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Dakota

I t wouldn’t leave me be after practice, even as I drifted my way home, walking the distance instead of getting a ride, or even a bus.

If Jax bit me the way he wanted to, the way I kind of wanted him to as well, I’d probably die.

We could never have that.

There would always be this wall between us, no matter what either of us wanted, just because he was a wolf and I was a mage. It was like some shitty star-crossed lovers story where the people pine for each other, and possibly die tragically, alone and miserable.

I did not want to be a character in gods-damned Wuthering Heights.

Should I quit my job, walk away, stop torturing us both?

Maybe if I read enough old magic books, I’d find a way to make myself immune to the werewolf bite. Or... something. There had to be a solution, didn’t there?

Or I could spend a lifetime researching and find nothing, after forcing us both into a hell of my making, waiting in limbo for an answer that didn’t exist.

I almost dropped the key to the front door twice before managing to get it unlocked and heading inside. I flipped the living room lights on, wondering if Donnie was already out clubbing for the night, only to find that he’d been sitting there alone in the dark.

And now he was blinking against the lights but staring right at me.

I cocked my head at him. “Are you sick?”

He shoved himself up to standing—a sudden, violent motion, and it startled me so much that I took a step back.

“Donnie?”

He was wearing the same outfit he’d been wearing at karaoke the night before, which was weird, because he was in our apartment. His clothes were all there. Even I’d changed, because I had an extra suit at the office, but he’d had no barrier to changing clothes, and yet had not.

“So you’re fucking your boss,” he said, artless and strangely annoyed by something that didn’t even affect him.

I blinked, staring at him for a moment. Why would he possibly care about that? Donnie slept with lots of guys. He’d never been especially picky about his bedmates, and I didn’t see how this involved him. Maybe he was worried I would move out. He definitely couldn’t pay rent on his own, from what little I knew of his finances, so maybe he was concerned that he’d be left high and dry with no way to keep the apartment.

“I’m not planning to move out,” I promised.

He scowled at that. “So? What’s that got to do with you fucking that dog?”

“Hey now, that’s uncalled for. Jax is a great guy.” Funny, how I’d have usually been the first person to agree that any boss who slept with an employee was a terrible asshole who was clearly taking advantage of his position. But that wasn’t what was happening with Jax. He’d tried, repeatedly, to do the right thing for both of us. It wasn’t his fault we’d slept together before we’d ever known.

Donnie wasn’t having it, though. He scoffed. “Right. Great guys are always sniffing around virginal little employees. Have you fucked him already, or are you holding out?”

The question felt like a snide, rhetorical one, but after asking it, he paused. Waited. Looked at me.

Did he actually expect me to answer that?

What the fuck?

An odd feeling came over me, a bit like when I was focusing on my magic. Cold, clinical, and removed, like I could see the whole world by looking down at it, and pull strings on everything to make it be the way I wanted. Like I wasn’t a part of the situation, but was instead looking at it from afar.

I heard my own voice say, “My sex life or lack thereof is none of your business, Donnie. Not any more than I go around sticking my nose in yours.”

“Well I’m not the one going around fucking mutts,” he shot back, and that slammed me back into myself.

Dog. Mutts. Initially I’d just dismissed the dog comment, the implications of it buried in the fact that Donnie was being an asshole, demanding information he had no place demanding. But Donnie didn’t know about werewolves or magic.

If he knew, then he’d have known I was a mage, and more importantly, known that I had no idea what I was.

Have you fucked him already , he’d asked. Repeatedly, in different ways.

He did know I was a mage. He knew about the whole sex awakening thing, and he was trying to figure out if I’d been Awakened. If I knew.

I just stood there staring at him a moment, then shook my head. “Have you ever actually been my friend, or was it all bullshit? Are you... are you spying on me? Why?”

He scoffed and waved a hand at me. “I’m just trying to protect you from bad people, Kody. If you can’t see that, it’s not my fault.”

“No. You’re not. I don’t need protecting from Jax, and if you were my friend, you’d be able to see that. You sure as hell wouldn’t be using bullshit slurs against him.”

“So you have fucked him,” he said, his eyes narrowing. His hand slid into his pocket gripped around his phone, like he was fighting the urge to pull it out right away.

To tell someone about me sleeping with Jax? Seriously?

“I’m leaving,” I told him, and it came out in a whisper, but no less final for that. “I’ll send movers for my things. I’ll call the landlord and let him know I’m breaking the lease.”

“Don’t overreact,” he said, pulling his hand back out of his pocket, empty, and motioned dismissively again. “There’s no need for you to?—”

“You’re spying on me for someone, Donnie. Tell me who, right now.” That was it; the only thing that mattered now. It was the only thing I needed from him, and the only chance there was that our friendship could be salvaged.

He just rolled his eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. Why would I?—”

“Leaving,” I interrupted to reiterate. “Never call me again. Never talk to me again. Don’t touch my stuff. If anything’s gone, I’ll send the cops after you.”

And then I turned and walked out of my own apartment. A crash on the other side of the wall was the only reaction I got from Donnie as I walked away.