Chapter 228: Leaking Pheromones
On the quiet lawn behind the university library, Jessica sat frozen on the wooden bench. Her eyes were glued to the screen of her new mobile phone, which was currently vibrating in her palm.
An unknown number was flashing across the screen, and her heart was thumping so loudly against her ribs she was certain the students walking past could hear it.
Every single instinct inside her told her to throw the device into the bushes. After a whole month of living like a ghost in deep hiding, a random phone call was the last thing she needed.
Her thumb hovered precariously over the red decline icon, shaking with terror. What if it was exactly the kind of call she did not want to receive? But what if it was Kira?
Finally, she took a deep, shaky breath, and swiped the green accept icon instead, and pressed the phone to her ear, squeezing her eyes shut and bracing herself for the worst.
"Hello?" A deep, frantic male voice came through from the other end.
Jessica stayed silent, biting her lower lip, and straining as she tried to figure out whose voice it was. It sounded commanding and confident. She turned it over in her mind, searching, but it belonged to no one she knew.
"Hello," the man called again, urgency thick in his tone. "Am I speaking with Jessica Ashfang?"
"Who is this?" Jessica whispered back, her voice barely a thread. She instinctively pulled her oversized hood lower over her face, scanning the lawn nervously.
"This is Kira’s brother."
Jessica blinked, thoroughly confused. "Kira doesn’t have a brother," she said flatly. "Nice try, mate. Please come up with a better lie next time."
"But she actually does," Braxton rushed out, his voice laced with desperation. "You just didn’t know anything about it. Look, I know it’s not going to be easy to convince you right now, especially since you’re not hearing Kira’s actual voice on the line."
"You’re right about that," Jessica said, suspicion sharpening her voice. "So why isn’t she speaking to me herself?"
"Because she just passed out," Braxton said. "She’s being taken to the clinic as we speak."
Jessica let out a small, disbelieving chuckle, even as tears sprang to her eyes. She felt like someone was playing a cruel, sick prank on her.
"How very convenient," she said bitterly. "Get off my phone, whoever you are."
"Wait! Don’t hang up!" Braxton said quickly. "I’ll send you a live video message right now to prove it. And if you still don’t believe me after that, then please, just keep your line switched on, so that she can speak to you herself the moment she comes round. Or if you have a change of heart, call this number back whenever you like, day or night. I’ll answer. I promise you that."
"Jessica!"
A booming, tragically familiar voice suddenly shouted from somewhere across the lawn.
Jessica’s head snapped up. And there, across the green, stood Kai, looking frantically around in every direction, his eyes scanning the students milling about.
Her heart lurched straight into her stomach. She pulled the phone away from her ear and ended the call without another word, shoving the device deep into her sweatshirt pocket. She sat frozen on the bench, her breath caught in her throat.
Inside her, her wolf, Ginger, whined and stirred, straining toward the familiar presence, desperate for their mate.
Mate! He’s here! Go to him! Ginger howled.
Jessica watched as Kai glanced down at his phone, then up again, searching. And in that moment she realised, with a cold jolt of horror, what she’d done.
She scrambled to her feet, cursing herself silently. In her rush to come to campus, she’d forgotten to take her scent suppressant today. Of all days.
And now her wolf, thrilled at the nearness of Kai, was leaking pheromones into the air, pheromones that would draw him straight to her like a beacon in the dark.
Across the lawn, Kai’s eyes raked over the crowd of students drifting past. He could smell her. He knew, deep in his bones, that she was here, somewhere close. But he couldn’t see her. There were no familiar ginger curls anywhere in the sea of faces.
"Jessica," he muttered. "Where are you?"
He shut his eyes and forced himself to calm down, to settle the beast inside him that had gone half feral at the first hint of her scent. He breathed slowly, urging the creature to focus, to lock onto that one thread and follow it.
And gradually, the other scents fell away, until there was only hers, sweet and unmistakable, all around him. And it was coming from one particular direction.
His eyes flew open and snapped toward it.
There. A blonde girl, her hair hidden beneath a pulled-up hoodie was rising from a bench and walking quickly away.
He focused on her, every instinct screaming, and broke into a run.
"Jessica!" he yelled again.
The girl turned, saw him sprinting toward her, and her whole body tensed. She quickened her pace at once, then broke into a flat run.
It’s truly her, Kai thought, his heart slamming. It’s Jessica. I found her.
He ran faster.
But Jessica darted straight into the thick crowd of students pouring out of the library, weaving through them, and disappeared inside the building.
Kai kept his eyes pinned on her, shoving past students who shouted curses and complaints after him. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about any of it. He kept chasing.
He sprinted up the concrete steps and burst into the quiet, high-ceilinged lobby and scanned the room just in time to watch Jessica’s dark hoodie disappear around a sharp corner leading toward the back stairwells.
"Damn it!" Kai hissed out loud and slowed for half a second, shoving his fingers back through his hair and letting out a sharp, frustrated breath.
Jessica raced up the library stairs, flight after flight, her lungs burning, praying with everything in her that Kai wouldn’t find her.
She didn’t dare look back at first. When at last she glanced down over the railing, she saw no sign of him. She’d lost him. She’d actually lost him.
Relief flooded her, and she slowed her frantic pace, gasping for breath as she climbed the last of the stairs. She turned a corner, still catching her breath.
And bumped straight into someone.
She stepped back. And froze.
Kai stood there, directly in front of her, his chest heaving, his eyes fixed on her face.
