Untamed (Rejected Mate Academy #1) - E. M. Moore Page 0,24

I plan on doing is standing and wiping the grass off my ass. “We’re mates, right? It’s not as if seeing me like this is wrong.”

“What we just did was wrong,” he replies.

I flinch.

I have to admit, that one fucking stung. My first kiss. My first anything with a guy. Of course it was wrong because it involved me. I swallow the hurt threatening to pour out.

When you’re a wolf, you can do whatever you want until you’re mated with someone. Then, you’re stuck with that one person. In school, I’m well aware that my wolfpeers had relationships. Like with Nathan’s and Mia’s mates, it was fine for them to have a relationship. You’re just supposed to forget about them when fate pairs you with someone else. Lots of times, you end up with the person you were with, but not always. I envied my wolfpeers for that bit of freedom, that rite of passage of being a teenager. I’ve never made out with a guy, and the first time I do is with my mate who doesn’t want me.

The area behind my eyes heats, tears pricking. I’ve been so good throughout all of this, but I’m at my limit.

“What are you even doing outside the school?”

My hackles rise, and I get to my feet. “We’re allowed to go for a run.”

“Outside the perimeter?” he asks, still pointedly not looking at me.

I know because I can’t take my eyes off him. His chiseled chest and abdomen muscles. His throat working as he tries not to peer my way. The sharp line of his jaw and cheeks. His mussed hair from just shifting is sexy as hell. “I didn’t know I was outside the perimeter.”

“You are,” he barks. “You’re damn near Brixton.”

My eyes widen. I hadn’t realized Brixton and Greystone were that close. “You’re attending there?” I ask even though it should be a no-brainer. It’s where Lunar shifters go for post-primary education. I’d be attending there if I wasn’t stuck at Greystone.

His shoulders tighten. “Yes, partly. Most of my training is with my father, though.”

My wolf whimpers, and a bit of it escapes my human form and fills the air between us. Finally, he turns toward me. He lets his stare drop, taking in my human form briefly before meeting my eyes and not letting them budge. All I needed was that short perusal for my body to heat again and then I say the dumbest thing anyone has ever said in the history of humans and shifters. Hell, I’ll even throw in aliens, but it’s not fair that I’m internally freaking out, and he’s ignoring me. “That was my first kiss.”

Jonah blinks. His lips part, and instant embarrassment hits my cheeks. For a split second, sorrow bleeds from the green specks in his eyes until they harden up again. “It shouldn’t have happened. We can’t control ourselves in our wolf form.”

“Shouldn’t have happened?” It comes out far more hurt than I want. “Our wolves are our truest form.”

“Says the girl who only shifted for the first time a couple of days ago.”

“You only shifted for the first time a couple of days ago, too, asshole,” I snap. His eyes flash. But I’m not backing down from him. I did enough hiding and retreating at Lunar, I’m not going to do it here, too. And especially not in front of my mate. I take a step toward him. “Besides, you think I’m beautiful.”

He eyes me warily. “She told you that?”

Everything in me tells me to go to him, but I restrain myself much better in my human form. “I’m sure she’ll share my answers with you.”

“She already has. Does ‘don’t be a dick’ ring a bell?”

I chuckle. “Looks like you didn’t take my advice.”

His brows furrow as he takes me in. “I’m not a dick.”

“Really? You just told your mate, that her first kiss shouldn’t have happened. That doesn’t ring dickish to you?”

He bridges the gap between us. “What should I have said? That I wanted to take it further? That I wanted to sink my cock into your wet heat so badly that I’m still fucking hard as a rock?” Breath whooshes from my lungs, but he ruins it in the next second. “To get your hopes up when it’s a real possibility that nothing like that can ever happen between us?”

My wolf howls inside my chest. It’s so loud that it shakes me to my core. My legs almost give out from underneath me, but I don’t let