Right, like I was just going to go stalk and mack on an English hottie. But I didn’t say that, just in case she really was going to call Liam and get me fired. She wouldn’t, would she? Nah.
As Selena sauntered back toward the Moon Bean’s bookshop counter, she shook her head and muttered to herself. “Niko needs to do something about those one-bloods. Showing their faces here like they aren’t even scared.”
I only understood about half of what she was saying. There was a motorcycle gang that had been showing up in the area a lot more, even coming right onto the campus, but I had no idea what a one-blood was. Maybe it was a biker term? I couldn’t really picture Selena, bossy, matchmaking Selena, using biker lingo though.
The alarm on my phone blared, and I jumped bad enough that I almost dumped my precious books on the ground. Crapballs, I was going to be late if I didn’t hustle. Good thing the Wolves’ Den was right next door. After one last glance to make sure the coast was clear, I ran across the alley to the bar. It only took a minute to throw my stuff in my locker and clock in, and then it was balls to the wall with serving drinks.
I both loved and hated coin night at the Wolves’ Den. Super busy, but the one night that was not the best tips. Except for our resident bad boy bartender, Ty. One smile from him had the wallets of all the women practically being thrown at him.
But I knew a secret the customers didn’t. He was taken. My friend Hunter had snagged his heart hard. They were grossly adorable together.
“Stacia, can you work a double tomorrow? I haven’t found a new waitress yet.” Liam poured me a tray of quarter beers for the table of football players who’d sat down in my section.
“I see Selena hasn’t called yet, so yes. No take-backsies.” Ha. I’d heard stories from the girls at the Moon Bean about Selena’s matchmaking machinations, and I was not getting sucked in. I was going to have to skip out of the last ten minutes of my poli-sci class to get to the shift, but I needed the money. My scholarship for law school next year covered tuition and books but not moving expenses and someplace to live in New Haven.
“Oh, she called.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Said to tell you you’re fired if you don’t?—”
“Sorry, can’t hear you,” I shouted and grabbed my tray. Lucky for me we were swamped the rest of the night and Liam didn’t bring up my faux firing again.
That night in my dreams, instead of Prince Ruslan, I saw the sparkling golden eyes and brown skin of that English guy from the bookstore. After all the naughty things he did to me in my sleep, I had a hard time getting out of bed for class. I slogged through eighteenth-century European history and my global economics classes. I didn’t even have the energy to care about the Ruslan Watch posts in my FaceSpace feed.
I grabbed a cheap coffee at the student center to make it through my dreaded poli-sci class. Stupid pre-law requirements. At least it was one of those big lecture halls with hundreds of students, so if I sat in the back and rested my eyes, the professor wouldn’t even notice.
I slid into a seat next to a dude who was clearly doing the same thing as I was. He had the hood of his Bay State University Dire Wolves sweatshirt pulled up and sat slumped down in the seat. Perfect. He wouldn’t tattle if I fell asleep.
“Mind if I sit here?” I pulled out my notebook like I was going to take notes, thinking it would make a great pillow, and set it on the fold-up armrest desk, then glanced at my partner in slacking.
Tired golden eyes behind big nerdy glasses looked back at me, blinked a few times, and then the guy gave me a half-smile of recognition. “Are you stalking me, princessa?”
Hashtag melted panties.
BASH
This whole escape from my royal guards so I could go undercover was proper cocked-up. Nothing was working out one wit like I’d thought it would. Being on the lam without use of my phone, credit cards, or social status was harder than I imagined it to be. Neither of my cousins had mentioned any of that when we cooked up this scheme.
Should have known better than to take advice from the two biggest scandals to hit the royal wolf family this century. Who even believed in fated mates anyway? Both bastards had claimed to have found theirs and taken humans as mates.
Ridiculous.
I hadn’t even thought to exchange what little bit of cash I had on hand. Good job, Bash. Just hand over some Bashkirian coins, that wasn’t going to immediately give me away. I was absolute bollocks at this whole secret identity thing.
I’d slept in a fucking library last night and this morning nicked some poor student’s gym bag for a change of clothes and something called a breakfast burrito before sprinting across campus to practice just as the other Dire Wolves were arriving.
It was all completely exhilarating.
Playing Rugby back home had at least given me enough skills to make out like I belonged on the football team, and I had to admit, there was something exhilarating to the sport. I doubted I’d be able to stick around long enough to actually play a game though.
The local wolf shifters hiding in plain sight on the team had agreed to not only be some cover for me, but also help me track the fucking one-bloods. They didn’t like those pieces of shit skulking around their town or their mates.
They were all good lads, the lot of them, and those that were slated to be alphas someday like me would make good allies.
I figured I had maybe another twenty-four to forty-eight hours before the Queen’s guards tracked me down. That should be more than enough time to hunt down the one-bloods’ lair and talk my way into a cute American bird’s pants. Like the stunning lass who’d just sat down next to me. The very same girl I’d jostled with at the bookstore.
There was something about her that had my wolf very, very interested. I swear her soft white skin had a glow about it.
Marking her, claiming her, and mating with her was absolutely not what I should be thinking about.
When the Wolf Tzar had reached out to Bashkiria for help in rooting out the one-bloods—werewolf supremacists who thought that we were all superior to humans—who’d been a thorn in his side since he took over and took his own human as his mate, the queen, the royal guard, and I had crossed the pond under the guise of a royal visit.
