I opened my locker and found another sandwich and a bag of chips. I sighed. I was crazy for thinking that Dastien—the guy who kept bossing me around or running the other way—was a better choice. Chris was nice and funny and easy to be around and also hot. But the spark wasn’t there. At all.
The spark was Fourth of July-sized with Dastien. We’d had a rocky start for sure, but I couldn’t deny my intense attraction to him. But before I even thought about committing to him, he had to stop running away whenever things got hard and bossing me around. Otherwise, what was the point?
Two periods later, I sat in the cafeteria with Shannon and Meredith, but Adrian and Chris were missing.
I scanned the other tables, and realized that it wasn’t just our guys that were gone. They were all gone. “Where is everyone?”
“You didn’t hear?” Shannon asked.
I let her shitty tone roll off me. “Hear what?”
“The Cazadores showed up today. They’re going to patrol campus at night. Everything might seem normal right now, but we’re on full lockdown starting an hour before sunset.”
Before I could ask what she meant, the doors flew open, banging against the wall. A group of twenty or so men strutted in. Each wore head to toe black. All the ladies froze in place and watched them as they piled food on their trays. When they turned to the room, the girls looked down, letting the guys take the dominant role. I sat up straight and met their gazes. The whole “women are the weaker sex” thing wasn’t going to fly with me.
Donovan and Sebastian strolled through the doors.
“Oh my God. That’s who those other two wolves were last night,” Meredith said.
Donovan spotted me and winked. I waved back. Since I wasn’t terrified of him anymore, I could actually notice that he was incredibly handsome. He wasn’t as tall as Dastien, but he commanded attention in the same kind of way with his confident swagger. His black hair was tucked behind his ears. His smile showed off his dimples. He weaved through the tables toward us.
Meredith hit my shoulder. “Holy shit,” she whispered. “Donovan Murry is coming over to us. He’s gorge.”
“Yeah. He kind of is, right?” He might have been a bit old for my taste, but he still looked a few years shy of thirty.
“Only totally.”
He pulled a chair from the table next to us and sat in between Meredith and I. “How’re you doing, lass?”
I grinned. That accent got to me in the best way. “I’m okay.” The scratch had nearly gone away, and I only put a band-aid on today.
“We’re checking out what you and Meredith here talked about with Michael. But we don’t want you messing where you shouldn’t be. Dangerous stuff, that. Okay?”
Wow. Mr. Dawson actually listened to me. Which meant that something was up. A million questions popped into my head. I opened my mouth, but didn’t get a word out.
Donovan put a finger to my lips. “No. Remember what I just said?”
Meredith made a squeaking noise. Her cheeks were bright red. I’d never seen the girl blush before and had kind of assumed that she was un-embarrass-able.
I couldn’t stop the chuckle. “This is Meredith. She might be a little overwhelmed by you.” Meredith punched my arm. Hard. “Ow.”
“Tessa!” Meredith whisper shouted at me.
I laughed harder this time.
Their gaze met and I could swear I felt the heat of it burning. There were some major mutual appreciation vibes going on.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Meredith Savannah Molloney.” He reached across me to grab her hand and pressed his nose to her pulse point. “I’ll be seeing you again real soon.”
What the hell. Donovan Murry was totally hitting on Meredith.
“Right. I best be off. You ladies enjoy your lunch.” He gave us another of his smiles, crystal eyes twinkling.
Meredith punched my shoulder when he left. “Holy shit. Did that just happen?”
I fanned myself. “It totally did.”
“He’s so hot. And can’t you just feel that power. God.”
I laughed. “He is kind of potent. And while we’re on the subject, I met Sebastian Braun too. Same deal with him.”
Shannon pushed back from the table. “I’ll leave you to your gossiping.”
I couldn’t win with her. It was much easier to not try.
“Don’t worry about her. She’s just jealous. Of both of us,” Meredith said. The bell rang. “This isn’t getting you out of spilling. Tonight. You will tell me everything. Especially about Donovan. Or face the consequences.”
“I think I’ve had enough consequences for one lifetime.” I giggled when she shoved me. “Tonight. I promise. When not so many people are around.”
“Deal.”
***
I should’ve known it was going to be a bad martial arts class when I walked into the gym and saw Dastien instead of Mr. Dawson. Everyone was already sparring. I guessed the attack made everyone a little on edge.
Chris waved me over. We started our normal stretching routine. I couldn’t help but peek at Dastien. He stood reclined against the far wall watching as I stretched.
He mouthed, “Focus.”
I quickly looked away, turning bright red for sure. I finally got into the fighting stance Chris had taught me, and tried to pretend Dastien wasn’t there.