School was much more annoying now that he had to pay attention. Dylan was constantly tempted to slack off, but he’d promised Aiden. He had to get good enough grades to graduate so they could search for Aiden’s birth family. Dylan owed him. He couldn’t take his fear away, but he could do this.
Hauling these stupid heavy books around was annoying too. Couldn’t they all have iPads with e-books? Just because they were monsters isolated from the rest of the world didn’t mean they had to live in the dark ages. Dylan went to his locker to drop off one book and pick up another. The second half of the day was always a slog because he had nothing to look forward to except the end of the day. Lunch was over, gym was over. It was just boring classes.
Turning down the hall, he saw someone fall, books and notebooks scattering on the floor. As the girl caught herself, landing on hands and knees, she turned slightly toward him. Hanna. Snapping his gaze up, he spotted them immediately. Yep, two of the werewolves from Conner’s pack. No sign of Conner himself, though.
The boys laughed and Hanna pivoted to face them, going up into a crouch. One of them said something that he couldn’t make out over the noise of the hall. Her face scrunched up like she might start crying.
Dylan ran over. “Hey! Leave her alone.”
All three of them turned to look at him. Dylan slid between them, blocking Hanna. The werewolves glared, but they were both tense with nervousness.
“You can’t always be around to protect her,” the big one said. Conner’s beta.
“But you’ll never know when I might show up.” Dylan smirked, heat gathering around him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hanna get to her feet.
They started backing away.
“Watch your back, slut,” the beta said.
Dylan made a fake lunge and grinned as they flinched. They kept backing away until they melted into the crowd of students.
“Thanks,” Hanna said.
He turned to her. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She bent to pick up her things and he knelt down to help her. “They haven’t actually hurt me. I think they’re worried I might tell my parents or report them to the principal. They just bump into me, trip me, stuff like that. Last week they wrote ‘slut’ on my locker.” With her things back in her arms, she stood.
He felt… protective of her. Plus she was Conner bait, and he was still waiting for the opportunity to beat the shit out of him. “You can still sit with us at lunch if you want.”
She shook her head. “I’m not supposed to talk to Aiden, remember?”
“Screw what your parents say. They’re being assholes. You date a jerk like Conner and he beats you, but you go out with a nice guy like Aiden and they say that’s not allowed.”
“They didn’t know about him beating me. Not until now. And I can only date werewolves.” She held her books against her chest and looked at the floor.
“You should date whoever the hell you want as long as they’re not hurting you.” Dylan ignored things his parents said all the time.
“Its’s not that easy.” She shook her head.
“It is if you want it to be.”
Hanna looked up at him, brows drawn together. “I… I should get to class.”
“I’ll walk you there.” Why had he just said that?
Her gaze dropped. “You don’t have to.”
“Come on. Which way is it?” He turned down the hall.
“Over here.” She glanced at him, a shy smile flickering across her face.
Dylan followed her, telling himself he was doing this for Aiden’s sake. If anything happened to Hanna, it would hurt Aiden. Extending his protection to Hanna was really just protecting Aiden.
And it was the best way to stir up trouble with Conner.
* * *
It got easier to breathe after a few minutes, but Aiden’s heart was still pounding. He sat on the edge of his bed with Tiago barely two feet away at his little computer desk. Act normal. Act normal. Act normal. The words ran in a litany in his head.
Tiago had his history book open to the chapter he was supposed to take notes on. He cleared his throat. “Reading is… um, I… I’m not very good at it.”
Right. Mr. Johnson had said he needed help. “Anything specific you have trouble with? Do you think you might be dyslexic or anything?”
Tiago’s shoulders hunched. “Uh, what’s that?”
“Dyslexic? It means you don’t see letters and words in the right order. They get jumbled up.”
“Oh. I don’t think so. I’m just slow and I don’t understand some of the words.” Tiago glanced at him. “You probably think I’m dumb.”
No, I think you’re hot. Aiden pressed his lips together and fought against the rising heat in his cheeks. “No, I think maybe your teachers didn’t do a good job.”
He shrugged. “Not their fault. None of them had me for very long.”
Try to relax. Pretend he’s just your friend. You have Dylan up here all the time. But Dylan was different. Sure, he thought Dylan was hot, but it didn’t go much beyond appreciating his good looks. Tiago made his stomach flutter.
“Did you move around a lot?” Aiden asked, relieved that his voice came out normal.
A long pause. Aiden almost said something to break the silence, but Tiago finally said, “Yeah. My parents didn’t stay in one place for longer than a few months.”
“Trying to hide you from the wardens?” Aiden winced, wondering if that was too painful a question.
The look Tiago gave him made Aiden nervous, intense dark eyes pinning him in place, the predator in him on display. Then the look dropped away. “That was part of it, I guess.”
Aiden shifted and tucked one foot under the opposite leg. Tiago was even more of a mystery than Dylan had been. “Um, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but why did you turn yourself in?”
This time his expression was more searching than hostile. After a moment, Tiago turned back to his book. “Maybe I’ll tell you later.”
“Okay. Back to homework I guess.” Yes, the reason he had a handsome werejaguar in his room. “How about you read out loud and just point to a word if you’re having trouble with it.”
A skeptical glance. “You’re not going to make fun of me, are you?”
“I’m here to help you, not tease you.” Or flirt, unfortunately. A guy like Tiago might try to bite his head off if he did that. Well, there’s a pleasant thought, he scolded himself.
Tiago sighed. “All right.”
Within a few words, Aiden could see why he was worried. There was a slight pause after almost every word and a hitch in the middle of some of the longer words.
Tiago moved his finger along the text as he spoke. Then his finger stopped. “Uh, what’s that?” Not quite turning his head, he gave Aiden a sheepish look.
In order to see the word, Aiden had to lean closer to the book— and closer to Tiago. His heart ramped up again. Tiago smelled like deodorant, or maybe a touch of cologne. For a second, Aiden wondered if he could use this as an excuse to touch him, put a hand on Tiago’s shoulder. No, too risky. Aiden put both hands behind his back to stop the temptation. Focus, look at the word.
“Circumnavigated,” Aiden said.
Tiago sighed. “See? I’m dumb.”
This close, it was all too easy to imagine kissing his cheek, or those soft-looking lips. Aiden swallowed and sat back on the bed. “You’re not dumb. You just need practice.”
Tiago huffed and crossed his arms. “You’re just saying that because you’re worried I might hurt you. I can smell the nervousness all over you.”
Crap. That of course made him more nervous, wondering what else the werejaguar could smell. Would he be able to tell Aiden was attracted to him?
The chair swiveled as Tiago turned to face him. “I’m not going to rip your throat out, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
The glare and the tone were so much like Dylan it surprised a laugh out of him. Except that look was even hotter on Tiago’s face. “Sorry. I’m not afraid of you. I just… I don’t know you,” he lied. “All this monster stuff is still new to me.”
Tiago relaxed a little. “Yeah, the warden told me about that. I guess you’re probably nervous around everybody.”
“You should see me in gym class. I’m a wreck.” Aiden sat straighter as an idea occurred to him. “Hey, maybe you could help me too.” He couldn’t practice with Dylan anymore, and he couldn’t ask anyone too powerful. Not the kind of powerful that could toss around flashy magic, anyway. “How good are you at dodging magic?” As soon as the question left his mouth, he realized how crazy the idea was.
“Huh?” Tiago arched an eyebrow.
“Um…” He could back out. But then again, this would be a perfect opportunity to spend more time with Tiago. “I need help practicing my magic for gym— Major Magical Control. Because I’m so far behind everyone else.” Another lie, and guilt tugged at him.
“That’s the class you have before lunch? The one Dylan likes so much?”
“Yeah. I need someone to throw magic at, but they have to be able to dodge or block. Not big fireballs or anything. I want to start with small stuff.” He pictured Tiago getting hurt the way Dylan had hurt him, and the scar on his chest throbbed. “You know what, never mind.”
The corner of Tiago’s mouth turned up. “Don’t worry. I can do it.”
If the werejaguar could smell nervousness, he could probably also hear how fast Aiden’s heart was beating. Aiden could only hope Tiago mistook that for nervousness too. “Are you sure? I don’t want to hurt you.”
Tiago barked a laugh. “I’m fast and I’m tough. Unless you seriously try to hurt me, I’ll be fine.”
Aiden had to take a chance. He had to. If he couldn’t get over this and start having matches in gym class again, he wouldn’t be able to graduate. Then he’d be stuck here and wouldn’t be able to go looking for his other family.
“Besides,” Tiago added. “I’m curious to see you in action.”
Aiden’s heart kicked up another gear. That wasn’t flirting. It wasn’t. Nothing in Tiago’s expression or tone said it was, but Aiden couldn’t help imagining the words meant more than they did. “Okay.”