Tate tensed beside me, a low growl vibrating against my side.
“We didn’t ask your opinion.” My fingers slipped into my pocket, fingers curling around the silver pair of brass knuckles concealed there.
Jed’s eyes finally landed on me. “And we didn’t ask you to breathe, vamp whor—”
My knuckles slammed into his chin in an uppercut. Jed fell back into his friends with a howl, grabbing his chin as the burn mark spreading across his skin.
“You bitch!” Jed choked on the word as something black and slithery wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground.
The werewolf’s hands grappled at his neck his fingers going through the shadows.
That’s when Kyren stepped out of the darkness.
Tate’s hand slid into mine, pulling me away from the choking werewolf and over to Kyren’s side. “Kyren, you can let him go. We don’t want to have to explain any deaths on campus.”
Kyren’s gaze stayed locked on the werewolf.
Honestly, I’d killed a werewolf for lesser things than calling me a bitch. Simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time while I was in a pissy mood would make me blow a silver-bullet-sized hole through their chest.
Except Tate was right. If Kyren killed someone on campus, then my parents would be alerted. They’d come to campus, and I didn’t doubt for one second that they’d go all protective mode and blow my cover.
Slipping the knuckles back into my pocket, I stepped away from Tate, over to Kyren’s side. I reached out, my eyes sliding over the shadows swirling along his arms before I pressed my hand to his arm.
The shadows didn’t feel like anything. They didn’t even touch me as my hand found his skin underneath. Kyren flinched at my touch. His eyes flickered away from Jed until his eyes locked on mine.
“Kyren. Let him go.”
Tate appeared on his other side, hand on his arm like mine. “He’s just some jackass. Not worth killing him.”
Those dark eyes flicked up to Tate, and the tension in Kyren’s arm eased. As he lowered his arm, the shadows around Jed’s neck disappeared.
Jed collapsed, and his buddies grabbed hold of him. Their eyes were wide with fear as they dragged him away.
Everyone at the party stared at us. The crackling of the fire was the only sound above their racing heart beats.
Tate laughed, startling several of the students nearby. “What’s a party without some bloodshed, huh?”
A few nervous chuckles answered him. Then everyone turned back to the party as if nothing had happened.
“Tate?” Kyren’s eyes swept over the werewolf.
He shook his head, the metal decorations he put in his braids clinking against one another. “I’m good, thanks to Rocky over there.”
Both of their eyes landed on me, heavy with questions I didn’t want to answer.
I lifted my shoulders and tucked my hands into my pockets. “Alora always taught me to be prepared.”
“Uh-huh.” Tate watched me, tongue flicking his lip ring.
I tore my eyes away from his searching ones only to find Kyren gone. “Where did he…?”
Tate waved my question off. “He does that. Part of the whole shadows thing.” He reached for my wrist and drew me away from the crowd. “Come with me.”
Letting him lead me through the trees, I kept my eyes down on the ground as I walked. I might have a lot of heightened senses, but night vision wasn’t one of them.
The sounds of the party faded away, falling into background noise. My heart still raced from the fight, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I took a deep breath and blew it out, trying to calm myself down.
“Quite a first date, huh?” Tate commented with a chuckle. “And here I thought dinner and dancing would blow you away.”
