Page 6 of Protected Promise
“You know, you’re probably the only female at the ARC to ever witness such an event,” Damon teased.
“It nearly bored me to death.”
As Jamie and Kian passed by us, I smiled and congratulated them.
“Thanks for crashing the party, Kait. I was about to fall asleep waiting for Brett to end it already,” Kian whispered as he kissed my cheek.
Damon stiffened beside me.
“Relax,” I warned as Kian moved on to other well wishers.
“I’m just watching out for you, Kaitlyn. It’s my job.”
“It was your job, Damon. Now, everything’s changing. You can’t protect me anymore.”
“Hell if I can’t. I don’t even understand why you haven’t already signed up for classes next term.”
“We’ve talked about this. I’m not doing grad school.” That would be the easy way out, but this time, I wasn’t caving to the comfort and security of the known. It was time to grow up and face my life once and for all.
“Sawyer’s coming in for graduation. Just a heads up. I think a lot of the Alphas will be in attendance this year,” Damon warned me.
I was immediately concerned, not for myself, but for him.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Me? Yeah, why?”
“That’s a lot of Alphas in one territory, Damon. An area you’re a little partial to at that.”
He snorted. “My Pack is in Alaska with Karis, Kaitlyn. I’m not going to wolf out on these guys here. My wolf and I have come to an understanding and we’re doing surprisingly well these days.”
I wasn’t sure I completely believed it. I knew he was doing remarkable with all the changes he’d gone through, but being around other Alphas couldn’t be easy for him.
Damon wasn’t born with Alpha powers, he inherited them through his bond to Karis. Where other Alphas and future Alphas had a lifetime to learn to work with and control their wolves, Damon’s Alpha powers had only begun to surface a few years ago. Plus, he wasn’t an Alpha yet, but someday he would be, Alpha of the Alaskan Pack.
I was really proud of him and happy for the path he’d been handed. Damon was a great guy, and I had looked up to him for years as a sort of savior. When things got really bad back home, he was the one that took notice. He alerted Sawyer and tried to get me help. There wasn’t a lot to be done by that point.
When I chose to come to the ARC, he’d taken it upon himself to protect me. Every guy on campus knew I was off limits under his full protection. That protection had expanded even further as his brothers of the Delta Gamma Omega pledged an alliance to keep me safe here. It was a little dramatic if you asked me, but it had taken all the pressure off of me while here.
I didn’t need to worry about dating and guys, because no one would dare cross the DOGs to lay a hand on me.
I could cut loose and even go a little wild at times, because I always knew someone was watching my back.
Freshman year I’d taken advantage of that somewhat, but since then, I’ve tried to be more respectful of them, and myself.
One incident putting me a little too drunk in the wrong place at the wrong time with absolutely the wrong guy had escalated quickly. Damon was nearly expelled over the incident, but he’d made his point. No guy was to lay a hand on me or even come sniffing my way—and no one else had.
Sometimes I worried I was too screwed up already and that no one would even want me. Right now, I was okay with that, but I did fear I would regret some of my choices down the road.
“Kaitlyn, have you chosen a date for formal yet? It is our last one,” Lachlan said with such a heavy Australian accent that I knew he had already started drinking.
Lachlan was fun, but sometimes he got a little handsy when he had too much to drink. I would never admit that to him or especially Damon, but I knew I needed to watch myself. We only had a few days left at the ARC and then we’d both be on our way, likely never to cross paths again. That made me sad, but more importantly, I didn’t want to end my college years with ridiculous drama and high levels of testosterone.
No thanks.
I’d rather stay permanently in the friend zone with the entire male species than deal with that.
Landon
