Chapter 15: The Alpha and His Mistress in Hiding

"If I fucked you," his deep voice started, "would you be able to handle it?"

Blair stopped breathing. She kept her hands clamped rigidly over her eyes, her entire body stiffening like a board. Her mind raced frantically, trying to formulate an answer that wouldn’t result in her immediate demise. Should she say yes? Should she say no? Was this a trick question?

The silence stretched...

And then, the tension in the room suddenly broke when Daemus erupted in loud laughter.

Blair flinched. Keeping one hand firmly over her eyes, she slowly peeled the fingers of her other hand apart just enough to peek through the cracks.

Daemus had turned around. To her relief, he had picked up a pair of gray sweatpants and was pulling them on over his muscular legs.

"You should see your face," Daemus chuckled, tossing a towel over his wet hair and scrubbing it vigorously. He turned back to look at her, the terrifying, intimidating alpha energy gone, replaced by a handsome, easygoing grin. "I have to ask... why try to seduce a wolf if you can’t even handle looking at one in the morning?"

Blair’s face burned so hot she thought her skin might peel off. The memories of last night—rubbing herself against his wet shirt, calling him warm, practically begging him to touch her—hit her like a freight train.

"I was drugged," Blair choked out, mortified. "I didn’t know what I was doing. Please, just open the door and let me go. I will forget this ever happened. You will never see me again."

Daemus tossed the towel onto a nearby chair and leaned casually against the dresser. He crossed his arms over his bare chest.

"I wouldn’t open that door right now if I were you," Daemus said, his tone surprisingly casual for the bomb he was about to drop. "Unless you want to be ripped to shreds in the hallway."

Blair froze. Her legs, which had been kicking uselessly in the air, suddenly went still. "What?"

"My ex-girlfriend," Daemus clarified, tilting his head toward the door Blair was currently hanging on. "She walked in on us last night. She is a full-blooded wolf, extremely territorial, and she is currently outside the dormitory waiting to murder you."

Blair stared at him, her brain short-circuiting.

"She wants to murder me?" Blair whispered in horror. "But we didn’t even do anything!"

"She doesn’t know that," Daemus pointed out helpfully. "She saw you naked in my bed, begging me to take you. In wolf culture, that’s generally considered grounds for a duel to the death."

Blair let her head fall back against the wood with a hollow thud. Despair washed over her. It had been only one week at Apex Academy!

"Why didn’t you just tell her nothing happened?" Blair pleaded, her voice rising in panic. "Why don’t you go out there and explain it to her?"

Daemus winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "Honestly? Because she’s crazy. And I’m kind of hiding from her, too."

Blair blinked. She looked at the massive, towering apex predator standing in front of her. He was built like a tank. He could probably bench-press a bus.

"You’re a wolf," Blair said flatly.

"I am aware," Daemus sighed. "But she’s a very loud wolf. And I really don’t feel like dealing with the screaming today."

He pushed off the dresser and walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of the mattress and resting his elbows on his knees. He looked up at her, unfazed by the life-or-death situation they were currently in.

"So," Daemus said, flashing her that easygoing smile again. "What’s the survival plan, Bunny?"

Blair’s eye twitched.

"Don’t call me that," Blair muttered, trying and failing to wiggle her toes down to the carpet.

Daemus raised an eyebrow. "It’s what you told me your name was last night."

Blair squeezed her eyes shut, wishing a hole would open up in the floor and swallow her whole. "I was very very drunk! Please, my name is Blair. Blair Willows."

"Blair," Daemus repeated. He tested the name on his tongue, tilting his head as he looked at her. "I’m Daemus."

"I know who you are," Blair grumbled, glancing at the giant letters printed across the chest of the jersey she was wearing.

"Well, it’s nice to officially meet you, Blair," Daemus smiled. "But I think I like Bunny better."

Blair let out a slow, defeated breath. She looked at the massive shoulders and the sharp canines glinting in his smile. She decided right then and there that if the Wolf Prince wanted to call her a toaster, she would simply respond to it.

"Fine," Blair sighed, resigning herself to her fate. "But can you please, please take me down from the coat hook?"

Daemus chuckled, standing up and walking over. He effortlessly gripped her waist with his large hands, lifting her off the metal hook and setting her gently on her feet.

As soon as her feet touched the floor, Blair smoothed down the jersey and looked at the door. Her heart hammered against her ribs.

"I don’t have a plan," Blair confessed miserably, her shoulders slumping. "My only knowledge of wolves comes from trashy werewolf romance novels I read as a teenager."

Daemus crossed his arms, looking amused. "And what do the trashy novels say?"

"That you guys are overly possessive and dramatic," Blair shot back, rubbing her temples. She tried to rack her brain, trying to remember the lore of the fictional books. "I don’t know! Isn’t there some sort of sacred pact or law that can get us out of this? Some ancient loophole?"

Daemus laughed, a rich, warm sound. "If there is, I certainly don’t know it."

Blair looked at him in sheer disbelief. "You are the Wolf Prince! If you don’t know any of the sacred pacts and laws of your own people that could be useful right now, how am I supposed to?"

Daemus just shrugged, completely unbothered. "I guess we’re both doomed, Bunny."