Now bring me a cheese pizza.

Kidding.

“You need to leave. Now,” the tux guy said. “It’s just a matter of time before—”

Howling erupted upstairs, followed by snarls and snaps.

“Shit!” the dude muttered. “It’s happening.”

His eyes shifted from grass-green to yellow, and the last remnants of the mage wine burned out of my body in a flash. He was shifting … they were all shifting.

All that sexy-shmexy mate-desire was basically coitus-incompletus, making me a lusty-beacon to every single male wolf on campus.

“Hey, wolfie,” I muttered, kneeling to get on my protector’s level. “I gotta go. Uh … will you walk me home?”

Before I even finished the sentence, I was moving toward the door. It was a race—get out of the house before the fighting reached here. Whenever wolves fought, it took a tremendous amount of willpower to keep yourself from shifting and asserting dominance. But a fight like this would be pointless. Better to protect my mate and get the hell out of here. A fight this big was bound to have repercussions. Alpha king repercussions.

Hard pass at that.

“Thank the mage,” I said, relieved when my mate’s wolf followed me out. As I passed the guy fighting against the call of his instinct, I felt my own skin tighten, and then fur rippled down my forearms in response. Why couldn’t she do this during sparring matches at home? Right now, it felt like she had a mind of her own.

I raced out of the front door and padded along the trail, the sleek black wolf right beside me. My fingers were wound into his black fur, and my heart raced a mile a minute.

Mate.

Fated mates.

Holy frick.

He wasn’t from Crescent Clan—which was a problem. Big problem. Mating outside of one’s clan was forbidden; it diluted powers.

Besides, my father had a plan for me: I was supposed to go home to Montana, take up his position as alpha, and mate with a nice man from Crescent. My dad suggested Garret every chance he got, and the guy wasn’t bad, so I’d never been opposed to the idea. But that was before.

Intentionally mating with another alpha heir from another clan would be treasonous. But could fate be wrong?

Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize when we’d reached the back door of my dorm. It was dark out, the moon high in the sky, only casting a small amount of light, and there wasn’t a soul outside the building except me and my mate.

I knelt down and met the wolf’s yellow eyes threaded through with blades of green. “You can shift now. I’m safe. You don’t need to protect me anymore.”

His eyes flared from yellow back to green, and as his form shifted, he stood tall and muscular, wearing the same tuxedo and black mask.

Damn.

Only really strong alpha heirs had enough magic to shift and hold on to their clothes while they did so. My mate was powerful.

He tucked me into his body, and I nestled closer. This was where I needed to be. It didn’t matter which clan he was from or who he was beyond mine.

My mate.

Wanting him to know who I was, I tugged off my mask and peered up at him. “I’m Nai, from Crescent Clan.”

He nodded once then swallowed hard. He pursed his lips, and his jaw stiffened as if he were trying to control his expression, but a frown slipped over his mouth anyway.

I tilted my head and studied him, trying to make sense of his reaction as much as trying to connect the dots.

Wait … his wolf had led me to my dorm.

“I know.” His voice was rough and sounded slightly familiar. Was the spell wearing off?

I froze in shock.

Before I could draw any conclusions, he leaned in and kissed me, a quick brush of his lips against mine, before pulling back to smell my neck. My skin prickled with pleasure, and I tilted my head back to give him better access. Grinning, I faced my mate, ready for him to reveal himself.

Only … his green eyes grew somber, and he made no effort to remove his mask.

No bueno. I needed to know who he was, so if he wouldn’t take it off, I’d help him not be so shy.

I reached up, but before I could hook my fingers around the edges of his mask, he grabbed my wrists. Gently, he brought my hands away, holding them while we stared at each other, and as the seconds stretched, I realized he wasn’t going to lower his mask. The rejection sucked the air from my lungs, and my lower lip quivered.

He brushed the curls away from my neck.

“Forgive me.”

My brow furrowed as his words registered, but before I could say anything…

What the—?

He struck. The fleshy outside of his hand popped me in the neck. Before I could even gasp, blackness consumed me.

Chapter 8

A loud banging yanked me from sleep. My eyelids peeled open as the noise rattled my brain. Pain shot through my skull as the mother of all mage wine induced headaches arrived.

“No,” I moaned as I sat up, hoping to stop the incessant knocking. Memories of last night flooded my brain, and I bolted out of the dusty bed—nearly tripping on the hem of the blue ball gown.

Staring down at my left hand, I saw that last night was not a dream. “Holy mage!”

Mate marks.

Real. It was all real.

The pounding at the front door grew louder, and I stumbled through my house and tugged the heavy door open.

Kaja stood there with two to-go coffee cups in her hand. Her gaze dropped to my ring finger, which I was still inspecting, and her jaw went slack.

“It is you!” She pointed to my left hand, stumbling into the house. “You flipping found your fated mate at that party! Who is he?” she whisper-screamed before slamming the door behind her. She quickly followed me up to my bedroom where I shut and locked the door in case Nolan was nearby.

My thoughts went from the searing hot kisses to his lame-ass apology before he’d knocked me out with some karate mojo, and tears filled my eyes. “A huge asshole, that’s who! He … he left me.” I swallowed the lump at the back of my throat. “Knocked me out before I could lift his mask and dumped me in my bed without even giving me his name.”

Kaja’s face fell, and she held out the cup while shaking her head. “Whoa, that’s heavy. Probably because … it’s forbidden?”

She handed me the coffee, and I took a long swig, hoping the caffeine would prevent my head from exploding.

No more mage wine. Ever. Again.

“Yeah, I guess so. But … I wanted to know who he is.” Was it so irrational to have wanted to throw caution to the wind and forget about the rules? I didn’t care if it was forbidden. He was my fated mate! But he did care. Enough to leave me without a name, and that stung. His rejection of me over “rules” was a wound I’d never forget. Ever.

“Okay, no biggie,” Kaja said, holding out a muffin. Legit, this girl got me. Food and coffee were the things I needed first thing in the morning to function. “We can figure this out. Your mate will have mate marks, so we just look for a guy who has matching marks, and boom! Mate found.”

I snickered before stating the sobering truth: “Yeah… well, I’m not sure I want to go out to my first day of class parading this around.” I held up my hand. If the teachers saw it, or the king, I’d be kicked out so fast it’d make my head spin.