Chapter 27

Riley’s POV

Day four (or five? I’ve lost track)—and my life had turned into a non-stop loop of cafeteria mystery meat, textbooks, algebra, and my favorite sport: verbal fencing with Noah. Our banter was legendary. We could verbally joust over whether pineapple belonged on pizza for an hour, neither of us caring about the answer but relishing every snarky barb. It was addictively fun…and infuriatingly distracting, because apparently my heart had decided it liked him more than it logically should. We’d known each other for a week. Which meant I was either head-over-heels in puppy-love or a bona fide glutton for punishment.

I shoved that thought in a mental sock drawer and focused on feeding my body enough calories to keep the Wolf—yes, my personal emotional Cuisinart—calm. Staying near Noah was the only way to avoid spontaneous fur sprouting and fang flashing mid-lecture. It was working…until Wednesday.

We were crossing campus toward my last class, arguing abo