Page 9 of Wolf Mate

I blew out a breath, opened the door … and heard a whisper from Lucy’s room.

“This isn’t funny, Lafayette. Something needs to be done. This is unacceptable.” Her tone held a tinge of anger.

Knowing I shouldn’t listen, I froze because that was what normal people who wanted to fit in did: stayed and eavesdropped.Dammit, Skylar. Move. Nothing good can come of you being curious, and if she finds out—

“I can’t be stuck withheras a roommate.” She scoffed. “Do you think she’ll be willing to go outside and run with me under the moon? Or understand when I need to disappear and take care of my own needs? This can’t happen. You know the rules—you’re on the housing board. She should’ve never been assigned to me in the first place.”

My blood jolted and my chest constricted. I hadn’t done a thing to Lucy, and she was making me sound like the judgmental one. I didn’t care if she liked running under the moon or sleeping around. None of that mattered to me, but instead of talking to me, she was talking to the housing office, trying to get me moved.

Now I was thankful that I’d eavesdropped so I wouldn’t be blindsided later today.

No longer worried about being quiet, I stomped to my room and grabbed my bag. It was eight-forty in the morning, and my first class began in twenty minutes. I didn’t want to rush trying to find it.

I slung on my lilac backpack and was heading into the living room when Lucy’s bedroom door opened.

“Skylar, wait,” she said as she hurried after me. “Please, let me explain.”

I stopped between the round wooden kitchen table and the TV stand and turned around as she stopped near the brown cloth couch across the room.

I swallowed the words I wanted to say and tried to act like the type of person people didn’t mind hanging around. “No need.” I forced a smile, but from her wince, I could tell I’d missed the mark for looking casual.

Okay, I needed to try harder, so I smiled even wider.

When her entire body cringed, I gave up. I didn’t know how to people.

“Look, I heard you in the hall, and I’m assuming you heard my conversation. I just want to say—”

“Can we not?” I most definitely did not want to have this conversation. My blood was already escalating from a jolt to a fizz. The one thing I could control at the moment was getting out of this room and away from Lucy.

I adjusted my bag, needing to expend the energy before the walls started shaking or the kitchen table rattled. “I don’t know where my class is, and I need to find it.”

Her expression crumpled. “Yeah, okay.” She placed her hands behind her head, her white shirt inching up to reveal a small section of her stomach. “Just … can we talk later?”

“Sure.” I had no plan to follow through. I could sleep in my car and come in here only to shower until Lucy got the room situation worked out. The idea of living in a residence hall surrounded by lowerclassmen worried me due to the lack of privacy, but I’d do whatever I had to. I’d learned that forcing people to be around you accomplished only one thing—becoming the butt of every joke.

With that, I marched out of the apartment.

The charge through me was now fizzing to the point that a hum would happen at any second, so I walked faster thannecessary to the elevator and counted the seconds until I was outside.

I didn’t understand why Lucy had such a problem with me. We’d said only a few words to each other, and she hadn’t been in the apartment when I returned from the bookstore last night. I’d gotten ready for bed and eaten some crackers then hung out in my room, hoping that the nice conversation I’d had with the pale clerk at the bookstore was a sign that things would start to go right.

Clearly, I’d been wrong.

Even as I walked into the partially sunny day, I couldn’t keep the pressure from building. I needed to squelch my anxiousness, but between the encounters with Raffe yesterday and Lucy’s actions this morning, I felt out of control.

Students were milling around outside, several in groups, heading in the same direction I was.

And, as always, I was alone.

That was when the hum happened.

Shit.

I was going to implode.

CHAPTER FOUR

Iclutched my chest and stopped walking, staring at the ground in hopes of containing whatever was inside me. The intensity was worse than ever, and I wished I’d never come to this university. At home, I’d had a true haven where I could be alone for hours and not worry about someone living next door.

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