Chapter 5
Henry
I went to lunch today.
My computer lab didn’t hold nearly the same appeal as our little mate now. I watched her with an obsessive interest as she ate a sandwich from a lavender cooler bag that Ledger had picked out. Without thinking about it, Anani had handed her over some sharpies and she’d begun to draw a beautiful set of flowers. God, she was just so… so Maya.
I watched her golden eyes flash through the magazine she’d found at the library. Vogue? I frowned. It wasn’t that I disagreed with the magazine, but she could do much better than that. I had already concluded that Maya had a very alternative upbringing and she was essentially a fresh face in this rather stark world. I felt bad for enjoying that fresh innocence. It radiated off her like sunlight in a darkened cell. It was intoxicating. Her light and hope. She was obviously very smart. But also had this whimsical, almost childlike curiosity to her. Something I wanted to protect. Honestly, I just wanted to protect her. Every single inch of that golden skin.
Mine.
Well, at least that was what my dragon thought. What he obsessed about. God I wish I was better than that, but I was not. At all.
My research had found very little on Maya and even less about her history. It hadn’t been difficult to arrange for her personal identification, but it seemed as of right now she didn’t have a Social Security number. She essentially didn’t exist. I think Marco loved and hated that.
On one hand, it was far easier to protect her without a paper trail in Earth realm. On the other, it meant something terrible had happened to have her life twisted as such. My lips pulled back in a light snarl as a few football players walked by, all looking at Maya.
Maya, who had no idea how beautiful she was. Maya, who had no idea that she was simply intoxicating and sexy without trying.Maya.
Shit. This was bad.
My dragon snarled under the surface of my skin and before I knew it, I had grabbed her hand within mine. I felt awkward a bit after they’d passed because my fucking instinctual reaction was very different than how I normally interacted with humanity. It wasn’t that I hadn’t known this side of me existed. I was a fucking beta. I just hadn’t found a need for it to be so damn prominent until her. Now I felt a range of things that I hadn’t expected to feel regarding her, all of them insanely protective and terrible territorial. Maya looked up through her lashes and offered me a smile that showcased her flushed golden cheekbones.
As the twins continued to talk about something relatively unimportant, I studied her. Intensely. How was someone who was so small and beautiful possible? Maybe she wasn’t real? I squeezed her hand to ensure that she was right here. I noticed she had placed down her sandwich and was frowning down at the table in introspection.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
She met my eyes and nibbled her lip nervously. “Henry, do most friends act like this?” I could see the gears turning in her head and this small flame that had lit up behind those golden eyes. I needed to figure out what type of fucking shifter she was. Like yesterday.
It wasn’t completely my fault I kept getting distracted. You try to keep focused when your mate crawls over your lap first thing in the morning in a tiny skirt. I had to grip her hip ridiculously hard just to avoid running it along the silky skin of her leg and ass.
“Act like what?” I couldn’t help but smile because I knew she was probably feeling the mate bond. We had no idea how it would affect her since I had yet to determine what she was exactly.
She nodded toward our hands, “I don’t think that this is how friends act. But I don’t care. I should care. Plus I feel…”
I was around the table before I could rationalize my action as I turned Maya towards me gently. I cupped her jaw, “how do you feel sweetheart?” Honestly, I wasn’t even going to blame this on my dragon anymore. Although, the fucker was laughing at me.
Maya’s plush lip was being tortured as I tried to not stare at it. Instead of doing what I wanted to, which was nibbling on it myself and then soothing it with my tongue, I simply watched her.
Fuck, Henry. Get a fucking grip.My dragon offered a huff as if he was annoyed at my attempt for control.
I could tell she was about to respond, but then Malloy reached our table. Instead of moving, I tucked her more solidly under my arm and buried my nose in her hair. “We will talk about this later, okay?”
Her brow dipped and she shook her head, “I don’t want you guys to get hurt.”
There was her protective nature again. Part of me was immensely turned on by it and the other part was terrified about her need for that amount of concern. I knew something had happened last night because Marco had said we needed to talk privately. Atlas had found out something regarding Maya, and my guess was that it wasn’t good.
My chest hurt thinking about her in danger. Maya didn’t know it yet, but her time in that goddamn trailer was at an end. She had officially four school days until she turned eighteen. Friday at midnight I was dragging her ass out of there. She didn’t have to stay with us, I’d put her up wherever she wanted, but I didn’t want her around Jed. Jed who had been arrested for drug trafficking and suspected sex trafficking. Somehow the fucker had gotten off and my suspicion was that he had connections in the human world to aid with influencing the system.
“Hey sugar,” Malloy winked while sitting across from us, “why the long face?”
I was able to keep my reaction to a minimum as Maya scowled, “I don’t have a long face, it’s perfectly shaped.”
Anani chuckled as Ledger shook his head. Malloy tilted his head and grinned, “you’re an odd one, aren’t you?”
“Maybe you’re the odd one,” she retorted, looking amused.
He snorted and nodded, “agreed, Maya.”