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All Chapters of This Redhead Needs No Protector: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

When I got back to my seat, Kieran was turned around, talking to the girl behind him.He saw me and asked the way he always did, “Where’s your hat?”I touched my hair.Without the dark gray knit cap, there was no hiding the red I’d been born with. Afternoon sunlight caught the ends, bright as a flame that refused to go out.“Lost it.”He frowned and pulled the curtain beside me shut, blocking the looks coming in from the hallway.“Wait for me tonight. I’ll walk you home.”For a moment, I almost believed I’d misheard him on picture day.Most werewolves in the Blackpine Pack had brown or black hair. My red hair came from my human mother. It didn’t prove anything by itself, but to anyone who knew me, it was a reminder.Half-blood.My father was a full pack member, and I’d lived in the territory all my life. My ID still listed me as a “Dependent Resident.”I could shift, but I’d never been able to access the pack’s shared mind-link. I couldn’t hear territorial alerts. I couldn’t hear patro

Chapter 2

That night, lying in bed, I kept thinking about what had happened outside the residential district.It had been Viola’s birthday.Kieran’s was two days later.It wasn’t just the matching scent on their clothes. Even their birthdays were close.The next day, I went to his house.Carol opened the door.“Ivy, come in.”She’d known my mother for more than twenty years and had never let me call her anything as formal as “Mrs.”Kieran called out from upstairs but didn’t come down.“I don’t understand that academy,” Carol said, taking fruit out of the refrigerator. “The Alliance academy entrance exams are only a few weeks away, and they’re giving you all this time off.”She tipped her chin toward the stairs.“He’s had that headset on since he got out of bed.”Before she left to buy groceries, she looked back.“Stay for dinner. Text me if there’s anything you want.”I knocked on Kieran’s bedroom door.He was gaming. When he saw me, he gestured toward the chair beside him.I sat behind him and

Chapter 3

My pencil case hit the ground.Pens, erasers, and a ruler scattered everywhere. My admission slip skidded a few feet away.“Sorry. Didn’t see you.”The boy who’d hit me stood beside me, not sounding sorry at all.I ignored him and crouched to retrieve the slip.Just before my fingers reached it, a shoe came down on the paper.He bent over me, smiling at my red hair.“A half-blood applying to an Alliance academy? Can you even hear orders over the link?”“Move.”“Don’t get nasty. I’m just telling you to stop hanging off Kieran.”I looked up.His face was familiar.“Whatever’s between me and him is none of your business.”“How’s it not? He’s got the best chance in our year of getting into patrol command. You have to follow him there so he can keep babysitting you?”I tugged at the paper.He pressed down harder.“You need to learn to stay where you belong. Stop expecting purebloods to do everything—”His shoe twisted.The thin paper tore.A second later, someone shoved him aside.Kieran st

Chapter 4

The whole table erupted.I stayed very still, my hands clenched beneath it.I didn’t want to embarrass him. I was about to speak when Kieran answered first.“Don’t start.”His expression was flat.“Our families are close. Her residency status makes things complicated, so my parents asked me to look out for her.”He said it so lightly.I couldn’t lift my head.All this time, I’d been the only one who thought his care meant something more.I excused myself to the restroom and stayed there a long time.Only when I was sure my eyes were no longer red did I go back out.As I turned into the hallway, I heard voices from the other side.“Kieran, how are you supposed to get a girlfriend when you’re always tied to her?”“She can’t use the link. She can’t even take the shortcut at night without you. You really going to look after her forever?”“Everyone knows Viola likes you. You’re going to miss out on her over some dependent resident?”“Think about yourself for once.”I stopped at the corner.

Chapter 5

I learned later that the summer after I pulled away was the easiest Kieran had had in years.No one reminded him to pick me up.No one asked why he’d left me alone in a classroom.He could join a hunt whenever he wanted, stay out late with his friends, and never check the time or make a detour.But when he heard I’d already left, he stood in our doorway without moving.“We agreed.”He looked at my mother.“We agreed we’d go to Westbridge together.”She was taken aback.“I thought she’d told you.”Kieran shook his head.Remembering what I’d said in the car, my mother could guess some of the rest.“You’ve spent all these years making sure Ivy got where she needed to go. That must have been a lot.”His head snapped up.“No, that’s not—”“When she was little, the territory’s ID checks were stricter than they are now. Her father was often on duty. Carol and I thought it would be best if you went places together.”There was no accusation in her voice.“Then we got used to it. We kept handing

Chapter 6

Lakeview was only a three-hour drive from home.My father’s sister lived nearby, so if anything went seriously wrong, I had someone to call.More importantly, it was in an Alliance neutral zone.The academy granted independent travel clearance based on individual assessments, not bloodline. No one was required to have access to a mind-link.I passed the nighttime route-finding test and received my own pass.The first time I used it at a checkpoint, the guard glanced at it and waved me through.He didn’t ask where my escort was.I stood on the other side for a few seconds before walking on.Some of the problems I’d thought I could never escape were only rules one place refused to change.I lived on campus most of the time, visited my aunt on the occasional weekend, and went home for longer breaks.Outside class, I joined the archive club and an outdoor photography group.Before our first group outing, I told everyone I couldn’t hear the mind-link.The club president nodded.“Then we’ll

Chapter 7

Light from the campsite filtered through the branches.I could see the redness in Kieran’s eyes.But I didn’t understand.I still remembered every minute of that graduation dinner.What was he doing, standing here now?“You’re the one who told me to let you go.”I looked at him.“I thought about it, and you were right. I shouldn’t have treated you as the only person I could turn to.”He stepped closer.“No. I’ve regretted it since that night.”“I wanted to apologize, but you’d blocked me. I thought I could tell you in person when school started. Then I went to your house and found out you’d already left.”His voice was rough.“Ivy, can you forgive me? Don’t be so hard on me.”“Hard on you?”I couldn’t even laugh.I could hear his old words all over again.Yet somehow, I’d become the cruel one.“You told me to wait in that classroom, so I waited two hours. I stayed after dark because I was afraid you’d come back and not find me.”“You were celebrating Viola’s birthday.”“I searched all

Chapter 8

I thought about being little.Once, the other pups had arranged to meet by the creek.They’d changed the meeting place over the link. No one had remembered to tell me.I’d sat there alone until dark. Kieran had found me in the end.On the way home, I’d asked, “Am I never going to really be one of you?”“If you can’t hear them, listen to me,” he’d said.For a long time afterward, he’d kept his word.He told me where everyone was meeting. When the other pups ran ahead, he came back for me.When someone teased me about my hair, he put his own hat on my head.But that was also when I began handing him every bit of my sense of safety.The voices in the coffee shop were quiet.I looked at the man across from me.The boy who’d held my hand through the woods finally became part of him again.I could understand now why he’d grown tired.Understanding didn’t make the hurt disappear.After a long silence, I said, “Kieran, it happened.”“Regretting it doesn’t make it unhappen.”He lowered his head

Chapter 9

“Ivy. It’s been a while.”I hadn’t expected Viola to come over.She stood beside the steps, the wind lifting strands of blond hair.“There are a couple of things I wanted to tell you. About back then.”I looked at her.She got straight to it.“I used to like Kieran. You knew that, right?”I nodded.“I gave up.”She smiled a little.“I realized everything he felt had something to do with you. If you weren’t there, he watched the door. If you were, he got awkward. No one cared more when your name came up, and no one was less willing to admit it.”“I didn’t want to keep guessing. And I didn’t want to push my way into something the two people involved hadn’t even figured out.”I said nothing.She didn’t seem to expect an answer. She moved on.“I heard things got bad between you. I wasn’t sure whether I had anything to do with it, so I wanted to clear something up.”“He and I were never together.”“And the record.”Her expression grew serious.“I didn’t know it was from you. I didn’t even k

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