She was grating on my nerves. I’d come inside so the wolf couldn’t spy on me, but I’d rather be captured than have to deal with her. However, I had to be careful, I didn’t want her to follow me outside. “What?” I couldn’t hide my annoyance.
“Look, I’m trying to be nice.” She scoffed and crossed her arms. “I wanted to say thank you.”
She was determined to tell me whatever was on her mind. However, I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of asking. “You’re welcome.”
“Don’t you want to know why I’m thanking you?” She pouted.
Like that was going to work. “No, but I don’t think that matters. Clearly, you want to tell me.”
“Griffin’s been spending a lot more time in Shadow City, which has been amazing for me. I was so upset when he bought that house by Killian, but now that he’s avoiding staying there, I’m wrangling him faster than I’d originally planned.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I’m thinking you had something to do with that.”
My wolf howled in my head so damn loud that I almost whimpered. My heart felt like it was fracturing, but that made no sense. I’d seen the guy only a couple of times, and he’d been an asshole for most of it.
They were a match made in heaven. I should have been thrilled that he had a reason to stay away…but I wasn’t. I’d have liked to pretend it was because Killian missed his best friend, but that wasn’t the truth. I wanted Griffin around too.
A portion of my heart grew colder at the thought of him with Luna. Not wanting to risk sounding broken, I nodded and glanced at Jessica. I forced my words to be smooth. “It was nice to meet you.” And I turned and headed back out the front doors.
“What a bitch,” Luna huffed. “I was thanking her.”
“Well, you did tell her she’d never move into Shadow City and then in the next breath said her boyfriend would,” Jessica said, “I’m thinking that hit her hard.”
Not wanting to hear anymore, I stepped outside and walked onto the lawn in front of the building. The vampire girls were now watching a group of bear shifters playing football with no helmets. They had their shirts off, which almost made me laugh because their chest hair was so thick you couldn’t even see their nipples.
Needing to be around noise so I couldn’t hear Jessica’s and Luna’s conversation, I sat against a tree trunk close by and watched the idiots tackle each other over and over again.
FAMILIAR FOOTSTEPS MADE their way to me, and Killian’s scent tickled my nose. I glanced toward the building and found his gaze on me.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked as his eyes flicked toward the bear shifters, who were putting on a show for the girls sitting around them.
The longer I’d sat out there, the more girls had congregated. I had to admit the bear shifters were sexy in their own right, and they were eating up the attention. Even a few angels, their floral scents giving them away, were standing around near the vampires, pretending to want to watch the game.
“Yeah.” I knew I sounded terse, but, I hated being around people right now. My skin was crawling. Any time one of them made eye contact with me, I felt like they knew my secrets.
I needed to get control of my emotions because being rogue was beginning to cause even more problems. My hands kept growing sweaty, and my mind became hazy more frequently. At times, I felt a phantom pack connection that made my wolf restless. But it would vanish almost as quickly as it appeared. My wolf and I both needed to feel a connection to something, and the cold void seemed to be expanding and putting a wall up between my animal and human sides. If I didn’t find a pack soon, I might go insane. Even Killian’s comforting presence was having less of an effect on me. But if I became part of his pack, I’d connect with all the other hundreds, which wasn’t an option. And the fact that he tried to maintain distance from his pack spoke volumes. I doubted they’d accept me-an outsider-so easily.
I had no clue what the answer was, but I needed to figure out something soon.
“Well, come on,” he said and reached out a hand.
The stench of spray paint attacked my nose. I almost coughed but managed to hold it together. If the wolf was watching me, I didn’t want to tip him off to what Killian had done. He could figure that out on his own. Granted, he probably wouldn’t care that the image was covered. He’d painted it to get a reaction from me, and I’d already fallen into the trap.
Placing my hand in Killian’s, I let him pull me to my feet, and the two of us headed toward the truck. We held an amicable silence until we were pulling out of the university.
“Were you able to cover it?” I tried not to let him know how nervous I was, but he knew me too well.
He nodded. “Yeah, I was. Sorry it took so long, but I had to make sure I didn’t get caught.”
“No, it’s fine.” His words weighed on me. “You shouldn’t have done it. You’re putting so much at risk by housing me and being my friend.”
“Stop it.” He pointed at me in warning. “That’s what friends do for one another, and come on, you know I think of you as a sister.”
“Because I remind you of her.” Maybe he was investing too much in me because of that. “Even though we have different tastes in clothes.”
“Olive wanted to fit in with Luna and Jessica.” He sighed. “She dressed more like you until the last year or so before her death, but to be clear, I’m not helping you just because you remind me of her. Maybe at first, that was why, but not anymore. You’ve become a true friend. ”
I loved that he could be honest with me. I owed him the same. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. There was a wolf watching me when I went off on Rosemary.” “What are you talking about?” His brows furrowed.