Shades of Moonlight

Chapter Three- Intentions

Sitting through an entire lesson plan of ‘ethics’ taught by a man who seemed to be lost on the genre in question within his personal decisions and lack of belief in genuine consequences, Luci was forced to endure the most awkward ninety minutes of her life. Even more awkward than the bare naked photos she was well aware had been circulating of her since earlier that morning. But this had been a thought that was absent from her mind for the time being as she had been forced to focus upon August, who seemed to demand the room in the same way he had with her the night before. For the boys within the room who watched the professor unintentionally flex his muscles in innocuous motions that rivaled his ‘true size’ to the girls who were incredibly graphic beside Luci as they spoke of how they wished to have him keep them after class, Luci found each minute to pass as hours until the class finally came to its daily cessation. 

Tearing her bag from the arm of the chair she had claimed as her own at the beginning of class, Luci attempted to be the first to flee from the room before August could catch her; she was caught by Isabel Seymont; the campus b***h. She seemed to lose all sense of compassion along with the fat cells expelled from her body by her father’s liposuction business and held a reputation for being crass and bold; so when she stood before Luci as she tried to leave the scene, she was well aware that whatever was about to leave her lips would damage her self esteem. But unable to push past Isabel and her duo of ‘minions’ dressed in the matching Louis Vuitton skirts and varying pastel tops, she was forced to endure it. 

“My dad has some amazing connections to some of the girls at the electrolysis unit...they would be able to take care of your...um...beaver problem…” Isabel motioned to Luci’s feminine sacred hood as she immediately blushed as she noticed how August had heard this comment as well as Paxton. Unaware that she had appeared seemingly unhygienic-when in reality this comment was made from pure cruelty, she tried to push beyond the girls before finding Isabel to now cross her arms over her chest and lower her tone to a timbre that was threatening and strict. “If you think for a second that you will convince any guy here to take your virginity by showing off that anemic and bulimic figure...you are seriously mistaken...Not even Andy would touch a girl like you…” Isabel now motioned to a reclusive stoner who spent most of his time getting busted for porn and pot. 

“Ahem!” The sound of a dominant voice forcing Isabel to step aside in the aisle of the steps had revealed August’s figure to Luci. For the first time in the time she had known him, she was actually relieved to see him. 

“I really appreciated your take on the lesson, Mister Barrone…” Isabel spoke while taking her long blonde curls between her fingers and twirling them. For a second, it had seemed as though August was taken by her carbon copy appearance as a wide smirk fell over his face-until his words seemed to mismatch this expression. 

“I appreciate that, Isabel...you know, you are the kind of treasure that is so special that it needs to be buried...Deep underground...where it can be kept silent...Because even though you have a pretty face...it is useless without a good heart.” Her perpetual arrogance faded immediately from her face as she pulled up her ten thousand dollar purse and pulled herself down the aisle and away from the room in its entirety. But it seemed that August was not done yet…

“For anyone who is in possession of Miss Callista’s photos or caught discussing, observing, or sharing them will fail this class immediately, as that is against all ethics.” The class fell silent for a moment before they looked to Luci with a sense of fear in place of pity or humor. The eyes that once landed onto her in lust or second-hand embarrassment had now either done so in apology or had averted from her altogether. 

“Miss Callista? A minute?” August questioned as the entire class had parted for the day, aside from Andy, the nymphomaniac stoner. Before he spoke a single word to Luci in this private sanctuary of the nearly abandoned classroom, August moved to Andy and hit the table hard to find him to slowly move his head upwards and acknowledge the sound.

“s**t man...You need to lighten up…” He commented before flashing a longing glance towards Luci that was intercepted when August cleared his throat. 

“Class is dismissed.” He spoke harshly before Andy finally left Luci and August alone as she was nervous to be isolated with him as she was unsure if she would be able to control herself from throwing her arms around him in gratitude. But as she was in close proximity to him for some time, it seemed to be doable-but each second in his presence...this became more and more difficult as her thoughts grew more and more lustful. 

“Thank you…” She uttered as he moved to his desk and kept the surface between them as she played with the tips of her nails upon the other side of him. His eyes rose from the papers set in a perfect mess before him as he parted his lips to speak before allowing his eyes to cascade down her physique. She was confused as he looked at her in this moment as if she had been entirely nude, when she had been in attire that was not exactly known to make a man aroused by eyeing. But it was clear that he was aroused by her at this moment; as she was dressed in sweats and a tee. 

“Don’t get used to it.” He teased as she slowly nodded before pulling her feet towards the door to leave until his voice forced these steps to pause. 

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions…” He uttered as she slowly began to recant the steps she had taken away from him until she returned to her stance upon the other side of the desk. “But how is your mark?” Bringing her fingers over the portion of her thigh where the wound had been, she could feel it raised beneath her thick sweat pants as her eyes looked away for a moment in confusion. “It returns whenever the person who placed it onto you is near...sort of like an allergy…”

“What exactly is it?” She asked as he was surprised at how easily she seemed to digest the fact that he was a lycan and she could have been a victim of his prey. 

“It’s a bite…”

“Does that mean...that I’m gonna...turn into a…” She found it difficult to speak the words aloud as she felt as though she would laugh at them if they were to actually make it to her lips and into the air between them.  

“No.” Luci let out a relieved exhale as he moved across the desk and towards her as he traced her wound for just a moment until she felt her body begin to rise in temperature. As if he had touched each one of her nerves individually in this single brush, she felt nearly satisfied by this passing touch alone. 

“But it does mean that you’re mine….” Her eyes shot up to his immediately as she broke from this sudden spell he seemed to continuously place over her by his touch or his close proximity. 

“Excuse me?”

“I marked you...And that means you will not be anybody else’s...you are reserved for me.” Luci found these words both enraging and arousing as she adored the idea of being wanted as passionately as this, but also wished she would have been able to have prior knowledge of what harboring this mark would mean. But between these two emotions, anger had been the one that managed to win through her expression-although her eyes had remained lustful towards August; two emotions he knew well from her. 

“I am not anyone’s to be ‘reserved’...”

“I simply amplified you...you are a lycan by association...you will have heightened senses to things...your emotions...your wants….” His fingers brushed hers once again as she had understood that he was incredibly in tune to her attraction to him-even as she attempted to fight it. “It will not always be this intense...but it will become unbearable at times…” Her eyes narrowed to him as he now stood on the opposite side of the desk once again, allowing her this space to speak freely. 

“So what am I? Half? Temporary?”

“To any other wolf, you’re marked...to the world, you’re a myth...but to you...I can’t answer that...the mark affects everyone differently. For some, they transition entirely…” He paused as if attempting to speak another portion of truth to her before simply remaining silent.

“Why me?” she inquired. 

“Because I had to find someone I could actually stand to be moonbound to-it’s what they call ‘marking someone’...and of all the girls that night, you were the only one not drenched in other guys’ sweat or drunk dialing an ex…” He now leaned across the table until his hands rested on hers, that she was unaware were pressed onto the surface until this moment. “And I can tell you’re a virgin…” Her eyes widened. “If not the way you smell, the way you shiver when I’m near you-” Her lips came open to speak but ceased before managing to truly form a proper syllable. 

“But I’m not going to force myself onto you or do anything to you...I simply chose you to get my dad off my back...You continue to live your life and I’m just there until I am certain you’re safe...It’s only ethical considering I put you in this position.” She smirked for a second before suddenly receiving a text from Mollie that broke her focus away from August.

“OMFG! PAXTON IS ASKING FOR YOU! PUT SOMETHING SLUTTY ON AND GET HERE….ASAP!” Unaware that August was able to read her vitals, Luci excused herself from the close proximity of August before moving towards the door. 

“Thanks again...about Isabel...and the photos….” He nodded. 

“She’s intimidated by you...I can sense it…and I can see why she should be...” He explained as Luci offered a nervous smile before rushing across campus to her dorm, where she found Mollie pacing outside the door. 

“You are SO lucky to have a friend like me...I knew you wouldn’t change out of those clothes...so I helped-They are in the bathroom...but HURRY!”

“Wait-why is he here?”

“I don’t know? I guess he liked what he saw...now go!” Mollie physically forced Luci towards the bathroom with a harsh push as she crossed the threshold of the bathroom and sighed at the outfit chosen for her. 

“You have got to be kidding me…” Luci rolled her eyes as she stood before an ensemble chosen by her roommate and believed she was better off naked then in this outfit...Because even in the nude she would have been more covered...