Page 1 of Defiant
1
Elena
My life isas dull as a paper cut,I think as I twist a paper clip into the shape of a dick while listening to a lecture on human evolution from a professor who sounds like a zombie.
Nothing’s special about this afternoon, not the sunshine pouring through the windows or the baking heat—certainly not the smell of unwashed college students hunched over iced coffees and cookies that cost as much as they’re going to make later this afternoon on their work-study shifts.
I haven’t done anything unique today … I woke up after Mom had left for work and tossed my black hair up in a couple of braids, showcasing the white streaks I’ve put in it that my mother absolutely hates. I’d dressed in black, like always, and messed around on my acoustic guitar for a little while before I’d gathered up my laptop and backpack, tossed on some crimson lipstick, and headed off to class.
Today is just like any other day, right down to the naughty notes that Jonah and I are passing back and forth as we tune out the lecture.
Nice dick. Not as nice as mine,he writes, sliding a palm-sized little booklet my way.
Roughly the same size,I write before flicking the phallic paper clip at him with a grin. He catches it easily before grabbing the notebook back and setting it on his desk so he can scratch out my line and add a new one of his own.
I’m gonna eat you out so good tonight.He’s super creative, my Jonah. Bonus: he’s great with grammar. But his biceps and those light blue eyes make up for other shortcomings. Besides, with frienifits, there’s no need to be nit-picky. We’re mostly friends. It’s not like we’re dating.
I’m going to time you,I lean over and write on the notebook while it’s still on his desk, scrawling in red pen.Fifteen minutes minimum.
Yeah? You’re on. I bet I can eat you out longer than you can blow me.
I have to stifle a laugh when Jonah passes our naughty notebook back my way—partially because the professor paused in his discussion of Neanderthals and partially because the hulking Neanderthal beside me can hardly last ten minutes unless I force him to pace himself.
I can’t completely smother my amusement and I glance over at Jonah in his gray sweatpants, white tank, and black beanie, his golden skin practically glowing in the afternoon sunlight. He spreads his legs and grabs his crotch as he winks at me. Cheeky fucker. Jonah’s always fun to be around, upbeat.
But he’s fun for another reason too, one that makes my nipples tighten as I lean over the notebook and write,You’ll come if I order you to come, so I’ll win no matter what.
He reads the notebook and grins but doesn’t deny it. We both know he can’t help it. Jonah’s a beta through and through, despite having a physique that screams MMA fighter.
His wolf will listen to me even though mine hasn’t come in yet. I still add theyeteven though it’s been two years. I know … no, Ihopeshe’s still coming. My mom’s wolf was late. She says alpha female wolves don’t submit to anyone’s schedule and her own wolf was eight months late. If that’s true, my wolf is the most alpha bitch of all time. I’m twenty-one and she still hasn’t shown, even though Jonah’s been a beta for two years.
I sigh and Jonah grabs the notebook back from me; he knows where my mind has gone. He writes to distract me, like a good friend.Ice cream after class?
I pull the notebook back to tell him I can’t, that I have track practice … and that’s when my day does a one-eighty. It goes from normal to extraordinary in a single second.
What sets it off? I have no clue.
Is it the fly buzzing through the lecture hall that catchesherattention? Is it the way that my back pops when I stretch from my slouch? Is it the green notification on my phone from my mom letting me know she won’t be home tonight because she’s going to the monthly howl? Or is it because I was just thinking abouther?
I have absolutely zero idea what sparksherappearance. But, somehow—impossibly—my wolf fritzes into being like an ancient television set that just caught the station’s signal. At first, I blink, unsure what’s happening as the room around me sort of grows hazy and fades into the background like a camera racking focus and a wolf trots into the middle of my field of vision.
Even when she sits down in front of my eyes, it takes a second for me to process what I’m seeing.
I think back to lunch and wonder if someone spiked the ketchup on my chicken strips—because watching the vision of a wolf walking across thin air only to appear to sit down on the back of the guy two rows in front of me seems like some kind of hallucination.
I don’t quite process what’s happening as I stare. I admire her coat, which is a midnight shade except for her muzzle which is laced with white, or her neck and haunches, where a bronze tone appears to give her a glimmer. Her sharp little ears are alert and perked up and her fur immediately bristles when the professor clicks play on a video somewhere outside my field of vision, which has completely narrowed to focus only on her.
The wolf turns her head from side to side and it’s like I’m a video game avatar. I move when she does. My own head turns and scans the room. She sniffs, and suddenly the body odor in the room doubles to a nearly unbearable fog of sweat, only one icy, mint scent cutting through the stench of humans. Jonah’s.
My wolf’s moon-colored eyes met mine and we both freeze in shock as we stare at one another and the implications of what’s happening roll through me like a tidal wave.
Holy fuck. So I am a shifter,I think. Relief washes through me as the doubts I’ve suffered all these years wash away, a tide carried back out to sea.About damn time.
Run,she thinks back.
Her internal voice is nothing more than a whimper, but it’s followed by a series of images of darting past buildings and into the trees that clearly state her intentions.
I drop the naughty notebook on the lecture hall floor, lean forward, and grip the edge of the half-desk I’m seated in, ignoring how my elbows jostle my laptop.
