Page 3 of Conner's Luna

Conner

I fold my arms over my chest and lean against the pale blue wall of the hospital. I keep the emotion off my face, but inside I'm fucking shaking. Even my wolf, the bastard, is pacing in agitation. Not that it's new, but his attention, like mine, is fixed on the human girl instead of dwelling on his pain.

Bailey Madison Washington. I had Sarj dig up all the deets on this girl. She's not on much social media and what she does have she has on private, but he knows that she grew up not far from here in Durham. She graduated from high school a year early, but stayed home for some reason, taking college classes online. She just turned eighteen a month ago and she's taking junior-level courses already.

She's a genius. Mostly math and science, but she's aced every class she's ever taken in high school and college. Scored fours and fives on her AP exams and got some ridiculously high SAT score. Despite her nerd-worthy academic accolades, she's got a shit-ton of friends in Durham. She's friendly and energetic, but here at State she can't seem to fit in anywhere.

She's cute, too. Even with the dork-goggles hiding her eyes. Those eyes blink at me with a look that suggests she's dissecting a particularly confusing specimen. They’re not beautiful, but... attractive, I begrudgingly admit that. They're some sort of serious-looking light brown, an oddity with her bedroom-ready hair and the dusting of dark freckles across her smooth skin a few shades lighter. She looks... disheveled as if she was playing too hard in the wind and had paint splattered across her face. She's cute in a way, but the look in her eyes is wary, distrustful.

It makes me want to snap at her again and I hate feeling so out-of-control.

My wolf growls, paces. If it were up to him, he would make the tiny human girl submit to him, for her own good. Yea, that would go over real smooth. I'm already on probation with the university. My ass would have been kicked out a month after I transferred from Caluna, if not for my dad and uncle making hefty 'donations.'

"Bailey!" I hear a man shout from down the hall. I look up to see a dark-skinned man, clearly a panicking father, charging down the hall as nurses quickly avoid him.

"Dad, I'm fine," she is reassuring him even before he reaches her side.

I watch silently as they embrace. Her father is shaking slightly, and I feel my lip curl in disgust at his weakness. Humans, so damn fragile and pathetic. If what I think is right, and Bailey is Trey Wilkinson's truemate, then I understand perfectly why he would reject her for Lydia.

Lydia. My wolf howls mournfully, confused. Lydia is my mate. Mine. She rejected me for that asshole. Rejected.Me.

"Um... this is Conner, Dad." I snap back to attention when I hear Bailey mention my name.

Her father is staring at me. The look in his eyes momentarily makes me reconsider my opinion that this human man is weak. If he was a wolf, I would be bleeding on the floor right now. Shit. How does he know Bailey's accident was my fault? Is that some sort of dad sixth sense? My dads are know-it-alls, too, but I thought it was a wolf-thing.

"The police said that you were being chased," her dad's voice is ice-cold. He speaks to Bailey but is glaring holes into me while he talks. It pisses me off. He acts like she's his perfect, little princess, but this girl is no princess. She's the reason why Trey stole my mate.

Not fair, Grim. It's not Bailey's fault. It's not her fault her mate is an ass, either. My wolf snaps in my brain, sending pains shooting through my head. He feels trapped here, being scolded by a human father because we were dumb enough to chase her into crashing her car. Reckless. Stupid. Thoughtless. Ever since Lydia's-

"I'm not the best driver, Dad. You know that. Conner wasn't chasing me," Bailey lies to her father soothingly in a voice that drips with honey-caramel and reminds me of hearing Mom read bedtime stories.

My wolf immediately focuses on her. Her sweet voice drops to an even more angelic tone when she talks to her dad. What is that word for her tone? Dulcet, that's it. Sweet, like sugar. It caught the attention of my wolf and me from the first word that fell from her lips, but the twang of fear in her voice when she speaks to us ruins the beautiful sounds. The fear is gone and even her lie is entrancing.

My eyes fall to her lips while she continues to talk to her dad. Lydia wears deep red lipstick and clearly, Bailey doesn't bother. Her lips are dark pink, fuller than my mate's, and they look soft. They curl up at the ends like a bow. I vaguely hear her mention me again, telling him some bullshit story about being upset and I helped her. I'm captured by her lips, but it's her voice that has caught my wolf's attention. He is literally salivating at the sounds. It's like listening to the soft sound of a mama bobcat purring to her kittens. Utterly soothing.

Suddenly her father moves, blocking my vision of Bailey. I choke back my growl at having her ripped out of my sight.

"Thank you, Conner," Bailey's father says solemnly, shaking my hand.

I nod in acknowledgment. I feel a little guilty. Making some dumb excuse about my parents needing me I leave the hospital at almost a run. I need to shake off the sound of the human's voice before I can think about what to do about Lydia. I need to remember why I came here in the first place and stop worrying about a human girl and the dumbasses who piss on her car.

That night, when my wolf starts clawing my insides apart because of Lydia's cheating, I pretend it's Bailey's voice soothing me asleep instead of Sean’s.

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2 - The Monster in the Closet

Bailey

I hear the moan from inside the Bio Lab's supply closet and shiver in disgust. Honestly, this school is filled with pervs. I stomp past the door, hoping that my footsteps would weird out the couple in the closet. As I go further, I hear another groan, this one ending in a whimper.

That doesn't sound too pleasurable. Was someone in pain? Suddenly, Trey's face swims in front of me, sneering in disgust as his friends shove me into an empty classroom and barricade the door, just for kicks. What if the person in the closet is another one of their victims? What if the bullies at C State are upping their game from childish pranks and smashing inanimate objects to hurting someone?

"Shoot," I mumble, turning to the door and eyeing the knob with trepidation. I don't want to see some other students doing the nasty. Can I walk away? What is my moral aptitude today? Another soft word, a curse, drifts from behind the door, and I'm decided.

I slowly open the door. A soft growl greets me, and I freeze. Is there a dog in the closet? How the heck did that happen?Whydid that happen? Why didn't I go to MIT?

"Hello?" I ask. I fully expect two voices to shriek at me to go away or a dog to lunge at my face, but all I get is another groan of pain. I feel like a dumb girl. It's not a dog; it's a person, obviously.

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