Page 47 of Wolf Mate

I sighed. It felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. Somethingwaswrong with me.

“Do you want me to get you something and bring it back?” She bit her bottom lip. “I don’t mind. I wish I hadn’t eaten what I brought back for you last night, but I went out for a run and came back hungry, and you were still passed out, so …” She grimaced.

Though I wasn’t one-hundred-percent positive, I assumed she’d run in her wolf body. Normally, I’d ask, but I didn’t want to exert the energy. “I need to go. I’m not sure what I can actually handle eating.” The thought of almost anything damn near had me heading to the bathroom.

“Okay.” She held out an arm. “Do you want to lean on me?”

That sounded way too tempting, but I forced myself to shake my head. “Don’t want to risk you getting sick if I’m contagious.”

“Supernaturals rarely get sick, and when they do, it’s not human diseases.” She winked. “I’ll be fine.”

Ugh. Why was she making this so difficult? I almost wished she would swoop me up in her arms and carry me like Raffe had last night.

Raffe.

A sharp pain streaked through my chest. I had to stop thinking about him, especially in this condition. “Let’s go.”

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I glanced at it to find a text.

Slade: Everything okay? You never answered me last night. Still on for breakfast?

Shit. He’d messaged me last night? I hadn’t heard it.

“Everything okay?” Lucy’s query echoing Slade’s felt ominous as she arched a brow and opened the door to the hallway. She had her own phone in her hand, and I noticed her screen was lit up like she’d been on it.

“Yeah, it’s Slade.” I inhaled, focusing my energy on getting to the student center. It wasn’t that far, but it might as well have beenmiles. “Can we go?”

She mashed her lips together. “Yeah, sorry. Let’s go.”

We walked down the hall, and by the time we reached the elevator, Lucy’s face was lined with concern.

When we settled into the elevator, I leaned against the wall, pulled up Slade’s message again, and replied.

Me: Not feeling the best. On my way to the student center now.

Before I could put the phone down, it buzzed.

Slade: On my way.

A knot formed deep within me, adding to my discomfort. Here was this handsome, nice guy who was going out of his way to help me and who’d made it clear he was interested in me, and I was hung up on someone who would never beanythingto me and who had a girlfriend. What kind of pathetic girl was I?Patheticdidn’t even capture how horrible I was.

“Hey, are you going to barf?” Lucy’s nose wrinkled. “If you are, we’ll be outside in a few minutes. Try to hold it until then because, if you do, I will too, and that won’t be good for anyone.”

I snorted, surprising myself. “I thoughtsupernaturalsdidn’t get sick.”

“We don’t …usually. But it would be what’s called sympathy vomiting.”

“Fair.” I put my phone back into my jeans pocket and laid the side of my head on the metal elevator wall, enjoying the coolness.

Of course, that was when the door opened.

I groaned. The time had come to walk again, so I pushed myself off the wall. The sooner I got to the student center, the quicker I could eat and take something for this wretched headache. I had to get myself together enough to attend classes today. The small silver lining was that it was a day with shorter classes, unlike Thursdays, which typically had longer classes and a lab at the end of the day.

Outside, I almost ran into a solid chest again.I managed to slow down enough so I didn’t slam right into Raffe.

My pulse quickened, and my chest tightened, squeezing all the organs inside as it tried to yank me to him. I nearly sobbed. Why, out of everyone I could run into, did it have to behim?

I could feel his gaze on me, and Ihatedhim seeing me this way. I wished he were struggling with this damn connection the same as I was, but seeing me likethisguaranteed he wasn’t.

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