Page 19 of Untamed

He eyes me warily. “She told you that?”

Everything in me tells me to go to him, but I restrain myself much better in my human form. “I’m sure she’ll share my answers with you.”

“She already has. Does ‘don’t be a dick’ring a bell?”

I chuckle. “Looks like you didn’t take my advice.”

His brows furrow as he takes me in. “I’m not a dick.”

“Really? You just told your mate, that her first kiss shouldn’t have happened. That doesn’t ring dickish to you?”

He bridges the gap between us. “What should I have said? That I wanted to take it further? That I wanted to sink my cock into your wet heat so badly that I’m still fucking hard as a rock?” Breath whooshes from my lungs, but he ruins it in the next second. “To get your hopes up when it’s a real possibility that nothing like that can ever happen between us?”

My wolf howls inside my chest. It’s so loud that it shakes me to my core. My legs almost give out from underneath me, but I don’t let it show. Instead, I incline my head. “You know what that will do to me.”

He doesn’t answer for the longest time. We stare at each other, unsaid words tangling between us. When he doesn’t respond, I shake my head. Everything he does only solidifies that I was right to avoid my pack like the plague. Spinning, I let my wolf take over. She obliges, singing out her own slew of growling barks that echo behind her as she tears back through the forest. She runs as if she can somehow out-race the pain slicing through her drumbeat heart.

My wolf gets us to Greystone Academy safely. Behind us, a familiar scent trails, staying in the tree line as we break through the grass and continue toward the small changing hut. She nudges the swinging door open with her muzzle and then shifts, letting me take control. I collapse onto the ground, staying there with my chest heaving, feeling as if I’m bleeding out onto the worn grass.

Neither one of us wants to be in control right now. The hurt is too damn much.

I’m just going to say it. Fuck fate. It dealt me the wrong hand. Screwed me, actually. Feral is looking like it might be my future.

As I’ve been doing all my life, I pick myself up, dress, and beckon strength to me. A wolf howls in the distance, and a shiver makes its way up my spine. It could’ve been any wolf, but something in me knows it was Jonah. And that howl was for me.

The school has helpfully supplied a full-length mirror to the right of the door. I get all the tangles out of my hair and grimace at the dried dirt coating parts of my exposed skin.

A nice hot bath or shower might help wash away all this emotion. I step outside the hut, peering toward the bushes where I left Jonah, and a shadow moves. My sight is better than a regular human’s, but I still can’t confirm if it was the wind or a big, beautiful, brown wolf who passed in front of the tree.

Turning away, I march back toward the stone building. Instead of admiring it for its architectural qualities, I appraise it as the fortress that it is. It looks standoffish, secluded. Inside, it hides away the same type of unwanted creatures.

To think that I’ll have to sit through more meetings like the one I just had with Jonah again and again until he makes his final decision…. I might tell him to put me out of my misery now. If he never plans on building our supposed fated relationship, he might as well let me go. I don’t want to be like Mia and Nathan—having to deal with this shit for a year.

I’d rather take my chances as Feral.

The walk back to my room seems to take forever. When I finally get there, I gorge on Mia’s chocolate while I finish reading the manual to keep my mind off what transpired. There’s a map of the grounds, and judging by this, yeah, I was totally outside the perimeter of the school. There is no mention of Brixton anywhere on the sketch, and I can’t help but think that omission is on purpose. For those of us who have a mate that close, it could break us.

Not me though. I know my place now.

When I finally lay my head down to sleep, Jonah is all I think about.

His bruising lips against mine.

The head of his cock nudging my entrance.

He was ready to take what he wanted, and I would’ve given it to him willingly.

It would’ve been a big mistake, of course. If we’d gone that far, Jonah still could’ve spoken those words to me. If that had happened, I probably would’ve gone Feral myself.

Hey, that’s an idea. Why wait for him to make the decision? I could escape this place any time I wanted. Guarantee no one would come after me.

9

The next morning, Mia’s knocking rouses me from sleep. My head hurts, my limbs are tired—my first real run with my wolf has taken everything out of me.

“You in there?” she calls, knocking again.

I groan an unintelligible sound. A few moments later, though, I drag my ass out of bed and stomp toward the door, whipping it open.

---