Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Me: Good Morning, Baby Doll. How's your day looking?

Baby Doll: Busy. I have Calculus today, then Astrology Club, then I have uh…

She sent that incomplete message, then went silent for several minutes. I gave her three before I opted to finish the sentence for her.

Me: The full moon?

Baby Doll: Yeah…

Me: You sound distressed. Maybe I can help you work out some of that tension before tonight.

Send . I was getting tired of subtlety, and this time of the month rarely inspired any in me. I leaned against my motorcycle, staring down at my phone, waiting for her response. The gentle glow of the messaging app was the only light in my dark garage. I only had one class today outside of Club obligations, but I'd happily show up a bit early to play a little game. It seemed like as good a day as any to assert my position in her life over Adrian's.

Baby Doll: I don't know what you mean .

Yes you do.

Me: I'll see you at breakfast, and I'll demonstrate.

Baby Doll: I'm on my way right now.

Me: Perfect. I'll be there in ten.

With an involuntary grin, I pulled on my jacket, my helmet, then both gloves, and I fired up my bike. I opened the garage door then twisted the throttle aggressively, enjoying the reverberation of the engine's roar in the small space.

Let's make it in seven.

I was parked, my helmet hair fixed, my motorcycle gear in a locker, and standing in line for scrambled eggs and ketchup in the blink of an eye—one of my favorite parts of being a vampire. I had to be mindful of when and where I used my natural speed, but human eyes couldn't track my movements. As long as I was mindful of my audience, it was permitted on campus. I'd gotten good at that sort of stealth from a very young age, when I used to steal snacks from the kitchen that were meant to be shared with my older brother.

Maybe his contempt for me hadn't been entirely unjust.

"Baby Doll, it's so good to see you in person." The full moon had taken forever to get here, but now that it was I enjoyed the extra buzz of energy pumping through me, even when the moon was nowhere in sight. This time of the month was always just a tad electric. And during the month of a Cardinal Fire sign? Damn near orgasmic.

She blinked several times before she looked at me properly. "How'd you get here so fast? "

"That's not a word I can use in public." I told her with a wink, before I sat beside her. She nodded in understanding. I had been anxious since our last talk, I'd admit. I wanted her to pick me, but I also understood that Lila was still very new to relationships, and the chance of her choosing a good option over Adrian still felt unlikely.

But that was all fine. I had enough relationship experience for the both of us, for better or for worse, so I could certainly help lead her in the right direction. It was my duty as both her friend, and the guy who she didn't seem to realize she'd been dating since she arrived. I could see how she got confused, of course. Between the dinners, the picnics, the homemade lunches, the motorcycle rides, the two grand I dropped on motorcycle gear for her, the doorstep kisses, the hot tub situation, the feeding turned make out sessions—not to mention the literal mate mark I'd placed on her neck—I hadn't been remotely obvious about it.

It was an act of great discipline that I didn't groan out loud. I suppose I hadn't used the literal words "let's go steady" or got down on one knee. Maybe that was human custom. They were a needlessly complicated species.

Though, to her credit, I hadn't considered keeping her exclusively before, so I suppose that lack of definition was significant and intentional. I couldn't even say we were established as casual friends with benefits, considering I'd only been with her under transformation. At best, we were vampire and donor.

Vampire and impressively oblivious donor…

I wanted to sigh, but I thought better of it. Here I was, falling into her rhythm again, when I was finally in a rare position to win against Adrian for the first time in our lives. All I had to do was wait this out, let him completely fall in love with her, then crush his soul in the same way that he used to burn my toys in the fireplace. And here I was going to ruin the whole thing over, what? A little bit of sexual discomfort? Needing to prove I wasn't "jealous" or feeling "lesser" or "insecure"?

My brows furrowed in my silent conversation.

Of course I wasn't jealous. I was absolutely her first choice when she was actively making one. That's why she ate breakfast with me and asked me to bite her. Adrian wasn't a better lover than I was. He didn't have a more satisfying dick.

And even if he did, I didn't give a fuck. I just didn't want her getting off without me again, leaving me to feel that shit and having to imagine what was causing it. She could have multiple mates if she wanted, but if double mate marks meant the other mate would be notified of her pleasure, I intended to be inside her while it happened.

My whole face scrunched further at the realization that this meant potentially being in bed with her with Adrian one day, and I was going to be bleaching my brain for the rest of the year after that unwelcome thought. He was right about one thing: I may have fucked around and found out on this debacle.

Right, well . I'd cross that bridge when I got there. Or I'd successfully convince her to reject his mark. She'd asked me how, anyway. She might have meant mine, but I'll teach her by starting with his .

"Everything okay?" She said, snapping me out of what must have been a series of telling and animated facial expressions .

"I'm great so long as you're confident you'll be okay tonight." I saved face beautifully. I'd been so lost in my thoughts, it took me a second to remember I'd come here for a reason. Focus. "So what's the plan for tonight? Do you want me to protect you?"

"I was just going to lock myself in my room, honestly." Her shaky laugh was telling .

"That's a smart option." I spoke neutrally. "Though if you're worried about being alone, my house is built with lunar blocking glass. You could stay over, maybe enjoy some popcorn and a movie. I could make you dinner. It could be a quiet, peaceful night, so your full moons don't always have to end with trauma." They would still end beneath me though. I wasn't sure if that qualified as trauma.

Her expression was perplexing, and I felt compelled to slip into her mind in hopes of figuring out what that purse to her lips meant. Sinking in, her guards low, she thought to herself "I should say yes, but… Maybe I don't want a quiet, peaceful night. Maybe I'm kind of curious what an Aries' fiery ‘passion' looks like."

That was disturbingly attractive. She was definitely some sort of monster after my own heart.

I made a point to keep a straight face, not wanting it to be obvious whenever I eavesdropped on her mind uninvited. It was better if she thought that chamber was at least occasionally private.

"I don't know." She said. "I'll see how I feel after my classes. I might want to just hide away and not take any risks. "

"You think I'm risky?" I frowned at that, and I couldn't really say why. "I promise without the full moon hitting me, I'll be completely in control. Even if I were to be exposed, you know I won't shift without hitting my trigger, and the Aries is near impossible to initiate when it's just the two of us." After all, if she spent the night with me, there would be no reason I'd find myself overwhelmed by jealousy.

"Even if that's true, I don't think I'm safe." She hid behind her hair, while she nibbled on her croissant like a fidgety squirrel. Interesting.

I watched her every move intently. She didn't reveal anything in her mind. She just continued to use nibbling on a breakfast pastry as a way to blanch every thought from her head.

"Why wouldn't you be safe?" I laid out the bait carefully. She'd not technically confessed her Beta status to me yet, and I couldn't get too far ahead of myself. I only knew this because Adrian had told me, since I guess we were confiding in each other now.

Weird.

Regardless, she didn't even know what her bloodline consisted of, let alone what the hierarchy meant for her. I wondered if Betas also struggled with self-control once shifted in those circumstances. I'd always been told a hybrid Beta retains their consciousness, but that didn't mean their emotions weren't heightened.

That made perfect sense.

She'd lost all sense and control last week while in Virgo form, and that was why she was willfully riding my half-brother after having already experienced me .

"Because it only takes a fraction of a second of exposure, doesn't it?" She slouched further into that chocolate treat. It occurred to me that this was probably legitimately terrifying for her. While a Virgo was the blandest shifter I'd ever heard of, she thought she was human until a few weeks ago, so it wasn't as simple as ‘she's not murdering anyone yet, so what's the problem?'

"Well, yes, but that only matters in a Zodiac Hybrid's birth month. Unless you're not an Alpha." Just confess already, so this conversation will be easier .

"I'm a Beta." She muttered at a volume that would be completely inaudible to anything but my acute vampiric hearing.

"A Beta isn't dangerous under any circumstances." I rubbed her shoulder to reassure her, but that didn't seem to help. I was sure my idiot brother hadn't taken the time to explain this life-altering revelation. "Even if your scent becomes completely overwhelming, so long as you want me to hold back, I promise I'll hold back. You won't catch me off guard again." I ruffled her hair, and she sank into a smile. Much better.

"I'll let you know." Lila said with a sense of finality, while she thought "but maybe the professor will tell me more about this whole thing if I spend the night with him. Right, because I can just show up at his house. I guess I do know where he lives now." Her thoughts rambled on and on until I didn't want to listen to them anymore.

She knows where he lives now, huh? Must have been a real fun night. It was a constant effort not to gag when listening to her think about him.

We both finished our meals and tossed away our trays, then I insisted she let me walk her to class. Her fixation on Adrian was ridiculous, but I was starting to gather she was going to need some much firmer convincing than I'd been employing to get through to her. I'd let this get out of hand in regards to both of them.

It was about time I take back control.

We walked the hall, entering into the Math and Science wing. She had Calculus next, and then her next class wasn't until Astrology club with both myself and my dearest brother. I was going to part ways with her for my Psychology class, and she was going to spend the rest of the school day thinking more about him than about me.

Because he'd left much more of an impression on her...

Rounding one more bend, we found ourselves in an empty hall. It was quiet at this hour. Only a few classes were in session.

Specifically, just a few steps away, Advanced Structural Analysis was in full swing. A subject taught by the one, and only, Adrian Karras.

Her eyes wandered to his classroom door. "Well, thanks for letting me talk. I really appreciate your friendship." She said as we neared the room.

Cute. But no.

A wide grin stretched across my lips the second before I wrapped an arm around Lila's delicate shoulders. When she tensed, I gave her one, full heartbeat before I leveraged that hold to shove her hard into the lockers. Her back hit metal with a clang, loud enough to risk drawing attention.

"I think you've gotten the wrong idea about me, Baby Doll."