Page 17 of Clawless

I bit the inside of my cheek, then murmured, “Just useful tips.” I glanced at the blonde, then added under my breath, “Like keep your knees together if you forget your underwear.”

He snorted. “Maybe we can make her a copy at the hotel.”

***

Reed’s joke got me through the other thirty-nine excruciating minutes. When we pulled up at the hotel, I was ready to push Callum and his vocal den mother out of the way and sprint for the lobby. How could a grown-ass woman even make those sounds, especially when the most her date had been doing was dragging his fingernails up and down her spine? She’d yowled worse than a barn cat at one point and I must have jumped half a foot. Reed had looked like he was going to toss the champagne bucket over her head, but Callum just watched us all with glittering eyes. When we’d finally pulled to a stop, Reed planted a hand in Callum’s chest, holding him against the seat as he started to climb out. The smaller alpha muttered something about being a jealous dick, and Reed leaned all his weight on his sternum. “Shut your mouth, Sawyer, or I’ll feed you my fist.”

Callum just wheezed and smirked. “Looking a bit hot under the collar there, brother. What happened to that famous Marshall calm?”

Reed just reached a hand back towards me. “Come on, Vail.”

I shuffled forward, careful not to step on my dress in the cramped space. But as Reed helped me out the door, I felt a warm hand cup my ass cheek. I whirled around, almost falling in my heels as I glared at Callum. “Did you just grope me?”

He shot his thumb at the blonde, who laughed and fluttered her fingers at me. “Guilty, pup. Was just seeing what all the fuss was about.”

“Put a leash on her, Cal,” Reed growled, then we were being whisked inside by a relieved-looking Head Omega. Penny handed Reed a thin folder, then gave me a quick once-over. Her placid gray eyes darkened a little. “You look flushed. Are you okay?”

My hand immediately went to my forehead. “I’m f-fine,” I stammered, hoping like hell Reed’s healing was the lasting kind. “The limo was just stuffy.”

“Lucky you! I floated here on a sea of hairspray and disco tunes. I don’t know why I bother with a playlist.”

I cracked a smile, but we were suddenly in a massive lobby with silk walls and shiny marble floors. Enormous flower arrangements covered every surface, but I stopped dead when I saw the fountain in the middle of the room. Colored lights twinkled under the surface, turning the water into a living rainbow. But it was the ice sculptures dangling overhead that made me catch my breath. They were all wolves in various poses, so lifelike it sent a shiver down my spine. “Wow,” I murmured, “this is like a fairytale.”

Reed just looked at me blankly, but Penny gave a happy smile. “Wait until you see the Grand Ballroom. It’ll knock your socks off.”

A fancy sign pointed us to The Hunter Moon Academy Function, and maybe I wobbled again, because Reed slid his hand around my waist. Penny gave him a knowing look before disappearing through an ornate pair of doors, but I just watched him open-mouthed as he took a corsage box from his pocket. “Before we go in, I want to give you this. It’s a Marshall rose.”

I stared at the rosebud in its bed of baby’s breath. It was beautiful… and romantic. And the last thing I expected Reed to give me. “Um… is this a date, Reed?”

He drilled me with his unfathomable stare. “I asked you to dinner yesterday, and you said you’d prefer to wait for tonight.”

“Oh.” I watched as he took the flowers from the box and fitted the silky band over my wrist. “I just though you meant the dining hall.”

He lifted a massive shoulder in a shrug. “Treat it like a date if you want. Or you can just think of it as an alpha welcoming his newest pack member.” He threaded my newly crowned wrist through the crook of his arm. “Either way, after tonight, no one’s going to wonder whose pack you belong to.”

Fourteen - Jasper

She came in on Reed’s arm, wearing a red dress that made my eyes bulge, and enough of his scent to make my wolf howl. I’d tried to prepare myself for this moment, but telling yourself something and seeing it in the flesh were two very different things for a shifter. More than half on me was controlled by a beast’s instinct. And those instincts were screaming at me this was wrong. Not just the corsage on her wrist – no doubt from Mrs. Marshall’s hothouse – or the crimson dress, but the whole damned picture. It had only been a couple weeks since she’d been on my arm, smiling at me like I hung the moon. So happy she’d been glowing…

My claws popped out so suddenly, they raked my ribs, and I hissed. “What is it, Jay?” My mom gave a delicate sniff, no doubt detecting the smell of blood under my suit. With a frown, she placed her glass of champagne on a nearby table, and tried to unfold my arms. “Are you hurt? What’s going on?”

“Stop, Mom.” I stepped out of range of her fussing, my gaze still drilling into Vail. She was being greeted by Reed’s parents, and while she had a polite smile plastered on her face, she seemed overwhelmed by the attention. Mrs. Marshall was flushed with happiness as they discussed the corsage on her wrist, but my gaze slid to her mate. Nathan, the Pack Alpha, looked like he’d just opened a box of cereal and found the queen of all chess pieces in his Cheerios.

But I didn’t care about the politics. She could pick any damn dress she wanted. And she could walk into the ballroom on the arm of any wolf in the school. But wearing an alpha glow to a function like this was way out of line. She might not have known what it meant, but Reed sure as fuck did. This was a statement. And a personal fuck you to yours truly.

“Is that her?”

I snapped out of my spiral to find my mom glaring across the ballroom at Vail. “Is that the female who got your father killed?”

“I got my father killed,” I told her for the hundredth time. “I challenged him. He didn’t back down. It’s done.”

She turned her glare my way, but as always it softened when she looked at me. “You could have been killed, Jay. She put you in harm’s way.”

I straightened my spine, hating the same words coming out of her mouth that I’d heard repeatedly from both my lieutenants and Pearl. The morning after the Hunter Moon Formal it was all they could talk about, until I’d banned them from mentioning her name in my presence. I now gave my mom a cold look that was at least half my wolf. “Maybe she inspired me. Remember, he’s the one who sent her to the pack lab to be tortured and broken. It’s not like the asshole didn’t have it coming.”

My mom made a rude little sound, but was all grace and dignity as she took her seat at the table. She instantly started talking to Callum’s mom, a reserved omega who looked like she carried the world’s problems on her slight shoulders. Her husband had died of a rare blood disease that affected shifters, and her brother was Acting Alpha until Callum came of age. Cal’s uncle was a hard, silent male who avoided the academy like the plague, forcing Mrs. Sawyer to step up and represent the pack at these events. She was as quiet and distant as my mom was direct and opinionated, and I had no idea what they found in common to discuss. But my attention quickly went back to Vail.

We were on a raised dais, as befitted the pack alphas and their mates, and it gave me a clear view of the ballroom. The principal was moving through the crowd, directing everyone towards their assigned seats, and I watched as Reed and his parents approached our table. His mom was still talking Vail’s ear off, but she sank back into their circle when she saw me watching. It was an instinctive gesture and said more about Vail’s feelings towards me than her new pack leadership. But when Alpha Marshall put a steadying hand on her shoulder, I felt my eyes wolf out. Alpha gold, only summoned in times of extreme emotion. Or when your inner beast wants to claw its way out and maim your closest ally.

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