Page 52 of Just One Bite

Chapter Forty-Two

Parker

“Don’t give up on me.” She begs while sobbing into my shirt.

I hold her close, tucking her hair behind her ear. She won’t remember us being together here tonight, but I will.

“Never.”

The Hunt takes place on the private island that borders the northwest of campus.

We gather by the dock near the guest housing.

It’s all—supposed to be—voluntary. Those who want to be Were mates for status, love, or any reason, really, sign up each year.

The hunted are chosen for a reason. They come from money or status, but they do let in a select few from every walk of life.

Olivia’s eyes were probably her one-way ticket in, adding in that she’s a linked mate and has sweet blood would make her desirable to any of the Weres looking for a mate they can use as a bargaining chip.

Not all Weres care about status and pack alliances, but a lot of them do. At least the ones I know.

I check my phone. The news about Aster and Barrett is going to break any minute.

Cane provided his evidence by the time the sun came up, as promised—a series of text messages traced back to their numbers discussing tapering with Olivia’s drink at the party.

I’d given all the evidence to Autumn, the best journalist at the university newspaper, and it took everything in me not to ambush those fuckers in their dorm rooms. But I can’t help Olivia if I’m locked up.

I didn’t sleep at all. The whole thing made me so enraged I spent the night in my shifted form pacing the grounds behind Noxx House. Olivia calmed down sometime in the middle of the night. I hope she got some sleep.

Chaos will erupt, and I’ll be on an island with no service. I can see it all unfolding now. Aster Carrington and Barrett Hunter Drug Olivia Osborne at a Party.

They’ll want blood. They’ll want me.

Well, I’m busy trying to win my girl back from the mess they made.

I text Zant while I wait at the shore for the ferry, begging him to find a way around the Were rule. The only way I think Zant will be able to come is because he’s on the council and pays for the food for the guests.

The campus is alive with the news of The Hunt even though it’s a private event unrelated to Doxlothia, but since the board of directors is involved the school helps fund and house participants on the private island.

The rocky water bank smells of fish, and every few minutes, another group of people arrive. It reeks of alpha blood, and all my nerve endings are rapid firing.

Gavin is here to see me off. We’re gathered by the water while the ferry drifts toward us in the distance.

I told him about my plan. He was seconds away from asking his dad for help, but I stopped him.

This is my fight. My chance to prove to everyone I’m stepping up and not backing down.

Plus, stopping The Hunt is impossible. She’s locked in now, and so am I.

“I’ve set some money back in case I have to make your bail.” Gavin’s smile is strained. “Keep your head.”

“I will. I’m going to get her back.”

“I know. I’m proud.” He hits me so hard in the shoulder I fall back a few steps. “I’m going to miss you stirring shit up in my pack.”

The Hunt is exclusively for alphas. By joining The Hunt, I’m officially accepting my role as an Alpha, and that means letting go of Gavin’s pack for good.

“I think you’ll like me a lot more now.”

He smirks. “Probably.”

I smell her approaching. The smell of her perfume and the laundry soap she uses. Her hairspray. Her blood. Me all over her .

“Thanks for everything … Alpha.”

Gavin’s jaw sets and he smiles, patting me on the shoulder before leaving me to my business—wooing Olivia, which I take very seriously.

“Hi, baby.” I stop feet from her, my shades shielding me from the sun beating down. Other than a swarm of other alphas, The Hunt hanging over our heads, and the knowledge the two most popular Weres on campus are about to come for my neck, it’s a nice day. Any day I get to see her is a nice day.

Her eyes widen. For once she isn’t in her uniform but more of her athletic wear that shows the curves of her stomach and her legs. Those legs, that not long ago, I had wrapped around my waist as I drove into her and forced my name from her lips.

I shouldn’t think about it, but I do because she still smells like me.

“Parker. What are you doing here?”

“Looking for my mate. What better way than The Hunt?”

Pretending I’m looking for someone else will prevent her from arguing for the time being.

She probably won’t believe it, but I want to relieve the guilt wafting off her.

Our night together peeled back all her insecurities, and I get why she wants to run and how she thinks it’s easier.

She’s wrong, but she’s cute when she’s wrong.

Olivia let me into her world but can’t keep me out. No matter what they’re holding over her head, it won’t change my love for her, but I need to show her.

She chews on my words for a few seconds. Her foot taps in the dirt.

“You’re here … for a mate? Someone else.”

“Of course. That’s why everyone is here.”

Something surges in the bond again. Her stomach hurts.

“Well, I-I can’t talk to you.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to. Can’t stop me from talking to you though. We’re still friends, right? No hard feelings?”

Her mouth falls open, then she closes it, nodding. She actually believes me.

It doesn’t look like she’s had much instruction other than to meet at the ferry. She follows me up to the line while we wait to board. All the attention on her shifts when the others see me towering over her. I make eye contact with all of them.

After a few minutes of standing, Olivia moves her neck side to side and reaches back to her left shoulder to massage the muscle there.

It’s strange that I can feel it when I focus on her intensely, right where that knot in her muscle is.

I take my hand and softly clamp it over her shoulder.

She gasps but submits to my touch as I work my thumb into the muscle.

It’s partly to help her relax, and just so happens to simultaneously mark her in more ways than I already have.

She smells like me. Check.

She’s got my mark on her neck. Check.

She leans into and thoughtfully sighs at my touch. Fucking check.

I work the knot in her shoulder as the line moves forward. Her heart responds in a rapid cadence, but her anxious scent calms. I don’t stop until the knot relaxes under my thumb and she sighs.

“Better?”

Her jaw clenches and she keeps her eyes forward.

“How’d you sleep?” I ask.

She stares at the line of heads in front of us, and there are dark circles under her eyes, which tells me very little.

“No talking. Got it.” I smile, the challenge blooming under my skin.

I’m just looking for opportunities to get her to talk to me when I remember morning Parker already prepared for such a thing.

“I brought you this. Not eating while you’re anxious is making my stomach hurt.”

I hand her a protein bar, and she takes it, nibbling the edge of it as we wait.

The whole lot is buzzing. I look at my phone to see a surge of notifications.

Here we go. Olivia checks her phone, and her eyes widen as she scrolls through the news.

“You did this?”

“Yep.”

“They’re going to be angry.”

“Let them. I’m not scared.”

She shakes her head and picks at the skin of her nails.

“I won’t let them touch you. Just trust me.”

That fidgeting doesn’t stop. What did they threaten her with? Surely, it’s got to do with ballet. Maybe they’re trying to bar her from the IBCE unless she goes through with The Hunt.

Some of the alphas around me move toward Olivia like they want to talk to her, and I stare them down in warning. It’s going to be a long fucking weekend.

I keep close. A comfortable distance to not worry her but close enough that I’m behind her as we board the ferry.

I’ve been on this ferry before, and the familiar scent of the mildew in the icebox and the snack bar floods my senses. There are rows of seats lining the windows inside, and a section to sit in the middle with tables.

She goes to sit next to someone. A Were I’m not the least intimated by, but that doesn’t mean I want him sitting with my girl. I press my fingers into the small of her back. It’s hidden, not breaking any rules, and I usher her into the empty seat behind and take the spot next to her.

Now her forehead is wrinkled. She’s irritated, but she can’t tell me. It’s kinda cute.

“Don’t think any mates will like seeing you sit with me.”

Oh, she’s jealous with very little pressure.

“I’m not really worried about finding my mate. That will be easy.”

Her fingers dig into the wrapper of the protein bar. “Oh, right. Parker can find any mate he wants.”

“Sure. Does that bother you? Might I remind you that you broke up with me.”

She looks at my lips, then up to my eyes. “Right.”

I’m still thinking of that last kiss. It told me all I needed to know. She wants me to save her, and I’m going to.

Outside her window is the calm dark-green sea. I’ve been to the island once as a kid for summer camp. I remember the rocking of the ferry and my excitement over sitting in a seat by the window.

The boarding hasn’t finished yet, but every few seconds, Olivia’s chin dips as she nods off while staring out the window.

“Couldn’t sleep, huh?”

She shakes her head. Her eyelids are heavy. It’s the bond. Her body senses me near. That it’s safe and I can protect her.

“You can sleep. I’ll make sure no one bothers you.”

“Just need to close my eyes for a few minutes,” she whispers.

It takes three minutes before she’s out, and the sway of the boat brings her head to my shoulder. Her breath warms my arm as she sighs, and all that prickly fear and sadness dissolves from her scent into calm, serene bliss.