Were-Reader

1

Alpha Raiden stared into my eyes from across the ballroom through the sea of glittering attendees. A shiver of anticipation ran down my spine as every nerve ending in my body awoke with the sole purpose of focusing on him. His eyes were as intense as the midnight sky, and I could not drag my own away from them.

He stalked towards me as if I was his prey. My heart pounded in rhythm with each step he took in my direction.

Then he was directly in front of me, the barest hint of a smile curving his lips. I had to tilt my chin back to continue to hold his gaze. Even with him so close, even with his blue gaze burning down on me, I couldn't believe that I was truly the centre of his focus.

But there was no mistaking it. Even though I had never met him before, I could already tell that he was not the sort of man to pretend to an interest that he did not feel.

Over the sounds of the people dancing and talking all around us, his surreal words were clear to my ears. "You're mine."

As he spoke, he stepped even closer. I didn't protest, even though I should have. I wasn't able to, I was already under his spell. I already was his. My father was going to be furious, but...

His huge hands found my waist, and he tilted his head down until there was barely a hair of space between us. My heart quivered at the first slight brush of his lips against—

"Reese! What are you doing!" The voice of Harley, Reese's friend and roommate, rudely yanked Reese from her beautiful moment of literary escapism. Couldn't she just have an hour to herself to escape from stressful reality?

Resisting the urge to sigh impatiently, Reese slapped her phone face down on the top of the table. The force was harder than she should have used and she instantly regretted the action. She swept her eyes over her interrupting friends and the mundane reality of the coffee shop where she took her little breaks from reality.

The coffee shop wasn't much to look at, with standard green tables and cream walls that didn't quite look good together even though they probably should have, at least in theory. After yanking Reese out of her sweet escapism, Harley had made her way to the counter and put in her own order.

Reese closed her reading app. Her guilty pleasure was no one's business but her own. It wasn't that she was ashamed of her choice of literature, per say, but she didn't feel like explaining it to anyone.

Harley returned to the table with a steaming chai latte, and Reese forced a smile to her face. The appeal of this particular location hadn't been the appearance, or even the refreshments, but rather the location. It was tucked away off the main campus, and no one she knew frequented it, so it was  a nice little oasis of being left alone.

The perfect place to take a break from all the stress of school. At least until Harley had discovered her there a week prior.

Harley meant well. It wasn't her fault she was inflicted with excessive extroversion.

As Harley talked at a rapid pace, Reese listened with half an ear. Oddly enough, the green of the tables actually complimented the green of Harley's eyes perfectly. She also had glorious flowing strawberry blond hair, high cheekbones, and a figure that often stopped people in their tracks.

Reese didn't stand out the way that Harley did. With brown hair and eyes just a shade darker, Reese wasn't insecure about her own appearance. She was curvy, but not too curvy, and just pretty enough that no one could find fault with her appearance, but not so much she attracted too much unwanted attention.

A lot of people who didn't know Harley probably envied her, but Reese was happy to let her have the spotlight.

Except when she was interrupting guilty pleasure reading time.