Chapter 85

Matt

Matt leaned against the building wall, his head thrown back to the bricks. He closed his eyes as he tried not to be overwhelmed by the information that they had just received. They had just confirmed that the werewolf from before was back. All the attacks going on around campus were due to the same wolf.

Was having one normal year of college too much to ask for? He didn't want to deal with any of this shit. He just wanted to play hockey, hang out with his friends, go to class…and, of course, talk to Rose. And the one person he wanted to confide in, he couldn't because she had no idea that werewolves existed. Much less that he was one of them.

He sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. Even though he was only in his early twenties, he felt like he was getting too old for all of this. Nobody his age should have been under this amount of stress.

Not only did he have the werewolf problem, but he also had to protect Celeste somehow. He didn't fully understand why Jack kept her in the dark. She lived in their world whether she knew it or not. Somebody would eventually target her for just being around them. In fact, someone already had.

Humans were so weak compared to werewolves. The Schreiber family only survived because of their training…which Celeste had none of. She had no idea of the significance of her family in this never ending war. She thought she was just a regular human.

Matt sighed again. Jack was making his life more complicated than it needed to be. He was so close to just saying 'fuck it' and telling Celeste everything. And by everything, he meant everything. Including the promises Jack had made all the guys make when it came to her. She deserved to know the truth.

"Matt?" A soft voice called his name. He inwardly groaned. Speak of the devil and he will appear. Or in this case she will appear. He didn't have the mental capacity to be around her right now.

But instead of saying any of that, he opened his eyes and shoved away from the wall, turning to Celeste with the best smile he could muster. His smile must not have been very convincing though because he watched concern fill those beautiful eyes of hers.

"Are you okay?" she asked and her hand rose as if to touch his cheek. But she stopped herself from touching him, her hand falling awkwardly to her side. Matt gently took it into his, rubbing small circles into the back of her hand with his thumb.

He watched as a faint blush spread across her cheeks. He loved when that happened. But he also hated how insecure Jack had made her. She never once let herself be selfish or do the things she really wanted to do. So he helped as much as he could.

If it weren't for Rose and that stupid promise, Matt would have pursued Celeste. They had so much in common and she was so incredibly beautiful and sweet, even if she didn't see it herself. And that small amount of fire that continued to burn despite Jack drew him in like a moth to a, well, flame.

"I'm okay. Just a lot of schoolwork lately. Plus the attacks around campus have everyone on edge. It's just tense all around," he finally answered and she nodded in understanding, her small hand squeezing his in comfort.

"I still can't believe no one has caught the bear. It's so big. How has no one seen it?"

And just like that, the final thread of Matt's patience snapped. He couldn't do this any longer. He couldn't just let Celeste go on believing that she had seen a bear and not a wolf. She was going to get herself killed if she wasn't more careful. He'd deal with the fallout from Jack.

"We need to talk, but not here. We need to go somewhere more private," Matt told her and his grip in her hand tightened.

"Okay. There's a stairwell that literally no one uses in my English building because they think it's haunted. We can go there," Celeste said and began pulling him in that direction.

As they walked through campus, he ignored all the stares from the other students. There was sure to be gossip tomorrow at how the hockey star was finally seen holding hands with a girl. And he was definitely sure that Jack's little groupies would be reporting back to him as well. Whatever. This was too important.

When they reached the stairwell, Matt made sure that they were alone before turning to Celeste. How was he even going to explain this? He guessed he would just state the facts and pray that she believed him.

"What did you want to talk about?" Celeste asked, dropping his hand and shoving both of them into her hoodie pocket. She was nervous. Of course she was. Nothing ever good came after someone said 'we need to talk.'

"It's about the bear…"he started, but then stopped. Maybe this was going to sound too crazy. Maybe he should just make something else up, but as she stared up at him with those eyes of hers, he couldn't do it.

"It's not a bear. It's a wolf. A werewolf, to be exact." There, he said. It was out in the open. He couldn't take it back now.

Celeste's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What? A werewolf? You've got to be joking. Not you too."

Matt's own eyebrows rose. "What do you mean 'not me too.' Has someone else talked to you about werewolves?"

Celeste bit her bottom lip. Matt's eyes instantly dropped to follow the movement. He wanted to kiss her so bad. She was real in a way that Rose was not. She was here with him. And he knew from her scent that she wanted him too.

"Not exactly. The man that kidnapped me the other day had a bunch of notes about werewolves on his wall," she said and it snapped Matt out of his momentary lapse in judgment.

Shit. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"Celeste, you know me. You know I wouldn't make this stuff up. Werewolves are real and one is attacking humans. Jack made us swear to leave you out of it, but you're in danger. More so than the rest of us. I don't want you walking around campus without knowing all the facts. Crescent wolves are the most dangerous kind."

Something like recognition flared behind her eyes. "Crescent wolves?"

Matt nodded, happy that she wasn't laughing and calling him crazy. "Most crescent wolves are okay once they've gotten past the initial stages of changing, but some of them crave the violence too much and they just never stop killing."

"Jack said something about Crescent wolves the other day. But he told me they were a rival hockey team," Celeste told him and Matt fought hard not to roll his eyes. That was what Jack had come up with? A rival hockey team? Was he trying to get his sister killed?

"Jack told us not to tell you. But I think it's high time you knew the truth, don't you?"

Celeste sucked in her cheeks. "You know this sounds like a load of bullshit, right?"

Matt sighed. He was going to have to do it. He hadn't wanted to, but she was never going to believe him if he didn't. It would blow his entire cover if she told anyone, but her life was worth the risk.

"Here. Watch this," he said, holding his hand out as if he was going to give her a high five.

One eyebrow quirked up, but she did as she was told.

Matt let his fingers grow into claws and he waited for the eventual freak out that would come with this revelation, but it never did. Instead, Celeste tentatively reached out and touched them before grabbing his hand fully and bringing it closer to her face.

Matt watched in fascination as Celeste examined his hand with curiosity instead of fear. When she was done, she looked at him with something akin to excitement.

"You're a werewolf." It wasn't a question.

"Yes. There are many of us on campus, but that's not my secret to tell. And you absolutely can't tell Jack any of this. Promise me you won't tell him," Matt said firmly, letting his claws shift back into human fingers.

"Of course not. Jack can rot," Celeste said with that fire he loved so much. Matt chuckled before throwing an arm around her shoulder, leading her out of the stairwell.