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THE CAMPUS SEEMED SO much bigger now that I wasn’t with Mary. When we had toured together, we hardly paid attention to the guide. We were too busy laughing and flirting with the boys in the group. Well, Mary was flirting, I was more like failing. My idea of flirting with a boy is insulting his shoes and shirt, while sarcastically spewing innuendo. I knew where some of the dorms were, the library, and I was pretty sure I remembered where the mess hall was, but that was about it. As I stood staring at the sea of people around me, I was frozen in my place. I didn’t know what to do. I had my schedule. Today was the Freshman Orientation, a sort of free for all for the rest of the student body and a chance for the clubs and fraternities to strut. There were booths set up in columns all along the courtyard and the parking lot. Boy, there were a lot of clubs. Astronomy, Chess, Glee, Photo, Digital Photo, cuz there’s a difference, Martial Arts, Kendo... They had some crazy shit going on...
“You got here safe and sound I see.” I heard Greisen as his hand slipped through my arm, clutching my hand firmly. He and Collette had been my anchors since coming back to the U.S. helping me secure my dorm space and moving me in. The apartment I had shared with Mary had been emptied by the time we had returned, further instilling my feeling of being abandoned. There wasn’t even a note.
They got me a single so I could have privacy since I was still kind of edgy from everything that happened. I did have to share the showers with three other girls on the floor but that wasn’t so bad.
“I did, now what?”
“You can ignore all this or you can jump right on in to it. Choice is yours,” he offered. “But with your job do be careful, some of these clubs can be time sucks... Ah, there’s my pet.” He put out his arm to Collette. They had an odd relationship. I often wondered if he actually meant it when he called her that. She did act something like a doting cat toward him, rubbing up on him and purring occasionally. No matter. They were good to me, who was I to judge?
“Aella, sweetie, you are going to rush Phi Beta Delta aren’t you? I’m putting in a good word for you with the sisters!” she chirped as Greisen fondled her ass under her barely there skirt.
“I guess; I mean what would I have to do?”
“Oh, just be part of the best Sorority on Campus! We have the best parties and mixers, and do charity work for the poor. It looks great on your exit papers too! We get hired out to big firms and such when we graduate.”
“Sounds promising, I haven’t even declared a major yet.”
“You’ve got plenty of time. Let’s see what else we can hook you up with. Maybe the Tantric club?”
“What’s that?”
“Oh, honey, have I got things to teach you!” Collette giggled as Greisen approached a tall young man with chestnut hair and a long lean build. “Tantric is the means of channeling your energy into mind blowing orgasms during sex!”
“No, no I don’t want to join that!” I shook my head decisively. I was not going to be learning things like that. Channeling my energies...? I hadn’t even had an orgasm, let alone a mind blowing one. Was she trying to kill me? I looked to Greisen who had a smirk on his face as mine went beet red. He walked over with his friend.
“Aella, this is Gage Louvell. He’s just come back from running in Wyoming.”
“Running?” I hesitated and took his hand as it was offered. I caught the scent of him, wolf. “You’re Otherkind as well?” I smiled and rolled my shoulders back to my full height. He was just a tad taller than me in my kitten heels, so probably six two, and his eyes were a pretty shade of honey brown.
“It’s nice to meet you, Aella.” He smiled awkwardly as he shook my hand firmly. I thought I would feel something, but there was nothing, to my chagrin. Oh well, moving on then. “You’re a freshman then? Did they put you in with us or are you fully integrated?”
“Integrated.”
“Good luck with that. We had some tensions last semester and they are all over the campus about it now.”
Gage shook his head, putting his hand on Greisen’s shoulder. “I gotta go man. I’ve been picked up by the House of Teague for the term.”
“I thought we had you on retainer?” Greisen seemed suddenly angry.
“My father made the deal, man, what you gonna do? Besides, you got that pretty little Dragon now! I’ll see ya in the dorms though... Right?”
“Yeah... Right.”
“The house of Teague?” I asked, confused. “Isn’t that the name of the King of the Vampires?”
“Yes, it is, and his only son, Keegan, is a student here. The Golden Boy. Mister Untouchable,” Greisen growled. “He’s the one who’s in charge of this whole integration project. It wasn’t even on his radar until certain people got involved, then he fucking took it over.”
“Okay...” I could see this was a sore subject, I would remember to not bring it up again. “So... Are you coming with us to the Quad?”
“No, I’ve gotta go and see what’s going on in the dorms. Collette has you firmly in hand though.”
I nodded as he walked away, seething. I wasn’t sure what his sudden burst of rage was about, but it was apparent that he didn’t like Keegan Teague very much.
“C’mon girl. We have boys to scope.” Collette wrapped her little fingers around my forearm and pulled me toward the thickening crowds.
“But aren’t you with Greisen?”
She laughed. “Sweetie, I’m Fey. I’m expected to play and flirt. So long as I come home at night, he doesn’t really care who I’m fucking on the side. I wear my collar and do like he says, so I get my liberties.”
“Oh? I- Well, I guess if it works for you...”
“Oh, it works just peachy keen, jellybean. You will learn, things here are played fast and loose. The guys are fun, but only for a while. Who wants to go falling in deep at our ages? Right?”
“So love doesn’t pass between you and Greisen then?” I couldn’t fathom a relationship that didn’t have a foundation in love. I thought of how much my adoptive parents adored each other and how I yearned for something like that.
“Oh, I love him, regularly. He’s my Master, my Owner. He commands me and I do as he tells me. It relieves me from consequences, because he makes my choices. I like that he decides what I wear, how I do my hair any given day. When I get to get off. It’s a freedom I’ve never experienced... Ohh... Prime man meat at twelve o’clock.” She pointed directly ahead of us, at a dark haired boy talking to a girl with a black pixie cut. “Too bad he’s got terrible taste in friends...” she finished in a pout.
“Why? Who’s that?” I watched them as they seemed to laugh.
“Oh, that, that’s Ryane Ravencrest. Oh, and lookie, lookie, there’s the rest of the Royals...”
My eyes went wide as a monster of a man with platinum blonde hair approached them. His chest was so wide, he must have to turn to get through narrow doors, and I could practically hear his jeans screaming from the way they hugged his thighs. He was hot, but he wasn’t what had my stomach suddenly doing the merengue. Next to him was Gage and on the other side, just a few inches shorter than him, was my guy from the Groove Brew. It had been a while since I’d thought about those intense emerald green eyes or that just chiseled jawline with the single dimple, but there was no denying I was gazing at him once again.
“Aella? Earth to Aella?” Collette was waving her hand in front of me and I was not paying her much attention. I was suddenly hot all over and my palms were starting to sweat. Lord, what was wrong with me? I shook my head, looking down at Collette finally.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened there.”
“I lost ya, is what happened. Do you know somebody over there?”
“Sorta, who’s the honey blonde?”
“Oh? Him...” She smirked and I wasn’t sure I liked the implications of the look on her. “Him you should definitely get around to.” She started pushing me in that direction.
As we got closer, I could feel my whole body clench. What was I going to say? Do? Would he remember me? Then it occurred to me that I had actually gotten in trouble at work over the freebie. He owed me money.
“Hey guys!” Collette hollered as we came up on the group. “I want you to meet-”
I don’t know what came over me, I was suddenly in a bit of a rage and I could feel my scales as they came to the surface of my eyes. I saw the guy from the Groove Brew’s eyes go wide just as I shoved him as hard as I could onto his ass in the grass.