Page 24 of Conner's Luna

7 - Statistical Anomaly

Conner

"You must be fucking kidding me." Sean looks at me with faint horror in his eyes.

I feel my molars grind together a little. "I'm perfectly-fucking serious. I want you to add us all to her classes. The same way we're in Lydia's classes." And Trey's, but I don't mention him. I can barely think about that male without wanting to demolish something... or someone.

"So..." Sarj hedges, "you want to use this human girl to get Trey to break up with Lydia?" His dark eyes are harder to read than Sean's open expression, but I can sense the disapproval radiating off of him.

"I'm doing this for everyone's benefit," I tell them.

Sarj shakes his head. "No. You're proposing we befriend Bailey and go behind her back to make Trey jealous."

"We'reprotectingBailey," I enunciate very carefully. "She's being bullied by her own goddess-given mate and his pack. We become friends and protect her. That's what I'm proposing. If Trey becomes jealous and reacts, well that's just a side benefit, isn't it?"

Sean's eyebrows quirk up. "And you left Brax out of this conversation because...?"

I crack my neck. "Because," I snarl, "he's already becoming friends with her and he's already in Organic Chem with her, so he doesn't need to hear that we are all going to become her friends."

"Or... it'sbecause," Sean says sarcastically, "he would tell you what a jackass you're being to this human girl. Don't worry, though, I'll tell you. You're being a jackass."

He ducks my right hook. We all go quiet for a moment. Six months ago, that would've knocked Sean on his ass. I'm slower and weaker because of the rejection. I'm only twenty-three. I should be getting stronger and faster at my age.

"I want to help Bailey," I say quietly. "And, yes, I want my mate, but I don't want to hurt Bailey in the process. In fact, Trey isn't good enough for her. If we're her friends, we can encourage her to steer clear of him."

"Sounds like you want the best of both worlds," Sean says.

I nod. "Why not? Trey fucked this up, not me. I'm just ending it."

"If Lydia comes to you," Sean warns, "then Bailey won't be friends with you anymore. Lydia won't allow it. You don't think that'll hurt her?"

I turn my back on my friends so they can't see the uneasiness on my face. I fill my beer from the keg as an excuse to not look at them for a minute. "I choose my friends. Bailey won't be hurt because I won't drop her from my life."

I turn back around to see Sean smirking at me.

"What?" I growl.

"You like her," he answers, folding his arms across his chest, his smirk growing.

"She's a cutie," Sarj adds, grinning a mean smile of his own.

"She's not my mate," I tell them. It's all I can say, because I do like Bailey, and she is cute. More than cute, truthfully. Her honey voice and those pouty pink lips and thoseeyes. She smells like honeysuckle.

Sean nods and claps me on the shoulder, leaning close to me he says in a low voice, "she's supposed to be a luna, Con. She's rare. Remember that."

An ill feeling crawls up my spine as I turn back to the small ClearHowl party. A luna. A statistical anomaly. I somehow forgot that with all the bullshit about Lydia and the damn pain my wolf puts me through. Bailey is supposed to be a luna. A human luna, but a luna, nonetheless.

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Bailey

The car behind me honks its horn as I make my right-hand turn onto the road leading to Honekier labs. I deserve it, I know I do. I was driving too slowly, below the speed limit, so that I didn't miss my turn. However, due to my self-admitted abysmal driving ability, I think a little road rage is worth making to my first day in one piece.

Nervous excitement thrums through me. Today is my first day. I'll meet the geneticist I'll be interning for and, hopefully, see the lab. I already worked out most of my schedule through email, so I'm set for at least the next month, through the end of the semester. They are only giving me six hours a week, so I'm coming on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings. It works out well with the hour-plus drive to get here from home.

I hand over my license to the man at the security booth. He takes it without returning my smile, but I don't take it personally. The science happening in the building beyond the parking lot is not only potentially dangerous, but there are a lot of corporate thieves in the field, too.

"You can park in Lot F, Miss Washington," the security guard hands me back my license. "Go to the main doors and buzz yourself in."

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