“What else did you and Vera share during your five minutes of freedom?”
Jade smiled, offering me a little shrug. I loved seeing my sister so carefree. She may be a year and a half older than me but I’d always done everything I could to protect her. Jade’s heart is so full.
“Just that she hasn’t really had the best person to show her the right way to love someone or even get to know someone.”
I stared at my sister, her holding my gaze. In that very moment she seemed so solid and put together. I was proud of her.
***
Loud pounding on my door woke me from a deep sleep. The sun was so bright beaming through my blinds I wondered how in the hell I slept as long as I had.
“Wake the fuck up, man. Mud wars, bitch,” Isaac bellowed from outside my door. “Those dicks think they’re gonna take us this year but they gotta another thing coming.”
I lay back on my mattress, covering my face with my pillow. The last thing I felt like doing was gearing up for some adolescent mud war with a bunch of rich asshole kids who thought their shit don’t stink. The war with the Alphas started with Xavier when his ex starting dating their house Prez. He didn’t give a shit about that bitch no more but the war had carried on. Truth was, beating them every year gave us all satisfaction. They deserved to land on their asses. This was one thing their daddies couldn’t buy them.
“It’s go time!” That sounded like Blake, and I pulled the pillow from my head and hurried from bed. Pulling open the door, I saw her wearing all black. Hell, she even wore one of Elijah’s helmets. Geared up and ready for war.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Mud wars!” She was excited. I’m talking bouncing on the balls of her feet with pure joy.
“Red’s not gonna let you play.” She had to know this. The idea of men bombing his girl with mud, tackling her and destroying her, that shit wouldn’t happen. “He’s gonna go ballistic.
“Duh.” I arched my brow. “It’s the perfect way to set the beast loose.”
Was she serious? “You’re doing it to fire him up?”
“It was Isaac’s idea.” She shrugged, still pulling on the helmet that bobbled on her head like it was ten sizes too big. She and Red couldn’t be more opposite in size; the guy was a fucking gorilla and Blake, she was tiny. “Come on, if we play our cards right, Eli will demolish them all within the first hour and the rest of us can be back here chilling with a cold beer by two.” She practically skipped off down the hallway toward the stairs and I was left wondering if this was going to be the worst or easiest mud war in history.
I suspected someone would be going to the E.R. and I’d give fifty that it’d be an Alpha for sure.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ruby
I was in the passenger seat of Darcy’s car, looking through my phone while she drove down Main. We’d just completed a cram session and decided to take a break for some frozen yogurt.
I’d felt a knot in my stomach every second of every day since Jay said he was sorry too and then walked away without looking back. I’d not shared the events of that night with Darcy even when she continued to drill me over my sulking mood.
She’d tried more than fifty times to get me back on track with her so-called must do list and I’d shot her down every time. It was fun at first, even exciting. Now it’s the last thing I wanted to continue on with.
Pausing over Jay’s name that showed in my thread of texts, I considered opening it once more and torturing myself. Only the sound of Darcy’s screeching tires and my phone being catapulted toward the dash immediately stopped me.
“What the―” I looked up and the words I’d had on the tip of my tongue disappeared. A large group of guys and maybe even girls covered from head to toe with mud were barreling in a herd across the road. They were jumping around, hooting and hollering as if they’d just won the Super Bowl or something. We both sat watching as they crossed in front of us, moving from the open field on one side of the street toward the side streets lined with big historic homes.
Most of them were so covered with mud you couldn’t tell what they truly looked like beneath it all. They were a mess.
“I’m not imagining this, am I?”
Darcy remained quiet and I looked around from the people and toward her.
“Right? You see this too?”
“Mud wars.” Two words was all I got and her nostrils flared as she continued to stare.
“Excuse me?”
“Fraternities, they have mud wars.” She seemed so bitter. “It’s some macho thing that they do. Isaac…” She practically growls his name and her chest heaved. “He’s such a child, but it’s their big yearly war with the other fraternities and it’s this big thing. Like a way to prove who’s dick is bigger or something.”
I really needed to ask her what on earth went on between her and this Isaac guy.
Before I could say anything more I jerked in surprise when there was a tap on the window at my side. Slowly and cautiously I swiveled around and found a very muddy and adorable Jay standing at the side of Darcy’s car. He was leaning forward with one hand resting on her door, his eyes level with my own.
He motioned for me to roll down the window and I swear I could hear a swooshing sound in my ear from the rapid
