Chapter 74: Sadie: Every Box

SADIE

"Are you allergic to shirts?"

Trey glances down at his bare chest, then at me. "I’m allergic to being hot and sweaty while I’m trying to read. Especially when I’m cramped up on a sofa with you."

"There’s an AC in this apartment."

"My wolf is big. Majestic." He shifts beside me. "I run warm."

I roll my eyes and return to my laptop, though I’ve already spent enough time looking at his chest to weaken my complaint. Besides, he insisted on sharing this sofa with me, so he doesn’t get to blame me for feeling cramped.

"I’m surprised your bestie left already."

His voice brings my attention back to his face. "Why?"

"Thought you two had something important to do."

"We did. We’re done, and she has work." I glance at my screen. "They didn’t finish fixing my bathroom before she needed to shower, either, so she went back to her dorm."

"She could’ve used mine."

"Lola has a thing about using a man’s bathroom."

"But you don’t."

"You and I have a different relationship."

I hear how that sounds a second too late. When I look up, Trey is already smiling.

"How different?" He leans closer, and I slap the book down in front of him before he can get an explanation out of me.

"Focus."

He pushes it back. "I’m done."

"Done?" I glare at him, then at the book. "You do know that’s the entire History of the Beast War I summarized for you?"

"And you did it so well it only took me an hour to understand it." He seems to think that should settle the matter. "Shouldn’t you be happy?"

"It’s the end of September, Trey. We have less than two weeks until your first Trial."

"So shouldn’t you want me to learn faster?"

"Fine. Let’s find out how much you learned." I drag the book back and open it. "Every question you get wrong means another hour of reading."

His eye twitches. I can’t help smiling, because I know exactly how he feels about that. Given a choice between reading and having nails driven into his back, he’d probably ask how many nails. His wolf is big and majestic, after all. Twenty hours and he’d be fine, which is more than he’d promise me after another hour with this book.

I cross my legs and begin. "What’s the difference between an alpha and someone with true alpha blood?"

"Easy." Trey settles back against the sofa. "Alpha, beta, delta—those are ranks, determined by family and a wolf’s activity index. True alpha blood comes from being born to an alpha and his true mate. You can hold an alpha rank without having true alpha blood."

"Then a gamma can have true alpha blood?"

"Yeah," he answers. "Blood and rank don’t have to match. A pup born to an alpha and his true mate would still carry true alpha blood, green eyes and all, even if a low activity index put them at gamma rank."

I glance down at the book, then back at him. "Okay. Full marks."

"Wasn’t expecting less."

"I’m sure." I move to the next question. "When did the Second Beast War end? And what are the two major effects we still see in society?"

"The vampire war ended in September ’45. The rogue virus is basically a souvenir from it." He shrugs. "Wolves started losing it afterward, leaving their packs, attacking people, the whole deal. Took way too many deaths before anyone figured out it was a virus and not, I don’t know, mass hysteria."

"Who got hit hardest?"

"Mostly omegas, though some deltas with weaker wolves caught it too. They developed the anti-rogue treatment to keep them sane, and people still depend on it today."

He folds his arms. "The other one is what happened with mates. After the war, alphas and betas got obsessed with stronger bloodlines, so they started rejecting weaker true mates for stronger alpha and beta she-wolves. Fucked up the natural order, and the Council waited until 2011 to make mate rejection a stigma so people would stop doing it so easily."

He pauses, then adds, "By then, the damage was already done. Four out of every ten wolves are still unmated at twenty-five. If you get rejected and take another mate, you’re likely taking someone else’s true mate, so now they’re left without one. It keeps going. Those are the two things we’re still dealing with because of the war."

I drop the notebook and clap for him. He tries to take the applause casually, but he’s sitting noticeably straighter by the time I finish.

"You got all of that right. That was really good."

Trey scratches the back of his neck. "Wasn’t that hard."

"You and that ego." I pick up the book again. "Let’s see how it does with this one. Which council member introduced the Lycan governor rule, and why?"

His smile fades. "That wasn’t in what I just read."

"We covered it last week." I shrug. "You should remember."

He looks away, thinking, and I wait without offering a hint. It takes him a while, but eventually his attention comes back to me.

"Councilman Joe Voss."

"And why?"

"Lycans are superior to alphas. There are fewer of them, but they have better leadership qualities than alphas and ordinary wolves. They’re faster and deadlier in a fight, too. The rule put a Lycan governor in every state."

I give him a thumbs-up. "You’ve improved."

He smiles, and it makes me want to keep asking questions, even though I was the one doubting him a few minutes ago. I wanted him to take the lesson seriously. I didn’t consider how much I’d like watching him do it.

"See? Like I told you, intelligence is attractive to women."

Trey tilts his head. "By women, do you mean you?"

My cheeks warm, but there isn’t much point denying it after the way I’ve been looking at him.

"Yes. I find intelligent men attractive." I adjust the book on my lap. "It’s not the only thing I look for, though."

"What else?" he demands. "What kind of guy are you into?"

I reach for the water bottle and take a drink while I think about my answer. He’s still waiting when I put it back on the coffee table, and the attention makes me take the question more seriously.

"Someone kind." I let out a breath. "That matters most to me. People can stop loving you, but if they’re kind, they won’t make you suffer for it."

I give myself a moment before moving on. "Someone funny, too. I’d like to make a joke without having to check his mood first."

Trey keeps listening, so I go on.

"Someone hardworking and upright, with a sense of justice. Someone who cares when something’s wrong, even if it doesn’t affect him. He has to be honest, too. I want to be able to believe him when he promises me something. And I want him to hear me without making me fight to get my point across."

It feels like a lot once I’ve said it, but I wouldn’t know which part to give up.

"Finally, someone good-looking."

He cocks a brow.

"What? I’m allowed to want someone I find attractive. Someone who makes me feel something with a glance or a touch." My smile turns a little shy. "I want to feel alive with him."

It takes some effort to finish that sentence while he’s watching me. He already makes me feel more than I know what to do with, and I’m beginning to wonder how much of that he can hear in my answer.

For a moment, his jaw works. Then he nods. "If the day comes when I tick all those boxes, will you tell me?"

He’s straightforward. Too straightforward sometimes. I’ve just told him more than I intended to, and now he’s asking me to imagine telling him he’s everything I want.

"Yes." I meet his eyes again, my voice softer than I meant it to be. "I’ll tell you."