Once Upon A Rejection

I stepped out into the cool air. It was shortly after 11pm and the bar was closing for the night. With the exception of the small skirmish at the start of the night things had gone well. Everyone was getting along great, it was a shame that the night had to come to an end.

“I don’t want to go back to the hotel, I am having too much fun.” Ezra said.

He was holding onto June tightly and pouting at her. June was quite tipsy, she was swaying slightly as she looked up at Ezra. She seemed happy to be in his arms but I don’t think she was ready for what he had in mind.

“I know, we can all go to the dorm room for a few drinks.” June suggested.

“I’m not sure, we have classes tomorrow.” I replied.

“Nonsense, if you can’t act irresponsible when you are at college then when can you?” June asked.

‘She has a point. In a few weeks you will be the pack’s luna. Then you will have to act responsibly all the time.’ Jade said.

I sighed. I knew that she was exaggerating, it wasn’t as though my social life would end when I became luna. I might be busy for a while but it wasn’t as though I would never go out again.

‘Oh come on, it will be fun.’ Scarlett said.

“Fine.” I replied.

“Awesome.” June said, she seemed excited.

A few minutes later we were sitting on the floor of the dorm room in a circle. There were bottles of various spirits in the space between us along with a board game that we had been playing. Grayson was winning but June was pretty drunk and had started losing interest in the game.

“I have had enough of this, it is boring.” She complained.

“What would you like to do, honey?” Ezra said, pulling her closer to him.

“Let’s play truth or dare.” She said, suddenly ecstatically happy.

“Yes, let’s do that. Grayson has already won this game anyway.” Ezra agreed. I was sure that he would have agreed to anything that June wanted.

“Great. Let’s start with Grayson. Truth or Dare?” She said.

From the way she narrowed in on Grayson I could tell that there was something she wanted to ask him desperately. I would be intimidated if I was Grayson and I would definitely choose dare.

“Truth.” Grayson answered, he didn’t seem concerned at all. June smiled at him.

“Do you have an ulterior motive for marrying my friend so quickly?” June asked.

“Of course not. When you meet the person that you know you want to spend your life with there is no point denying it.” Grayson said.

He pulled me closer, so close that I was sitting on his lap with his arms around my waist. He buried his face into my neck, breathing deeply. I could feel his arousal building. I leaned back against him, enjoying the feel of his body against mine.

“Awww. Now you have to pick someone to ask.” June said. Grayson sighed in frustration as he removed his face from my neck.

“Ok. June, will you go on a date with my bet… ermm best friend tomorrow?” Grayson asked.

“That’s not fair, I didn’t choose between truth or dare.” June said. She looked a little smug.

“Truth or dare?” Grayson asked.

“Dare.” She said.

“Fine, I dare you to go on a date with Ezra tomorrow.” Grayson said, clearly not willing to back down on this.

“Ok, looks like I have a date tomorrow.” June said.

“I am looking forward to it already.” Ezra said, smiling brightly.

“Great, now it is my turn to ask. Ezra, truth or dare?” June said.

“Truth.” Ezra replied.

“How many women have you had s*x with.” June asked.

I swear Ezra went a few shades paler as those words left June’s mouth. He really didn’t want to answer a question like that, especially so early into their relationship. He still had his arm around June but she had turned so she could observe his ration better.

“I’m ermm not really sure.” Ezra said.

“You’re not sure? How can you not be sure?” June said, suddenly indignant.

“Yeah, I mean I don’t count them or anything. Maybe it is around forty or fifty.” Ezra said.

“Fifty!?” June shouted.

“Errrmm….” Ezra said.

“What is that smell?” I asked.

“What smell?” Ezra asked, happy for the distraction. June was still glaring at him.

“It smells like something is burning.” Grayson said.

“I don’t smell anything.” June said. She probably thought we were trying to distract her.

“No, I can smell something very faintly now.” Ezra said.

His wolf hadn’t woken up yet so his sense of smell wasn’t as strong as mine or Grayson’s. For me and Grayson the smell was starting to get quite overpowering.

‘We should investigate.’ I mindlinked Grayson.

‘I don’t want you out there, it might not be safe.’ He mindlinked me back.

I was trying to think of the best course of action but my thoughts were cut short by the piercing ring of the fire alarm. The sound was so loud it disrupted all rational thought. I looked at Grayson, I could see the same concern in his eyes.

‘Just make sure we all stick together.’ Grayson mindlinked me.

We joined the crowd of people that were heading towards the fire escape. June was a bit unsteady on her feet so Ezra was keeping a tight hold on her. At least that was his excuse. In reality I think he was worried if he let her go she would disappear out of his life.

I didn’t see any trace of a fire on our way out of the building but there must be one somewhere. The smell of fire was so strong and I could feel the smoke scratching at my lungs. We joined the rest of the students from the dorm, standing a small distance away from the building.

I could see some smoke coming from around the back of the dormitory building. People in the crowd were starting to get restless. They were worrying about lots of different things. For example where they would stay if the building burnt down and if the tutors would grant their requests for extensions tomorrow. I half-heartedly listened to their concerns while watching the smoke.

“Shit.” Grayson said.

I followed his gaze through the crowd until I saw her. The lycan with the red hair. She was looking right at us. She blew me a k**s then walked away from us, disappearing into the crowd within seconds. Grayson started to follow but I took hold of his arm to stop him.

‘We need to stay together, it could be a trap.’ I mindlinked him.

I could tell that he felt conflicted. He wanted to catch up to the lycan. Catching her now would mean we could question her. We could work out what was going on, maybe even put an end to the whole lycan problem. Even so he knew I was right, it was too dangerous to follow her now.

I was curious though. Was her presence here a coincidence or was this planned? Wasn’t she normally near our pack at this time of day, getting information from her informers? Maybe she had changed her habits because our actions forced her hand but I doubted it. My intuition told me that there was more to her presence here tonight than that.

I had a long time to think about my concerns. It took another few minutes for the fire truck to arrive and at least an hour for them to put out the fire and check the building for damage.

I listened in as the fireman in charge told the college’s chancellor what had happened. The fire itself was outside of the building. The smoke came into the buildings through the nearby windows which had all been smashed. Both parties put it down to some kind of prank but I knew the truth, it was her doing.

“When will they let us go back in, it is freezing out here.” June complained.

Ezra shrugged off his jacked so fast you might have thought it was on fire. He draped it over her shoulders and kissed her softly on her cheek. June shot him an annoyed look, I guess she was still annoyed with him over his earlier revelation.

“It won’t be much longer.” I said.

The fire department was packing up their equipment and getting ready to leave. They had finished their investigation, there was no reason that we couldn’t go into the building now. If the chancellor could stop arguing with the dean then we would probably be inside already.

“We will never find who did it and I am not going to subject all the students on campus to an interrogation.” The chancellor said.

“Actions have consequences, the students need to learn that they can’t do something like this and get away with it.” The dean said.

“What would you suggest?” The Chancellor asked.

“I don’t know but it doesn’t sit well with me to just ignore the problem.” The dean said before walking off in a huff.

The chancellor watched him leave with a frown on his face. He waited until the dean was far enough away not to hear then let the rest of us go inside.

We followed the rest of the crowd into the building. June was giving Ezra a difficult time. Ezra wanted to stay in June’s dorm tonight but June was having none of it. She wanted him to leave as soon as he collected his belongings.

“Look Casanova, there is no chance I am going to be your fifty-first conquest.” June said as we walked down the corridor to her room.

“You know that is not what I want.” Ezra said.

He took hold of June’s arms and tried to stop her from walking away. She shrugged his hand off her arm and kept on walking. Ezra looked hurt but he didn’t try to stop her by force.

“I don’t know what you want, but it is not happening tonight.” June said.

She unlocked her room and stepped inside. I was a few steps behind so I couldn’t see what was happening but I heard the gasp and I saw Ezra dive through the door after her. I panicked. Grayson and I ran into the room after her. What I saw put a chill down my spine.