Filed to story: The Rise Of The Lycan Queen
I couldn’t believe this was her brother, and of course, he’d be a womanizer. “Glad we’re all three settled on that.” I turned my back to him and nodded at Ella. “I’ll wait for you out front.”
“Yeah, okay.” Her shoulders seemed to sag a little. “Be there in a second.”
After I was a few steps away, Mason whispered to Ella. “Who the hell is she?”
Of course, they hadn’t realized I was a shifter and that I could hear them from this distance.
“Seriously, she’s one of my friends.” Her tone took on an edge. “So don’t mess with her. For once, someone wants to be my friend for me.”
“All right.” He huffed.
“Stop looking at her.” I heard a loud thump.
“Dammit. Okay.”
If I had any doubt they were related, that would’ve been erased now. I headed outside, effectively cutting their conversation off from my ears.
It was a gorgeous day, and I moved over to a vacant bench and sat.
“Hey, Aria.” Connor waved and headed over in my direction.
Great, maybe I should’ve stayed inside and eavesdropped on Ella and her brother. “Hi.”
“How is class going for you?” He glanced at the ground and adjusted his backpack straps on his shoulders.
“Fine.” It was a straightforward business ethics class. “How about you?” The tension between us was thick.
“Boring, but okay.” He cleared his throat and darted his eyes to mine. “Would you wanna have coffee or something sometime?”
“We’ve already had this conversation.” At this point, I wasn’t sure how much more blunt I could be. “I’m not interested.”
“I mean as friends.” He scratched the back of his neck with his hand.
“Still no.” I guessed I was going to have to be a bitch. “I don’t think you mean that.”
“No, I do.” He lifted both hands in the air and tensed his shoulders. “You made it blatantly clear, but I’d like to have you in my life in some capacity.”
“Are you really trying to work the friend angle?” Ella breezed through the doorway and sat right next to me. “I thought you’d at least be a little more original than that.”
“He says he’s okay with being friends.” I arched an eyebrow at her. “Do you believe it?”
“Hell, no.” She motioned toward my body. “You’re hot stuff, so he’s trying to find another way in.”
“What? No.” He shook his head until Ella crossed her arms.
“If you want to be her friend, that means you want to be mine too.” She bumped her shoulder into mine. “It’s a package deal.”
“Uh, sure.” He tilted his head and squinted his eyes for a moment. “Of course I want to be friends with both of you.”
“So you’re saying I have a hot body too?” She tilted her head and tapped her foot on the ground.
“What? No.” Connor shook his head hard.
“Now I’m not hot?” She turned her head in my direction and widened her eyes. “He’s not very nice is he?”
“No, I didn’t mean that.”
Poor guy. Ella was having fun at his expense.
“Of course you didn’t.” She huffed and stood again. “Come on, let’s go. We don’t need to stay here all day and get insulted.”
I would’ve felt bad for him if he hadn’t brought it on himself. But I didn’t want to leave being an asshole. “Look, if you want to be friends that’s fine. But I don’t hang out or anything like that. Essentially, it’s just you saying hi to me when I pass.”
“Yeah, okay.” His eyes focused back on the ground. “I just thought…”
“Thinking usually gets guys in trouble.” Ella tugged on my arm ready to go. “So I’d recommend you stop right there.”
“I’ll see you later.” I stood and followed Ella.
She stopped and waited for me to catch up. “He’s trying to weasel his way in.”
“Yeah, I know.” That was pretty obvious. “It won’t work, so don’t worry.”
“Oh, I wasn’t.” She shook her head and sighed. “It’s just, how blunt do we have to be in order for him to realize it’s not happening.”
“As long as I’m single, he might think there’s a chance.” What he didn’t realize was that I’d be single for my entire life.
“Then we need to find you a date.” Her eyes sparkled. “Maybe he’ll finally shut it down.”
“I don’t date.” Never had and didn’t ever plan on starting that.
“Heartbroken?” She frowned as she slowed her pace.
“Yeah, something like that.” It wasn’t from a guy tearing my heart out.
“That sucks.” She looped her arm through mine. “Been there and done that.”
“What happened?” The more I could get her talking about herself, the less it would be about me.
“Let’s just say he found someone else.” Her usual happy demeanor chilled.
“I’m sorry. He didn’t deserve you.” Whoever it was made an impact on her.
“It wasn’t his fault. Sometimes, fate has a way of intervening.” She sighed and stared off. “Some people were made for each other. I wasn’t made for him.”
He must have found his fated mate. “It still sucks whether he meant it or not.”
“Now that I can agree with.”
