51. Nolan
Ican’t stay away.
I want to keep her far from my father, but after seeing the state of her after less than twenty minutes with her aunt, I can’t make myself walk away.
The urge to protect her is so strong that I find myself watching her, needing to know where she is, even touching her.
She slept most of the night in Julian’s arms, but when he had to pee, I nearly jumped out of my seat at the chance to take her.
I’d been envious of him from the moment she climbed into his arms. If I could just get it together, that could be me with her.
It nearly had been, but I’d fucked it all up.
“You don’t have to…” Wren mumbles, attempting to move from my arms, but I hold her tighter as I mentally kick myself.
“I want to,” I assure her, and that seems to get her attention. She peeks up at me through her lashes, her eyes searching mine. All I can do is hold her gaze and hope she finds what she’s looking for.
She gives me the smallest of nods before she leans into me, her head on my chest, right over my heart. I wonder if she can hear the way she makes it nearly skip a beat.
“My aunt gave your father something.” Her voice is so quiet that I’m not sure I heard her correctly.
“What?”
“Right before the showcase started, she had me take her up to his office, and she gave him some kind of scroll.” I hear her confusion with the word, and honestly, I don’t blame her.
In this day and age, a scroll would be weird for non-magic folk.
“Anyway, I don’t much like your father. He seems…
” She trails off, and I’m not sure if she’s simply fallen asleep or trying to find a good word to describe him; I have a few.
“Mean,” she finally settles on, the word coming out with a yawn that reminds me she’s supposed to be sleeping, but even still, I can’t stop myself from chuckling.
Mean is a perfect word, really, and very Wren.
“An unbearable douchecanoe is what I think you meant to say,” Julian says from across the room, and I feel Wren look back over her shoulder at where he’s come back into the room.
“I would have said a twatwaffle personally,” Titus chimes in, and I hear Wren’s little huff of laughter.
“I’ve always called him a dickweed,” Dimitri says from the other chair, and again I feel her chuckle.
“Cuntzilla.” Every head turns toward the couch, Titus and Julian now sit cuddled up on when Gavin’s voice comes from behind it.
I wasn’t aware he had stayed.
“Whatever we call him, he’s bad news, and you need to stay away from him,” I tell her, feeling the need to warn her even if she seems to already ?have an off feeling about him.
“I will.” I feel her words more than hear them, and I know she’s going to fall asleep any second. Even still, it makes me happy to know she’s going to stay away.
I’ve never wanted to protect anything or anyone the way I want to with her.
“Did you want to go back to Julez?” I ask even as I pray to the moon that she’s already asleep. I don’t want to give her up, but if she’s more comfortable with him, as she should be since I’ve done nothing but fuck everything up, but fuck if I don’t want what they have.
She’s quiet for long enough that I’m sure she’s asleep, and I look to Julian, unsure what to do.
“I’m good here.” Her words light me up inside, and I have to stop myself from squeezing her as I relax back into the couch, happy to sit here all night if that’s what she needs.
“Goodnight, Wren,” I whisper, my lips pressed to the top of her head as I let her scent fill my lungs and settle something inside of me I never knew was possible.
“Goodnight,” she mumbles sleepily before she goes limp and begins softly snoring.
I sit awake all night, worried about how we can keep her safe, and while I don’t have any answers, as the sun rises and I haven’t had a second of sleep, I’ve never been so content.
Most of the next day is spent on the couches, watching movies, eating snacks, and watching Wren. She’s here, but not. She moves between Julian and me, though she seems to favor him, and I try not to take offense.
Julian was the only one who saw her from the start; the rest of us have a lot of groveling to do if we ever hope to be worthy of her.
Some of which she still doesn’t even know about.
I look over at Dimitri and find him longingly watching her, the same way he has been all day.
For as much as I wish she were as comfortable with me as she is with Julian, it must be even worse for Dimitri.
I’ve seen him reach for her a few times now before he corrects himself, and the pain on his face afterward lets me know he’s missing whatever they had.
He needs to figure it out, though, because I can see it’s hurting her too.
This time, there’s no slipping away to my swim meet.
Wren is up and at the table when I wake, a hot cup in front of her and bags under her eyes.
I move slowly, not wanting to spook her, as she seems really into her book, a book that I realize after a second isn’t a school book.
At least she’s doing something normal, something just for her.
The floor squeaks, and I watch as she blinks fast a few times before she turns toward me. Her lips quirk up at the edge, not a real smile but enough to make my heart race.
What is it with her?
“Good morning!”
“Morning,” I say, moving to sit opposite her, my eyes moving over her face to see how her injuries are doing.
Her lip looks pretty good, but the scratch on her face is pretty red and puffy, and her black eye might look worse today than yesterday.
She reaches up, gently pressing her fingertips beneath her eye with a frown, and I realize I’m being an ass.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, unsure what to say, but knowing I need to say something. The urge to grab her and hold her in my arms to ensure she’s safe nags at me.
“Okay.” She doesn’t meet my gaze, and nothing about her voice is convincing, but I don’t push, at least not right now.
The last thing I want to do is scare her away.
“What time is your meet?”
Her question catches me off guard, though it probably shouldn’t; she seems to know my schedule pretty well.
I shake myself from my thoughts when I realize she’s waiting for an answer.
“Not until later tonight. I need to get ready soon though, it’s about a two-hour drive.”
Her face falls, and my heart skips a damn beat.
Is she upset that I’m leaving? I don’t love the idea of her being upset because of me, but what if it’s because she doesn’t want me to go…
That primal instinct that wants to protect her can’t help but rejoice at the thought.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have a car or even a license,” she mumbles as if it’s something to be embarrassed about.
Given the way she seems to have grown up, I’m not the least bit surprised. Honestly, I would be more shocked if she did have those things, since it would give her more freedom. Something I’m sure her aunt would never allow.
“I have a car.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop to think about them, wanting to do anything I can to make her happy.
And, fuck me, does it ever work.
“Would you take me?” she asks, her eyes wide and hopeful.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I don’t want to tell her no. I’m not sure I could even if I wanted to, but...
“Shouldn’t you be resting?”
She sinks into her chair. I watch her eyes as they gloss over, and I know I fucked up.
“You can go if you want, Wren. I just didn’t want you to feel like you have to. You don’t owe me anything, and I wasn’t sure you would want anyone to see you like this.” I nod at her face as if she isn’t aware of the state of it, groaning at my own stupidity, before smacking my palm to my head.
The sound of her sweet giggle has me dropping it, unsure if I’d actually heard right or not.
“Sorry, it’s not funny.” She’s still giggling as she presses a hand to her mouth as if unable to stop. The sight of her like this steals the air from my lungs.
She’s so beautiful, has been since the second she walked into our dorm, even if I was too stubborn to see it before.
“This is nothing, but if you don’t want to be seen with me, I get that. I just wanted to come and watch you swim. You’re …” She pauses for a moment, her tongue darting out to lick her lips, and I couldn’t look away if my life depended on it. “Captivating in the water.”
I watch as her cheeks take on a pink flush, and my cock twitches, growing harder by the moment.
She likes watching me swim.
My chest swells as I’m filled with pride for the sport that I’d grown to hate years ago.
Fuck, she’s dangerous.
“Alright, kids, enough flirting. He needs to go pack, which means you can tell him anything you might need from the room, and he can grab it while he’s there,” Julian says, coming out of the bathroom across the hall and making us both jump.
Damn fairy is so quiet; he’s always loved sneaking around.
I scowl at him for his comment, but all he does is smile his usual shit-eating grin. I roll my eyes and watch as he moves behind her, draping himself over the back of her chair and pressing a kiss to her already very red cheeks.
“No need to be embarrassed, Pookie. Nolan is a good-looking guy. You’d be crazy not to flirt with him.”
And now I feel the warmth on my cheeks. I might not be into guys like Julian is, but that was a hell of a compliment from him.
“Oh my god, Blue,” she tries to shoo him away, but he only laughs and holds her tighter as she buries her face in her hands, adorably.
The smile on Julian’s face is exactly what it should be: a guy who’s got everything he wants in life.
“Could you just grab my bag?” She peeks at me through her fingers, and I don’t know how anyone could say no to her. How could anyone want to hurt her?
Nope, don’t think about that right now. Her aunt will get hers eventually; we’ll make sure of it.
“Yeah, of course.” I grab an apple from the basket in the center of the table and head out, feeling a pep in my step as I head to the dorm and realize I’m actually excited for this competition. Though I wish she were in better health for it.
Next time.
The day flies by after that, and we all end up piling into mine and Dimitri’s cars, and fuck if I don’t almost shift and end up with a tail right here when she picks my car. I know it has more to do with avoiding Dimitri than her wanting me, but that doesn’t matter.
The urge to peacock my scales is real. Honestly, her being mortal is the hardest part of all of this. Well, other than my aching cock that seems to be constantly hard around her now.
She naps in the car, and when she isn’t sleeping, she’s playing with the radio.
It all feels so normal and easy, and if it weren’t for the reminders on her face from her aunt, I might be able to believe that’s all this was.
Just some friends hanging out, but it’s more than that now.
Whether she likes it or not, we won’t let anyone get to her again, aunt or otherwise.
We’ve always been a makeshift family, and now, so long as she’ll have us, Wren is a part of that, a part of us.
We stand outside the locker room. I hesitate to go in, and she hesitates to leave as the others find seats. There’s so much I want to say.
My eyes comb over the crowd behind her. Mortals and magics mixed, and I know now isn’t the time, not here.
I catch sight of my father, and the pit in my stomach with his name on it grows.
“Good luck.” I look down to find her staring up at me, her eyes clearer than I’ve seen them since the night of the showcase.
I’m not sure what it is, but I watch her push up on her toes, and I dip as if under someone else’s control, and fuck, whoever it is can do what they want with me because she leans in, pressing her lips to my cheek.
Suddenly, I’m glad I haven’t changed yet; there would be no hiding the tent I would have pitched in my bathing suit.
I groan, unable to help it, as I stand back up and once again look down at her, a sly smile on her face that tells me she knows exactly the effect she had on me.
“A dangerous game, Trouble.” The nickname rolls off my tongue as easily as her own name would, and damn if it isn’t so very fitting.
Her smile grows, and yeah, I know that’s going to stick.
“Or wonderful motivation…” She steps back out of my range before turning away and all but runs up the bleachers to join the others. I watch her every step before pulling myself away, but only just barely.
I swim in three races and break my own personal record each time.
Motivation indeed.