Page 1 of Protected Promise
Kaitlyn
Chapter 1
Just three more finals. That was all I had to get through to finish out my time at Archibald Reynolds College. Graduation was coming fast, and I was equally excited and terrified.
Damon was meeting me at the doghouse to help me study. It was hard not to reflect back on everything he had done for me.
My life hadn’t been easy before coming to the ARC. Damon Rossi was about the only person here that truly understood that. Most of them thought I was more like a pampered princess and in a lot of ways I was okay with that. It wasn’t anyone’s business anyway.
I walked into the doghouse and sat down on the couch. I slipped out of my shoes and crossed my legs beneath me. I was perfectly comfortable in the fraternity house affectionately dubbed the doghouse of Delta Omega Gamma.
Of course, it wasn’t my fraternity. I was missing a few parts to officially join the all-boys club, but unofficially, I was more at home here than in my own sorority house just down the Row.
Holden and Marie were snuggled up in one corner of the room. They were disgustingly cute together. Marie had powers, the kind that should creep me out. She’d taken one good hard look at me the first time we met, and it was like she’d seen into my soul.
We had never spoken about it, but I was aware that she knew more about me than almost anyone, things she shouldn’t know. The kind of stuff I didn’t want anyone to know about.
I liked Marie though because even though she’d seen the darkness inside of me, she didn’t treat me any differently. We’d even become good friends over the semester as I tended to do with all of the mates of the DOGs. They accepted me as one of their own even though I had no real claim on anyone in the doghouse.
Sure, plenty of gossip around campus said otherwise, but I had never hooked up with a single person during my time here. I’d come close a few times, but with a house full of overbearing adoptive brothers, it would take a strong male to truly get close to me.
I’m sure there were plenty of women out there that would be angered by their self-righteous protection of me, but I was beyond grateful for it.
Without Damon and his fraternity brothers, I wasn’t really sure what would have become of me here because I was so lost and damaged when I’d arrived. Damon knew that. He understood the ugly truths about me, and he still loved me anyway. I owed far too much to ever fully repay him.
“Oh, hey, Kaitlyn,” Marie finally said.
I grinned, understanding she hadn’t been rude, just lost in a quiet moment with her mate that I hadn’t wanted to interrupt.
“Hey.”
“I don’t understand why you study in here when there are so many other quieter places around campus,” Holden teased.
I shrugged. “I don’t much care for the quiet. Besides, Damon’s agreed to help me study.”
Lachlan walked in and his face lit up when he saw me. That look was why everyone at the Theta house thought he was secretly mine. I hadn’t believed them at first, but now I was a little sensitive to it.
Lachlan was one of the sweetest guys on the planet, not to mention he was hot and could have anyone he wanted. Even the guys around campus took notice of him. Add in a super sexy Australian accent and he was the dream guy of half the school. Just not mine.
We were friends, that was it. He was easygoing and fun which made him my first pick for any plus one event, but I was clear on where those boundaries laid, and he respected that. Plus, I always knew I was safe with a DOG. Damon would rip the throat out of any one of his brothers who would even dare to try and touch me inappropriately.
Sticking with the DOGs was safe. I needed that in my life, which was why graduation felt like a looming dark cloud above me no matter how excited I was to be done with classes.
There were two things I knew for certain about my future. I would never take a mate and there was absolutely no way in hell I was going home again, not ever.
That didn’t leave a girl like me very many options.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of living in the human world, but I would do whatever I had to do to survive.
“Kaitlyn, I heard Theta was throwing an end of year formal, do you need a date?”
Kian, the new panther shifter who happened to be pledging the doghouse chose that moment to walk in.
“If you need a date, Kait, I’m happy to go with you.” He flashed a perfectly straight bright white toothy grin my way, knowing it would irritate Lachlan.
I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s not just a Theta formal. All the sororities are coming together for this one. I have no doubt invitations will be coming your way as soon as word gets out officially.”
Kian glared at me. We both knew every panther on campus would be hounding him now.
