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I’d tried to talk her out of it, but Rose was nothing if not the most stubborn person I’d ever met. Once her mind was made up, nothing anyone said could change it.

So, she left. She left and made me promise to take care of V and give her granddaughter everything she could ever desire. The wily old fox made me promise it in writing.

She needn’t bother.

Even without the contract, I’d do anything to see V happy. It took me a bit to realize it, but now that I’d come to terms with the fact that I cared about her, it was easier to admit it to myself. Granted, having sex with V wasn’t likely what Rose had in mind when she asked to make her granddaughter happy.

Oops.

V got out of the car, stopping for a second as if talking herself into something, and then pivoted sharply. “I’ll see you in class.”

My lips swept up, tickled by her awkwardness. “Yeah. See you in class,” I called out after her.

Color rapidly filled the gorgeous girl’s cheeks and she fled towards the main building. I couldn’t help my own smile, but it faded just as quickly.

“You can come out of your little hiding place now.” I addressed the person who’d been standing nearby, watching, and got out of the car.

Nigel’s rageful expression was exactly how I envisioned it would be. The Shifter visibly trembled and violently quaked, seconds from shifting in public. I offered him a sardonic glance before greeting a few students.

“You may want to calm down a bit,” I suggested with a pointed stare. “This is definitely not the place or time.”

“How fuckingdareyou,” he growled menacingly, his nice guy mask all but falling away to fury. “What did you do? Do you have any fucking shame?!”

I crossed my arms over a freshly-pressed dress shirt and leaned back against the side of my Mustang, not at all surprised Nigel would lose his temper.

Shifters often did.

The creatures were nothing but emotions. Very few had any amount of control over their anger, and it often led to outright shifting. They were self-righteous, jock-types who lived purely by their emotional state of mind. No matter how it was spun, they were all beasts at the end of the day.

“V is plenty capable of making her own decisions, and she’s not some little woman you need to protect. You may think you have a reason to ask, but you don’t. What V decides for herself isn’t for you to question,” I remarked coolly, enraging the wolf enough that I heard his teeth grit.

“You’re a fucking bastard.”

“At least I don’t pretend to be anything else,” I retorted sharply, eyes on the wolf whose entire demeanor changed the minute he was angry.

He wouldn’t win against me, but he also had no idea what my abilities could do to him—someone who proclaimed himself an alpha. It gave him a false sense of comfort to think it’d be anywhere near a fair fight.

A fight with a Shifter was beneath me, but I’d give it to him, if only to prove my place beside V was well deserved. But V would be the most hurt by the two of us fighting, so I wouldn’t do it unless I wasn’t given any other choice.

“I don’t walk around playing house dog when really I’m like every other guy out there,” I went on, comfortably propped up by my car.

“You’re a real piece of work, and you don’t deserve V.”

He wasn’t the only one who felt that way, but I’d be damned if I told him I agreed.

V needed someone emotionally well and available to be part of a relationship. I wasn’t, not at all. It wasn’t even clear to me why I’d gone and done what I had knowing there wasn’t anything I had to offer in return. Any direction I went in, V would still get hurt.

Instead, I scoffed and walked past the furious wolf.

Making a scene was the last thing we needed, and V would ultimately pay the biggest price if I traded any more words with the angry Shifter.

But I hadn’t been wrong. It was a good feeling to see the wolf’s real personality come out.

The men who always pretended to be nice were the worst ones to encounter. Because half the time they’d convinced themselves they were nice, when really, they were like every other bastard out there and just convinced themselves they weren’t. Convinced themselves they didn’t have any more growing to do. It didn’t take much to make them snap, and that sort of thing was dangerous.

I may not deserve V, but I was definitely better than some misguided wolf convinced he was a sheep.