Wolf Girl (Wolf Girl, #1)(6)

Ouch. I take it back, I didn’t like all of them.

“You’re a dick, you know that? I’ll take her.” Sage jumped out of the van and he was forced to back up or she’d plow right into him.

He just rolled his eyes and waved her off. “Whatever.”

The other boys jumped out of the van as well and looked at me. “I hope you like it here. It was nice to meet you,” Quan said, taking off his belt which held two guns. I noticed a large gold cross hung from his neck.

“Thanks…” I cleared my throat, “for the kidnapping.”

Sage grinned, and even Walsh’s lips twitched like he wanted to smile.

“She’s funny. I like her,” Sage told Quan, then she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away from the van. I followed her, suddenly conscious of the wrist cuffs that no one else had. People stared as we passed, but when they did Sage flipped them off, so they quickly turned their heads.

“Big news on campus. The alpha’s son goes to meet with the principal of the magical rejects for charity work and is so taken with a banished wolf that he begs his father to free her and let her back into the city so she can be considered as a potential mate for his mating year. Quite romantic, if you like that shit.”

“No. No. It’s not like that,” I told her, my cheeks reddening. “He just used the mate choosing thing as a way to get me out. He even said so in his letter.”

My cheeks pinked again just thinking about it as we passed another group of people who stared. I tucked my chin into my chest and looked at the ground, wanting to disappear. I didn’t like attention, I liked life better through the lens of my camera.

Sage’s hand rose and jerked my chin up as she stopped walking and leaned into my ear. “Honey, you’re a wolf. Looking down when stared at is just going to get your ass kicked.”

I gulped.

This was so different from Delphi Academy.

I nodded.

“Submissives don’t go to Sterling Hill, and I can smell your dominance, so just let it out, okay?”

Let it out? The one thing I’d shoved deep down inside of me my entire life?

“Got it,” I said, my voice stronger. “Anything else?”

This chick seemed knowledgeable, and since my parents never spoke much of Werewolf City or their time at Sterling Hill because of the pain it brought them, I knew shit-all about this place, or how to survive here. I’d never shifted, never lived in a pack. I grew up with a bunch of stuck-up magical assholes as a solitary wolf girl. Everyone at that school was a grade-A asshole except for Raven. Without her I might not have survived it.

Sage nodded, hissing like a cat at a passing girl, who scurried away, leaving Sage grinning. When she was done, she leaned back in to face me. “Every female at this school wants to marry my cousin Sawyer and be the alpha’s wife, and every single one now knows that he brought you here to join the dating pool. Watch your back.”

Then she turned and walked off, leaving me speechless and with a lump in my throat.

Join the dating pool? Holy shit, I really was in Werewolf Bachelor.

“Come on!” she snapped, and I ran after her, throwing some glares of my own as I passed. Every female here was dressed like a Barbie. Full-on high heels, dresses, slacks and silk shirts. Hair was curled and set in place and make-up was on-point. Not an eyebrow hair out of place. Meanwhile, I looked like I’d rolled out of bed and threw on whatever was closest and smelled generally clean, which wasn’t far from the truth.

I ran after Sage and followed her around a corner to a giant glass dome building marked Admissions.

She stopped at the door and faced me. “I’m a junior. I live in Lexington Hall. Suite Eleven. Try to get on my floor and I’ll take you under my wing.”

My heart pinched at her generosity and I nodded. “Thanks, girl.” I looked down at her chin out of habit and she inclined her head, smoothing her bright red hair over one shoulder and tipping my chin up to meet her eyes.

“Remember, give ‘em hell. You’re one of us now.”

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving me to stand in front of the double glass doors.

You’re one of us now. She had no way of knowing how much that meant to me.

Okay … here goes nothing.

Reaching out, I pulled the doors open and stepped inside.

Whoa.

The dome ceiling was tinted, but it still let shafts of light in, and behind it was all forest, so everywhere you looked were trees. A short, stocky woman sat behind a computer, tapping on a keyboard. When I stepped up to the counter, she looked up, and then down at my wrists, her hands freezing midair.

“Demi Calloway?”

Shit. How did she know who I was?

I nodded, about to dip my head down in embarrassment, when I remembered Sage’s advice and tipped my chin up.

“Yeah,” I told her, voice firm. She stood, walking around her desk to greet me, and the click-clack of her heels echoed throughout the hall. When she finally stood before me, she looked me up and down and a frown tugged at her lips.

“Oh dear,” she muttered, and pulled out a tablet, tapping at the screen with a stylus.

I yanked my cut off t-shirt down to cover my bellybutton, but it was no use, it sprung back up and just exposed more.

With an eyeroll, the woman walked down a hallway. “Follow me, they are waiting.”