"Oh... um, yeah. That's fine..."

Ugh! Why did I say yes? What is wrong with me?

I mean, it's not like I could say no to two werewolves that could easily kill me within seconds, but still. I don't want to eat lunch alone with them!

I wish there was a way out of this. Sigh...

After leaving the two persistent, and intimidating, werewolves behind, I make my way into the school building and try my hardest to ignore the nerves settling in the pit of my stomach when thinking of going to lunch today.

The nerves fluttering around in my abdomen only increase when I catch a glimpse of Jake so, while trembling, I turn around and make my way to the longer halls in hopes of avoiding him and the Goons.

I manage to spend the rest of the morning successfully avoiding the demented version of the Cheetah Girls and the bell signifying the start of lunch can finally be heard ringing throughout the school halls.

After my supplies are all packed, I throw my bag over my shoulder and make my way out of the class to head to the library. Hearing the classroom door close behind me, I freeze in my spot as my gaze connects with none other than Jake Samson. I wish they would just expel his ass! I mentally groan.

Jake starts heading towards me and I do the only thing I can do in this type of situation.

I run my ass to the library.

~

Heaving and panting, I finally reach my destination. Standing in front of the library door, I bend over and rest my hands on my knees, attempting to calm myself down.

Jake, just Jake this time, ended up chasing me through the halls for a solid five to ten minutes. I would've been able to escape him sooner if I ran through the longer halls I always go through, but I don't want Jake to know about those. He's been too stupid so far to figure out that I take the longer way around the school to get to my classes and I don't want to be the reason he figures it out.

Hearing the faint sound of rushing footsteps behind me, I barge into the library and slam the door shut behind me. I slowly turn myself around and realize all eyes are on me. Ducking my head, I make my way to the table I always sit in at the back. I don't have any lunch today seeing as I'm not always able to sneak food out of the house and they don't give me any money to buy food at school so I am empty handed on days like those. Today has been one of those days where Jessica is up earlier so I wasn't able to sneak any lunch into my bag so now I won't be able to eat until I arrive back at the house and can sneak a little something up to my room.

Sighing, I turn the last corner of a bookshelf to take a seat at my usual table only to stop dead in my tracks. Roni and Trenton are already here, sitting at my table and talking quietly amongst themselves. I honestly forgot about them considering all the chaos Jake put me through within a ten minute period. Great, now the nerves are back.

I was hoping I would get away with not being noticed for a bit longer, but of course I was wrong to hope for that seeing as these two are werewolves. They can probably smell me or something weird and werewolf-y like that.

Trenton is the first to notice me as he abruptly stops talking to Roni and flares his nostrils, as if he's smelling the air, which... he probably is. He sharply turns his head in my direction and his cerulean gaze melds with my emerald stare. I cock my head to the side, confused at his serious and somewhat concerned expression. He smiles softly in my direction and all of me melts into a puddle where I stand. My breath hitches and I can feel a blush rising to my face and ears. I quickly duck my head and slowly make my way to my seat.

I guess after having time to get that nightmare off my mind, I feel a bit more at ease with these werewolves. I am still nervous and I think that I will be for a long time to come, but, whether it's the mate bond or not, I've never felt safer in anyone's presence than the way I do in Trenton's. I think it will just take me a long time to let go of what that werewolf did to my sister and her mate, I just hope I can learn to trust Trenton wholeheartedly like Kelly did with Miles. Miles was a werewolf, too, yet he never gave Kelly nor I a reason to ever fear him. Maybe Trenton and I can be like how they were. All I can do is hope that I can move on from what happened in the past and work on healing myself so I can give to Trenton what I know he deserves. I don't know what the Moon Goddess was thinking when she paired Trenton Wolfe, popular jock and apparently soon to be Alpha of his pack, with a meek human like me with PTSD, anxiety, and trust issues, but if I've learned anything from my sister, it's to never question why you were mated with someone or if you are worthy of them. The Moon Goddess decided to put us together for whatever reason, and I don't want to question her reasoning. If Trenton will have me, then I will try my best for him. I just hope he knows it will take some time for me to open up to him, if I ever can.

"Um... hey." I squeak out, taking my seat and trying to get my mind off the insecurities I have. I still don't know why anyone would want me, but so far Trenton has shown me nothing but gentleness and care, so all I can do is hope. It's not like I have anything to lose, anyway.

"Hey, Kai. How has your day been?" Roni asks me in that honey sweet voice of hers, looking up at me for a second before going back to eating her school bought lunch.

"Um, fine, I guess. How about you guys?" I gently ask, setting my bag on the table to find my sketchbook.

"Boring as usual. It's like school's main goal in life is to put students to sleep." Trenton chuckles, but there's something in his eyes that's telling me he wants to say something.

"Right... um, Trenton? Are you okay?" I decide to ask, hoping he can't tell how nervous I am to directly ask him a question. It's hard not to be nervous in the presence of two werewolves when the images of my sister's lifeless body on the ground holding onto her lifeless mate keep playing through my head, but I'm trying here.

"Hm? Am I okay? Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" He narrows his eyes at me, raising a brow.

"What do you mean?" I ask, tilting my head to the side to show my confusion.

"Well, your face is red, your hands are shaking, I can see that you're sweating, and you're a bit out of breath." Trenton states matter-of-factly, shocking me beyond belief. He pays that much attention to me? He can see my hands shaking? I didn't even know my hands were shaking until he pointed it out.

"Um... I'm fine." I squeak, ducking my head to look down at my sketchbook I finally managed to pull out, avoiding the oceanic gaze pointed in my direction that became too intense for me to continue gazing into.

"Kai, aren't you hungry?" Trenton, thankfully, changed the subject. Though, I'm not sure if this subject is much of an improvement.

"Um, I didn't have time to pack a lunch this morning." I manage to reply. It's not a lie, I really didn't have time to pack a lunch this morning since Jessica was in the kitchen, probably looking for more alcohol to drink or something and I wasn't in the mood to get yelled at, potentially smacked in the face. Jessica isn't usually violent but if she's up early she sometimes blesses me with a good slap to the face, note the sarcasm. I just wasn't in the mood for her bullshit, so here I am, no lunch in sight.

"Kai..." Trenton trails off, standing up from his seat and walking around the table to reach me.

Crouching down in front of my seat, he reaches out a hand to caress my face. I can't help the involuntary flinch that slips out as I see his hand approaching, but soon relax by reminding myself that this is Trenton. He notices, though, as I watch a small flash of hurt pass his blue eyes while he pulls his hand away. Not wanting him to take it the wrong way, I reach out and grab his hand, pulling it back toward my face and cup my cheek with his hand, mine continuing to rest over top of his that now lies on the side of my face.

I glance up into his eyes and my breath hitches. The way he is looking at me right now just takes my breath away. His gaze is a mixture of gentle, soft, and concerned all in one. He's looking at me as if I were the most precious thing he's ever seen.

Clearing my throat, I lower my gaze to Trenton's muscular forearm in hopes of calming my racing heart.

It doesn't work.

"Kai, you look kind of pale, when was the last time you ate?" Trenton asks, his voice only a whisper, as if he were scared to speak louder in fear of breaking the moment.

"Um..." I squeak out, clearing my throat before continuing, "last night."

That's not a lie. At around midnight last night, after both Jessica and Rick were passed plumb out, I managed to sneak out and fix me a quick bowl of cereal. I hadn't really eaten anything yesterday so that cereal was like a holy grail.

"Kai..." He trails off yet again, his eyes searching for something in mine. For what exactly, I'm not sure. I wish he would stop saying my name like that, he has no idea what it does to me.

Trenton looks as if he wants to say something again, but holds back as he gently removes his hand from my face and stands up, walking back over to his side of the table. Instead of sitting back down, like I expected him to do, he grabs his lunchbox and comes back to crouching in front of me.

"Kai, eat this. The only reason I haven't eaten yet is because I was waiting for you, but I had a big breakfast this morning so I'm not even that hungry. You need to eat more than I do." Trenton explains. Now, I know he's lying. Werewolves are always hungry, no matter if they've eaten a big breakfast or not, by lunch time he should be hungry.

"Trenton, I'm fine. I'm not taking your food away." I tell him sternly, looking him straight in the eyes to show that I'm serious.

"Kai, you're as pale as a ghost! I'm not letting you go hungry anymore, okay? I won't let you go hungry anymore if I can help it." Trenton smiles softly, lifting his hand yet again to rub the side of my face with his knuckles.

I don't reply as I try to hide the tears welling up in my eyes. No one has cared enough for me to make sure I've eaten since Kelly passed. I don't know what to say.

"Kai, just take his damn lunch and eat. You two aren't even dating yet, but I'm already third wheeling." Roni scoffs, making Trenton and I both jump from shock as we both forgot she was here.

"T-Thank you..." I choke out, trying to conceal all of the emotions I'm feeling right now. If Trenton notices my watering eyes, which he'd be crazy not to, he doesn't say anything. I'm very grateful for that.

After he affectionately pats my knee, he stands up and walks back over to his seat, sitting down and begins watching me concernedly. I put my unopened sketchbook back into my bag and set it on the floor to make room for Trenton's lunch. Opening his lunchbox, I see that Trenton has packed a deli sandwich with a bag of chips. My mouth waters as I catch a whiff of the sandwich, it smells heavenly.

"Did you make this sandwich, Trenton?" I decide to ask him, my voice sounding more normal than average for me as I'm too distracted by the food in front of my face to think about my nerves right now.

"Yeah, I hope you like it." Trenton nervously chuckles. The sound surprises me, so I raise my head to see that he is already looking at me with a nervous expression on his face. Is he... blushing? Who would've thought that I'd be able to see the very endearing sight of an Alpha werewolf blushing? He is adorable. I think to myself as I take a bite of the sandwich.

"Mmm, that's good." I praise him, continuing to enjoy the sandwich he made. I don't know if it's because I'm severely hungry or if the maker is my mate, but this sandwich is the best thing I've ever eaten.

"Anyways, Kai. Are you sure you're alright? You were acting strange this morning." Trenton's voice brings me out of my admiration for this sandwich. I look up at him and see that the concerned expression is back on his face.

"Um... yeah I'm sure. I just had a bad morning I guess." I say in a voice that makes it known I don't want to talk about it, since I'm definitely not telling Trenton what I've been through. I'm not ready to talk about it. I think if I did, I would completely break down and I'm not prepared for that quite yet. I don't know if I ever will be. Roni clearly doesn't get the message that I don't want to talk as she begins to speak next.

"What happened?"

"I um, had a nightmare." I say in the same tone, not wanting to elaborate.

Trenton looks at Roni as if to tell her not to question further and I shoot him a grateful smile before returning to my sandwich.

I remain quiet for the rest of lunch, but listen in on Roni and Trenton's conversations. They have an interesting dynamic and I genuinely enjoy listening to them talk to each other. Regardless of how nervous I am around them, I hope they continue to eat with me.

The bell signaling the end of lunch finally rings throughout the school and we all start cleaning and packing up to head to our next classes. I hand Trenton his lunchbox back and thank him once more as we walk out of the library. Once we are all standing outside of the library where we split up, Trenton asks me a question about something I completely forgot about.

"Kai, before you and Roni head that way, I wanted to ask you something. I've been curious about this since it happened, why was your lip busted if Jake didn't do it?"