Page 47 of Conner's Luna

"My car. I just got it back today and they sprayed it and...," she sucks in a shaky breath, "can you come over?"

"Are you hurt, sweetheart?" My heart starts beating fast. Bailey is hurt.

"No."

"Hold tight." I break into a jog. A tingling sensation on the backs of my hands and the base of my spine tells me to go faster when my wolf erupts and forces a shift. I cut through the woods, where I can full-out sprint to get to her.

Bailey is standing by her girly-blue golfcart of a car, a forlorn look on her face while Braxton stomps around the driveway taking pictures of the car. He spots me first and walks to the edge of the house that I'm ducked behind with an incredulous look on his face.

"Did you forget something?" he hisses as he tosses his backpack at me.

I ignore him while I rummage through to find a pair of athletic shorts and a wifebeater. I dress in record time and walk over to Bailey, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her back into my chest.

"Why do they hate me, Conner? I just... I don't get it." Her voice is low and raspy.

"They're assholes, Ballet," I kiss her hair. She doesn't notice. I am taking in the damage. The golfcart has a just-polished sheen to it, the divots and scratches from her fender-bender buffed and hammered out. I bet it looked real fucking spiffy before some jackass took a couple spray cans to it and wrote slurs all over it. The most prominent "worthless loser" written right across her front windshield. "Go away slut" is also featured over and over.

"What did I do?" she murmurs. "I stood up for myself twice and they loath me? I was never bullied before, Conner. This... I just don't get it. Sometimes I think that group of jerks are all nuts, then I think that maybe I'm the one who's crazy."

What can I say to that? Yeah, they are a crazy bunch of animals, ha-ha. Only it's not a joke that I can explain. I squeeze her once before walking over to take a closer look. Nothing else at the house is touched that I can see, just her car.

"Did they damage anything else, Bailey?" I figure the answer is 'no,' since this is RedMoon land and quite possibly their rental house, too.

She joins me with a shaky sigh that makes me furious. "We just got home and called you right away, Conner. I haven't even looked very closely at my car."

My wolf swells with pride that she called us first because we are heralpha. He struts a bit, flashing to the pretty human siren.

"Still think that this isn't about Lydia?" Braxton snaps, suddenly. "What the hell does she have that makes her so much better than Bailey? A low IQ?" He challenges me.

My wolf is silent. Not even a flinch at his insult toward our mate. Braxton is family. His opinion matters, but my wolf should still be pissed.

"Why is it about Lydia, Brax?" I murmur.

"Look, Conner," he says angrily, tilting his chin.

I walk around the car. My wolf goes on alert at the words, "Lydia 2, Freak 0" written on the trunk. Two? Do these fuckers think that it's funny that Lydia has two alphasons chasing after her like dumb mutts? If ClearHowl were a different sort of pack we would already be at war... and we would win.

"Why am I even in competition with her?" Bailey asks from behind me. "What is going on guys? Is this about Trey? Why does everyone act as if I want to be with Trey?! I can't even stomach the thought!"

It's scary how smart she is. Sometimes I wonder how suspicious she must be of everything happening around her.

"Can I be honest with you, Conner?" Bailey says, her voice colder than I've ever heard it before. "I don't want to be mixed up in this. Lydia's friends are some of the cruelest bullies I've ever met and I have doubts about her sanity, as well. So why this?" she points angrily at her junker. "Why am I involved? I don't want this!" she says with frustration coloring her voice.

Braxton moves, placing himself in a position to defend Bailey from me, just in case.

My wolf snaps his jaws at her, right at her soft, vulnerable neck. Shit. I push him back. I won't let him hurt Bailey. It becomes a fight that I wasn't expecting. I slam my eyes shut and shove my fingers in my pockets to hide the claws I know are starting to peek out.

"Conner? What's wrong?" Bailey's panicked voice filters through the haze of battle between my wolf and me. She slides her cool palm along my stomach, assuming that the pain is there. It's not. It's all in my head as my wolf batters against my control. I can't lose. I can't let him hurt Bailey.

Her honeysuckle voice says my name again. Lower. Sweeter. "Conner," she whispers.

I lose control, just a little. My eyes spring open. Tears from the force of fighting my wolf stream down my cheeks. I can't stop my eyes from turning to her.

Mine

I freeze, staring into Bailey's warm hazel eyes. What the fuck does that mean?

The beast howls, claws at me, screams and thrashes to take back the control that I've stolen from him.

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