Bold & Beautiful (5 page)

I wanted to make her smile. I wanted to see her eyes glittering with delight.
Glittering with delight?
Oh God. Finding my mate had diminished me to a groveling, mushy mess of a future alpha. I never struggled for words. I never struggled to own a conversation, never struggled for the attention of anyone, yet here I was fighting for her to focus on me rather than the grass; fighting for her to give me a chance, rather than her fighting for my attention like most girls.

She didn’t make anything easy. Rather than be angry or upset, I found myself being proud. It meant she made people work for their spot in her life. But once you earned your place, she would probably be loyal to a fault, much like a werewolf.

“This was the only thing that looked somewhat appetizing in there.” Brody tossed me a sandwich as he sat down beside me. As if he read my mind, he immediately held one out to my mate.

She stared at the sandwich and then at him. She worried her bottom lip, as if this was a complicated math problem she needed to solve. She didn’t move a muscle towards it.

I grabbed the sandwich and set it in her lap. “Eat,” I ordered.

I opened my own and took a hearty bite. Brody didn’t hesitate either, eating nearly half the hoagie roll with ham and cheese inside in one bite.

And then I heard her chuckle. The sound went straight to my soul and had my wolf damn near purring. Her eyes lit up as a smile split her face. She was gorgeous when she smiled. “You guys are serious about your food.”

“Hell yeah,” Brody exclaimed, taking another big bite to accentuate his point.

I loved seeing the lighter side of her. “You never told me your name.”

“Aura.” She held up the sandwich. “And, thanks for the sandwich.”

“Thank Brody for that one, Aura.” I loved the sound of her name on my lips. Ay. I really was becoming a pile of mush around her. Ugh. I was making myself sick. Was love really as sappy as the movies made it out to be?

Chapter 16

AURA

Hm. Jonas and Brody. Clearly they were best friends, though I did find it strange that both of them moved to town together. Most families wouldn’t have made that sort of life change together.
Although I could have it wrong.
Maybe they were stepbrothers.

“Thanks, Brody.” I started to unwrap the food. As much as I wanted to refuse it, my stomach wouldn’t let me. And seeing Jonas’ genuine concern gave me the final push. I didn’t know why, but I got the feeling that my initial knee jerk reaction was wrong, that Jonas perhaps wasn’t out to figure me out and move on. He showed a bit more interest, a bit more… feeling.

“No problem.” Brody winked, scarfing down the last bite of his sandwich.

“What class do you have next?” Jonas asked. His gaze seemed to penetrate me. I’d wanted to take a big bite of the sandwich, swallow fast to stop my stomach’s noises sooner, but couldn’t eat like the fat pig most thought I was when he was watching me so closely.

“Art. You?” I tore off a moderate piece of the sandwich and ate it.

“P.E. What about fourth period?”

“English.”

He smiled wide. “With Mrs. Clusky?” I nodded. “We’ll see you there then.”

“You both have the same schedule?”

“The alpha made sure of it,” Brody said.

“He means my dad,” Jonas quickly amended his friend’s words.

I wanted to dig deeper, but I didn’t want them digging into my life so I left it alone.

We sat in amicable silence for a few minutes while I steadily ate my sandwich. Jonas and I kept stealing glances at each other, catching each other at times. There was something about him. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“What is there to do around this town?” he asked.

“Not much really. You’d have to go to Gregory, the town over. They have a movie theatre and a small shopping mall.”

“Is that what you do?” He watched me.

I shook my head. “I don’t go out much.”

“Why not?”

That was a loaded question. There were so many ways I could answer that, but I didn’t. Instead, I just shrugged my shoulders and took another bite of the sandwich.

“You’re good at avoiding questions.”

“Where did you move from?” That seemed like a safe question, and deviation.

“Chicago. Better weather and a heck of a lot more to do.”

“I can imagine.” I’d never been, but had read about the ‘Windy City.’

“What are your plans for college?”

Damn. He was asking hard questions, questions that required an answer linked to my home life, answers that would reveal more than I ever wanted to.

I gave him a wary look and shrugged my shoulders again.

“I’m trying to get to know you better, Aura. You’re not exactly making that easy.”

“Why?” When he raised his brows in questions, I continued. “I mean, why do you want to get to know me better?”

He took a deep breath and crowded my space. He hovered inches from my lips. I found myself holding my breath. “Because I want to.” He kissed my cheek, the soft skin of his lips searing my flesh.

A shiver ran down my spine, rocking me to my core. I knew my mouth was slightly ajar as I stared at him. I couldn’t seem to move, to pull myself together. Apparently he enjoyed my reaction though because he chuckled lightly and smirked. My heart felt like it was going to leap right out of my chest.

I needed to get away from him. My original assessment was right. He was dangerous. He was going to be my downfall. I never thought I’d have that problem. I never thought I’d have to worry about a man reducing me to a whimpering, fumbling lump of sappy mush, but he did. Somehow, in this short amount of time, he wiggled through my usually solid defenses and had an affect on me.

“I’ll, uh… I’ll see you later.” I shoved my book and half-eaten sandwich in my backpack and nearly jumped up.

Concern wrinkled his forehead for a moment. “Um, okay. See ya.”

“See ya, Aura.” Brody jutted his chin out in goodbye.

I couldn’t escape fast enough. I stopped as I rounded the corner of the building. I groaned, hating myself for running, just like my mother did every time the money ran out.

Chapter 17

JONAS

“What the hell?” I shook my head, trying to make sense of what happened.

“Talk about skittish. Sorry, my man, but you’ve got a mate with a lot of scars.”

My wolf growled. This was way harder than I originally thought. I couldn’t walk away from her, it wasn’t possible, but it seemed like I also couldn’t get anywhere with her. She was locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

I looked at my future beta. “Aura seemed to know the coffee shop lady pretty well. You think I could get her to talk; you know, help me out a little with her?”

Brody shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

“You wanna ride home with the Juniors or tag along with me?”

He harrumphed. “You think I wanna hang with the munchkins?”

I threw my hands up. “I didn’t insinuate anything. I just asked.”

He nodded. “Thanks, but I’ll hang.”

~*~

By the time we got to English, the classroom was nearly full. Aura had already taken a seat in the front row near the center. Clearly she enjoyed English.

I spent the next hour and a half listening to the teacher ramble on about this semester’s syllabus, the books we’d be reading and a general outline of the assignment due dates. I couldn’t pull myself from Aura though. She focused on the papers in front of her, taking notes and marking certain things. I found her concentration and enthusiasm for the subject adorable.

When the final bell rang, relief washed over me. The first day was over, without too many incidences either.

“Ugh. Finally.” Brody sighed.

I laughed. “It wasn’t too bad.”

“That’s because your mind didn’t spend the whole day at school.”

He had me there. I shoved the papers into my book bag and quickly stood. I wanted to walk out with Aura, see if I could get anything out of her. When I looked to where she was sitting though, she was gone. I looked out over the crowd, but didn’t see her in the mix of kids trying to cram through the door. How had I missed her? I was so aware of her.

“Follow her scent,” Brody droned. I could tell he was already over the whole best friend being lovesick thing.

“See you at the car.” I skipped out into the throngs of students, all anxious to escape.

I called upon my alpha aura, a strong pheromone that we released when we took control. It subconsciously urged people to pay attention to us, or in this case, to move for me. Slowly people responded, instinctually moving out of my way. I was a man on a mission.

I followed her scent outside to the school parking lot, but, among the mix of exhaust fumes, I lost her. My wolf howled, pushing his paws against me. I knew if I shifted I could quickly find her since my senses were further heightened in my animal form, but I couldn’t risk it.

I sighed in defeat and headed for the Jeep. Brody was already inside waiting for me.

“Do I even want to know how you got in without a key?” I asked as I got in.

“No.”

I pursed my lips and nodded. I shoved the keys in the ignition, started the car and pulled out into the quickly thinning traffic.

“I think we might need to chance the diner. I’m starving man.” Brody rubbed his stomach.

My stomach chose that moment to rumble. “The food better be worth it.”

As much as werewolves loved to eat, we generally disliked restaurants. Our sensitive noses were overwhelmed by the millions of odors stuffed into one business; colognes, deodorants, laundry detergents, sweat, musk, dirt and grime, plus the different foods cooking, and not cooking, in the kitchen. Add the noise factor in and it was our version of hell most of the time.

We were about a mile away from the school when I saw her. She was walking, her book bag crammed with all of her books, weighing down her shoulders. My pulse quickened, the need to protect rising up within me. I pulled along the curb, rolling down Brody’s window.

“Aura!” I called. She turned towards her name. She seemed startled to see me. “Get in and I’ll give you a ride.”

She immediately shook her head ‘no.’ “That’s okay, thanks.”

“We don’t mind.”

She continued to adamantly shake her head. “I’m fine, really.” She kept walking, picking up her pace.

Something close to panic in the tone of her voice had me on edge. “Just get in, Aura. We’ll drive you straight home.”

She stopped. I watched as her chest rose and fell. The car behind me honked the horn and made her jump.

“I’m not leaving you here to walk.” I didn’t care if I had to go alpha on her. It was hot as hell outside, her face was already flush, plus her book bag looked like it weighed too much for her short frame.

The car honked again.

“He’s serious, sweetie. Please just get in,” Brody said. I was surprised by his endearment. Did that mean he liked my mate?

She looked at Brody then the car behind us. She hesitated another minute but she finally opened the back door. I immediately relaxed the second she was inside the car. My wolf even sat back for a moment.

“Just tell me where to go,” I said as I put the car in drive again.

“Straight.” She slipped her backpack off her shoulders and held it in her lap, clutching it tightly.

“Persistent little fuck, isn’t he?” Brody asked Aura.

In the rearview mirror, I saw her lips curl up slightly in the corners.

I elbowed my future beta. “No one should be walking in this heat. I’m surprised my shoes haven’t melted yet.”

“Turn right at the light,” she said.

As we drove down the main street of town, my gut began to tighten. She walked all this way? I looked at my mileage. So far we were four miles from school.

“Turn left up here. You can drop me off at the corner.”

“No. I said I’d take you home and I plan to drop you off at home.”

I glanced at my beta. Apparently I wasn’t the only one worried. His brows were drawn inward as he scanned the area.

“It’s not that far from here. I’ll be fine.” She sounded like she was trying to reassure me, to coerce me into letting her out too soon.

The hairs on my wolf stood straight up; my chest tightened. Something definitely wasn’t right. “Just tell me where to go, Aura.”

In the mirror, I saw her worrying her lip as I turned left. “At the next street over make another left.”

She weaved us around another seven blocks before we pulled into a single building apartment complex. She threw the door open and quickly got out. “Thanks guys.”

I was out of the car before I could even think it through, catching up to her easily.

A county electrician appeared from the side of the building.

“Hi, Bob.” Aura gave the man a warm smile.

He stopped walking. He stared at her, regret on his face. “I’m sorry, Aura.”

I watched as Aura’s face paled. She numbly nodded her head at the man.