Chapter 1

Collins

BEFORE:

I sat in the floor in front of the mirror applying makeup in the dorm room. My roommate and best friend Sloan was in the bathroom fixing her hair. I grinned. College had turned out better than I could have ever imagined. I was on the cheer squad .. and my dance team was number one in the region.

They had just sent word that the dance scholarship would carry on for two more years. By then I would have my nursing degree.. and then, my life could really start. I had a boyfriend who loved me and was amazing. Everything was perfect.

Of course, there was the small detail that no one here knew the truth about. And they never would. They were all humans, and normal. I, on the other hand, was anything but.. I was a werewolf.

It had taken ages to convince my parents to let me go to college. But my need to become a nurse pushed me to never give up on the dream. Helping and healing people was all I ever wanted to do. Besides, mom was a teacher and she had gone to the human college as well.

But mom argued that things were different now, it was more dangerous. So I worked my ass off to get the scholarship. And my parents couldn’t say no. Well…. after I made an entire PowerPoint presentation and begged for a month… they didn’t say no. I think they just finally gave in because I was driving them insane.

It didn’t matter how… it only mattered that the last two years had been the best in my life. Sure I missed home. I missed my parents and my little brother and my best friend that lived there. I mostly missed being able to shift freely and run in the woods. There was hardly ever the chance to do that here. And keeping my wolf locked up was never a good idea. But this was all worth it…. a small price to pay to make all my dreams come true.

Sloan and I were going to a big frat party that night. My boyfriend, Garrett was pretty high up in his fraternity and he had been begging me to come to one of his parties for as long as I could remember.

Sure we had been to parties before… a lot of them in fact. But we tried to stay away from the typical fraternities. Sloan had a bad experience in one when she was in high school, and I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. And, I had heard stories from some girls who had similar things happen to them. But we had decided to go tonight. Mostly because Garrett wouldn’t shut up about it and Sloan got sick of him whining.

I didn’t dare go without her. Our neighbors in the next room of the dorm were mine and Sloan’s other best friends. Sara and Abbey were the most opposite friends I had ever met. But we all somehow meshed together and made it work. We had the perfect friend square…

Sara was sometimes quiet and shy, studios and smart as could be. She was very intuitive about things and on more than one occasion I thought she had figured out my secret. With her short blonde bob and cute glasses, I always thought she looked a bit like a doll. But an adorable doll at that.

Then there was Abbey who labeled herself as sort of a rocker chick. She had dyed her already dark hair a deep shade of blue. It was stick straight and hung down her back to her waist. She liked to wear leather and listened to heavy metal music. But she had a heart of gold. Even if it was a little gothic.

And of course Sloan .. my bestie. We shared everything… minus the big secret. Sloan had wild red hair and fair skin covered in freckles. She was tall and willowy and I was positive she would become a model one day if her work towards becoming a pharmacist didn’t work out.

So the four of us.. we were quite the mix. But we were as close as could be. Our differences didn’t set us apart.. but instead they brought us together.

I had recently decided it would be a great idea to cut my hair off. It had been as long as Abbey’s before but I needed a change. Plus all the dancing and cheering I did … my hair was getting slung all over the place. The short cut was much more manageable. It came just above my shoulders now. And tonight I had pulled part of it up on top of my head in a little bun. The rest of it hung free.

I stood and looked at my outfit. I wore a leather mini skirt. If you could call it that- more like a micro skirt. And a lacy high neck sleeveless shirt. I liked the pair together, it made the outfit look like a dress. Then I pulled on my black knee boots. Perfect.

The door flew open and in walked Abbey and Sara. Both of them looking equally stunning though completely opposite. About that time Sloan emerged from the bathroom, her drink sloshing as she bounded through the door.

We’d started drinking about an hour ago. It was a tradition … having a couple drinks while we got ready. Sloan referred to it as ‘pre-gaming’. I usually tried to limit my alcohol intake. I was an athlete.. and couldn’t afford to be hungover or for anything to affect my performance. If I lost my dance scholarship…. we’ll let’s just say that wouldn’t be good.

Not to mention the cheering. That took a lot of strength. But lucky for me, I had a little advantage as far as that went. However tonight I was giving myself a break… so decided I was going to allow myself to loosen up all that self control I hung on to so hard.

“Let’s get this show on the road girlies!” Sloan yelled out, clearly already feeling the alcohol.

I grinned at her.

“Damnnn girl! Okayyyyyy Collins!” Abbey said when I stood.

“Garrett’s gonna flip when he sees you in that ….” Sara added.

“Good.” I said smirking. Although it probably wasn’t. Garrett didn’t like for me to wear revealing clothes at all. I already got a lot of attention from the male species as it was. And he got jealous pretty easily. Still, I was my own person. And would wear what I wanted. Whether he liked it or not.

Turned out… he didn’t like it. Not one bit.