Chapter 186

As I watched, the apparition of Asher shifted into full wolf form. I had never done a projection like that before. I shouldn’t have been able to –

Wait. That wasn’t an apparition. That was actually Asher!

With a deadly growl, he jumped forward and tackled Lamar clean off of me.

Lamar rolled across the floor. Asher, as a wolf, landed on his four feet.

Asher growled, and Lamar whimpered.

I couldn’t make sense of either of them, still caught somewhere in my own disassociation. But I could see Lamar shaking, eyes wide with fear, and a twinge of satisfaction ignited within me.

I had been afraid, but now Lamar was.

And I was… safe? Asher was here. Asher was safety and comfort. He was my shield. He would protect me. Lamar would never be able to hurt me while Asher was here.

As a wolf, Asher lowered himself threateningly. His ears went back. If he pounced forward, he could easily tear out Lamar’s throat.

I wanted Lamar to know fear, but I didn’t want Asher to be hurt.

More than anything else, I wanted Asher near me. I wanted to feel his arms around me as I came back to life.

“Asher,” I said, drawing his attention to me. I hated how weak my voice sounded. I wasn’t even sure what I was asking for. “Asher, please.”

Asher looked back at me. With him distracted, Lamar inched closer to the door. We were in his room, but he was ready to dash.

“Asher…” I held open my arms, telling him what I wanted when words wouldn’t do. He turned fully toward me. His front paws stepped onto the bed.

Behind him, Lamar bolted.

Neither of us cared about him anymore.

Asher crawled to my side. When he reached me, he wasn’t a wolf anymore. He was himself, albeit wearing shredded rags for clothes.

He gently scooped me into his embrace. I could feel his heavy breathing, the way his chest rose and fell. He was angry still, body tense, but he touched me with such reverence, as if I were made of glass and might break.

Maybe I would. I felt stretched out too far, numb from being too frightened for too long. I concentrated on his warmth and forced myself back into my body.

Slowly, Asher reached up and pulled my shirt down, covering me. My pants were tangled somewhere around my legs, but neither of us seemed willing to let go for long enough to fix those. At least, not yet.

I trembled in Asher’s arms, so terrified of what had nearly happened. If Asher had arrived just a few minutes later…

I didn’t understand how I could have been so wrong about Lamar. At first, he had been so friendly, so understanding. He’d been willing to wait to date me.

Had that all been a lie?

Had he been planning this from the start?

There had been signs, though, now that I thought about it. Taking that photo of our first kiss had been the most egregious. I should have run then.

I felt like the world’s biggest fool.

“It’s okay,” Asher whispered, calming. He brushed his fingers through my hair. “You are safe now.”

“Don’t leave,” I said. Tears fell down my cheeks. He brushed them away with the pad of his thumb.

“Never.”

I cried into his chest, until he began to pull me up into his arms, as if to carry me. I looked up at him in question.

“I need to get you out of this room,” Asher said, a soft growl under the words. “Everything smells like him. My wolf is… struggling. I have to get you somewhere safer.”

I nodded in understanding. This was Lamar’s room, after all. He could return at any moment. I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him ever again.

Asher held me in a bridal carry as he stepped off the bed. He began to cross the room toward the exit, when I spotted something.

“Asher!”

He stopped.

I pointed just above the headboard, where Lamar’s phone still recorded video.

Asher looked where I was pointing, and his entire body tensed impossibly further. He was a mountain of muscle, with no give. He continued holding me gently, however.

“I don’t want to leave that here,” I said.

Asher walked back to the bed, he angled me toward the headboard.

“Grab it,” he said. His hands were full of me. He mustn’t have wanted to jostle me.

I reached out and removed Lamar’s phone from the wall mount. I stopped the recording, then brought the phone toward my chest, cradling it.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. Half of me wanted to smash it into the floor. But the other half knew destruction did not mean deletion. I had to keep from breaking it for now, until I was certain the video was completely erased.

Asher carried me into the stairwell, and then down to the first floor. Other athletes were around in the hallway, but whenever they glanced at us, Asher would emit a low growl. A warning. They immediately looked away.

They gave us a wide berth as Asher carried me to his door. Inside his dorm room, with the door shut firmly behind us, some of the tension finally eased from his body.

“Can you stand?” he asked me.

I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to go to his bed. Just glancing at it sent my heartrate flying out of control. Everything was too similar to Lamar’s room.

With my non-answer, he carried me instead to his desk chair, and lowered me down to sit upon it.

I was grateful.

By now, the tears had slowed, but my self-hatred had not.

“You must think I’m the biggest idiot,” I said.

“No,” Asher said at once, so confident and strong. He kneeled on the floor at my side and had to look up to gaze at my face.

“He betrayed your trust, Cynthia,” Asher said. “You were not a fool for wanting to give it.”

“I should have known. I should have seen…”

“Even I didn’t think him capable of this,” Asher said. He placed his hands over mind on my lap, and slowly ran his thumb along my knuckles. “If you must blame someone, blame me.”

The words startled me. “What?”

“He told me tonight what he planned do to. I thought he was just trying to provoke me into my shift. I held myself back.” He looked down, his face twisting with anger and hurt. “I should have hurt him worse.”

“Asher…”

“If I had, he would have been incapable of touching you.”

“But what about you, then? Would you have gone to jail?”

“To protect you?” His gaze found mine again. In his eyes, a blizzard raged. “In a heartbeat.”

I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. He pressed his cheek to mine.

He was so warm, he chased away every last chill that had lingered within me, the remnants Lamar had left.

“I want to protect you too,” I said.

“You do.”

I shook my head. “I want to do better. I should have known something was wrong. I never should have left you alone tonight. You were trying to warn me. I should have stayed and listened to you.”

He squeezed my shoulders. “You didn’t know.”

I sniffed. “If you can beat yourself up, then so can I.”

He grumbled unhappily. After a moment, he said, “Then we should focus on moving forward instead.”

I agreed.

With Asher’s closeness, I felt as if his strength seeped into me, making me strong as well.

I knew what I had to do. I was frightened, but determined, too.

“Asher?” I said.

He hummed in acknowledgement.

“I want to call the police.”