TRAPPED BY A BEAST

He was the prettiest dude I’d ever seen, on top of being one of the biggest.

Messy honey-blond hair, a scruffy beard, eyes as blue as a damned photoshopped picture of the ocean, muscles I sort of wanted to bite…

Crap.

What if she wanted me to talk to him?

There were dark circles under his eyes that told me he wasn’t sleeping well, and despite the gorgeous color in those sexy blues, his eyes looked dull. Lifeless, almost.

He was still the hottest freakin’ thing I’d ever seen.

“I’m sorry,” Archie said, finally realizing I was there and flashing a tiny uninterested gaze my way.

Something about the way he smelled—like freakin’ heaven—made me inhale sharply, and my lips parted.

And then his eyes turned red.

His voice… changed, and he growled like a damned animal a word that sounded a hell of a lot like,

“Mate.”

Should I run?

I knew I should probably run, but something about the way the guy looked and smelled had me frozen where I stood.

“Well, now it’s a real party,” Teagan remarked with a grin. “And this time, I don’t have to abduct anyone.”

“What the absolute fuck?” My head jerked toward Ebony, who’d invited me to this damned party. Tea had left the dorms a while ago, but I expected her less-crazy roommate to be the voice of reason here. “Ebony…”

“Remember how I said werewolves aren’t real?” she asked, grimacing so deeply I worried the expression might be permanent. “It was a lie.”

My eyebrows shot so far upward I worried they’d fall the hell off.

Yet, my stupid gaze jerked back to the guy.

Archie, Teagan had said his name was.

Holy damned hotness, I’d never seen anyone so gorgeous.

And he was growling.

Like an animal.

Why the hell was I still attracted to him?

“Ford!” Ebony called over her shoulder.

I couldn’t peel my eyes off the hot guy long enough to glance over at her.

Archie’s fingernails were digging into the plastic picnic table so hard I worried they might bleed. He looked like he was in pain, and I… wanted to take that pain away.

Seriously, something had to be wrong with me.

His face contorted, and I bit my lip as I fought the urge to step toward him and put my hands on him.

Why did I think touching an absolute stranger would help him?

He had called me mate though—which had to mean something, right? Was that why I felt so damned attracted to him?

But what was a mate?

I took a step back, hoping a bit of distance would clear my mind, but Teagan grabbed my arm before I managed to get anywhere.

“What’s a werewolf’s mate?” I asked Teagan, my eyes flicking between her, and Ebony, and Archie.

“Oh honey, you’re about to find out,” Tea promised.

What the hell did that mean?

“Get her inside, fast,”one of the other skyscrapers commanded, waving me toward the door. Teagan and Ebony both grabbed my arms, dragging me toward the townhouses to the left of Ebony’s. They didn’t seem to be aiming for the one directly left, but the one next to it.

“What? No. Let go of me.” I ripped my arms out of their grips. Ebony let go, but Tea grabbed me again quickly.

“Archie’s wolf is going to be really possessive,” Tea said hurriedly. “We just want to get you in his house so he’ll chill out when he’s fully shifted.”

A pained yell-snarl came from the picnic table, and instinct took over.

I yanked my arm from Tea’s grip again, spinning around and booking it back toward the hot guy. Though what I was doing made absolutely zero sense, I just felt like… I needed to.

Archie was on the ground, his body twisted painfully. Common sense told me to get the hell away from the werewolf, who seemed to be shifting forms extremely slowly and painfully, but walking away from him felt wrong.

So I dropped to my knees beside him, leaning over the man. His eyes snapped open when my shadow stretched over him, and when the red gaze bore into me, his body relaxed a bit.

The eyes flicked back to blue for a minute, and then back to red.

“Mate,” he rumbled again, the word coming out mangled in his shifting throat.

“Sure.” I patted his cheek awkwardly.

His hand lifted to rest on mine, and I watched in stunned silence as fur broke out on the skin—before the bone snapped.

Biting back nausea, I remained where I was.

“We need to move her,” one of the men warned, somewhere behind me.

Another one of Archie’s bones snapped, and he snarled again, fury blazing through him.

“I don’t know why, but I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered to him, as fur broke out on his cheek.

The words seemed to relax him entirely.

My lips twisted in a grimace as the air filled with snapping noises, bones breaking and reforming. Now that he was relaxed, though, the change seemed smoother and faster. Two minutes later, my hand was on a furry wolf cheek.

“Jesse the dog is also Jesse your boyfriend,” I said to Teagan, not taking my eyes off of Wolf-Archie as he stared at me, remaining where he was lying on the ground.

“Jesse is my mate,” she said, confirming it.

“Someone needs to tell me what that word means right now.” Somehow, I remained calm.

Probably because I was looking at Archie the hairy animal, rather than Archie the hot guy. Animals, I could manage. Hot guys, not so much.

“It’s like a husband or wife, but bigger. More permanent,” Ebony said quietly. “When a werewolf chooses you as his mate, there will never be anyone else for him.”

Silence reigned for a moment.

Wolf-Archie continued to stare at me.

Just stare.

“Like an automatic marriage?” I asked, my emotions somewhere between shocked, thrilled, and disbelieving.

There was another moment of silence.

“Yup,” one of the guys confirmed.

I stared at the wolf. “So… that hot guy. I’m married to him.”

“Well, marriage is an agreement decided by two conscious individuals. Mating is determined by fate,” one of the guys clarified.

“But yeah, you might as well be married to him,” Tea added.

“Shit.” My face warmed. “Why did he go wolf, then?”

“It’s complicated. Can we explain in Archie’s house? You’ll have to stay there for a few days. Maybe longer.” Teagan kneeled beside me, gently taking my arm.

“Wait…” I trailed off. “My instant-husband comes with a house?”

There was another pause.

I finally looked away from the wolf, glancing back at the group behind me. All of the hot skyscraper dudes just looked sort of stunned.

“Yeah,” one of them said, his forehead wrinkled in confusion. “He’ll put your name on the lease as soon as he’s back in his human form, assuming you let him.”

Seriously.

Holy shit.

“I’m kind of in love with you,” I told the wolf.

He licked my face, and I grinned. “How do we get him back in human form?”