***
I followed her scent, tracing her steps through the halls and using the lingering scent to document her class schedule. Part of me knew my behavior was borderline obsessive, but there was no stopping. It almost felt like I was compelled to know, to figure out every nuance of her day, and how I fit into it.
When I came to the cafeteria doors, I took a deep breath, preparing myself for being in the same room as her.
“She’s not at the table,” Caleb told me over the Pack link. “A girl, Leah I think, took her.” He must have sensed me bristling because he corrected himself hastily. “I don’t mean took. She asked Jess to sit with her.”
The knowledge didn’t exactly soothe my irritation. She belonged to me. With us, I mentally revised, the words hollow to my own ear. I headed for the hot lunch area, my body keenly attuned to where she was in the room. Even as she sat surrounded by perfume and hair products, I could pick out the crisp scent which was uniquely her, a combination of evergreen during the first snow and the berries that ripened only along the ridge in the spring.
I ignored the blonde teacher, who persisted in asking me out, when she waved wanting me to join her. My overflowing tray thumped down on the Pack table as I gazed across the cafeteria, uncaring that I was staring straight at her. Her eyes came up, almost as if she could feel the weight of my stare, but then dropped almost immediately, her hair forming a curtain between us.
I ate automatically, as I strained to hear her conversation with the other girl, Leah?, over the din of the cafeteria. It took a minute but I was finally able to filter out the sound of a thousand voices to hear only hers.
“There is no way he’s a student,” she muttered and my lips twitched.
“Dom like in 50 Shades of Gray dom?” She questioned and my forehead wrinkled. Where the hell had that come from? I stared harder at her, trying to decipher her meaning, then gave up, deciding I might not want to know.
“He’s a jerk,” she said loudly enough some of the others at my table heard her. The few brave enough to snicker silenced instantly when my gaze swept over them. I frowned, more determined than ever to know what she was thinking as I continued to listen. “He caught me looking for my class this morning and gave me the third degree. I thought he was going to throw me out.”
“I wasn’t going to throw her out,” I mumbled under my breath, barely repressing the urge to storm over there and correct her idiotic interpretation of the morning’s events.
“You know, you never hear anything good about yourself when you eavesdrop,” Caleb reminded me, gesturing to Jess as I continued to stare at her intently. “Why don’t you just talk to her?”
I ignored his advice, the same advice I’d given him a time or two, and tuned back into Jess’ conversation.
“Maybe girls aren’t his thing?”
A low growl rumbled from my chest at the outrageous question, my glare impotent as some of her hair spilled down, hiding her face further from my view. She never looked up again, her voice silent until lunch ended, and she followed the Leah girl from the cafeteria, never once glancing my way.
“Anna,” I barked at the smallest of our Pack and her milk carton tipped over as she jumped.
“Ye-yes,” she stuttered, clearly surprised by my attention.
I focused my gaze on her and her eyes dropped automatically. “You have classes in the 400 hall?” I questioned and she nodded rapidly.
“I’m a senior,” she answered, locking her hands around her lunch tray so it wouldn’t tremble.
“Good,” I murmured, staring at the door Jess had disappeared through. “See if you can talk to her.”
Anna followed my gaze, her voice barely a squeak as she answered me, “Yes, sir.” She stood hesitantly until I dismissed her with a brief nod.
Caleb gave me a sideways stare but didn’t comment to my relief. It was one of the many glaring differences between Caleb and his father. There was no doubt I’d be given the third degree by the Alpha once we entered Pack lands, but here I was the highest ranking member of the Pack and my word was to be obeyed.
Chapter Two
A strange restlessness followed me the rest of the day and I found myself eager to catch up with Anna to see what she’d uncovered about this unusual breeding female in our midst.
The last bell rang, my keen hearing picking it up from the main building since it didn’t ring in the Field House. I waited impatiently for Anna to report as Caleb watched me through the glass wall of the weight room.