Page 244 of His Hungry Wolf

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Where are you from?”

“It’s a small town about two hours from here.”

“And what year are you?”

“I’m a freshman. I took a few years off after high school.”

“What’s your major?”

“Right now? Football,” he said with a laugh.

“Football?” I said feeling the air release from our bubble.

“Yeah. I’m here on a scholarship. So right now I’m eating and breathing it.”

I stared at Nero not hearing another word after he said “football.” A pain shot to the pit of my stomach until I was forced to cut him off.

“No! I’m sorry, no. I can’t do this. Football? Hell no!” I said stepping away and pointing my finger. I stared at him again as the shock washed across his beautiful face. Why did he have to be a football player?

“Fuuuck!” I shouted in utter frustration before storming off and not looking back.

Chapter 2

Nero

What just happened? One minute I’m talking to the boy I hadn’t been able to get out of my head for months. Things were going well. Everything felt right in the world. Then, out of nowhere he yelled at me and told me to fuck off.

“What the fuck just happened?” I shouted at Kendall as he walked away.

He didn’t turn around or reply. My wolf wanted to chase him down and force him to tell me. It took everything in me to fight the urge.

Did he take off because I told him I played football? Why?

Playing football was the most normal thing about me. I shifted into a wolf and sometimes did horrible things. Even the people who hated me loved me when I stepped onto the football field. Hell, even my mother loved me when I was out there.

For so many years my mother had been missing from my life. Not because she had abandoned me like my father. But because she had disappeared into her own world. The town doctor, who was also a fae, couldn’t tell if it was magical or if she had just gone nuts. And the only time she would rejoin this world, would be to cheer for me under Friday night lights.

Football had been one of the ways I and my newly discovered brother, Cage, bonded. Football is what is paying for my escape to the outside world. Football, not my wolf, has given me everything good in my life.

But, the first guy who makes my heart ache just looking at him, hates me for having anything to do with it? Why can’t I catch a fuckin’ break?

Standing where Kendall had left me, my thoughts spun. My wolf was going hog-shit wild. It wanted me to shift so bad that my skin ripped. I couldn’t let it, though. In the middle of campus with so many people around, the best that could happen would be that someone would see me. The worst was that it left a trail of bodies showing just how much Kendall’s rejection had hurt.

And it wasn’t just that Kendall had practically spit in my face. It was everything. Living in the outside world was hard. The building pressure from having to suppress my wolf and my past was getting to me.

On top of that, it took more than I thought to stand out on the field. I had assumed that being a shifter would be enough. I was naturally stronger and faster than humans. But, it turns out that it wasn’t by that much. I had to work as hard as everyone else to keep up, and even harder if I wanted to keep my scholarship.

Nothing about being here was going like I thought it would. Finding Kendall last night had been the first time I thought things might be okay. Being with him made me believe that I could escape my past and maybe have a future.

Despite what my wolf wanted me to do, I had been as nice and considerate as I knew how to be with him. I really didn’t want to screw things up. Being around him made me think I had the same chance at happiness I watched everyone else have. And all of that vanished when he pointed his finger at me and yelled, “hell no.”

That hurt. It ripped my guts out. My wolf’s deafening howl threatened to bring me to my knees.

I knew what would happen if I let it, though. I had to fight him. Starting to walk, I left the pond and headed to the street. It was the one that cut through campus. But instead of heading to my cramped dorm, I jogged in the opposite direction. I needed to get away. I needed to breathe.

My jog quickly turned into a run. As I did, my mind swirled. Thoughts of Kendall shifted to the last twenty-one years of my life. I had had to fight for everything. No one had given me anything. Not even my mother.