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“And you weren’t before?”
“Not like this. I get to tell him to stay,” she said, her voice feather-light and joyful.
And while it was exactly the reason I told her I could help, the way she talked about Nigel made my throat constrict. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to keep her away from the Shifter.
But I couldn’t. Not when it’d steal her smile.
“Happy to help,” I finally responded, ignoring the way it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
We left separately and met up outside the school so I could drive her to where the wolf waited.
The unvoiced conflict churned in my head.
I drove the smiling teen to a guy who both didn’t deserve her and would very likely endanger her, and it put me in a bad mood. Even with her captivating smile next to me, the fact that it wasn’t for me was a new kind of torture.
When I parked, she didn’t move. “Do you think he’ll be satisfied with just being friends?”
He’d be as stupid as they got if he weren’t.
“You don’t owe anyone anything, not even him. People’s feelings change all the time. I thought you’d know that by now with all those sappy romances you watch.”
Her eyes narrowed on me, clearly not amused. “It’s not that simple when you’re in it. Haven’t you ever been in love before?”
Once.
I kept the forgotten pain from my expression and smirked at the nervous Hunter beside me. “Thought you said it wasn’t love.”
Her eyes rolled, and I smiled against my will. “It’s not. You know what I mean. I definitely like him enough to want to kiss him.” She quieted, obviously embarrassed, and my mood worsened. “Not that we ever did,” she corrected for some reason.
“Well, you don’t like me and we did.”
I knew exactly what I was doing, and it was completely childish. But it got the response I was looking for. She instantly flushed, bit her lower lip, and desperately tried to look anywhere but at me.
“Can you forget about that? Besides, you said it was to activate my blood.”
I did say that.
As much as I wanted to continue to tease her, I worried about the repercussions if I pushed too hard too soon. “I’ll stay here like you requested.”
The young Hunter’s hazel eyes slid over to me, a look on her face I didn’t quite recognize.
Hope? Desperation? Pleading?
“If you’re okay with it, can you come along?”
Genuinely surprised, I tightened my hands around the steering wheel. “You want me there now?”
“I’d feel better if you were,” she admitted in a soft, whispery voice.
Her uncharacteristically sheepish behavior, the way she felt safer with me by her side, very quickly put me in a better mood.
Beaming a smile at her, I caught sight of her widened eyes and blushing cheeks. “I’d be honored.”
Laughing, she opened the door and shook her head. “Just do me a favor, stay quiet. You tend to anger the people around you with the things you say.”
Lips tilted, I smirked at the brazen girl. “Not my fault people tend to take what I say wrong.”
Her amused laughter was music to my ears. “It’s easy to misinterpret what you say when you say it to get that sort of reaction, I suppose.”
