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“Touché.” He plopped a kiss on my cheek, still grinning. “Let’s go.”
We finally got out of the car, and I let him take my bag for me before we headed up the stairs. He liked to carry it, and I sure as hell didn’t mind letting him.
Our hands were intertwined, and they swung between us as we walked. It was cheesy, but I liked it anyway.
My fingers tightened on Ford’s when we passed a pair of girls who stared at him openly, and my jaw clenched when another girl clearly checked him out.
I tried to remind myself that I’d done the same thing before we were together, but it didn’t work.
My wolf still rose to the surface.
We started up the stairs, but she didn’t shrink back away, even when we were alone.
I felt my body start to change, and stumbled backward, nearly falling down the stairs. Ford caught me, scooping me up and then running up the last of the stairs three at a time.
He had me in my dorm and on my bed—still stripped of the sheets—before the first crack of my bones.
I bit back a cry as the pain assaulted me.
“Just breathe, Pretty Girl,” Ford murmured. “Don’t fight her. The more you fight her, the longer it’ll take and the more it’ll hurt. Let her take over; I’ll be right here the whole time.”
I forced myself to relax as much as I could while pain tore through me. By the time the shift finally ended, I was glad to be free of my body, just to be free of that pain.
When my wolf was in control again, she bit Ford’s shirt, dragging him up onto the bare, rubbery mattress. He chuckled, climbing up obediently.
She used her nose to nudge him until his back was up against the wall, and then proceeded to lick his entire face, neck, and arms.
When her scent was all over him, she turned on the bed and plopped down on top of his lap, her eyes on the door.
His hands stroked her fur, and though he was quiet, he didn’t seem upset or annoyed in anyway. Just relaxed, and at ease.
The wolf continued to stare at the door, and it finally occurred to me what she was doing.
Guarding him.
Like a hen, guarding her nest.
Never mind that she was his mate; she was totally sitting on him and keeping guard over him.
The attention of all those other women—whether real or imagined—must’ve really done a number on her.
I waited for her to calm down, but her hearing was better than mine. Every time a door closed in the hallway, or another girl laughed loudly enough for her to hear, or people walked past, she grew tense.
Ford continued to pet her, murmuring to her that he was hers and that he had no interest in any other woman, dragging her attention back to the marking on her ankle repeatedly.
She pretty much just ignored him, her focus remaining on the door.
After a few hours, Ford fell asleep despite his uncomfortable-seeming position, but it wasn’t until late, late at night when the dorm was finally quiet enough that my wolf slept.
When morning came around,she was finally relaxed enough that Ford could talk her into shifting.
After the pain that accompanied the shift back, I collapsed on Ford’s lap with a groan. My face was in his crotch, but sex was the last thing on my mind after that miserably-tense night.
“I think we’re going to have to move to your place.” I mumbled the words into his jeans.
“We can make this work if we need to,” Ford told me, his hand petting my back the same way they’d stroked my wolf’s fur.
“I can’t,” I said, my voice utterly miserable. “I barely slept, and didn’t get a damn thing done. I’m going to fail my classes, and lose my scholarship, and get kicked from the program, Ford. And the money isn’t the problem, but if I’m kicked from the program, the money won’t matter, and—”
