Hidden Mate

8

However, the two of them didn’t seem to hear him as they stared each other down.

T

he one good thing I’d learned in this class was that his name was Donovan and the friend was Axel. The bad thing was that Egan and Axel had glared at each other throughout the entire class.

And I thought women held grudges. Figured that was another old wives’ tale made up by arrogant, self-centered men.

As class wrapped up, I got my things together and placed them in my backpack. As soon as we were allowed to leave, I’d cut my losses and get out of here as quickly as possible. Those two could have it out without me.

I probably should have been more worried since Axel was human, but I found my ability to care lacking even though I wasn’t sure what that said about me.

Right when I had the green light to go, I jumped to my feet and shuffled behind the four people in front of me to the door.

I tried not crowding the humans, but it was so damn hard. My escape mode was fully activated.

As I stepped into the hallway, I almost jumped with joy, but Egan called out, “Hey, Sadie.”

Apparently, he was more interested in talking to me than eating Axel for a snack. That sucked.

I glanced over my shoulder, only slowing my pace marginally. He was a dragon, so he could keep up. “Yeah?”

He sped up and caught up to me in seconds. “You were eager to get out of class.”

I bounded down the stairs. “Don’t want to be late for my next one.”

That wasn’t a lie, so he couldn’t call me out on it. Shifters in general were keen on smells and what they meant. Our sense of smell was similar to the way we supernaturals could hear the changes in heart rate too. No matter the senses we used, it was easy to detect a lie even from several hundred feet away.

“So was that …” He stopped himself, keeping close behind me. “… person sitting next to you in class the reason for you rushing out?”

Of course, he’d be smart and ask the right question. The rumor was that dragons were very intelligent. “Maybe.”

I sounded weak for letting a human affect me like that. Even though our supernatural population was large, the human one was three times larger. If they found out about us, we’d risk the danger of becoming used for experiments and God knew what. I had an irrational fear that they might even create a zoo for supernaturals.

I hit the bottom floor and headed out the double doors.

“But why?” he asked, walking beside me. His intense gaze penetrated my defenses, making me want to stop in place. However, this wasn’t a conversation we could have out in the open like this.

“Because that’s how things work.” It wasn’t like I could give him a clear answer right now. “If you’re here, you should know this.”

If he didn’t realize he had to keep a large distance between him and humans, it was important for him to know the truth. He seemed like a good guy, and I’d hate for something to happen to him.

“Yeah … I’m figuring out there’s a lot we don’t know.” He scanned the people walking by us. “Can we go out to dinner or something?”

I stopped in my tracks. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“What? No.” He shook his head and cringed. “Not that you aren’t intriguing or gorgeous.” His brows furrowed. “I …”

“Hey, no.” His odd discomfort made me feel a million times better. I had a hard time relating to others, mainly because the way my dad treated me made me feel like I didn’t know how to act and was a complete and utter embarrassment. It was difficult to overcome those feeling but was something I planned to work on while I was here. “It’s fine. You just caught me off guard.”

My dad would be ecstatic if I snagged a dragon, which meant I wouldn’t date him even if I wanted to.

He scratched the back of his neck. “So …”

“Sure.” Brock would be thrilled. It would be another thing he could boast about: meeting a rare dragon. “I’d like to invite a few more people if that’s cool.”

“People like us?” he asked with hope.

“Yes, there are more than just us here. I do need to get to my next class, but how about we meet at the Student Center at six?”

“Yeah, that sounds great.” He turned toward Wilson Hall. “See you soon.”

I watched him for a second. The guy was f*****g huge. He had to be over seven feet tall, given the way he towered over everyone.

As girls passed him, they would do a double-take. I had a feeling this poor guy didn’t have a clue what he was getting himself into.

Forcing myself to head to class, I picked up my pace. I fought to keep myself from walking too fast because it was a beautiful morning, and I felt energized.

Webster Hall was an all-brick building like the others, and it was a little larger, likely due to the labs associated with the science classes. It was a four-story building with a slanted roof, probably built between the time Wilson Hall and Grey Hall were constructed. It seemed to have been in the architectural style of buildings between those two eras.

The double wooden doors leading into the building were on the ground level, and more people were heading into this building than the others. I had Psychology 101 here, and it was on the top floor.

There were stairs in between the inner and outer entrances, similar to the other buildings. I went to the right, avoiding the mass of students heading out the doors.

Two girls were walking in front of me very slowly and laughing about something. I didn’t care enough to listen to what it might be. I just wanted them to move. They continued up the stairs after the second floor, and my patience wore thin.

I rubbed my hands along my jean shorts to calm my nerves. I’d have to get used to dealing with human slowness. Most of the students here were human, so it was par for the course.

They exited onto the third floor, and I blew out a breath. Finally, I could move at a faster pace.

On the top floor, I hurried, looking for the classroom. The crowd in the hallways was thinning as students scattered to the classrooms, which meant that the number of available seats would be slim pickings.