Something About Her

Knox's POV

I almost didn't go to the party.

Parties were not really my thing, not in the way people thought they were. Everyone assumed that because I was the team captain and because girls always wanted to talk to me and because I had a reputation that followed me everywhere I went, I must love being the center of attention. They were wrong. I went to parties because my teammates expected it. I stood around long enough to satisfy the obligation, I stayed sober because I could never afford not to, and then I left.

That was my plan tonight.

But something made me stay longer than usual. I was standing near the window, half watching the party and half watching the sky outside, when I felt it — that familiar pull in my chest that meant the full moon was getting close. I needed to leave soon. I needed to get back to my apartment and lock the door before the moon rose high enough to start pulling at something inside me that I could not control in public.

I was about to go when she walked into me.

She didn't see me coming because she wasn't looking where she was going. Her head was down and her arms were wrapped around herself and she was moving through the crowd with the kind of tight, controlled walk that people use when they are trying very hard not to cry. I caught her before she could fall, and when she looked up at me I felt something strange happen in my chest.

I knew who she was. Ember Cole. Pre-med student, second year. I had noticed her before — in the hallways, in the library, at the dining hall — the way you notice someone without ever having a reason to talk to them. She always looked like she had somewhere important to be and not quite enough time to get there.

Right now she looked like someone had punched her in the heart.

"Sorry," she said, and started to pull away.

I didn't want her to go outside. Not tonight. The wolves I had been sensing around campus all week were not the friendly kind, and a girl walking alone in the dark at this hour was not a risk I was willing to let happen.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out there alone tonight, Ember," I said. "There are wolves on the prowl."

She looked at me like I had just told her the moon was made of cheese. "Wolves. On campus."

"They're always around," I told her. "You just don't know it yet."

She was about to say something back when I heard him.

"Ember."

I turned around. A guy was pushing through the crowd toward us — tall, athletic, still buttoning his shirt like he had gotten dressed in a hurry. I recognized him immediately. Ethan Thurlow. One of my players. One of the better ones on the team, which made what I was looking at right now even more disappointing.

He reached us and ignored me completely, which told me everything I needed to know about the kind of person he was.

"Just let me explain," he said to Ember. "Everything that happened — it's not what it looked like. If you just give me a second—"

"She said she's done."

I said it quietly. I wasn't angry — not yet. I was just clear.

Ethan finally looked at me. Something shifted in his face, not quite fear but close to it. "This is none of your business, Knox."

"You're right," I said. "But you're on my team, and standing in the middle of a party causing a scene is everybody's business. Go home, Ethan. Sober up. Because if I have to say this again I will bench you so fast you won't know what happened."

He stared at me. I stared back. I had learned a long time ago that the person who speaks first in a moment like this is the one who loses, so I waited, and after a few long seconds Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. He held it out to Ember without looking at her, and she took it without touching his hand.

He walked away.

I looked at Ember. She was staring at the key in her palm like she didn't quite know what to do with it.

"You really didn't have to do that," she said.

"Yes I did." I watched her face. She was holding herself together by sheer force of will and doing a remarkable job of it, but I could see what it was costing her. "For the record, you're a lot prettier than the girl he just lost."

She looked up at me sharply. "Are you flirting with me right now? I literally just caught my boyfriend cheating. In my own room. On my birthday."

"When I want something, I go for it," I said. It was the truth.

"I know how you go for things," she said, and there was something in her voice that was not quite an insult and not quite a compliment. "You go for everything. And you never sleep with the same girl twice. Like that's something to be proud of."

That landed somewhere it wasn't supposed to land. She was right that I had that reputation. She was wrong about why.

"If I could change it, I would," I said.

She looked at me for a moment, like she was trying to decide whether I was serious. Then something shifted behind her eyes.

"Put it this way," she said slowly. "All that practice had to be good for something."

I almost smiled. "So what's it going to be, Ember?"

She picked up the bag she had dropped when she walked into me, looked at me one more second, and said, "Lead the way."

***

She looked around my apartment the same way everyone did the first time — surprised. People expected something flashy from me, something designed to impress. What they got was the reality of a guy who spent most of his time either training or studying plays, with trophies on every surface and skates by the door and absolutely no interior design to speak of.

"I'm surprised the campus gossip didn't scare you off," I said, dropping my keys on the counter. "Most good girls stay away from me."

She took her coat off before I could say anything else, and I went very still.

"Who says I'm a good girl?" she said, picking up one of my smaller trophies like she was reading the inscription.

"I know one when I see one," I said. I crossed the room toward her slowly because something about her scent was doing something to the part of me that I always kept under strict control. It was warm and clean and underneath it was something else, something that my wolf recognized even if my human mind hadn't caught up yet. "Something about your scent drives me crazy," I murmured against her hair.

"I'm only here because revenge tastes sweet," she said, and her voice was steady even if her breathing wasn't. "You're not into commitment so nothing gets messy. No love. No strings. Just tonight." She turned to look at me directly. "Show me what all the fuss is about."

I had heard lines like that before. Girls who wanted to seem tougher than they were, who used casual language to protect themselves. But there was something different about the way Ember said it. She wasn't performing. She had genuinely talked herself into thisb and decided it was what she wanted, and there was a bravery in that which I was not expecting.

I pulled my shirt off.

I backed her gently against the wall and she let me, and her hands came up to my shoulders, and everything was going exactly the way these nights usually went — except that it didn't feel the same. It felt different. She felt different. And I couldn't explain why.

She stopped me with her hand flat on my chest.

I stopped immediately.

"There's something you should know," she said. She was looking up at me and her eyes were completely honest and slightly terrified. "I've never done this before."

Something shifted inside me.

"I'll go slow," I told her, and I meant every word. "I'll be gentle. I'll make sure you're okay the whole time. Consider it a birthday gift."

She looked at me for a long moment. Then she nodded.

And I kissed her.

I told myself it was just another night it meant nothing and I was doing her a favor, helping her forget a boy who had never deserved her in the first place.

But even as I thought it, I knew I was lying to myself.

Because nothing about Ember Cole felt like just another night.