Page 63 of Wolf Mate

“Fine. I can see she’s drunk and can’t see reason.” Slade rolled his shoulders. “I’ll let your friends know you took off with her.”

Raffe tapped his temple. “Don’t worry about my friends. I’ll take care of it. Got it?” More power than usual radiated off him.

Despite not being a supernatural, I could feel it, and I understood why all the supernaturals feared him and his father. Slade didn’t have half that amount of power within him.

“Fine.” He sneered as if he smelled something bad then glared at me. He didn’t say goodbye as he stalked past me toward his friends.

With his face twisted in disgust and the coldness in his eyes, he looked like another person. Not even close to the guy I knew.The one who’d catered to me, helping me and joking around. This Slade was a stranger.

The tingles on my neck started again. I hated to think what expression Raffe saw on my face, but a pain throbbed in my chest. One I was all too familiar with.

Betrayal and loneliness.

Raffe cleared his throat. “You ready to head back to your apartment?”

No, I wasn’t. I wanted to go deeper into the woods, away from all these people, and enjoy the cloudy night and lie on the ground surrounded by nature. Back home, I’d spent time in the woods behind our house each day, and not connecting with nature daily had thrown me off center. I glanced longingly at the surrounding trees.

“We either need to join the others or head to your apartment.” He moved in front of me, his expression soft and eyes the warm cobalt I’d seen a handful of times. “With vampires out here, it’s not safe for you.”

I swallowed loudly. “They’re feeding off humans?”

He nodded. “They are, but that’s why the witches and my friends are here. We make sure they don’t make a scene or get out of line. With how crazy Edward was for your blood, I’d rather not risk your safety.”

I became queasy. These humans thought they were heading to a party, but they were coming to get feasted on. I shivered, wondering how many victims they’d have before the night was over. Even if the victims didn’t remember the attack, they still suffered during that moment.

I swallowed my words. I understood what it was like for people to view you as weak and take things from you. Way back in kindergarten, Lizzy had broken my trust and destroyed my innocence when she’d decided to attack me. But I was too drunkto have that conversation, and all it would do was piss Raffe off and not change anything.

Raffe held out his hand, his face softening. “Let’s go.”

Theyankin my chest had my legs moving closer and my hand taking his before I knew what was happening. The comforting buzz channeled between us.

A lump formed in my throat. “If you walk me to the tree line, I can get the rest of the way back without ruining your night with—” I stopped, unable to sayJosieeven though Ineededto say it to remind myself of her existence and make her real. “Friends.” Of course, that was the word I’d settle on.

He groaned, tossing his head back. “Dammit, Skylar. You’re gonna be the death of me.”

“That’s why I’m trying not to cause you more problems.” I averted my gaze, waiting for him to take the excuse and leave me.

“You’re stuck with me,” Raffe whispered as he put a finger under my chin, tilting up my face so we could look each other in the eyes. “Let’s go before Slade changes his mind and comes back looking for you.”

That was enough to get me moving.

Walking in stride with Raffe, I hated that I stumbled every few steps.

“How many drinks did you have tonight?” He arched a brow and glanced at me. I hated that every expression he had was somehow as sexy as the one before. There were no bad angles, which made trying not to be attracted to him more difficult.

Knowing I couldn’t lie without smelling like rotten eggs to him, I sighed. “I lost count. But after meetingyourparents and causing a scene, I stopped thinking clearly.” If I’d known I’d get this bad and make worse decisions, I would’ve abstained.

“Yeah, I heard you fried some lights.” He winced. “I’m sorry about all of it.”

“Sorry?” He hadn’t done anything. He’d been on the field, warming up with his team.

“Dad was angry that you were there and asked if I was aware you were coming.” He bit his bottom lip, which wasn’t normal for him. “I get that he’s worried. I mean, you did break the lights, but luckily, it could be blamed on electrical shit. But I didn’t realize until tonight that our request wasn’t fair to you either.”

Once again, the kind and understanding guy from the other night reappeared, and dammit, I needed him to go away before things got more strained between us. It was better when he was a jerk because then I could pretend to hate him. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“You deserve to have a college experience too, though.” He shrugged. “And it was nice that every time I made a play, I turned and saw you watching me.”

My pulse quickened, and the lack of my blood responding made my skin crawl. I wanted to say I’d enjoyed that part of the night too, but I didn’t need to encourage more strangeness between us.

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