4

FLORENCE

Stepping onto campus shouldn't have been a surreal experience. After the kid's butler – the kid's name was fucking Callum – dropped us off at the front, I sped off down the walkway, making a beeline for my dorm room. It was the first building on the right, third floor, fifth door on the left. I didn't need help and I sure as hell didn't want to run into anyone else like Callum, what with his preppy clothes and haughty attitude. We had ironed out the fact that we both despised each other, which was great so we would avoid each other on campus. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that Callum was going to go out of his way to make sure he was a constant wrench in my otherwise mundane plans.

I clutched my bags a little tighter as if someone was going to snatch them from me, my eyes wandering the vast campus for any sign of danger.

Only one entrance and exit to the campus. Multiple places to hide. One entrance, two exits from the dorm.

The constant laughter, hustle and bustle of college camaraderie, and genuine disregard for social etiquette didn't show any sign of hostility. The worst part about the campus seemed to be the fact that everyone was dripping money, whether it was their outfits, their bags, their fucking shoes… even just the way they walked. Callum's attire actually looked like rags compared to the rest of them. I could only imagine what image I was giving off. I had always seen places like this on TV, but I had never known these places actually existed.

I felt the presence behind me before I heard them and I sidestepped, narrowly missing a clap to the back. I'm glad I did as I found the owner of the voice, his sly smile holding deep dark secrets as his hand returned to massaging the girl's waist at his side. She was curled up into the crux of his arm like a fucking piece of glue, eating up the attention. He, on the other hand, seemed to be doing it out of habit.

A few others gathered around him, but I couldn't tear my attention away from him, the way his deep brown eyes, the color of smoky topaz, seemed to stare right through me, asking questions I didn't want to answer. The way he leaned to one side taking away from his true height. Muscles lined his arms, rippling when he tensed, his shirt fitted to his form. His hands were delicately strong, probably deceptively brutal as well. I felt drawn to him, the same way I had been drawn to Aidan – an animalistic pull that made no fucking sense to me. He was my type of bad boy, the fuck 'em and drop 'em type.

There was power and strength to his stance, the kind that demanded submission. But fuck if I was going to bow to this man. He might own some fucking company, but he didn't own me or my experience here. The heat from his gaze traveled straight to my core and I had to refrain from pressing my thighs together in public. His scent wafted into my nose – wild cherries. What the fuck was he doing to me? It was fucking weird that humans had natural scents like this, yet I had just met another one.

As I continued to breathe him in, I realized that the dull ache that had settled in the pit of my stomach began to dissipate. The fucking dickwad of a man in front of me was soothing my pain. Just. Like. Mother. Fucking. Aidan.

Shit. This was bad.

That's when I realized we were basically eye fucking in the middle of the campus and his group was gathered around us, waiting for someone to speak. It wasn't going to be me.

"What's a fucking normie doing here?" One of the groupies shouted. A chorus of laughter rippled through them; my eyebrows creased in confusion.

A normie? I blinked a few times, trying to understand their terminology. Oh, that was me. Surely people without parents worth billions of dollars came to this school, right? I tore my eyes from the man in front of me but no one seemed to share my sentiment. I just shrugged and clutched my bag tighter. "Going to school?" I shot back at them, hoping they couldn't hear the tremble in my voice. I wasn't scared of them, but I was fucking uncomfortable. I could deal with killers, crew members who didn't give a shit, or the hobo under the bridge. But fucking rich ass college kids? Pass.

The man cracked a smile, his wild scent strengthening and I couldn't help but take another sniff before biting back an embarrassing moan. I noticed his hand had dropped from the girl's waist but he made no move to push her away. Something bubbled up inside me and all I wanted to do is rip her from that spot. I wasn't sure if I wanted to replace her or just get her away from him. But I wouldn't mind if those long, elegant fingers were curling around mine. Just a little touch…

Fuck this was bad.

The girl giggled, poking the man in the side as if this entire situation was fucking hilarious. "Theo, she thinks she's a riot." She turned to me, "Don't you?" Her bland eyes fluttered at me. I think she was trying to be cute, but the only thing I gathered from the motion was that she was wearing falsies. She probably didn't even have eyelashes.

Theo. I rolled his name over my tongue quietly a few times and then shook my head, trying really hard to focus. "I didn't think what I said was funny." Rich people's humor was terrible. I was waiting for Theo's reaction to this whole charade. I had been here all of five minutes and was already getting chastised for being… me. Not that I couldn't handle it. I just never understood the point of bullying. It was obvious how much I wasn't worth. There was no reason to degrade my self-worth for it. Unless Theo got off on these things.

I might be into that. I mentally licked my lips, drinking him in even further, wondering if he was feeling this pull or if I was just fucking crazy. Maybe I just got bothered by Alpha bad boys? But that didn't make sense. I wasn't in heat. And we weren't in some fucking werewolf spin-off novel. Fuck if I was going to be someone's Omega bitch.

More laughter ensued from them, Theo's topaz eyes flashing and then I realized he was chuckling as an unnaturally wide grin spread across his face, "Watch out, normie. The girls bite here." There was another emotion just beneath the surface as his jaw ticked, but I couldn't read him. Wherever he kept his emotions, they were locked up pretty tight.

I shrugged again, trying to play off how much I didn't give a fuck about this institute or anyone in it. The girls here were the least of my problems. I not only had my own set of jaws, but I also had claws to match. If the girls wanted to play, I was game. If Theo wanted to play, I was game. 100%, no questions asked. Fuck, I was a slut, wasn't I? It had been less than an hour since Aidan had fucked me with his fingers and I was already fantasizing about what Theo could do between my thighs. I took a few deep breaths, his scent filling my nostrils. Fuck, that was worse.

I started off the walkway, instantly glad for two things – that Theo and his posse weren't following me and that I had memorized the fucking campus map. I knew where my dorm was. I knew where my classes were. And I knew how to fucking avoid the most crowded places on campus so that I would stay out of the limelight. I chanced a glance back at Theo as his head tilted to the side, his eyes roaming my figure. He was trying to figure me out. My focus drifted to the girl beside him as she made a swipe across her throat with her thumb. Her eyes were void of emotion, but I wasn't even remotely scared of her.

The scariest thing she had probably experienced was a wardrobe malfunction. Heck, maybe it would be the public humiliation once Theo dropped her ass – because he was definitely going to at some point. I could feel it in my soul that Theo needed more of a challenge and I was pretty sure the girl at his side was the kind that would bend over backward for him.

Her experiences paled in comparison to mine. I wanted to see her escape a gun-toting family intent on killing her and then her threat of making my life hell here on campus might instill fear.

Until then, I just needed to stay out of her way.

Sure, I could crush her. She was a pest, little more than a cockroach.

But her entire outfit cost more than my life and I was supposed to be staying under the radar.

I bet $50 that I'd last three days.