Chapter 3 THE SEXY HUMAN KISSED ME

I couldn’t stop thinking about the scent.

All through my first two periods the next morning, that heavy smell of wolf blood haunted me. Derek hadn’t said another word about it during the drive back to his mansion, and he’d been gone before I even woke up this morning.

When the bell rang for lunch, I found myself scanning the hallway. My heart did a weird little skip when I approached where we sat yesterday but the chair next to mine was empty. And I still couldn't see him when I scanned through the class with my eyes.

Owen, as I’d heard a teacher call him during roll, was absent. I tried to focus on my notes, but my mind kept drifting to that dark, wet patch on his sleeve. He had been hurt and he was all alone. A strange sense of guilt gnawed at me. He had stood up to Derek for me, and also offered me a seat and in return, I’d left him when I could have helped him.

By the time my library shift rolled around, I’d made a decision. I wasn't going to spend two hours shelving books while my head was spinning. I needed to know if he was okay.

"I have a family emergency," I lied to the librarian, my voice barely a whisper. She didn't even look up from her computer, just waved me off.

I slipped out of the side exit, my heart hammering against my ribs. I didn't have a car, but I knew the bus routes well enough. Before heading to the address I’d squeezed out of a girl in my math class earlier, I made one stop: my Aunt Sarah’s place.

Aunt Sarah was the pack’s unofficial healer. Her house always smelled like dried sage and lavender, a scent that usually calmed me down, but today it just made me feel like a traitor.

"Iris? What are you doing here, honey? Shouldn’t you be at that fancy school?" she asked, wiping her hands on her apron.

"I just... I have a friend who got a bad cut," I said, trying to keep my voice casual. "I wanted to bring him some of that Goldenrod salve. You know, to say thanks for helping me with a project."

She gave me a long, knowing look because in our world, giving someone herbs was a serious gesture.

"A 'friend,' huh? Just be careful, Iris. Not every wound is meant to be healed by us." She packed a small satchel for me anyway. I tucked it into my bag and headed for the outskirts of town.

Owen lived in a part of the city the Nashes probably didn't even know existed. The buildings were grey and crumbling, with overgrown weeds peeking through the sidewalk cracks. It took me twenty minutes to find the right apartment complex. It was a low-rise building with a dull light in the hallway and the faint smell of old cooking oil.

I stood in front of door 4B, my hand hovering over the wood. What am I doing? I asked myself. If Derek finds out I’m here, he’ll lose his mind. I knocked anyway, I've come too far to go back now.

A moment later, the door creaked open. My breath hung in my throat. Owen stood there, but he wasn't the cocky 'bad boy' from the library. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of loose grey sweatpants that hung low on his hips. A thick white bandage was wrapped around the sides of his chest or his midsection as my biology teacher called it, and even through the gauze, I could see a faint red stain seeping through.

"Iris?" His voice was rough, like he’d been sleeping. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"You weren't at school," I said, my eyes betraying me by wandering over the planes of his chest. He was lean, but his muscles were hard and defined, with a few rough scars that definitely weren't from a "scuff." The wolf scent had completely gone away to my surprise.

The heat coming off his body was intense, almost feverish. My wolf hummed under my skin, reacting to the closeness in a way that felt completely different from the coldness with Derek.

This felt... electric.

"I brought you some things," I said, holding up the satchel. "For the wound. It’s medicine and it’ll help it heal faster."

He stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter. The apartment was small and sparsely furnished. It felt lived-in and lonely. I looked around at the peeling wallpaper and the single lamp.

"Owen, can I ask you something?" I said, sitting on the edge of the couch. "Holloway is... it's expensive. How do you even afford to go there? And living here alone?"

His body stiffened and his eyes looked toward the window. "I have a scholarship, Iris. And I work. A lot."

"Derek said I should stay away from you yesterday is there any history between the both of you or something I should know?”

Owen laughed, a dry, bitter sound. "Derek Nash thinks the world revolves around him, don't believe everything a billionaire tells you and why did he call you his property, are you his girlfriend or cousin?"

"Let me see the wound," I said, kneeling on the floor in front of him. I could not answer anything immediately.

I began to unwind the bandage. The heat coming off his skin was a bit hot now. My fingers brushed against his warm skin, and I looked up, and he was already looking at me.

"You're going to get us both killed," he murmured, but he didn't pull away.

Suddenly, his hand slid into my hair. He leaned down, and before I could breathe, his lips were on mine. It wasn't like the cold, forced feeling of Derek's world. It was hot, desperate, and tasted like mint.

My whole body felt like it was melting into the floor. It was just one kiss, but it felt like a lifetime of secrets being passed between us.

I pulled back, his eyes dark. "I should go, Owen. Before it's too late."

I stumbled out of the apartment, my lips still tingling and my head spinning. I needed to get back to the mansion before Derek realized I had skipped my library shift and luckily for me my aunt's place was close to the estate.

I was walking toward the bus stop at the end of the dark alley because I had just left my aunt's house so I could sneak to the estate on foot when a shadow detached itself from the wall.

"Well, well. If it isn't Nash's little pet."

I froze but it wasn't Derek. I recognised him as the young alpha, Garrett Flynn, the lead enforcer for the Northside Pack—our rivals. He was taller than I imagined.

"Garrett," I spat. "What do you want?"

"Ohh you know my name. Just thought you should know what you're playing with, little wolf," he said, stepping into the light of a streetlamp.

"My investigators... They've been busy. They tell me there's a traitor in your pack Iris, someone very close to the Alpha."

My heart stopped. "I don't believe you. And hold up, you had my pack investigated, you don't have the right to do so."

"Believe what you want," Garrett smirked. "You can choose to get angry or you can see that the war isn't coming, Iris. It’s already inside your house."

He vanished into the darkness before I could scream, leaving me alone in the cold with a choice I wasn't ready to make.