“I don’t ever like what I hear,” he grumbled.
“Me neither,” I drawled. Three women walked by, and I gestured with my fork at them. “All of them. Yes, all of them, and they want you together. Not to keep, but they have a fantasy of doing the hot, poor vamp before they get mated off, like a wild bridal party weekend. One actually asked me if I’d give you a hall pass for that before they graduated.”
“And you said?” Hudson asked, amusement in his tone.
“I just told her to run.” I rolled my eyes when they all burst out laughing.
“No one approached me when we weren’t together,” Darby defended. I was fairly sure he was defending himself, but I wasn’t sure why.
Izzy snorted again. “I can’t imagine why. I tried to talk to you several times as your friend, and you almost ate me. You didn’t even see it was me two of the times, and I was genuinely scared of you.”
Everyone went dead quiet at her admission, and she winced.
“I’m so, so sorry,” Darby rasped, rubbing his chest. “Izzy, I’m so sorry. I value you as my friend and not simply Tamsin’s friend. I would never injure you. I didn’t—”
She gave him a soft smile. “Even I could see the pain in your aura, Darby. We’re good, really. I know, mate. You hurt so bad, you couldn’t see anything else. I just wanted to help. I wasn’t upset or trying to make you feel bad. I’m telling you so you understand you were in such a state that only an idiot would approach you, and even the idiots here aren’t that stupid.”
Things were still a bit tense at the table when she was done, but he accepted what she said, so I decided to be a smartass. “I can’t believe you’re saying ‘mate’ now.”
“You and Mel are rubbing off on me,” she teased.
We were, and I didn’t think any of us objected to that.
“There’s a gay couple in the closet that wants you to join them too,” I muttered, not pointing out the guys, as tables around us had started listening in when they’d figured out what we were talking about.
“You’re even adding in—”
“You started this,” I reminded him.
And he had. He had when we’d gotten back together and some of the exchange students had been messing with me, but he had acted like he was the only one who had to deal with this crap. People wanted him too.
A lot of people.
I had promised to show him but then had dropped it. It came back up today, as he’d heard some whispers today that I was meeting with a few of the wolf elders, and they were curious who I would be set up with.
Yes, because that was the only reason a woman could meet with elders.
For the love of fuck, the supe world needed to be dropped on their asses. It might be the only way to dislodge their heads from where they didn’t belong.
“I’m sorry, agra,” he murmured as he leaned in and kissed my cheek. “I was happy not to have to go, but I don’t like the idea—”
“I know. I don’t either. We don’t think that’s what this is, but if they do, I’ll deflect it just fine. Please trust me.”
“I do. You know I do.” He sighed when I shot him a look that I hadn’t been feeling it since we’d gotten back together. “I have never had a single second of doubt you would ever cheat on me. Not one. There’s just a lot, Tamsin. I feel powerless, helpless at times, and I hate I can’t do more. I hate I walk into conversations talking about you like you’re a prized fucking mare, and I can’t make it stop.”
I melted. I full on melted, leaning in and kissing him like no one was around and not caring I tasted like waffles, syrup, and fae fruit.
“Yummy,” he teased.
“Yeah, these are good.”
“I meant you, agra,” he purred, chuckling when I smacked his chest. He leaned in more and brushed his lips over my ear. “I love you. Go to your meeting, do your thing, and I’ll be waiting in your bed at home to be there for you however you need.”
“That sounds amazing,” I admitted. I didn’t like going into anything I wasn’t sure how to prepare for, and the promise of not having to handle the fallout alone was… Amazing. We weren’t planning for a fight or problems, but I never did and still they found me.
Case in point was when I found Instructor McGrath sniffing around my station and plants in Botany 101… Which he wasn’t the teacher of.
Which he clearly wanted to get caught doing. Why? I had enough on my mind, and I didn’t want to flip on my telepathy, but apparently I didn’t get what I wanted that day.
“Yes, be unnerved. Get more paranoid and tell people you’re worried about me. Play up your mental impediments I’ve started journaling about, and it will give me more of what I need to file the right everything you’re unstable and—”
That was enough of that. I didn’t need to hear anymore of his crazy. It was another stupid plan that wouldn’t remotely work. Maybe it could have a chance in our sexist society, but if I didn’t have the protections I did… Wouldn’t someone already have tried it? He thought he was so much smarter than the others and would make it happen?
Yeah, right.
I slapped on my brightest smile and put on my acting hat as I went right to him. “Are you sitting in and getting a lesson today, Instructor McGrath? I think that’s great! Your ingredients the last assignment were lacking
