Eleven

"Forty-eight hours?"I repeated.

"I'm sure your mom can take him back to wherever she found him," Ebony offered.

If he was a dog, that would’ve worked.

Given that he was a hunting werewolf, I was thinking it was a no-go.

"I'll call her tomorrow," I managed to say, glancing at the clock. It was almost midnight; she was asleep.

"Sorry. I even called my advisor, but she agreed with Sterling," Madeline apologized. "There's a twenty-pound limit."

"Thanks for trying." I wrapped my arms around my stomach. "I appreciate it."

"That's what I'm here for." She gave me a sad smile. "He does seem like a good dog."

Of course, he did; he wanted me to be his wolfy wife.

"Have a good night," Madeline said, stepping out of the room.

"Dammit," I muttered.

"Now you have an excuse to give your mom," Ebony offered.

My forced smile was brittle.

If only it was that simple.

"I'm going to go to bed and figure it out in the morning," I mumbled. "Goodnight."

Turning over, I accidentally ended up cuddling the wolf.

He licked the top of my foot, and I was too tired to tell him off for it. Or to roll away from him.

So I just shut my eyes and went to sleep.

Since I forgot to plug in my phone, my alarm didn't go off, and I didn't wake up until noon the next day. Jesse was still exactly where I'd left him. My feet were throbbing even worse than they'd been the day before, and I knew I had an assload of homework and studying to catch up on.

Ebony was already in class; her classes were spread out on every day of the week, with gaps between each of them so she had time to study after every class to let the material sink in. She was living my dream life, with her fast-grad program and her study time.

But I was surviving.

Mostly.

I wiggled my laptop out from underneath the wolf. It had been sandwiched between us when I rolled over the night before, and I hadn't even noticed.

Jesse licked my ankle.

"Don't push your luck," I mumbled.

He licked again.

The obvious tease reminded me of Jesse in the sandwich shop before his wolf had taken over. He'd made a joke—the veggie sandwich joke.

Honestly, it had been a little funny.

I opened my laptop and pulled up a blank document. Lists weren't my thing, but sometimes they could help me organize my thoughts.

"Alright. I have forty-eight hours to find a new place, or get rid of you," I spoke to Jesse.

Why I was speaking to him at all was beyond me, but I typed 48 HOURS at the top of my page. Beneath that, I typed out the two options: get rid of Jesse and find a new place.

"The simplest option would be to get rid of you. Can you leave?” I checked.

He growled at me.

“That’ll be a no. The second simplest option would be to move into your house." I paused. "Or your human's house? I don't know how to talk about you two. Or you one. Werewolves are weird."

He blew a puff of air on my ankle, and I kicked at him on instinct. That earned me a wolfy chuckle and another puff of air.

"But I don't have a car, so I have no way to get there," I said, adding that to my document. "I'd have to walk since I also don't have phone numbers for any of your buddies. I guess you could go retrieve one of them, but I'm not sure I can talk you into leaving my side..."

I bit my lip, focusing on typing out all the potential problems with my plan.

The wolf was lapping at my ankle like it was a damn water bowl at that point, but I was getting over it.

"If we did go with that plan, I could probably take your car to my classes on the days I have class. I can't get my money back for the semester, but if I freeze most of the shit in your fridge and ration it, I might have the food and funds to survive the next couple of months. Gas money would be hard to swing but with the food in the freezer..." I trailed off as I continued typing. "Plus, you can hunt for food since you’re a wolf and all, so I don't have to feed you if I stay there."

When I finished typing, I moved to option two.

"Or, I can get rid of you. But you already said you won’t leave, so the only way to do that is by asking you to bite me, right?" I checked.

His tongue paused on my inner ankle and his teeth scraped my leg. I shivered.

That would be a yes.

"Assuming I let you bite me, I either die, or you go back to human form." I didn't ask that time, not wanting another nibble to confirm it.

He nibbled confirmation anyway.

"And if I survive, I become a werewolf."

Another nibble on my ankle answered that question.

My fingers were slow as I typed that out.

I was already leaning toward option one.

"Assuming I move back to your place, how much time would that buy me? A week? A month? A year?"

The wolf resumed licking.

"I should've gotten Ford's phone number," I muttered. "Alright, I need an answer to that question. Nod for yes, shake your head for no." I lifted the blanket off his head.

He ignored me, continuing to lick my ankle.

"I'm not kidding, Jesse. I can't decide unless you at least give me an estimate." He continued licking. "How long do most people get after the wolf starts hunting before they get bitten? I'm going to rattle off timeframes, and you nibble when I get to the average, okay?"

He didn't acknowledge me, but I knew he'd heard me. And he seemed to like nibbling on me, so I assumed he'd be cool with it.

"A week," I said.

No nibble.

"Two weeks."

No nibble.

"Three weeks?"

Nothing.

"A month."

Just more licking.

"Two months?" I asked.

That time, he hesitated.

"Three months?"

He nibbled, then.

"Two to three months. Wow, that's longer than I expected. I can work for three months."

I did the math mentally. We were almost to the end of September, so three months would get me to Christmas.

Of course, three months was probably the average timeframe. Which meant Jesse might give me more time, or less time. It couldn't be an exact science, or else the wolf wouldn't be hunting, he would just be waiting.

"Let's make a deal," I told the wolf.

His tongue paused on my ankle.

"If you let me finish the semester out and spend one last Christmas with my mom before you bite me, I'll stop fighting you."

It wouldn't be Stockholm Syndrome, because I was no longer a victim.

At least, I didn't think I was a victim. It was hard to say, given the strange, supernatural position I'd somehow managed to land myself in.

But victim or not, I had to deal with the hand I'd been dealt. And I'd been dealt a werewolf.

The wolf finally lifted his head, looking into my eyes.

"I'll even be nice to you," I added. "If I'm going to die when you bite me, I want to die having finished the semester... and my mom loves Christmas, so I want to spend it with her so she has good memories of me. If I don't die, I can start the spring semester back up without a problem.”

Jesse stared at me.

I stared back.

He finally nodded his head.

"Thank you," I said.

He licked my ankle.

I deleted the document I'd typed up, so there was no evidence of my werewolf notes or anything, and got out of bed to go use the bathroom. I'd been needing to pee since I woke up but was dreading the walk there.

My feet hurt even more than they had the day before.

Stopping before I headed down the hallway, I pulled some ibuprofen out of my dresser and grabbed an old water bottle off the window ledge, swallowing the meds. After opening my dresser and pulling out the first pair of clean clothes I saw, I finally shuffled toward the bathroom.

Jesse didn't stay in bed that time. But he did walk beside me, and it was nice to have him there so I could use him to break my fall if the pain got too bad and I crashed.

He waited for me outside while I peed and changed. I was in too much pain to even take the time to brush my damn teeth, so minty gum would save my mouth.

After we walked back, he gave me a stern look and a warning growl before he slipped out the door.

He probably needed to go, too, and was trying to tell me not to leave.

I peeked out the window, and a minute later, watched the wolf trot out onto the lawn outside the dorm. He ignored the gaping, pointing humans, disappearing out of my view and probably theirs too.

When ten minutes had passed and he didn't return, I was a bit concerned.

When twenty minutes had passed and he was still gone, I wondered if he'd run into a bear while taking a piss.

Opening my computer, I focused on typing bullshit answers for my English 301 class assignment, while glancing back and forth at the clock now and then.

An hour and a half had passed when the wolf finally scratched at the door. I got out of bed and pulled it open, then stepped back when I found Ford in the doorway beside Jesse.

"Your ride has arrived," he said with a small grin.