Three

Vespa

“Vespa, look!” Ria grabbed my arm. “Those guys are smokin’ hot. I almost passed out at the airport when they helped you. You owe them big time.”

“Helped me?” I turned to her. “What are you talking about?”

“You fainted, remember?” she said. “One of them caught you before you hit the floor.”

Great.

So not only did they witness the worst moment of my life, one of them literally caught me while I collapsed in front of half the airport.

Perfect.

“Oh absolutely,” I said dryly. “Maybe I should find some expensive oils, wash their feet, and fan them dry with my hair. That should cover my gratitude.”

The smell of hot asphalt drifted across the courtyard as the first bus pulled up beside the curb, its engine rumbling through the pavement.

Ria leaned against the table, chewing her gum loudly.

“Don’t screw this up,” I muttered, stacking the registration forms into neat piles. “The dean is already watching us like a hawk. One hundred new werewolf students and exactly four people handling the paperwork.”

“Relax,” she said. “It’s just forms.”

The courtyard erupted.

Girls rushed toward the buses in a cloud of perfume and squealing voices, like the doors had opened for a celebrity boy band instead of exchange students.

Seriously?

Where was their dignity?

It didn’t help that the guys stepping off the buses looked like they’d walked straight out of some ridiculous luxury magazine. Broad shoulders, sculpted arms, confident strides. They moved through the crowd like the place already belonged to them.

Every glance they threw triggered another wave of giggles.

Ria snorted. “Check out the one with the blonde man-bun.”

She nudged my shoulder and angled my head toward him.

He leaned against the bus door while a brunette clung to his arm, laughing at something he said. His grin was lazy, charming, and completely aware of its effect.

“Typical man-whore,” I muttered. “Next.”

“Harsh,” Ria said with a laugh. “Okay, what about the one behind him?”

She pointed toward a guy in a black leather jacket.

Dark hair. Hard eyes. The kind of presence that made people shift aside without realizing they’d moved.

He wasn’t flirting.

He wasn’t smiling.

He just watched the crowd with a calm, predatory patience.

“Hm,” I said, tapping my pen against the clipboard. “That one looks like he’d break a girl’s heart and then burn the evidence.”

“That’s rude,” Ria said. “He’s got that hot, powerful ‘worship me or die’ vibe. Maybe I’d consider fucking a werewolf this time.”

“Let’s just hand out the forms.”

“You’re no fun. We still have the third one.”

I followed her gaze.

The third guy stood near the bus talking to a few students. Light brown curls fell across his forehead, and when he laughed a dimple appeared in his cheek.

“Alright,” I said. “He’s dangerously cute. Happy?”

“Very.”

Another surge of girls pressed toward the table.

Someone knocked a stack of forms sideways.

“Hey!” I caught the papers before they scattered across the pavement. “Line up, please. This is registration, not a concert.”

The noise dipped.

Three heads turned.

The man-bun flirt.

The leather-jacket predator.

The curly-haired charmer.

The last one stepped away from the crowd and walked toward our table.

He stopped in front of me and smiled.

Recognition flashed across his face.

“Well look at that,” he said. “You’re the girl who collapsed at the airport.”

Of course he remembered.

“I caught you before you hit the floor,” he added. “Whole place was filming.”

Fantastic.

“Name?” I said, flipping open the registration sheet.

He blinked.

“Zeke.”

“Last name?”

“Wolfe.”

“Of course it is,” I muttered, writing it down.

I slid the forms toward him and our fingers brushed during the exchange.

He watched me.

“Still pretending you don’t know us?” he said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Two shadows fell across the table.

The other two brothers joined him.

“Those are my brothers,” Zeke said. “Kai and Ziah.”

Ziah, the man-bun flirt, leaned across the table toward me.

“Feeling better after that little fainting episode, sweetheart?”

I kept writing.

Kai said nothing.

He just watched me.

The weight of his attention pressed into the air between us.

“Not even a thank-you for catching you?” Ziah added.

Kai’s voice cut through the noise.

“You’re making her uncomfortable.”

Ziah smirked. “Since when do you care?”

Zeke ran a hand through his hair. “Both of you shut up before you scare her off.”

“You’re the one talking about dragging her into bed,” Kai said.

“You started it.”

Within seconds they were arguing.

Loudly.

I stared at them.

These were supposed to be terrifying supernatural predators.

Beside me, Ria mouthed, What is happening?

I grabbed my purse and slipped away.

Not quite fast enough.

“Hey,” Zeke said, stepping sideways and blocking my path. “Leaving already?”

“I have actual work to do,” I said, stepping around him.

Gravel crunched under my shoes as I crossed the courtyard.

Halfway across the lawn, a prickling sensation crawled up my spine.

Someone followed.

I almost reached the dorm path before a shadow stepped in front of me.

Kai.

He stopped a few feet away.

Up close he was even more intimidating.

“Respectfully,” I said, “fuck off.”

He ignored that.

“You faint in my arms at the airport,” he said, voice low, “and now you pretend you don’t remember me.”

He stepped closer.

I stepped back.

“Have lunch with me.”

That wasn’t a request.

“Why would I have lunch with a half-man, half-beast like you?”

A faint smile tugged at his mouth.

“I assure you,” he said, “I’m far more man than the human male who humiliated you in that airport.”

The audacity.

“You’ll have to drag me there by my hair.”

His gaze moved over me slowly.

“We’ll be seeing each other,” he said.

Then he turned and walked away like the entire campus belonged to him.

---

I collapsed onto my dorm bed.

The mattress springs creaked under me.

Voices echoed down the hallway outside as people talked about the new werewolf students.

The door swung open and Ria rushed in.

“For someone trying to stay invisible,” she said, dropping into the chair, “you just attracted the attention of the three most dangerous new arrivals on campus.”

“Why would anyone care?” I muttered.

“Because half the girls here want them,” she said. “And they’re watching you.”

I buried my face in the pillow.

“I have a radio show in an hour.”

Ria grinned.

“You really don’t know who those guys are, do you?”

I lifted my head.

“What do you mean?”

Her grin widened.

“Let’s just say the Northern Ridge Pack didn’t send their average students.”

My stomach tightened.

Something told me my week was about to get worse.

And somehow, I suspected those insanely hot brothers had already decided that.