“Are you talking about Jake?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm. Inside I was thinking, Okay, he’s crazy—completely batshit crazy. Have to get away from him—have to run!
Professor Sorenson had me by the sleeve of my red winter coat—but he was gripping the fabric, not my arm. My mind was still working like crazy. The inside of the coat was that slick, plastic-y material. It was a bit too big for me too—I thought I could slide out of it pretty easily. What if I were to duck and pull away from him, leaving him holding my coat as I ran back to the diner?
“Yes, I mean Jacob Wulven—of course I do!” he exclaimed, as though I was being stupid. “It is your responsibility to get Jacob to breed you on this coming full moon,” he said.
There was a fanatical light in his glowing green eyes that scared the hell out of me. He was being serious—he really wanted me to try to get Jake to…
But I couldn’t finish the thought—not even in my own head.
“I…I don’t know about that,” I said, playing for time. I was getting ready to literally duck and run, though I was trying to be as unobtrusive as I could. Luckily, the coat was big and puffy enough that the movements I was making weren’t obvious.
“Well, I know!” Professor Sorenson exclaimed, his eyes getting wilder than ever. “For I have studied the Arcane Texts! The prophecy will come to pass if you are not bred this full moon by a male Alpha of the Royal Line. You are the Second Royal Omega the lore speaks of! The Innocent Maiden who must be knotted by the Alpha Heir of the Absent King! You must be filled with the seed of the Heir so that your belly may swell like the Full Moon herself and you may continue the Royal Lineage! If you do not, all or our kind shall pass from the Earth and be blown like chaff before the wind!”
Oh my God—he wasn’t just crazy—he was absolutely psychotic! I tried not to panic—I really did. But I knew if I didn’t get away from him, I was going to wind up dead in a ditch somewhere, probably with “arcane symbols” carved all over my naked, mangled corpse.
It was time to go. Ducking my head with a quick jerk, I backed out of the coat and then I was free!
Unfortunately, the crazy professor still had hold of my sleeve—not just the sleeve of my coat, but the sleeve of my oversized sweater as well. When I slid out of the coat, the sweater stayed with it—which meant that when I shed my coat, I also shed my sweater. So there I was, shivering in my white lace bra, half naked in the dark, cold parking lot.
Goosebumps broke out all over my arms and exposed shoulders and chest but I couldn’t have cared less. The only thought in my mind now was to run—to get back to the safety of the diner and call my mom to come and get me and take me home.
I turned and started running towards the diner, only to find Professor Sorenson right in front of me somehow, blocking my way.
“Slow. So slow,” he crooned, giving me a crazy smile that made my stomach clench like a cold fist. “You really are the Innocent Maiden, aren’t you? You haven’t had your first Heat Cycle yet and you’ve certainly never been knotted and bred. If you had, you’d be much faster.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about—leave me alone!”
I tried to dodge past him, but he was there again, between me and the diner, laughing a crazy laugh that made the short hairs on the back of my neck and arms stand up.
“Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get you alone?” he demanded. “The Worshipers of the Moon tasked me with contacting you ages ago, but you always have a nonbeliever guarding you, so I had to keep my distance. But now, I’ve got you where I want you, my dear, and I’m going to make you understand your responsibility, no matter what it takes!”
“Leave me alone!” I pleaded. “I don’t understand why you’d want me to be with my own big brother—that’s sick!”
He shoved his face into mine and his breath smelled like raw meat.
“It’s not sick—it’s your destiny!” he shouted in my face. “You must be knotted and bred by the Heir of the Absent Alpha! You are the Innocent Maiden—the Royal Omega! You must—”
“Get the fuck away from her!” a deep, familiar voice behind me growled.
FOUR
It was Jake. I hadn’t seen him appear and had no idea where he had come from. But he shoved me behind him protectively and punched Professor Sorenson—if that was really his name—right in the face.