Page 39 of Wolf Mate

The idea of going somewhere with a friend and having a normal experience like a football game did sound exciting. I’d never done anything like that before, and I trusted Slade. “Okay. I’m in.”

“Great.” He beamed as we breezed into the room.

The nape of my neck prickled, indicating that Raffe’s gaze was on me. Our eyes connected as Slade said, “I can pick you up at six, and we can grab dinner first.”

Turning my head toward Slade was physically painful. My eyes wanted to stay locked on Raffe, but I forced a smile and said, “Great.”

A few seconds after we slipped into our seats, Professor Haynes strutted in.

She held a stack of papers in her hands and began passing them out. “I mentioned there would be a few projects throughout the semester, and this is the first. I’m handing out the assignment along with your assigned partner.”

My throat constricted. I’d hoped that we could pick our partners so Slade and I could work together. He was the only person I was comfortable with, especially in this class.

When the piece of paper landed on my desk, I flipped to the second page, found my assigned partner … and laughed.

CHAPTER TWELVE

If this wasn’t proof that someone or something hated me high up in the universe, I didn’t know what else could be.

Written there in a neat font was the last person I’d ever want to be paired with.

Raffe Wright.

My pulse quickened, and the tugging in my chest purred, trying to rear its ugly head. I refused to acknowledge that it was calling me a big, fat liar.

Slade’s head jerked back. “This has to be a joke.”

He pushed his paper toward me, and I read the name on his.Keith Barron.

Okay, I stood corrected. Maybe, just maybe, Slade had me beat in the bad karma department. At least Raffe could be civil, unlike Keith. Keith was nice to his people, but he spouted off shit to anyone outside of his group.

As the professor walked back past my desk after handing the wolf crew their papers, Keith asked, “Can we switch partners?”

“Absolutely not.” She shook her head, back turned to them, but the corners of her lips tilted upward. “I was given instructions to assign pairs this term, and I handled it as best I could, given certain circumstances in this class.” She schooledher expression and turned to address Keith and the others. “This is your assignment. Accept it, move on, and learn how to work with one another.”

Slade and I being paired with Keith and Raffe was less than ideal, but I found some enjoyment in the fact that they weren’t getting their way. I’d seen how everyone moved and navigated around Raffe and his closest friends, even Lucy. People treated them like royalty, including humans who didn’t know that was actually the case.

Still, just because Raffe and I were partners didn’t mean we had to physically work together. We could split up the assignment and email portions to each other without having to meet. At least that was my goal.

I flipped back to the first page and snorted.

Our project was titled,How Does Sitting in the Front of the Classroom Affect Grades?To make this work, we would have to do a lot of polling around campus and hope people were honest about their grades, which meant I would be required to talk to a lot more people. Unless Raffe decided he would handle all of it, which was likely. Either way, we wouldn’t have to work together much and could break up sections of our report for each of us to write.

Professor Haynes began class, launching into specifics of the assignment. Raffe and I would have to give a presentation together, which would require us to work together. Some of my concern flared back, and my blood jolted.

I closed my eyes and placed my palms down on my desk. I imagined the coolness was from the earth and, for the first time in weeks, the technique worked. I exhaled a shaky breath, thankful that another disaster hadn’t struck.

Then I pushed the assignment out of my mind and focused on class.

Later that day,after chemistry, Slade and I strolled toward the student center. After the disastrous assignment in statistics, I’d managed to get out of class without Raffe talking to me. Most likely, he didn’t have any desire to speak to me. We’d gone two weeks without acknowledging each other, and I’d seen him several times around campus with Josie.

Last week, Lucy had asked if I was attending the football game, and as soon as I’d said no, she’d seemed relieved. There was no question why. Her king and her cousin both preferred that I not hang out with humans even though I had plans to do just that at this Saturday’s game.

“This project is going to suck.” Slade leaned his head back. “Out of all the people in the world I could get stuck with, it’d be the sociopath.”

I snorted. “Keith may say uncouth things and appear to lack remorse, but he isn’t like that with everyone, so I don’t think that term really applies to him—but he’s judgmental and abrasive.”

“And you’re defending him?” Slade arched a brow, a grin slipping through his mask.

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