ChapterTwenty
SUNDAY
“Hmm... I’m not sure silver is your color,” Moira mused, staring at my hair like it was some kind of science project.
“I told you,” I said with a laugh.
She narrowed her eyes. “Maybe if we go with something a little more unconventional.”
“More unconventional than silver? Go nuts, but I’m drawing the line at shaving it off, okay? On you, it’s sexy as hell. On me? Not so much.”
Moira smirked, and I already knew her well enough to know that’s exactly what she’d been planning. But since she’d been sporting a series of pixie cuts with various designs shaved into them for the past couple of days, it hadn’t been much of a mental leap.
“Don’t you want to look all badass for your date with the priest? I could give you a crucifix? Or... how ‘bout we really make him go wild and I give you the mark of the beast? I think you’d look like hot shit with a 666 along the back of your head. It could be like your version of a tramp stamp. Something for him to stare at while your head is bowed in supplication. And then he could...exorciseyour demons.”
“Oh, my God, Moira. He’s not going to exorcise anything.” I rolled my eyes, trying to cover my snorts of laughter. “It’s not a date. It’s punishment. And you’re supposed to be helping me get it off my mind.”
“But if we do it my way, maybe he’ll help you getoffinstead.”
“Stop it.” I already had enough inappropriate thoughts about him all on my own. I didn’t need Moira to give me any new ideas.
“I’m just trying to make you feel better since the Prince of Darkness has left you high and dry again.”
High maybe... but not dry. The fucker.
She’d caught me moping around our room and declared a mandatory roommate makeover session. What that really meant was Moira wanted an excuse to turn me into her real-life doll so she could play around with various hair and makeup styles. All I had to do was sit there and look pretty. She always set me back to rights after she was done having her fun. Which was fine with me. At least it gave me something more productive to do than think about my upcoming session or that panty-melting asshole Noah.
He’d ghosted me. Again.
We’d been T-minus ten seconds away from him claiming my V-card, only for him to all but flee from my room and leave me with no choice but to take care of myself. Not to mention whatever the hellthathad been when I’d come so hard I could have sworn I heard his thoughts in my mind. So much build up and then... nothing.
God, I was such an idiot.
“You’re doing it again,” Moira chided.
“I can’t help it.”
I’d filled Moira in on the whole humiliating tragedy. From Callie’s stupid prank right up to Noah’s disappearing act.
“What I want to know is why are you worrying about him when you have that Norse beefcake just waiting on the sidelines? Or, hell, you could have Kingston here with the crook of your little finger.”
Her comment should have made me smile, but it only made me groan louder. My feelings for these guys were so complicated. I was going to need a damn murder board to make sense of them.
“I thought you liked Alek?” she asked with a frown.
“I do. A lot. I mean, the guy saved my life, and there’s something about being around him that makes me feel strong and powerful. But I also have these crazy feelings for Noah I can’t just wish away. Like there’s something that happens when I’m with him. I feel safe and in control... like he calms the chaos inside me. I’ve never responded like this to anyone, except—”
“Except?” she prompted when I didn’t immediately continue.
“Kingston. As much as it kills me to admit it, my wolf has it bad for that Alpha asshole. She only showed up once she was around him. I... I think I need him to find her.”
That had been a rather uncomfortable lesson I’d learned during our match-up in class the other day. When his wolf had growled, signaling his intent to mark mine... Fuck, just the memory of it had my blood heating and my core tightening. After everything Kingston had said about me over the years, there was absolutely no reason for me to feel this way. But my wolf had other ideas. And now that she was scratching at whatever barrier had been keeping us apart, it was not so easy to deny her.
“All right, so what you’re telling me is you need a harem.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right. Okay. Because I’ll be able to convince not one but three alpha males to just set their instincts aside and share me.”
Even as I said the number, my brain automatically corrected me.Four. There were four men I couldn’t get off my mind. But it may as well be one hundred for as likely as it was any of them, let alone all of them, would agree to such an arrangement.