Mated to a Rogue

Chapter 6

-Dakota POV- 

A few days have passed and though I have calmed down, I still don’t understand what is going on. Austin is in three of my classes now and he will just not stop staring at me. Though I am always nervous when I feel his presence, it is now starting to annoy me. I mean, is there something on my face he doesn’t like? 

It can’t be that he just miraculously fell in love with me after I bumped into him. This is not a K-drama and I am obviously not his type. A guy like that goes for a bad girl or one of the popular ones. Not... me.  

As I think this, I look around the table I am sitting on with my D&D party. It is Dungeons and Dragons night. Next to me sits Bryan who has messy brown unkempt hair and I swear he skipped a shower or two cause he is smelling right now. He is slobby-looking and is a bit on the fluffy side. Next to him sits Fabiana, a tall skinny girl who always wears her hair in a ponytail and always wears accessories of animes she is obsessed about. Then there is Titan—I really think he named himself— he is tall and skinny with curly brown hair. He has a huge ego and thinks he knows everything. And lastly, we have Julio, a skinny guy and the kind that is cute looking but doesn’t know he is cute and his self-confidence is non-existing but he is really sweet and nice. 

(Yep, I am definitely not Austins type because these are my people... I mean besides Natalie and the others.) 

“It’s your turn, Dakota. Will you jump or will you take another route?” Titan asks. 

“Well after what happened to Bryan-” I am interrupted. 

“Bartholomae! My character's name is Bartholomae.” Bryan says looking a bit irritated. 

I sigh. “After what happened to Bartholomae, I am not jumping... I don’t want to die a horrible death."

“I am not dead... I jumped down in the cave thinking I would find a way to the other side but fell into a web. I am just ensnared by the Arachne demon.” 

“Yea... and what do you think it’s going to happen next?” I say mockingly. 

His eyes widen. “Oh no... oh no... you guys have to save me.” He pleads to the others. 

“I am taking the long way to the other side.” I say ignoring him because that is stupid. Anyone who tries to save him is just going to die with him. 

“I’ll try!” Fabiana eagerly says. 

“I want to jump in and quietly release him.” She says. 

“Roll your D twenty for stealth.” Titan says. 

She rolls her dice and it lands on a one. 

She gasps. 

“You fell and missed the spider webs. You’ve fallen to your death.” Titan says. 

“NOOOOO!” She says dramatically. 

“Knew it.” I say. 

“Yep, saw that coming.” Julio says. 

“And with that, we conclude the game for tonight.” Titan says closing his D&D book. 

“Dang it Dakota, you are the elf ranger. It is you who would be able to make that jump. Your stealth is the best.” Bryan says. 

“Na. You were the i***t—who being a wizard—decided to jump.” I say mockingly. 

“UH!” He's frustrated.

I giggle. 

I have been playing this game with most of them since high school. Fabiana is actually new to the group but she is nice. We were lucky that we all came to the same college, now we get to have these game nights. 

I wave at them. “See you guys.” 

“Bye!” They all say. 

I head out and it is already night. That was Titan’s apartment that is just about five to six minutes from my place. The game doesn’t usually run this late so I am a bit on edge having to walk in the dark by myself. 

I walk on the sidewalk. There are a few people here and there and the streets are well illuminated but that doesn’t take away the fear that I am starting to get. I can feel someone watching me again. This s**t has been going on the whole damn week. 

I quicken my pace but then I have the urge to look back. When I do, I panic when I see a tall shadow figure quickly hide in the corner. 

“f**k this.” 

I take off running. As I run in the direction back to my dorm, I have to take the street where most of the sorority houses are at. The problem with this is that unless there is a party, there won’t be anyone walking around.  

I continue to run as fast as I can and even though I really don’t know if someone is chasing me, I decide to take a shortcut. I run to the back of one of the houses with the intent of climbing the fence and cutting my time by a minute but it is dark and as I run, I don’t notice the damn six feet deep and twenty feet long pool. 

I go in with a splash and it shocks me to my senses. I swim up and quickly get out but now I feel dumb and freezing. 

I groan feeling angry at myself.  

“Damn it!” 

I start squeezing the water out of my clothes and that is when I start to hear rustling in the bushes. 

I am now frozen in place, watching the bush as if a horrible creature was going to come out of it, and to my horror, it happens. But it is not horrible, it is beautiful. A wolf comes out. I am now shocked and confused.  

First of all, what is a wolf doing on campus, secondly why is it so big, and third... why the hell am I not running?! 

The beautiful black-furred wolf slowly walks towards me and stops just inches away. It looks up at me and gives me a little grunt. 

I have no idea what it wants from me but I find myself slowly moving my hand towards him or her. Though I feel like it’s a boy. 

He doesn’t flinch and allows me to caress his head. He actually closes his eyes and looks as if he is enjoying it. 

I take a good look at him and I have never seen a wolf this big in my life.  

(Is this a different species?) 

“You are beautiful but... why are you so big?” I mumble and he quickly opens his eyes and looks at me. 

He suddenly looks to the side of the house as if he heard something and then turns around and runs away. 

I feel disappointed. It almost felt like it wasn’t even real. Who is going to believe that I saw a wolf just as big as me? 

What was even stranger was how comfortable I felt. I should have been crying and begging the wolf not to eat me but no, like a crazy lady, I was petting it.  

(Who even does that?!) 

“Hey, are you okay?” A guy asks now coming from the side of the house. 

“Oh, yea... I got lost in the dark and somehow ended up in your pool.” 

I give him an awkward smile and quickly leave. 

In no time I make it back to the dorm just to have Natalie and Nathan laugh at me. 

“Damn, that pool was really stupid to make you fall in it.” Nathan says. 

“Oh shut up.” 

I narrow my eyes at him as I see him and Natalie cuddling in her bed, watching a show on her laptop. 

"You know, you basically live with us." I say to Nathan. 

He smiles. "Now you realize this?" 

"You ass!" I throw a pillow at him. "You purposely crept in slowly, didn't you?" 

He starts laughing and throws the pillow back. 

I go to my drawers and look at my clothes, debating if I really want to go take a shower in the middle of the night in the girl's public shower. I am still spooked so I decide to wait till morning. 

I got to the bathroom, change into dry clothes and jump on my bed. 

"Good night." I say to them. 

"Good night." They say and I quickly fall asleep. 

The next day I wake up late, missing my first class. I take a quick shower, get ready as fast as I can and run to my next class. I get there just in time but now I see my reflection on the window and almost gasp. I didn't brush my hair so it is frizzy as hell, I still have my glasses on though I don't really care about that. I look down and see that I put on my Pj tie-dye top by mistake and my socks don't match colors.  

"Shit." I whisper. 

The only normal things I have on are my short jeans and my sneakers. 

I groan as I comb my hair with my fingers and really hope that Austin decides to miss class today. I am scared of the guy but I still find him hot and though I know he still won't look at me that way, I still don't want him to think I am a slob. 

My prayers seem to be answered because the class starts and I don't see him walk in at all. With a smile and thinking that my luck is changing, I look around. My smile falls when I notice that he was already here this whole time in the back and of course, he stares at me. I just didn't see him when I rushed in. 

I turn around trying to act normal but inwardly, I groan.  

The teacher starts talking. "In our previous classes, we learned about what is ecology. Now we will start studying specific animals and their population, community, and ecosystem."

(This reminds me of that wolf yesterday. By no means was that wolf normal. Maybe it was juiced up with something. Maybe it's from a lab and it escaped. God, I hope not. I really hope no one is experimenting on innocent wolves.) 

I hate people that do that kind of stuff. It is so uncalled for. Many theories start to run through my head. 

"Now choose a partner." The teacher says. 

"Eh?" I look around confused and see everyone paring up. 

I groan. I wasn't paying attention. I lift my hand up. 

"Choose a partner for what?" I shamefully ask. 

The teacher narrows his eyes at me. "For the project I just mentioned." 

I groan again. He is not going to make it easy but before I can ask again, someone plops on the chair next to me and scoots over. 

I close my eyes because I have a bad feeling. I slowly peek next to me and Austin sits there. 

I actually put my finger on my wrist to check if I have a pulse... I am still alive somehow.