One Night
1

#Chapter 1: A Cruel Dare

Audrey

“…only dating her because of that stupid dare.”

That was Max who I had just heard. My boyfriend. And tonight, on the night of Grayspring Academy’s New Year’s Eve dance, he was admitting to only dating me on a dare.

I stood outside the door, my fingers curling up into tight fists around my skirt—so hard that I thought my nails might rip straight through the lace.

“It’s gone on for so long now. How could you put up with her all this time?”

There was scoff, this time in a familiar voice that I recognized all too well: Linda O’Malley, one of the most popular girls on campus and my biggest bully. Of course it was her who he was complaining to; she had been torturing me for months.

“It was hard. But it’s almost over…”

Silent tears streamed down my cheeks, leaving streaks in my foundation and dark black blotches of mascara on my skin.

Although, everyone at this academy hated me. I was the only human amongst an entire academy full of werewolves, which made me an untrustworthy freak in their eyes. I had come to expect it, had even accepted it at this point.

But not from Max. Not from the sweet boy who supposedly fell head over heels for me three months ago. I had thought that he was… different from the others. That someone had finally seen me for me and didn’t care that I was a human, or that I was a bookworm, or that I was a fashion addict.

Apparently, I had been dead wrong.

“She dresses like a sickly Victorian child. And everyone knows she dyes her hair black, too.” Linda said in that sickly sweet tone of hers.

I frowned, reaching one trembling hand up to touch one of my black curls. Truthfully, Linda was right; I did dye my hair. But I only dyed it because its natural color was a strange silver hue, and werewolves hated silver. I only did it to fit in, and apparently, even that didn’t work.

Max let out a snort. “I haven’t had the heart to tell her that those outfits she makes are downright ugly. So much lace… and the skirts, and the weird patterns… Ugh.”

Linda giggled from around the corner, and I felt like I might be sick. My fingernails finally began to pierce through the lace on my skirt—the skirt that I had been painstakingly working on for a month now in preparation for the New Year’s Eve dance.

It was a stunning piece that had taken me ages, most of it sewn by hand because the lace and beadwork was so delicate. The deep red fabric was my favorite color, and it fell around my ankles in just the right way. I even made a little matching top which connected to the skirt with a silk sash that wrapped around my slim waist and tied in the back.

When I finished it just this morning, barely sleeping so that I could get it done in time, I had been so proud of my work.

Tonight, I was supposed to finally sleep with Max. He had been begging me for weeks now.I had even made my own lingerie, which I now wore beneath my dress.

But now, as I slowly lifted my bleary-eyed gaze toward the mirror that hung on the wall down the hallway, I felt like a clown. A clown in a flouncy dress with dyed hair and mascara running down her face.

Not only a clown, but a goddamn fool.

“I’d never truly be interested in someone like her,” Max’s voice rang out. “Honestly, I thought she was super smart, too; so I’m surprised she actually fell for it.”

“Ah, well. I guess all those books she constantly has her nose in don’t teach her what men actually want.”

My heart clenched in my chest, and at that moment, all I wanted to do was get away. Somewhere safe, somewhere secluded, anywhere but here.

But I was too slow. Before I had a chance to run, the door suddenly creaked open the rest of the way. I whirled around, my heart pounding, to see Max standing in the doorway just as I suspected.

His brown eyes widened into saucers the moment he saw my tear-streaked face. “Audrey!” he gasped. “What are you—”

I didn’t give him a chance to finish. Pulling back my shoulders, I tilted my chin up at him in the most defiant pose I could muster.

“We’re through,” I said.

And before he could even come up with an answer, I spun on my heel, picked up my skirt, and ran away.

I wasn’t sure where I was running to, exactly; just somewhere quiet where I could clear my head. And somewhere that didn’t remind me of the boy who I had been dating for the past three months.

Our whole love story had been a lie, after all. He was probably just counting down the days until he could say that he swindled me into sleeping with him.

Thank the Goddess it never came to that, I thought to myself wryly as I slipped into the Academy’s private bar. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if I slept with him; likely he would tell everyone, use it against me in some way.

Hastily wiping my tears away, I slid onto one of the barstools and ordered a drink—rum and coke. Here, amongst werewolves, the drinking age was only eighteen. I didn’t like alcohol that much, but I needed it tonight.

“Rum and coke, coming up,” the bartender said gruffly, not even bothering to make eye contact with me through the haze of cigar smoke as he began filling my glass with ice.

I sighed softly as I leaned on the bar, sniffling. A moment later, the bartender shoved my glass over to me. I took it with a muttered “Thanks”, and took a sip.

But I wasn’t sitting there for long, however, when I suddenly felt someone bump into me. Before I could steady myself, I lurched forward—and spilled my drink on the sleeve of a man sitting beside me.

“Oh! I’m so sorry,” I breathed, momentarily forgetting my heartbreak. I quickly grabbed a nearby napkin and began dabbing at his jacket without even thinking twice about it. “Here, let me get that for you—”

“Stop.”

The man’s gruff voice, combined with the sudden sensation of his cool fingers around my wrist, left me too breathless to even speak.

It seemed as though I didn’t need to. Because not even a moment after the man’s striking gray eyes met mine from beneath his shock of black hair, a voice rang out across the bar.

“Audrey! There you are. What are you—”

Max’s eyes narrowed as he stormed up to us, a look of jealousy and anger flashing through his features. Before I could even tell him to buzz off, Max was reaching for my wrist to yank me away from the stranger who he clearly thought was his replacement.

But when Max met those gray eyes, he froze, his mouth hanging open.

“S-Sir,” he stammered, taking a step back as he bowed his head in respect. “I didn’t know that was you.”