“Hey, people are sleeping here.” Tabitha groaned.
“Sorry,” Amanda whispered as she quickly grabbed her first aid kit from her closet and then pushed Hudson back into the hallway and closed the door behind her.
She grabbed Hudson’s hand and pulled him down the hall toward the bathroom which was well-lit. Amanda checked the bathroom to make sure that no one was currently in there before she tugged Hudson in there with her. She put down her kit on the counter and turned around to look at Hudson. She let out a gasp as her hands went straight to her face, covering her nose and mouth.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said with a crooked smile.
Amanda removed her hands from her face and moved closer to get a better look. Hudson had a busted lip, a bruise on his jaw, and a gash over one of his eyes, and the other one was already turning black and blue.
Amanda let out a sigh. She didn’t know if she should be mad because he got into a fight or relieved that this was the worst of it.
“Did you get into a fight with someone?” she asked.
More like something, he thought. He had not anticipated the size of the Lycan. As big as his wolf was, this Lycan was taller standing on two feet. It was hard enough with him and Marco trying to fight just one and then it took off quickly, and they couldn’t find him after.
“Yeah, some guys tried to jump me and Marco,” he said with a shrug.
Amanda opened her kit and grabbed some gauze to run under the water to wipe some of the blood that was still sticking to his wounds.
“I hope they look worse than you do,” she says softly.
Hudson sucked in a breath when he felt Amanda’s gentle touch on his wounds. This was the best medicine for him–his mate’s gentle touch.
“I’m sorry; does it hurt when I touch them? I’m trying to be careful,” she said with concern laced in her voice.
He let out a chuckle and shook his head, “No, you’re doing just fine. Thank you for helping me. You didn’t have to.”
Amanda shrugged.
“Did you hear there was another attack tonight?” she asked him as she continued to clean the wounds on his face.
“Yeah, you weren’t near it at all, were you?”
She nodded slowly before answering. “After I rushed out of the diner, Tabitha and I were on our way back to the dorms, and we saw someone get tossed over the bushes. We ran over to him and tried to help with his wounds then called the paramedics and campus security.”
“Did you see anything, like what it was?”
She shook her head.
“That was brave of you to help the person.”
Amanda slightly shrugged and gave a small smile. “I guess. I just hope that if I’m ever hurt that someone would do the same for me.”
Hudson and his wolf tensed as they heard their mate talk about getting hurt. He didn’t know what he would do if anything ever happened to her. He and his wolf swore to themselves that they would protect their mate at all costs.
“Hudson?”
Her voice calling his name pulled him out of his deep thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Why did you act the way you did tonight?” she asked quietly. A little afraid that she was going to make him mad again.
Hudson sensed her anxiety and sighed. “I don’t know. I know my actions are confusing you, and I’ve really made a mess of things between us. I was horrible to you in high school. You don’t know how much I wish I could change the past between us. But I can’t.”
Amanda interrupted him. “Hudson, maybe we should start over and just be friends. Cause, you’re right–this up-and-down roller coaster that we have been riding is just nonsense. I want to be able to forget high school and everything that goes with it, but I can’t. So, I think being friends is what I can offer at the moment. Maybe then this possessive side of you might not get jealous so quickly, and I don’t have to relive my past every time I look into your eyes.”
Hudson smirked.
As much as it painted him that his mate only wanted to be friends with him, at least she was offering him that and not rejecting him altogether. At least this would give him a chance to show her the guy she deserved to be with. The kind of guy he knew deep down he could be.
He nodded. “Sure, we’ll just be friends.”
Amanda nodded and smiled.
“Can I ask you something?”
Amanda nodded.
“So, this guy that you went to the movies with. Do you think you’ll go out with him again?”
She just shrugged. “He seems like a nice guy. I never got a chance to have a boyfriend before.”
Hudson gulped as he heard the words come out from Amanda.
“You think he might be boyfriend material?”
“I don’t know, Hudson. I’m just taking it one day at a time and enjoying it while I can. He and I might not have anything in common, but I don’t want to not give him a chance to see where things go.”
“So, this date that you had. Did he pick you up at the dorm?”
“Well, no, I told him that I would meet him at the theater.”
“Did he bring you flowers or anything?”
Amanda shook her head; she didn’t understand where Hudson was going with this.
Hudson took a step closer to her, lowering her hand from where she was cleaning, looked deep into her eyes, and said, “Then it wasn’t a real date.”
Amanda rolled her eyes as she took a step back and tossed the gauze she had been using into the trash ca. She started to wash her hands.
“What do you consider is a real date then?”
Hudson turned her around and gently rubbed his fingers against her cheek. His wolf relished in the static charge it gave them.
Hudson smiled.
“You’ll know it when I take you out on one.”
Amanda gave him a small smile. “What makes you think I’ll go on date with you?”
Hudson cupped her face with both hands and leaned his forehead up against her. He breathed in her scent, calming his wolf down, and said, “Because, I can feel your heart race whenever I’m close to you. Does he make your heart race like this?”
Amanda closed her eyes and bit the bottom of her lips as shook her head.
Hudson pulled his head back and lowered himself to look straight into those amazing hazel eyes, but she refused to open them.
Hudson let out a sigh. “Amanda look at me?”
Slowly, she opened her eyes and stared into his.
“I know right now you’re scared to give me a chance. And I have no one else to blame but myself for that. But this feeling that you’re getting is going to grow until you can’t ignore it any longer, and when you’re ready to take that leap and give us a chance, I’ll be right there waiting. I’m not going anywhere.”
Hudson then leaned in and brushed his lips softly against hers, stealing her first kiss before she could give it to anyone else.