Page 34 of Pack Nightmare

I make it through my classes with my brain in total la-la-land, clenching my thighs together whenever too visceral of a daydream strikes me. That I wore one of my short dresses with high boots today is completely unrelated to seeing Derrek later.

Thank god the guys take decent notes because I have not heard one word from my professors all day.

“…, Layla?”

We’re at lunch and I’ve been completely tuned out, rolling my food around in my mouth and imagining its Derrek’s tongue instead. What the hell is wrong with me? I nearly choke on the bite I’m chewing when I realize Landon said my name, but I don’t know what he’s asking.

I swallow and take a long sip of my water before I give him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, what did you say?”

The guys exchange a look. “I asked if you were ready for our bio exam or if you wanted to study this weekend,” Landon replies slowly. “Are you alright, Layla? You’ve been kind of spacey all day.”

Heat floods my cheeks. “Yeah, sorry I…” I don’t have a good excuse. My mind is a complete blank aside from my ‘hot for teacher’ daydreams, and I’m certainly not about to tell those to the guys. “Derrek wants to talk to me before class, about… what we talked about before.” I glance meaningfully down the table both ways, hoping they get the hint that I don’t want to hash everything out in front of an audience. “So I’ve been thinking about what it could be.”

“No problem, gorgeous,” Jared leans back in his seat. “We can head to his office before class.”

Panic rises in my chest, but I try to act cool. “No, if you don’t mind, I want to talk to him alone first. I’ll tell you guys the details later. You know, just in case I’m wrong and it’s about how I’m failing Lit or something,” I give a half-hearted laugh to play it off, but the three of them still look slightly suspicious.

Once again, it’s Milo who saves the day. “Sure thing, Lex. You’re entitled to your privacy like everyone else. But we’re just a text away if you need us.” He crumples up his napkin and tosses it on his empty tray, then stands and presses a warm kiss to my temple. “I’ll see you after class, beautiful.” His warm cedar scent envelopes me for just a second, the tingles from his kiss coursing through my body as he walks away.

Landon follows suit, also bidding me farewell with a spine-tingling kiss that threatens to turn me into a puddle despite the crowded cafeteria.

Jared waits for me to finish eating, insisting he’s going to walk me to the English building and then sit in the lecture hall to read until class starts. After deepening our connection yesterday and heightening it with kissing, I realize the electric tingles I feel from Jared have altered. Now it’s more like the thrumming reverberations of a guitar string, a vibration that starts at the point of contact and shoots straight to my core.

We cross the sunny quad holding hands, and suddenly the words tumble out of me.

“Jared, do you feel something when you touch me?”

“Feel something? Of course I do. I’m not a monster,” he teases, affecting an exaggerated reaction of shock at my audacity.

I elbow him in the ribs. “You know what I mean. Whenever I touch you, or Milo or Landon, I feel like… electricity, but nice. Not an electric shock, but sort of pleasant, tingly sensations.”

Jared’s eyes drop to our clasped hands, and he considers for a moment as we walk. As if conducting an experiment, he lifts them and drags a fingertip from his free hand along my trapped knuckles. Tingles with that same reverberation course over my skin and my belly clenches.

“No,” he concludes finally. “I always feel a little… I dunno, kind of spark in the air when I’m around you. Perhaps that’s a little tingly? But when I touch you, I just feel your skin, nothing else.”

“I see. Good to know.” It seems this feeling is one-sided.

“What is it like? Is it the same with all three of us?”

“Actually, it was the same, until… yesterday,” I admit, my cheeks heating. “At first it was just like a little tingle, a little shiver that ran over my skin whenever I touched one of you. I dunno if it was just the kissing, or how I feel closer to you now—since you let me in a little.” I nudge him with my shoulder. “But now with you, it’s different. But the same with the other two.”

“Different how?”

I can tell he’s excited that we suddenly have something I don’t share with the other two.

“Um, instead of light tingles, it feels more like… a vibration. You know, like a guitar string?”

“Huh. Well, I don’t have it, but it sounds cool. Maybe it’s another alpha thing?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was assuming. I just thought that because you guys were my fated, you might feel it, too.”

“We felt the second you crossed into pack territory, and we can feel when you’re nearby, or when your emotions change suddenly. It’s kind of a vague feeling, at least for me. Landon talks about it more, but he’s just really good at reading your facial expressions.”

We’ve walked down the long cramped hallway of closed office doors, and finally reached Derrek’s.

“Well, this is where I leave you, gorgeous.” Jared wraps me in his muscular arms and flicks back the brim of his cap so he can kiss me properly.

I melt slightly, the vibration tied to a tightening coil in my belly, before I pull away. “Okay, get to class. I’ll see you soon.”

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