The rhythmic, muffled sound of the shower running in the attached bathroom was the only noise filling the quiet dorm room. Bella sat cross-legged on her bed, a textbook open in her lap, but she hadn’t read a single line in over twenty minutes. Her mind was a chaotic battleground, completely consumed by the image of Ethan in the courtyard.
She kept replaying his cold, indifferent face. “Well, that’s good,” he had said. The words tasted like ash in her mouth. She had wanted to provoke him, to see a flicker of the possessive wolf who had held her in the bath and shattered her step-father’s mark. Instead, she had been met with a wall of absolute ice. And then there was Brittany, draping herself over him like he belonged to her.
Bella let out a frustrated sigh and slammed the textbook shut, b
