Chapter 4

DOMINIC

Where the hell did this girl come from? She looks so harmless and meek, with her small thin body and massive hair, like a strong breeze would blow her over. From the expression on her face, she looks like she wouldn't hurt a fly.

Then she opens her mouth and all kinds of attitude comes out. And the way she acts–like there's our world, and then there's Selena’s world, only sometimes they match up. She feels untouchable somehow, even though she's such a little weakling you can do whatever you want with her. Drag her here. Sit her there. And somehow, she still has that untouchable quality.

She's only grown more intriguing, and I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her. I need to be careful.

I'm walking a fine line here.

I can't let Billie see any of this going on. She'd kill everyone involved.

The chore chart wasn't my idea, it was Amber and Riley's. I just told them where to find her. She'll be on her knees, polishing toilets that the housekeeper already cleans every Sunday. Kneeling on the hard floor, her face sweaty, all that hair piled up on top of her head, wearing short shorts and a tank top that will show her nipples…

Yeah, I'm not missing this.

I catch up to her. Her first class is Child Psychology. I couldn't think of anything more boring. But I'm a designated chaperone, able to escort vulnerable students to their classes, and I'm pulling night school and online classes to make this work.

Crescent University, like all werewolf universities, works a little differently. Werewolves naturally form packs wherever they go, and in college that leads to a lot of gangs and secret societies. Things get territorial and skirmishes happen. Little Omegas like the one I'm currently escorting can get hurt easily, and become pawns in the gang rivalries, like Billie did. Billie and some other girls formed the Omega Society, pairing human and hybrid students with female wolf shifters, who are rare, for safety reasons. No one knows why female werewolves who can shift are so rare, and it's led to some archaic practices in the way all women are treated in werewolf society.

But because of this rareness, there weren't any willing female shifters to pair with this girl who's now our responsibility, and it suits my purposes that I be the one to escort her around anyway.

She's the only hybrid female that didn't join the Omega Project. Must be embarrassed because of Lunacy. She's also the only hybrid or human female I've ever known to be associated with them. Delta Kappa, the sorority affiliated with Lunacy, only takes she-wolves.

Who IS this girl?

We've walked in silence; I'm assuming she knows where she's going. We cross the quad and I catch a couple members of Consilium Hereditatis, the Traditionalist splinter group made of ex-Lunacy members, watching us go by. Their name means “order of the heritage”, and they're sick fucks who idolize Spader--an attempted rapist and murderer who propositioned Billie with a twenty when he first met her–and Hyde–who tortured Billie to prove he could get her to submit to his will. I notice Selena’s back twitch like she has the creepy crawlies.

“Did you know those guys?” I ask casually.

“Yep,” she answers succinctly.

“And are they every bit as gross and inappropriate as they seem? Or maybe you agree with them.”

Selena stops. Grabs my arm. Turns to me. “Just because I was around Lunacy doesn't mean I was part of Lunacy, you get me? I never would've joined those assholes.”

I take her hand off my arm, hating every second of it and wondering why I like her touching me. “I get you.”

We start walking forward again. She takes a big inhale like she's trying to clear her head.

“So why then?” I ask her.

“Why what?”

“Why Nox? What do you see in some jerk who thinks Lunacy is a good group, that they have historically had great ideas? Why be a part of that? No one's forcing you.”

“It's complicated,” she mutters. “We knew each other as kids. I wouldn't expect you to understand.”

Which is like a dare, right?

“Try me.”

“No thanks,” she says immediately. “I'm all good.”

I scoff. “You sure protest a lot for a healthy relationship.”

“What does that mean?”

I lean in as we walk. “You're full of shit.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing I've seen about you over the last 24 hours has screamed ‘Nox's girlfriend’. This is the most unlikely relationship I've ever seen. So why are you with him? Is his cock that big?”

I could swear that she shudders. She's so prissy. Every time I bring up sex, she gets this look on her face like her shit doesn't stink.

I'm going to find out why.

“You're disgusting, and it's none of your business, and my relationship with Nox is just fine.”

“Whatever you say, Angel.”

She rolls her eyes, and shoulders her way into the classroom we've stopped at, ending the conversation.

I thought it was a good start to a mindfuck, myself.

My second tactic comes in the middle of the class. She makes it so easy, with those huge blue eyes, so expressive of every little micro emotion. I can tell when I've pushed her right to the brink.

“So, do you think Nox will be faithful while you're, ah, visiting us?” I'm turned around in my seat facing her, elbow on her desk, chin resting on my hand. Like I'm really invested in her answer. “Do you think a guy like him, with his values, is going to walk the line for a sweet thing like you?”

She gets that prissy look she gets when we're talking about sex. “That's not really any of your concern. Don't you have Freshmen to beat up or nerds to intimidate?”

I lean forward. “I dare you to answer the question. Do you think Nox will be faithful while you're with us? Or will your childhood sweetheart show his true colors? It couldn't be the first time, surely. Answer the question, Angel.”

“Nox and I understand each other. That's my final answer. And stop calling me that.” If we weren't in class, she would have flounced off like a miffed kitten. Instead, she simply refuses to meet my eyes, as though I weren't there.

As though she could see right through me.

I don't like that, so I take her pen right out of her hand and hold it out of reach.

“Hey!” she hisses, finally looking at me. “Give that back.”

“Admit Nox is a bad boyfriend. He hasn't even come to see you.”

“Give it back! Now!”

“And why would he? It's pathetic how you'll do whatever he says, let him put you in danger by agreeing to this. He didn't fight for you once. And you follow him like a puppy desperate for affection.”

“I do not!” She grabs her pen. “You don't know me at all.”

“Oh yeah? Show me I'm wrong. Either you've got no moral compass, or you know Nox is an asshole. Which is it?”

“Nox is an asshole, okay? Now will you leave me alone?”

“Not until you tell me why you're with him. But don't worry, I can wait for your answer. You're safe from me.” I rap my knuckles on her desk. “For now.”

Then I turn back around in my seat and get nice and close with the two girls waiting to gush over my last fight, cutting her neatly out of my reality just to leave her nice and confused. I want her to forget which way is up. She'll be more open to my suggestions about Nox that way.

More open to me.

That thought feels good.

SELENA

He doesn't get to judge me.

It doesn't matter that he doesn't know one word of the truth. That I was forced to be around those guys, do things for them, before they splintered off and Nox's ambitions turned towards legitimacy. Nox wants Lunacy to be seen as any other fraternal organization without the sinister motives and radical politics Hyde brought. He wants it so they can be more subtle in their indoctrination. Get more members that way.

I was forced to be their entertainment when it suited Nox to be on their good side.

And when I went into heat…the whole house got a turn.

He doesn't get to judge me. He doesn't know any of this, and that doesn't matter. For all he knows, it's worse. So he doesn't get to judge me.

I do what I have to do to keep going. Keep striving for something. Anything. Whether it's my freedom or just a good day. I have to keep going for something.

That's how you survive this.

Not just the rape, but all the effects of slavery, knowing my whole life I couldn't have anything for myself, not until they decided to let me go. And yeah they're doing it in a horrific way, but at the end I get my freedom. That's all I care about.

He doesn't get to judge me, and he doesn't get to know one word of my truth.

A fated mate is a dumb concept, anyway.