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I wondered what all the odd behavior was about. It could be the blood moon, but… Chris was human.

Jaxon wasn’t though… Was it some sort of ogre mating thing?

For the rest of the walk, I listened to a podcast on Spookify about the mating rituals of various species in the college, skipping to the section on ogres.

Huh… apparently they grew quite possessive during a blood moon and… sealed their fate with a bite.

Poor Chris.

I entered my own dorm right as the section on demon and devil mating began. I put my headphones away, Carter emerging from his room, rubbing his head.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine,” he groused, then offered an apologetic smile. “I shifted unexpectedly this morning and caught the side of a table.”

“Ouch.”

He shrugged. “Not the first time it’s happened. I was going to have a few people over tonight—is that okay with you?”

I raised a brow skeptically. “How many is a few?”

Carter laughed. “Not enough to rival a fraternity rager. Three? Four? Five, if you wanted to invite Luc.”

My cheeks warmed. “Why would I want to do that?”

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed you two getting closer… or hear the things you say behind your bedroom door.”

Okay, now my face was on fire. “How—” I sighed. “Cat shifter.”

“And these walls are like… paper thin.” Sensing that I really did not want to address how I’d spent nearly every evening since I met Luc, Carter switched gears. “Even if you don’t invite him, you should join us. It’ll be good for you to meet people.”

“If you say so…” I sighed. “Do I have time for a shower before people show up?”

“Of course.”

Grateful for that at least, I spun toward the bathroom.

“You even have time to get off a couple times if you want!” Carter called after me.

I whirled on him and gave him my best attempt at a glare, but it was weak. He was an older brother—he backed down at nothing.

I wonder how he’d react to a spray bottle…

Chapter 10

LUC

I felt like shit.

I knew I’d been avoiding Tate, but I wasn’t sure what was going on with me, and the last thing I wanted to do was expose him to something he might not have been ready for.

I’d had a killer headache all day—all week really—and it felt like something was crawling underneath my skin. I couldn’t sit still, couldn’t sleep, leaving me pacing my room and wandering the campus long after everyone had settled for the night. Even sitting on the perch outside of Tate’s window was impossible for more than a few minutes.

And trying to resist having my hands on him? Pure torture. I’d been the one to agree to take things slow and it was killing me inside to watch him jerk off as he sighed my name and not be the one to do anything about it.

What finished me off was having to tell Tate that I couldn’t hang out with him that night, because I wasn’t even sure why I turned him down. The ache in my chest must have only been a fraction of what he was feeling, but I couldn’t even begin to try and explain it to him, because I didn’t quite understand myself.

After the week from absolute hell, the only thing I had the energy for was to go right to bed. I was fed up with my own behavior, and desperate to just sleep away this damn blood moon so my mood could return to normal.