30. Thirty
THIRTY
H arley
“That’s what you’re wearing?” Alicia asks, her eyes wide.
I glance down at my outfit, not understanding what the problem is. “Uh, yeah?”
“It’s the second rival game against BCU and you’re wearing that ,” she says, pointing her finger and moving it up and down in the air.
Rolling my lips to hide my smile, I reach into my closet and pull out the one missing piece. “Did you really think I wasn’t going to add this?” I ask, holding up the jersey.
“Sometimes, I really question whether you’re fucking with me just to drive me mad,” she mutters as she grabs a KRU beanie from next to my computer.
“You could just trust the process,” I say, pulling the hat from her fingers.
“What’s the fun in that?”
Sliding my jacket on, I shrug. “You’re right.”
I lift the duffle bag from my bed and sling it over my shoulder. Alicia links her arm through mine and we walk out of my room together. When I glance up at her, a smug smile lifts the corners of her lips.
“Why are you smiling like that?” I demand.
“Smiling like what?” she asks coyly, opening the door for me.
“Like that,” I say, narrowing my eyes at her.
“I just find it funny,” she murmurs, her smile growing.
“Find what funny?”
“How your very first day here, you and Jax had it out for each other. And now you’re wearing his jersey, going to all the hockey games, sleeping in his bed almost every night…” she trails off, waggling her eyebrows at me.
Rolling my eyes, I say, “Don’t give me the eyebrows, Cia.”
“What eyebrows?” she taunts back, doing it again. “These ones?”
“You’re insufferable,” I mutter as we walk down the stairs.
“You love me and you know it,” she chirps.
She’s right. I do. I love her and I love this school. It hasn’t even been a whole week since Jax stood up to my parents for me and I feel happier than I ever have before.
We haven’t talked more about him marking me, but I’ve slept at his house every night since. I don’t think I’d sleep without his arms wrapped around me if I stayed in the dorm. Honestly, I don’t think I’d stay at all if it weren’t for him.
Pushing the door open, we walk out of the dorm and make our way toward the parking lot. The sun is starting to disappear behind the mountains. The pink and purple hue of the sky, paired with the chilled night, has a smile pulling at the corners of my lips.
Alicia untangles her arm from mine as we come up to her car. She makes her way to the driver’s side, unlocking her car with the keyfob. I open the passenger door and settle myself into the front seat just as she opens hers.
She starts the car and quickly connects her bluetooth before reversing out of the parking spot. I buckle my seatbelt and grab my sunglasses from my purse. As soon as I do, Alicia reaches up and presses the sunglasses compartment to open it before grabbing hers.
“Alright, I have barely seen you since the game last Friday. Which means you probably have many secrets to spill. Including what happened with that red lingerie set,” Alicia states with a grin.
I feel my cheeks heat at the memory. “There’s a lot, honestly. And the juicy parts don’t even involve sexy lingerie sets.”
“No fucking way! Start from the beginning!” she demands as she flicks her blinker on and looks over her shoulder before changing lanes.
“Well, the night of the game was really good. He…umm…taught me how to go down on him,” I admit shyly. “It was really good. We still haven’t gone all the way though, so don’t get too excited.”
“Do you think that’s going to happen soon?”
“I don’t know, honestly. He’s so patient with me. It’s not what I would’ve ever expected from him.”
“Jax has always been full of surprises,” Alicia says a little too cryptically.
I narrow my eyes at her, but continue with filling her in instead of asking questions. “On Saturday, he took me to meet his family. It was, well, an experience. An enlightening one. It really showed me how messed up mine is. I tried to end things with him.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Alicia squeals. “What did he do?”
“Well,” I pause, trying to find the right words to say since I can’t just come out and say, ‘Since he’s a wolf and I have hunters blood, he told me he’d chase me and the mere thought had me so turned on, I rode his face in the front seat of his car.’ Instead, I say, “He told me he wasn’t having it. Then we went back to his place and from there, things went a little sideways.”
“Sideways how?”
“Well, I ended up running almost eighteen miles on the treadmill in their weight room. Ross caught me before I fell to the ground because my body gave out on me. I kind of had a complete breakdown over the realization that my parents are awful human beings.”
“Holy shit,” she breathes.
“That’s not all,” I say, taking a deep breath.
“There’s more?”
“This is where it gets really good,” I tell her.
“Oh fuck. Lay it on me.”
“He took me to my parents for the weekly family dinner. He was supposed to stay in the car and wait for me. After I sat down, my father confronted me about the date with Leroy. I told him how disgusting Leroy had been and how Jax saved me from the entire night. When he asked who Jax was, I told him his name. My dad lost his mind, Cia. He started shouting at me how I was disgracing our family by dating the enemy. He threw a vase at me. My mother just sat there with the most amused smile on her face. It was horrible.”
“Then what happened?” she presses.
“Jax came storming in. He saw the vase and I swear, he looked even deadlier than he does on the ice. He told me to wait in the car. My father took my funding for school away the second I went to leave.” I swallow against the lump forming in my throat. “He did, too. I was pulled into my advisor's office Monday morning.”
“How are you going to pay for school if he isn’t going to pay?” Alicia asks quietly.
“I was told there was an anonymous donation,” I mumble, staring out the window.
Silence falls over us, the music softly playing through the speakers. I wait with bated breath for her to say what she’s thinking. I know what she’s going to say about the anonymous donation.
“You know it was him, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I say, my voice thick. “I heard him on the phone with his dad that night after we got back to the mini mansion. His dad wired the money to my school account the next morning. But the school is required by law to let me know that my father had voided his check for my classes and that someone else paid my way.”
Alicia places her hand on my knee, giving it a small squeeze. “Are you okay with that? With him paying for you to stay?”
I lift a shoulder and drop it. I want to tell her about the rest of that night. About how I told him I wanted him to mark me and make me his. I want to open up to her about wolves and hunters and the messy position I’m in because of it. I want to tell her everything and at the same time, I know I can’t risk Jax and the guys by doing so.
“It’s already done. My advisor said that I have enough money to complete my PhD in statistics. That’s six years of school completely paid for, Cia,” I explain, turning my head to look at her.
She nods, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. “I told you he’s always been full of surprises.”
“Okay, what in the blueberries do you mean by that?” I insist.
“Look, when I showed up here, I expected him to tell me off for Justin’s sake. Instead, he welcomed me into their home and gave me a place I didn’t know I needed.”
I play her words over in my head. Softly, I repeat, “He gave you a place you didn’t know you needed.” When she doesn’t answer, I whisper, “He gave you a pack to call home.”
I stare at her profile as she nods. “He did. There was a rogue pack in Bridgedom growing up. Most of them were taken out by hunters because they were infecting people left and right. My parents relocated us to Kill Ridge after Sean died. It was easier because the majority of hunters live in Bridgedom. After I graduated high school, I reached out to Jax and asked if he had room in his pack for one more. At the time, I didn’t even know that Justin was in his pack. But he knew. He knew who I was to Justin and he let me in anyway.”
Folding my hands in my lap, I murmur, “There’s something else you should know.”
“What’s up?” she says softly.
“I was born into a family of hunters,” I admit meekly.
Alicia huffs out a humorless laugh. “I already knew that, Harley.”
My brows pull together. “Did Jax tell you and the pack?”
“No. I could smell it on you. I’m the best tracker in our pack. I’m the one that steers us away from hunters during a full moon. How did Jax figure it out?” she asks, pulling into the BCU visitors parking lot.
“He talked to his dad about how he was struggling with the need to mark me,” I say quietly.
“Yeah, that makes sense. Between the instant attraction and your hunter’s blood, with him being an alpha, his wolf instincts are taking over.”
“How do you know about all of this?” I ask, finally looking at her again.
She puts the car in park and turns toward me. “After I was bit, I did a ridiculous amount of online research. I needed to know everything there was to know about my future. I didn’t want to take the chance of not having all the information.”
“That’s really smart,” I tell her.
“I know,” she says with an appreciative smile. “I’m so fucking happy you know now.”
“You’re happy? Do you know how hard it was to not tell you about some of this stuff? I had to leave out one of the best parts of the whole recap!”
“Spill the fucking tea into the harbor. What did you leave out?” she asks, propping her elbow up on the center console and resting her chin on her hand.
“When I tried to break up with him, he told me that if I ran from him, he would hunt me down. It had me so turned on, I finally took that seat on his face,” I whisper shout at her.
“Is there someone else in this car?” she asks before looking in the backseat.
“No,” I grumble with a roll of my eyes. “But it was spicy mangos style hot. Or maybe not spicy mangos. More like…spicy watermelons. Ooo! Spicy cantaloupes!”
Alicia barks out a loud laugh. “You’re absolutely ridiculous. You could just say, ‘I rode his face, Alicia. It was the hottest thing I’ve ever done in my fucking life. I don’t think I’ll ever recover!’ Or something along those lines.”
“I think it’s his life goal to see how many times he can get me to drop the F bomb when his face is between my legs,” I admit, grabbing my purse.
“Jesus, that’s hot. I’d be jealous. But that guy I’ve been seeing? I think he’s pretty decent. He always makes sure I finish. Not super self absorbed with his own pleasure, if you get what I’m saying,” she says with a wink.
“I can’t with you,” I reply with a giggle.
“Alright, let’s go get the best seats in the house.”
“Aren’t those seats reserved?” I ask as I open my door.
“Well, duh. I’m a part of the pack, which means I am required to cheer them on.”
“You literally tell Justin he sucks with no shame every game,” I point out as we walk to the door of the arena.
“He does fucking suck. At life. His existence gives me a headache,” she grumbles.
“One of these days you’re really going to have to tell me what happened between the two of you,” I tell her, opening the door.
She pulls our tickets out of her pocket and hands them to the teacher checking everyone’s tickets. “Don’t hold your breath on that. I’d rather rip my own fingernails out than hash through my past with Justin Mathews.”
I feel eyes on me from every direction as we walk through concessions. I try to ignore it, focusing on Alicia as she rambles on about whether she should get popcorn or a pretzel. At some point, I think she makes the decision on both.
But as I turn my head to the left just a hair, my eyes meet the familiar glare of my ex best friend. My stomach sinks, and as much as I hate myself for it, I feel myself ready to cower behind Alicia for protection. As if she can smell the fear now pulsing through my veins, Alicia’s head snaps to our left.
I don’t have to say a word. Because Alicia beat’s Maria to the punch with her sharp tongue. “Aww, look. The raccoon brought in the trash tonight, Harley.”
Maria’s gaze narrows a fraction. “Are you looking in the mirror? Or are you talking about the five foot nobody next to you?”
“I think you know who I’m talking about, honey. You look just as bad as the men's locker room smells. Did you intend to plaster that much foundation on? I didn’t realize it was still the early 2000s. You’re looking a bit orange in these fluorescent lights,” Alicia says with a sneer.
I roll my lips to hide my smile. Alicia is ruthless, going straight for the throat with each word that leaves her mouth. I’ve always been the one having insults thrown her way, and now Alicia is giving Maria a taste of her own medicine.
“I’ll have two diet sodas, two large bags of popcorn, and two pretzels please,” Alicia says to the clerk before dropping a fifty dollar bill on the counter. She turns back to Maria and hisses, “You should go back to the dumpster you crawled out of this morning.”
“Why did you order two of everything?” Maria asks, her smile growing wide. “You do realize that Harley will puke all of that up to appease her precious mommy later, right?”
My cheeks burn with embarrassment. The unwanted nickname echoes in my mind with her words. Hackey Harley. It came with the rumor that she started about me. She told the entire school about fat camp. The lie that she spun included me having an eating disorder and the wonderful new nickname.
I take the drinks off the counter as Alicia grabs the pretzels and popcorn. I expect Alicia to let it go after that. But instead she stops directly in front of Maria. I watch as she bends down to get into Maria’s face.
“You better fucking watch your little whore mouth, Maria. In case you haven’t noticed, Harley is one of us now. And if you took a closer look at her jersey, you’d realize that you’re so beneath her, you aren’t even special enough to breathe the air Harley breathes. Keep running your mouth. I’d really, really enjoy putting a bitch like you in her place.”
Alicia shoves Maria with her shoulder, baring her teeth at her as we walk into the arena. The cold air kisses my cheeks as we make our way to our seats, settling ourselves down directly behind the team bench.
She hands me my pretzel and bag of popcorn. “I know you said it was bad, but fuck, Har. She is a monster.”
“What she said back there,” I tell her, holding her stare. I shake my head. “It wasn’t true. I’d never puke any of this up. Run a ridiculous amount of miles? Yes. Puke? Never.”
Alicia puts her hand on my arm. “Even if you did puke it up, I’d hold your hair for you and we’d analyze a way to fix it later. I’m a ride or die kind of friend. I’ll be by your side through the good, the bad, and the very ugly.”
The corners of my lips turn up. “Where the green peppers have you been all my life?”
She flips her hair over her shoulder. “Right under your nose, sugar pie.”
“You’re almost a foot taller than me, Cia.”
Shrugging, she takes a massive bite of her pretzel. “Maybe I’ve been on my knees this whole time.”
We both throw our heads back and laugh. “We both know you aren’t the kind of girl to drop to her knees.”
“Maybe if there's a pillow on the floor,” she says with a scrunch to her nose.
I take a bite out of my own pretzel, shaking my head at how much more fun life is with Alicia around. I straighten my spine as Maria enters the arena. Her eyes scan the seats before landing on us.
And because the universe is the bane of my existence, Maria takes a seat right behind Alicia and I.