Instead, they came to a full stop. Now everyone in the hall was watching, not just those who had been laughing at Lindy before. Not a breath sounded in the hall as Alarick stepped closer to us, his shoulders stiff inside his uniform jacket.
“What are you doing with our girl?” he asked, glaring at Viktor, who still had his arm around me. And for one breathless second, I thought he was going to pull me away and get all possessive like he had when Viktor danced with me at the club last year.
“She’s ours,” Adolf said, stepping forward and taking Lindy’s arm.
That’s when I realized Alarick wasn’t talking about me. Something inside me shattered in that moment. I was no longer his girl. Lindy was.
Her eyes got so big I thought they’d pop out of her head, and for one moment, I was mean and small, and I hated her. I hated that I’d told them that she could carry on their species. I hated that they wanted her, not me. And I understood why Brooklyn had always hated me.
“No, she’s mine,” Vance growled, stepping forward and wrenching Lindy away from Adolf. The remaining wolves gaped at him.
“What’s going on?” Lindy asked, cowering away from Vance and Adolf.
“You belong with us,” Alarick said, his voice level. In the silence of the hall, it rang out like a proclamation.
“With me,” Vance snapped, his chest puffing up as he faced Alarick and tucked Lindy behind him. Okay, then. So this was what happened when a wolf found his mate. He wasn’t about to share her with the others, as Mr. Wolf wanted, to create genetic diversity. Vance looked like he was about to shift into wolf form and rip Alarick to shreds if he didn’t back off. And Alarick was his Alpha, which meant he was stronger than Vance. Vance was pretty much showing he was willing to die for Lindy, a girl whose name he only knew because I’d said it.
“Actually, I think she belongs with us,” Amy said in a timid voice. Lindy looked around the hall like she was waiting for the punchline.
“Are you contradicting me?” Alarick asked, stepping forward and towering over Amy, his eyes blazing.
“N-no,” she said, shrinking back. Although I was pretty sure most supernaturals could kill a human, or each other, pretty easily, it just didn’t happen here. These people weren’t animals. They weren’t psychos, either. No one had died except the girls the Wolf boys had taken. And Alarick had killed someone before, in front of other students, and gained their fear and respect.
Vampires, on the other hand, were pretty close to human as far as I could tell. They had no more desire to kill a person, no matter their supernatural race, than a human high schooler wanted to go around murdering people. They were as scared of the murderous wolves as any high school full of normal students would be of a murderous gang.
“But Timberlyn saw her,” Svana said, her voice almost as small as Amy’s. “With Mr. Ravenwood.”
Alarick’s eyes cut to me. I hadn’t told the vampires that Lindy wouldn’t give them their baby dhampir. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. It was more that I knew they had to tell Mr. Ravenwood everything, whether they wanted to or not. If I was the only keeper of the secret, it had that much less chance of getting out. I would have to tell him, or he’d go after the wolves, but I hadn’t known Lindy was going to randomly appear in our school.
Lindy stared at the enormous wolves, each of them at least six and a half feet tall and every girl’s wet dream, to the vampires, who were so beautiful it hurt to look at them. Both sides wanting her, the girl with one sock drooping around her ankle, hair the color and luster of cardboard hanging to her sloped shoulders, who ducked her head and scurried away when people picked on her, never once coming up with a snarky comeback.
“Is this some kind of joke?” she asked.
She wasn’t dumb. I’d give her that.
“No,” Brooklyn said, her lip curling in distaste as she glared at the cowering new girl. “Timberlyn told us you belonged with us, so here you are.”
“Timberlyn?” Lindy asked, turning to me.
“It’s not a joke,” Alarick said quietly. “You’re one of ours. Come with us, and we’ll explain.”
I met his gaze, hoping he could read the pleading in my eyes. All I wanted was for them to explain to girls what was happening before they kidnapped and bit them. Hell, I wouldn’t even expect them to give an unbiased account. They could present werewolfism like a doctor pushing the latest drug from their favorite pharmaceutical company. As long as the girls were told, given some kind of choice. I already knew it would work for Lindy, that she wouldn’t die. The wolves might not know it, but I knew my dreams were real. I still wanted her to be fully informed before going in.
“We’ll explain everything,” Alarick said, his voice even quieter, his eyes locked on mine.
I swallowed, my heart thrumming in my chest. Damn it, why did he have to do something nice? Why couldn’t he be an asshole like he had been my first year? Why couldn’t she be his mate, so I knew for sure that is was over and there was nothing I could do about it?
“O-Okay,” Lindy said, glancing between me and the wolves.
Vance took her hand, threading her pale fingers through his big, dark ones. “Don’t worry,” he murmured in his deep voice. “You’re safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”
As they walked
