Chapter Four

Axel Axel swiped the empty seat at the end of the cafeteria table where all the football players sat. His roommate, Jaxton Phillips, sat beside him, talking to someone at the other end while smacking on his food with his mouth open. Freshman football players were required to stay on campus and always roomed with another player. Axel didn’t mind. He grew up in a pack house full of rambunctious werewolves; these guys were nothing compared to them. "How about that fresh meat this year, Tibbs," Cash, the team's quarterback, said down the table. The running back Lincoln Tibbs chuckled. "I've noticed some promising ventures. There is a red head in my calculus class that's been asking for it." Axel zoned out on their conversation, not tempting himself with the idea of another girl. He knew what mates meant, and it meant he was stuck with Claire Summers. Speaking of, he'd noticed her sitting in a corner booth with that girl from class moments before. She'd let her hair down her shoulders and wore cut-off blue jeans and a campus T-shirt. It suited her. So did that smart mouth she'd acquired. Axel hadn't expected it from her, but the fire she'd gathered over the summer made him want her more. That push to his pull made his wolf spin circles in anticipation of her finally letting her guard down. "Davers." Axel looked over from staring at Claire and toward Cash. "What?" Cash was a pretty boy with dark hair and light eyes; it didn't hurt that he was built like an NFL player. "What about you? Anyone catch your eye?" Axel swallowed his bite of food and shifted nervously in his seat. Everyone at the table stared at him as if he had two heads. "Nah," he lied. Jaxson snorted. "Let me guess? You're focusing on football?" Axel felt the urge to shove his fist down Jaxson's throat because of the tension growing inside of him due to his wolf. These guys had no idea the lightning coursing through him because he turned eighteen. "It's the first day," Axel said. "Sue me for not scoping out potential girls to screw in the eight hours I've been here." Some of them chuckled while Cash waved him off, his gaze settling on the other side of the room. "Now there is something I'm willing to bite. A true blonde." Shivers tiptoed down his spine. He didn't have to look to know he stared at Claire. His wolf howled, a territorial growl vibrated his chest, and Axel felt his fingers tighten around his fork until it snapped into two pieces. "Dude," Jaxson said, eyeing his fork. "Are you okay?" Axel swallowed down his anger, following Cash's line of sight to Claire sitting with Cat. "Too bad she's over there with Crazy Cat." One of the linebackers chimed in. "Girl was in my lab last year and stole the frog we were dissecting and ran across campus yelling for animal rights. She's looney." Axel didn't care about Crazy Cat. He cared about the way Cash hadn't taken his eyes off Claire from across the cafeteria or the way his heartrate picked up when she turned toward this table. First, the guy at the arts building, and now the captain of the football team. He knew Claire was pretty, but he hadn't thought she'd catch two guys attention in one day. Though it was a smaller college, how long could he fight off numerous of guys trying to get into her pants. As long as it takes, his wolf growled. Beat his head in. Claire's gaze traveled toward the table and landed on Axel, which made his body hum. She rolled her eyes and started eating again. He knew Cash noticed before he looked. "Freshman," Cash said. Axel glanced over, noting the look in his eyes and the crooked way he smiled. He took a lazy bite of food and pointed his fork toward Claire. "Do you know the blonde?" Axel leaned back in his chair and clutched his palm around his thigh to hide his anger. What he would do to smack the grin off Cash's face. "Nope," he said. "So random girls roll their eyes at your often, I see?" Axel grabbed his plate and stood up carefully. "See y'all at practice. I've got stuff to do." He left before anyone had a chance to call him out on anything. His wolf turned circles inside of him the further he walked away from Claire. He felt a bone deep need to touch her, to let all those bottled-up emotions out in a kiss that would rock her like no one else could. But he couldn’t push her. Not only did he have to gain her trust, but he had to ease her into a world that she didn't realize existed. Nothing about mating with Claire would come easy, and Axel needed to figure out a way to pull her into it. The campus sat in the midst of a pine forest full of cicadas singing in the distance, and the only chance he had to shift and run while attending classes. The softball field sat in the far corner of the campus, right in the crescent of the woods. Axel scoped out the place months in advance for a path to run before he even filled out the application. Axel slipped into the midst of the trees, tearing his shirt over his head and stripping from the rest of them, and tossing them to the side. His first shift had taken almost an hour, but as the years went by, they became easier and easier. Especially after he became closer to his wolf. Axel leapt into the air, shifting in one solid movement, and racing through the trees like a child at play. The moon hung low over the sky, brightening up the pine straw covered forest floor. The humid breeze pushed him faster, feeling the fingertip touches in his ebony fur felt like caresses from the earth. Axel ran for thirty minutes when he caught scent of something that wasn't human. It deterred him from his path and lead him into the middle of the woods. The scent grew stronger, his wolf moving cautiously through the unknown territory. It wasn't until Axel made it near the tree line that he saw it. A lycan. They'd been enemies for years. For as long as he remembered, and all the history classes his mother gave the pups growing up. Lycans were dirty, ruthless, and a breed of wolf that was never good. Always bad. The lycan knew he was there because Axel sensed his alertness. He stood on two legs, his red eyes moving swiftly over the trees toward the area where Axel hunkered down behind an overturned tree trunk. Axel's wolf urged him forward, but he kept his ground, a silent argument battling inside of him on what to do. But Axel was right. He needed to stay hidden because after a few moments, the lycan shifted and turned into his human form. He grabbed what looked like clothes, slipped them on, and walked right onto campus undetected. Axel's wolf growled deeply, and he felt himself shiver in fear. Lycans didn't like wolves as much as wolves didn't like them. They always hated human where werewolves didn't. So why was a lycan here on campus? He couldn’t think of one reason why a lycan would want to attend a human university other than to kill one or to turn one. Axel's need to draw Claire close became an even bigger priority. With a lycan on the loose, he was her only chance of being kept safe. Axel had to keep his mate safe, or his wolf would slowly die of heartbreak.