“Sophia Green is so fucking hot. I’ve wanted her since first grade. He better not pick her,” a third male said.
There was a smacking sound and then a groan. “Women are not objects, you fools,” the redheaded female chided them. “The girl Sawyer ends up with will have to choose him just as much as he chooses her.”
Collective laughter rocked through the car. “And what female at school wouldn’t pick pretty boy Sawyer?”
“I wouldn’t,” the female said.
Silence.
“You’re his cousin. Gross,” a male voice commented.
“So? I wouldn’t pick him. Now stop talking about the mating year, it’s making me nauseous. I have to live with it for the next year,” she snapped back.
Cousin? She was Sawyer’s cousin?
We rode in silence a few more minutes until the van stopped.
“We’re here. I’m taking the cover off of her head,” the female said.
“Copy that,” a male answered.
Finally!
When the sack was ripped off my head, I was blinded with bright light. I winced as my eyes adjusted to the sudden sunlight assaulting my brain.
“Hey, Brandon,” someone outside of the car said.
I swiveled my head in that direction to see a guard standing in front of a giant iron gate. He wore black army fatigues with a gun at his hip. “That her?” He peered inside of the car at me.
What the…?
He looked me up and down, causing redness to creep up my neck. “Now I see why Sawyer went to all that trouble.”
“She can hear you, asshole!” Redhead snapped.
The guard rapped a palm on the hood of the van twice and we rolled forward into the open gates.
Holy shifter babies.
My jaw unhinged as we passed a low stone wall with the name Sterling Hill University on it. It wasn’t the letters that had me transfixed, it was the freaking building and manicured lawns. The campus was sprawled out onto a wide green lawn, with several buildings made of glass and stainless steel. Everything was so modern. Students walked on the sidewalks, but a few wolves lay on the lawns, sunbathing in their animal form.
I gasped and Redhead looked at me, following my gaze.
She frowned, then looked at the cuffs on my wrists. “When’s the last time you shifted?”
It was an innocent question, one I’m sure she didn’t think would carry so much pain.
“Never.” My voice cracked. “I was born outside Werewolf City,” I told her.
“Jesus,” the driver dude said.
“Language,” the guy in the passenger seat growled.
The driver flipped him off and the dude in the passenger seat grabbed the finger and bent it backward until the driver conceded. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, baby Jesus.”
“That’s better,” passenger guy said, and when I looked at the redheaded chick again, she was smiling.
I was grateful for the distraction.
“I’m Sage,” she told me, holding out a hand.
Sage. That was an interesting name.
“My mom’s a hippie.” She winked and I took her hand.
I shook it. “Demi.”
She gestured over her shoulder to the driver, “That’s Brandon, total player and asshole. Stay away from him.”
“Hey!” he yelled.
She motioned to the guy in the passenger seat. “And that’s Quan. Sweet teddy bear, you can trust him with your life.”
“Love you, Sage.”
“Love you too, boo,” she called back.
There was a guy sitting next to Sage who was silently staring out the window. “That’s Walsh, he’s basically a mute.”
“Fuck you,” he growled, causing her to grin.
“But if I had to pick one guy to have my back in a fight, it would be him.”
“Hey!” the driver, Brandon, yelled again.
“Sorry, babe, you’re worthless. Nothing but eye candy.” Sage shrugged, then looked at me, winking as Brandon started to pout.
“I can’t help that I’m so beautiful,” Brandon declared.
Everyone chuckled, including me.
I liked her, I liked all of them, even though this was the weirdest fucking day of my life.
We pulled into a parking spot, in between a Range Rover and a BMW, and I started to second guess my decision to come here. My jean shorts were torn, with heavily frayed edges, and my Converse shoes that I’d snagged at a second-hand store had duct tape on the bottom to keep the sole from coming off. Not to mention my t-shirt was vintage and looked like I’d pulled it out of a trashcan. I’d had it custom screen printed with Coffee before talkie across the front.
I clearly didn’t belong here.
Brandon killed the engine and opened the sliding van door, rolling out his neck. “I’ll take her to admissions, then she’s no longer our problem.”
Ouch. I take it back, I didn’t like all of them.
“You’re a dick, you know that? I’ll take her.” Sage jumped out of the van and he was forced to back up or she’d plow right into him.
He just rolled his eyes and waved her off. “Whatever.”
The other boys jumped out of the van as well and looked at me. “I hope you like it here. It was nice to meet you,” Quan said, taking off his belt which held two guns. I noticed a large gold cross hung from his neck.
“Thanks…” I cleared my throat, “for the kidnapping.”
Sage grinned, and even Walsh’s lips twitched like he wanted to smile.
“She’s funny. I like her,” Sage told Quan, then she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away from the van. I followed her, suddenly conscious of the wrist cuffs that no one else had. People stared as we passed, but when they did Sage flipped them off, so they quickly turned their heads.
“Big news on campus. The alpha’s son goes to meet with the principal of the magical rejects for charity work and is so taken with a banished wolf that he begs his father to free her and let her back into the city so she can be considered as a potential mate for his mating year. Quite romantic, if you like that shit.”
“No. No. It’s not like that,” I told her, my cheeks reddening. “He just used the mate choosing thing as a way to get me out. He even said so in his letter.”
My cheeks pinked again just thinking about it as we passed another group of people who stared. I tucked my chin into my chest and looked at the ground, wanting to disappear. I didn’t like attention, I liked life better through the lens of my camera.
Sage’s hand rose and jerked my chin up as she stopped walking and leaned into my ear. “Honey, you’re a wolf. Looking down when stared at is just going to get your ass kicked.”
I gulped.
This was so different from Delphi Academy.
I nodded.
“Submissives don’t go to Sterling Hill, and I can smell your dominance, so just let it out, okay?”
Let it out? The one thing I’d shoved deep down inside of me my entire life?
“Got it,” I said, my voice stronger. “Anything else?”
This chick seemed knowledgeable, and since my parents never spoke much of Werewolf City or their time at Sterling Hill because of the pain it brought them, I knew shit-all about this place, or how to survive here. I’d never shifted, never lived in a pack. I grew up with a bunch of stuck-up magical assholes as a solitary wolf girl. Everyone at that school was a grade-A asshole except for Raven. Without her I might not have survived it.