Page 5 of The First Year Continued
Chapter Three
Evander
Besides my neck killing me from sleeping on Roxy’s hard floor, worry ate me up.
Roxy had attacked Odin. If we hadn’t gotten there, would she have bled him dry? No, she wouldn’t do that. Not to mention, she had already pulled away from Odin when we burst through the door.
Then again, maybe she was taking a break. If we hadn’t come in, would she have finished him off?
I shook my head of the thought and hitched my bag higher on my shoulder. I carried too many damned books around but found a reason to pack them in every day. And by the end of the day, my shoulder was killing me and the skin pockmarked with broken blood vessels.
“Hey,” I said, walking up to her as she reached for the opening of her jacket. Roxy’s beauty surprised me every day, but today, she was rosier. Stronger.
From Odin’s blood.
Goddess, this was hard. I didn’t want to think anything negative about Roxy. Considering her a stone-cold vampire bloodsucker was about as negative as it got.
She wasn’t. None of this was her fault. We were sent to fight in a war we didn’t start, and the ends and means would never affect us personally. But we would suffer the trauma and the loss and the mental blows for the rest of our lives.
Such was war.
Roxy didn’t deserve what she was going through. None of us did.
Plus, it was pretty hard to imagine the person I thought was my mate as a killer—an enemy.
The regret had been written all over her face. She didn’t want to hurt Odin.
I dreamed about all the blood. Smeared all over Odin. Running down Roxy’s face.
“Hey.” She looked down. She still felt bad about attacking Odin and probably would for a while, no matter how much we tried to convince her otherwise. She nudged me with her elbow. “Waiting to see if I’m still a wolf?” Her cheeks reddened.
“No. I have class too, you know.”
“Liar.” She stripped her jacket off and toed off her shoes.
My bag landed on the ground with a thump. “Maybe a little curious.”
She laughed, and the sound connected directly to my heart. The damned thing stammered a bit before resuming a natural beat. “It’s okay. I’m kind of curious myself. It’s one thing to talk to her, but quite another to make sure I can still…”
A group of students passed us. The females giggled.
“You three get a lot of that, I’ve noticed.”
She pulled off her skirt and, although nakedness was an ordinary happening for all shifters, I forced my gaze to her eyes. Everything was different with Roxy. Watching her undress wasn’t bland or normal, not an everyday occurrence.
When I watched her undress for the first time, it would be private—and I would have my sights set on marking her as mine.
It was becoming harder and harder to stay away from her.
Odin had a thing for her, I was sure. Maybe Sol as well. Which was crazy because we weren’t a pack. We were friends. Sure, there were harems popping up more and more in modern shifter society but was that the case, or were two of us very wrong about Roxy?
I just hoped it didn’t tear us apart.
“Well, here goes nothing.”
Roxy shifted beside me. Her wolf a stunner just as she was.
“Evander and Roxy!” One of the administrators stepped onto the field. “You’re needed in the office. Now.”
