Page 1 of Prey

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Welcome to Gotland College,” releasing his load inside me, then rolling off to pull up his sweatpants as I eyed those firm butt cheeks, walking away, less appealing than before we tumbled in the sheets. And by ‘tumbled,’ I meant lying in missionary, legs spread while he penetrated me.

My only respite was that I was half-drunk and would care more about my hangover tomorrow than this guy, and I’d force myself to forget that I’d been crushing on him for the last week since I arrived here just because he was nice to me.

He picked me out from a group of recruits at Gotland and showed me around, bought coffee and dinner, pointed outwhich jocks to avoid and which tutors were sleeping with their students, allegedly, and the roast chicken on Tuesday nights at the dinner hall was the best on campus.

“You can leave now,” he said coldly, pointing to the door and signaling he was finished, so he had no use for me anymore.

Covering my naked body dripping in his scent, I dressed under the sheets while he stood over me in a strange dominance. It was as if he won this battle and I lost, and now I must walk away defeated, even though I wasn’t aware there was a war in the first place.

“Are you going back to the party?” I asked because he was my ride home, and if he was going back downstairs to drink some more, I’d have to find another way back to my hall.

“Yeah,” he answered without an ounce of warmth, tilting his chestnut head. “What’s your name again?”

I swallowed back the shame. He had been using my name for the past week but suddenly forgot after we had sex. Perhaps it’s true that men lost brain cells every time they came.

“An…” I bit my tongue and stuttered, dangerously close to telling him my real name. “Riley,” I corrected, noticing he barely listened because he got what he wanted, discarding me so he could pursue his next lay. I shouldn’t care, but I did.

His name was tattooed on my brain for the past week, but he couldn’t possibly remember my name.Asshole. Mission: To erase his name,Shaun, from my brain forever.

“Riley,” he repeated in a taunting tone that stirred my anxiety. Let this evening be over so I can bury my face in a pillow for a year.

He didn’t remove his sweater, just yanked his sweatpants down and fucked me, another wet hole to stick his wood into, and didn’t care if I got anything out of it. I wasn’t an expert on men, but I suspect I’d been disrespected, and he had informed me that the game was over and we were done.

“You forgot your glasses,” he hissed. I internally scolded myself for being so stupid, and I scrambled back to the bed to grab them and shove them on my face.

He prompted me to leave first and followed behind down the hallway of his frat house serenaded by grunting and sighing fucking noises, and then he paused halfway down the stairs. A tall jock wearing a Gotland Gators football sweatshirt shot Shaun a smirk, then cocked his eyebrows at him, indicating a job well done.

I’d been screwed over. This was a setup. A week of wooing, or at least pretending to be interested, then inviting me to his frat party to welcome in the new term. He’s a sophomore like I am, but I did my freshman year at an academy out of state while in hiding, then transferred to Gotland University here in Gothenburg under the pseudonym Riley Laws.

My curly blond hair was colored hazelnut, and I had to straighten it daily. I wear green contact lenses and glasses with fake lenses, but there’s only so much I can do without cosmetic surgery. I arrived knowing no one, and Shaun took me under his wing and pretended to be my friend. He took me to the best cafes, pizzerias, and his favorite sports bar and told me where the best place to park my car was, even though I was using the bus and didn’t have the money to buy a car.

When I glanced back at Shaun, a shiver snaked down my spine at those blue, narrowed eyes drilling holes into my skull as if I had done something wrong. He wasn’t sharing the smug glee with the tall jock. Instead, he seemed pissed off, but I didn’t know why.

Heeding the warning of his newborn cruelty, I fled through crowds of drunk students as the scent of beer and dope clouded my senses and the thumping music pounded behind my eyes.

Once I survived the jungle and reached the front door, I turned back to Shaun, who was standing on the stair, arms folded acrosshis chest, chestnut head tilted as the tall jock spoke to him, and he nodded in reply.

For the last week, he has been kind and helpful. Even though it was apparent how popular he was, his focus and all of his attention were on me. Who was this new man who appeared only after he seduced me?

Shaun took his phone from his back pocket and pressed it against his ear, but his eyes remained fixed on me, brimming with anger. The tall jock looked up at the top of the stairs, and his and Shaun’s posture immediately changed, tensed, and straightened their backs.

Emerging from the hallway, an imposing figure appeared, his face half hidden in shadow, and whoever he was, he held dominance over the jock and Shaun. My breath caught in my throat as their penetrating gazes targeted me, firing sharpened arrows from their eyes as if I were their prey that needed to be destroyed.

With my instincts screaming at me to run, I turned my back and fled out the door into the night. The party had spewed out onto the streets, and I weaved through drunk students, disoriented. Once at the crowd's edge, I circumnavigated the direction back to my dorm, Hallen Hall, in the dark and hit the ground running.

Through dark streets lined with frat and sorority houses and halls emptied on Saturday night, many were likely at the party until I came to the end of the road and looked both ways. I removed my glasses, cleaned the mist off the lenses to see clearly, and then slotted them back on my nose.

I didn’t recognize this street in the dark, but it was lined with dormitories with the odd evergreen tree on a patch of grass, fooling the eye into looking like a person hiding behind a trunk. As I ambled along the pavement, I struggled to see a familiar name or structure.

There’s a number in my contacts that I called for emergencies, but finding myself lost on campus was probably not the type of emergency they were concerned about.

The end of the street was engulfed in plants and trees, with spotlights littering the path cutting through. It was hard to be sure in the dark, but I thought the path that weaved through the garden led to the sports arena and schools surrounded by fields and stadiums.

Shaun showed me around a few days ago, and we bought a coffee and bagel from the kiosk nestled in the park. That's when he kissed me. I didn’t realize at the time that his kiss was laced with poison, and his mind was on only one thing. We live and learn.

Headlights from an incoming vehicle lit up the road, and I stepped back and pressed my back against the hall wall under the shade of the awning. The vehicle braked, with the engine still running only a few feet away, and a blue light flashed inside, which I assumed was from someone using a phone.

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