an agreement?”

The cheerleader lifted her head and looked at him. “You told me you were single.”

Damien turned. “Kyla.”

“You did, though. On Thursday. After the game.”

“The game you said was full and you couldn’t get me a ticket.”

“It wasn’t full,” Kyla responded.

“Kyla. Keep out of this.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “No, let her finish. She’s known me for a few minutes, and she’s the only person in this conversation telling me the truth.”

Kyla’s chin came up half an inch. “He also said his ex was, like, obsessed with him.”

“Oh, he did, did he?” I looked at Damien, who had gone a color I’d never seen on him. “And which ex was that, Damien? Because as of about four minutes ago, I’ve a strong feeling it’s me, and I’d hate to be obsessed without having been told.”

“Don’t turn this into something ugly.”

“I didn’t turn it into anything. I found it like this.”

He looked around. “People are watching.”

“Then speak up. Because when I walk away, I want to know exactly why you chose to be a cheating rat instead of being a man and telling me we were over.”

“You knew I wasn’t ready for anything serious.” His eyes narrowed. “You’re getting too clingy.”

“Excuse me for wanting to see my boyfriend because my reproductive system is staging a hostile takeover, and I thought somehow you could help me. But here we are.”

Kyla made a small noise.

Damien stared at me. “What?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“Are you going into heat?” He said it too fast and far too loud. Two men by the doors turned their heads. My face went as hot as a furnace. “If it’s a true heat, you need to get to the clinic.”

“Thank you, Dr. West. I’d planned to wander the streets composing poetry.” Damien was a beta but I still wanted him to be there when I went to the clinic. To keep the alphas in line.

“I’m serious.”

“First time today.”

He reached for my arm. I stepped back fast enough that my heel hit the curb, and the movement sent a low pulse between my thighs. My breath caught before I could stop it.