Twenty-Four

When we got home, I set up my computer at the kitchen table so Jesse could cook. He volunteered, so I wasn't shooting him down. 

I felt a bit bad about turning down his request to eat with his buddies, so I vowed to myself that we'd go the next night. 

I powered through the first exam while Jesse cooked. All three were due at midnight, which didn't give me a lot of time. 

We ate between tests, and then I jumped into the second one. Jesse grabbed his computer and sat next to me. 

Not close enough for the proctoring program to pick him up on the camera, but close enough that our legs brushed every time one of us moved.

 I *may* have moved more than I needed to. When the third test was done, I rubbed my eyes. Jesse set another massive plate of food in front of me.

 "You're trying to fatten me up," I accused, though my stomach was growling silently. He lifted an eyebrow. 

"You're a werewolf, Tea. That's not genetically possible anymore. As you eat more, your muscles will fill out and your body will change a bit. But a werewolf can't eat too much." I blinked at him. 

Well, that was... nice. Assuming I could eventually afford the grocery bills. Until then, it would only be a disadvantage.

 "I know that brain of yours is stressing about money. Don't. I've got it covered." He got up and headed to the bathroom while he left me with my food. 

I expected my wolf's uncomfortable presence as he walked out of sight, but I didn't expect her to rip control out from under me like a damn rug. 

A scream slipped through my lips as my back bent awkwardly, my bones starting to change and reform. 

Jesse was back to me in a heartbeat, his arms wrapping around me while he whispered soothing words, but it was too late the wolf was in control. 

Agony bloomed, withered, and then exploded repeatedly as the pain swelled and retreated again and again. When the pain finally stopped, I was looking out through the eyes of my wolf.

 "It'll get faster," Jesse promised. I didn't know if he was promising that to me, or to the wolf who'd snatched my body. 

Either way, I wasn't looking forward to discovering that for myself. 

He scratched my wolf's head, and she leaned into his touch. Her eyes squinted slightly, and I wondered if she was analyzing him or something.

 "Your human still has a lot of schoolwork to catch up on, so if you're going to test me, let's get to it," he murmured to her. 

She snuggled closer to him, licking his face, before she pushed out of his arms and moved to the back door. He stood and gave her a stern look. 

"Your food." He pointed to the plate. The wolf huffed but walked back to the food. She swallowed it down in a couple of impressively large bites.

 Had she even tasted it? I was going with no. She moved back to the door, and Jesse pulled it open for her. 

Without a glance backward, she took off into the forest. She was not a pro when it came to logical thinking. 

Why the hell was she running away from our only tether to the werewolf world?

 She was running like something was out to get her. Trees and branches and rocks flew past us as she sprinted her wolfy heart out.

 I itched to take control, but I hadn't figured out how to do that; how to fight her.

 Leaving her in charge of my body felt like a self-betrayal, but there was no alternative that I could see. 

She must've run for an hour without a sign of anything but dirt and trees and other normal forest shit, but when she heard a soft rustle off to her side, she finally slowed. 

How she heard it was beyond me I wouldn't have heard that tiny noise. But she did and stopped. Her gaze narrowed in the direction the rustling had come from. 

After all the animated movies I'd watched growing up, I half expected a bunny to jump out so we could laugh it off or something. 

Instead, Jesse, the wolf slipped out of the brush, his tail wagging. He trotted up to my wolf and nuzzled her neck. She lifted her chin, letting him sniff her neck, followed by her sides and butt. 

The wolves were so weird. He was still sniffing when she must've decided she was done standing there, so she turned around and sprinted back into the forest without a glance backward. 

Wolf Jesse caught up to her quickly, running to her side. They dodged branches and shit together. It seemed like hours had passed when they finally reached the row of townhouses that marked our home. 

The wolves stopped in the forest and nuzzled each other a few times. I wasn't sure what they were doing until pain spasmed in my spine. Right. Shifting back. 

Yay. I cried out silently, agony tearing through my body again as it began to change. When the pain was finally gone, I was face down in the dirt, bare-assed and utterly exhausted. 

One of my nipples was smashed up against a large rock, and something sharp jabbed into my hip, but I didn't have the energy to get up.

 "You okay?" Jesse the man asked, his voice soft. He gently moved tangled strands of hair away from the sliver of my face that he could see with my nose smashed into the dirt. I groaned weakly.

 "That bad, huh?" His hands were careful on my arms. "Can I carry you?" I made an angrier noise that came out sounding like a sound a dying animal would make. He chuckled. 

"Alright. We'll give it a minute to see if you start feeling better." His fingers combed more of my hair out of my face, draping it over my back as best as he could. 

"Your wolf was testing mine," Jesse explained quietly, filling the silence as we waited. I was feeling shittier by the moment, so I doubted I'd get better, but wasn't ready to admit that. 

"She wanted to know if he could track her through the forest by her scent. It's a pretty common test for wolves the females want to know that the males can find them should they get separated. When she let my wolf sniff her, she was acknowledging that he passed the test even without knowing her scent intimately." I would've glared at the dirt if I could open my eyes. 

Freakin’ wolves, and their freakin’ tests. Couldn't they just get it on in the woods and be done with it? "You ready to walk to the door?" Jesse checked. I groaned out a "no". 

"You're not going to like this, Tea, but I'm going to have to carry you." His voice remained light, though there was a warning undertone. I groaned another "no".

 "I know it's not ideal, but you need food and sleep to recover. Your body's still adjusting." 

Wrestling with my exhaustion, I forced my head up off the ground. My body shook as I struggled to lift my head, but I refused to let it fall.

 I'd nearly propped myself up on my forearms when my muscles gave out, and I flopped back to the ground like a bag of rice. 

"I'd grab you a blanket or towel, but if I leave, your wolf will probably take over." His voice was thick with apology.

 I resigned myself to my fate and shut my eyes tightly, muttering into the dirt, “Alright.” 

"I'm going to pick you up now.” I braced myself for a feeling of violation. 

Jesse's hands found my biceps and lifted my arms to wrap around his neck. His hands moved to my waist from there, and he lifted me off the ground without touching me anywhere I wasn't comfortable with. 

I guess supernatural strength could come in handy. Our bare bodies pressed together as he strode in through the back door of the townhouse. 

There was no hiding my body's effect on his, but neither of us pointed that out. And by some miracle, the feeling of being violated was completely absent. 

Instead, I felt sort of...taken care of. It was an eerie feeling, but not an unpleasant one. 

Rather than heading up the stairs to drop me in my bed like I was hoping he would, Jesse went to the fridge. 

He grabbed a grocery bag and tossed food into it before moving to the stairs like I'd thought he would, to begin with. 

We made it to the bathroom, and he carefully set me down inside the tub. I was so weak that my damn head flopped back and smacked the wall. 

"Shit. Sorry." Jesse's expression grew strained as he tucked my calves up away from the water before turning it on. 

It was thoughtful that he protected me from the cold rush, but I wasn't sure how I felt about it considering he had to touch me to do so. Not that I didn't like being touched by him. I did. 

But it was just the principle of the thing. He plugged the tub when the water ran warm, and then he plopped down on the floor, sitting with his back against the tub so he wasn’t looking at me. I could see him, though all of him. 

A relieved breath left him as he opened the bag of food he'd thrown together, and he pulled out a bottle of chocolate milk. I scowled at it.

 I hadn't had chocolate milk in ages especially not the expensive bottled stuff. If I was spending three bucks on a drink, it was a massive Red Bull that was going to buy me at least an extra six hours of serious studying. 

Jesse stuck a straw in it and held it out in front of me without looking through the curtain at my body. "Drink.” My scowl deepened. 

"You need the calories, Teapot. Drink the milk or I'm climbing into that tub to force-feed it to you." My eyes flicked to his erection and then to the amused determination in his gaze.

 "Yep. No secret that I find you attractive. Make me climb in there, and I'll enjoy it immensely." With a noise of complaint, I opened my mouth and obeyed his order.

 The chocolate milk was surprisingly delicious. My stomach rumbled ferociously as I sipped at the liquid, and my eyebrows lifted. Jesse chuckled. "I'm going to have to refill this bag before we get you full again." Unable to give a snarky response, I just kept drinking.