Alphas of Red Moon Ranch(44)

Holly felt a prickle run up the back of her neck. Not in my library. She ripped her printout from the printer and stalked over to the aisle, following the muffled sounds. Sure enough, in aisle E—the travel section—she found a boy and a girl tangled up in the back. She was contorted around him and their hands dipped under each other’s clothes. She could see his wrist worked rapidly inside her jeans as she moaned while he kissed and nibbled her neck.

He wore a shock of blond hair and a tan Abercrombie and Fitch hoodie. Holly recognized him instantly.

“Cayden,” Holly said sharply, and the two jolted apart as though they’d been electrocuted. Cayden, the troublemaker from her class that she’d spotted on day one, the lone wolf and ladies’ man who spent more time whispering to his fellow students than he did taking notes.

“Dr. Westmore,” the girl stammered, flushed, and Holly recognized her, too, from her lecture. “We were just…um…”

“Going somewhere?” Holly questioned, arching her eyebrows towards the travel books.

“We were,” Cayden said pointedly, and flashed her a shark’s smile. For a second, Holly thought she saw a shimmer of gold in his eyes and a lethal point to his teeth.

Holly blinked and the images were gone. She was seeing shifters everywhere. She was going crazy.

The girl pulled herself together and grabbed her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. “I should go,” she said and quickly darted out the aisle.

“I’ll see you on Thursday,” Holly called back as the girl vanished from sight.

Cayden was in a little less of a hurry to get up and languidly got to his feet, zipping up his sweater. “You always this much of a killjoy, Dr. Westmore?”

“In my office, please,” Holly said.





Chapter 34


The clock ticked behind Cayden’s head and the young man couldn’t seem to stop fidgeting. His eyes darted between Holly and the door, he picked at a loose thread on his hoodie, and he bounced his leg on the balls of his foot as the seconds dragged on.

“Are you alright, Cayden?” Holly asked, breaking the silence.

“No offense, professor, but I was having a much better time in the library,” he said.

“Listen,” Holly said, “I’ve just noticed a…reoccurring pattern with you. While college is the time to experiment and learn more about yourself, I worry that maybe there’s something going on underneath the surface. You don’t have to talk about it with me, but I’d recommend you talk about it with someone. I can give you a note for the counselor, if you’d like.”

“Uh-huh,” Cayden said, distracted. Truth be told, Holly was only half-worried about Cayden. Did he not get enough attention when he was younger? Latent mommy issues? It wasn’t her business. Her concern was mainly for the women he toyed with, as though they were playthings. Young girls deserve to know they’re more than inanimate objects, she thought to herself.

“What was college like for you?” Cayden said, turning his eyes on her. They were sharp blue and penetrating, she’d give him that. “What was that—the seventies? Lots of drugs, sex, and rock ’n’ roll?”

Holly wore a weathered smile. “Believe it or not, some people go to college to learn.” Which was only mostly the truth. She’d met Chris in her freshman year and they were nearly inseparable for her full college term.

“My way is better,” Cayden said, all inflated ego now. “I get my crazy years out now, maybe I won’t become some old spinster who looks for excitement in all the wrong places.”

The boldness of his statement threw Holly through a loop. “Excuse me?”

“You jealous, teach?” His smile was wide with perfect white teeth, yet Holly sensed the danger there. “If you want some of this, all you have to do is ask.”

Instead of the rampant, no-holds-barred arousal that must have swept through all of her female students when he said those words, Holly felt a chill run through her. She couldn’t place what it was, exactly, but in the words of Miss Claval, something was just not right with this young man.

“Can we hurry this up?” Cayden said, damaging Holly’s line of thought. “I’ve got someone waiting on me outside.”

Another girlfriend, probably. “I’ll walk you out,” Holly said with a smile. She got up and led Cayden out of her office, towards the parking lot. As she went, she added, “My door is always open if you need to talk.” Talking, at least, might be better than shoving your tongue down the nearest girl’s throat.

“Yeah,” he said, dismissive, but she hoped that, underneath that cold façade, he was really thinking about it. They walked to the parking lot, where Cayden nodded to a white BMW. “That’s me.”