Can't Love a Werewolf, Without Getting Fleas.

SHAYLEE’S POV.

I couldn’t hold back the darkness any longer as I reached up with my hand. What I was reaching up for? I don’t even know. I was just reaching up for something. Anyone.

It felt so cold fourteen feet under….

But the last thing I caught glimpse of were weary brown eyes, filled with concern. The eyes seemed to grow a body, as they got closer and they reached out for me.

But I was gone.

Images of my wolf coming through the glass window of the gym, and diving in the water to save me filled my mind.

But that was nearly impossible. We weren’t in the woods anymore.

His soft fur roamed my mind, as I was lost in my own subconscious thoughts.

“GET ME A TOWEL!” I heard a deep voice scream within my thoughts. I flinched.

I wanted to reach out and sooth the voice. It was shaking with fear.

Suddenly I felt like I was being ice cream sandwiched between two hard surfaces. I choked. It felt like they were squishing my lungs.

Suddenly pain ached my chest and my throat burned.

My eyes fluttered open, slowly. I smiled up to see those brown eyes. There was nothing but those gorgeous brown eyes, as soft and as rich as my wolf’s fur.

They were comforting, they felt like home; like belonging…and suddenly the ache in my chest just seemed less painful.

“Shaylee?” The face that belonged to those eyes spoke, and I was snapped out of my trance.

Colton Sparks was leaning over me, scanning my face for any signs of damage.

“I’m Alive.” I coughed out, wondering why he cared so much.

“Thank God!” Leslie screamed beside me.

“You gave me a heart attack!”

“Yeah Shaylee. Don’t go doing that ever again!” Violet scolded beside her. I squinted up at their two figures, and smiled half-heartedly.

“Sorry.” I managed.

My leg hurt like a bitch, and when I looked down my eyes bulged out of my head.

Colton was focusing on my leg, and applying pressure to it.

Ok…so maybe he was like a paramedic in disguise, and he was only doing his job. There’s no way he’s doing this just to help me. That is not Colton Sparks.

The coach came running in the room then, followed by a skimpy looking volleyball coach, who was also a teacher here.

“Oh my.” He exclaimed when he looked at my leg.

“Well, Ms. Turner, I hope you’ve learned your lesson. You should get that checked out in the future, before you start doing physical activities you’re obviously not ready for.”

Tell me he didn’t just say that? After I almost drowned, while he was making out with little Miss Short Skirt over there, oh boy was he going to-.

Suddenly Colton growled—yes, I mean something coarse and ferocious came from the back of his throat as he looked up at our coach.

“Obviously you weren’t doing your job. So excuse Shaylee—who is in fact better at diving than you are—and I while I take her to the nurses. But don’t worry. I assume you already had a plan to get some ass out of Ms. Hoffman anyways.”

The coach’s mouth hung open, as Colton scooped me up bridal style, now having the towel tied tight around my leg.

His face grew red and angered fast. “MR. SPARKS!” He bit, balling his fists up.

“Whatever. Write me up, I dare you. I’ll just show them Shaylee’s leg, and tons of eye-witnesses to prove that you weren’t here when a student’s life was in danger.” Colton snapped.

The coach then bit back some snide comment he had in mind, and stormed out of the gym with ‘Miss Hoffman’s’ high heeled-self running behind him.

Colton proceeded to walk off with me, to the doors and I looked to Leslie for pleading help. Surely she wasn’t going to have me be stuck not only in Colton’s strong arms, but also in a room with him while I get my leg fixed up. She just smirked back, while Violet gave a knowing wave, and a wink. I blushed immediately.

I looked around then for Brooke or Blake—who I know would never let Colton take me anywhere. But suddenly they were nowhere to be found.

Odd….

Colton led me out of the gym, and we were now walking down the quiet hallways of the school.

I watched as the water beaded and rolled down his smooth tan skin. His biceps flexing as he carried me. They were probably just short of the size of my head. This boy was built. And I mean, in all the right places.

WHOA BUDDY! DID I REALLY JUST THINK THAT??

I gulped. I must have hit my head as well.

It became silent…. and awkward. I searched my mind for anything bright to say, to start a conversation.

“Ur..Uhm… do you know who pulled me out of the pool?” I asked, looking up only to find myself staring at his strong jaw line. His head was facing forward.

“Me.” He answered, simply.

“Oh… well, thank you.” I stated dumbly.

He didn’t reply.

So he had saved me. It made me wonder… who was this guy? He acts like he hates my guts, and detests the sight of me, and yet he saves me from near death?

He led me into the front office, and the girl at the front desk gasped, her eyes bulging at my leg.

She pointed to a door with a smiling heart on it that was exercising on a treadmill.

“Go on in.” She mumbled.

Colton didn’t respond, he just opened the door with his left hand.

We went in and a busy little woman with strawberry blonde hair, curled in a style you’d most likely see in the 80’s jumped. She had on a simple white dress, that wasn’t trashy at all, but very school appropriate. Finally someone with some sense!

“Oh my, this one’s a woozy.” She patted an open table, covered with some sort of squishy material that they use in doctor offices.

Colton brought me over and gently laid me on the table, his eyes locking with mine for a brief second. Enough to make my heart skip a beat, and enough to make him break it not a moment later.

“How’d this happen?” The lady asked, stretching her body to the cabinets that were far out of her reach.

She couldn’t grab a box of gauze, and Colton got up, towering over the small nurse, and grabbed them for her.

“Thank you ‘Mr. Sparks. It’s been a while since your last visit—I’m sure your due for another injury soon. Did you ever fix that bi-.”

“I did.” He interrupted her, and she gave him a weird stare before looking at me and back at him.

She nodded once and began gathering things together.

“So, tell me. How’d this happen?” I whirled in my head for an answer besides the fact that I was dumbly roaming the woods and got bitten by a wolf.

I could feel Colton’s hard stare on me. “Neighbor’s dog. He bit me.”

She frowned. “Well that’s not good, now is it?”

I nodded a ‘no’.

“I’m afraid this might need stitches.” She said after cleaning up the wound and blood, and then proceeding to examine it.

I sighed slowly. I was afraid of that…

“Well, I’ll just go make a call to a local doctor’s office and they’ll be able to take you right after school.” She beamed at me, before excusing herself.

I groaned inwardly as I was left alone with Mr. Mute boy in the corner over there, again.

Great.

I began scrambling my brain again for something else to talk about when he surprisingly spoke up. “A neighborhood dog, huh?”

I fidgeted a little; uncomfortable with the way he was smirking all of a sudden, like he could see right through the lie.

“Uh yeah.”

“Must have been a pretty big dog.” He was still smirking. What was so dang funny??

I could feel his eyes on my face, and suddenly he became some lie detector I couldn’t bare to lie to.

“Ok, no. It was a wolf. But still, I got saved by another wolf—oddly enough—and I’m perfectly ok now, so please, PLEASE don’t tell the nurse.”

I knew the nurse would make me get a rabies shot, but I knew that if that wolf had rabies, I would have already been affected by now.

He nodded once. “I wasn’t going to, I just thought your lie was pretty stupid.”

I scoffed. “Like you could have done any better? Besides, I was under pressure.” I defended, pouting, and he laughed.

The sound filled my ears and almost made me smile. It was rough and deep and dream-like.

Oh, lord. Here I go again. Maybe I’ll get the nurse to check out my head too…

It almost became silent again, but he broke it once more. “You said another wolf saved you?” He asked, crossing his arms against his chest, which made his pecks flex, and my mouth start to water slightly.

I tore my eyes away from his muscles to look him in his brown eyes. He looked so much like he did when he was little… yet so different...

“Yeah. I know this may sound weird, but I kind of feel like he’s a guardian angel or something.”

He smiled and lowered his head out of my view.

“I’m serious!” I defended. Great, we were just now starting to talk, and he thinks I’m crazy.

“He always comes to my rescue when I need him the most.” It was the truth. He was sort of like a guardian angel, now that I think of it.

Colton’s face was still hidden from my view by his curtain of black hair and I rolled my eyes, knowing he was probably chuckling at me right now.

I didn’t bother; I just lay back on the table and sighed heavily. He was so frustrating!

“On the diving board, before you fell, you seemed to be staring off in space…” He trailed off, as he looked back up at me. I looked over to see his eyebrows furrowing slightly like he was thinking.

“Oh. Uhm, yeah.” I shuddered at the memory, hoping he wouldn’t notice. These memories were secrets, ones I planned to keep.

“The blood just reminded me of something that wasn’t so pleasant from my past.”

He suddenly perked up a little.

He got closer and studied my face. Uh…. What exactly are you supposed to do when someone’s staring at you? I didn’t know. I just blushed horribly.

“Like what?” His voice was so soft, and curious that I thought he was going to reach out and cup my face in his hands.

But the nurse barged back into the room, and he was back at his seat in a matter of milliseconds.

So fast… I wondered if he had ever gotten up in the first place.

She put more gauze on my wound, and taped it to keep it protected and told me I could leave. She signed me up for an appointment right after school, and dismissed us with a note.

I limped out of the room, trying my best not to let people realize how much it hurt.

“You sure you wanna walk?” Colton asked beside me. I nodded. I wasn’t about to let him carry me again. I already blushed enough in one day to last me a lifetime.

“Well, do you have a ride after school to go to the doctor’s office?”

Great, I spoke to soon.

My cheeks flustered as I realize he had just offered me a ride. “Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll just ask Blake or Brooke.”

“NO!” I jumped a little at his eagerness. But he re-composed himself. “I just don’t think that’s a good idea…you see, they get squeamish around blood.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Alright, then I’ll ask Leslie or Violet to give me one.”

“K.” He answered, and we walked back to the gym together. The bell had already rung, so no one from our class would be there anymore.

I changed back into my normal clothes, and pinned up my damp hair. I frowned, realizing I had no time to shower.

Not that I really minded the smell of salt water and the beach.

I was mortified to see Colton waiting outside the locker room for me.

“You don’t have to be my body guard you know.” I scolded, knowing he was acting like an older brother or something.

“I know. I just thought if you were stupid enough to put a band-aid over a serious cut like that, you might be prone to more careless injuries.”

I gapped at him. He did not just say that!

“Gee, thanks.” I answered sarcastically.

He nudged me in the arm playfully and I suddenly felt warm inside. Who knew he could be so friendly?

So there we were, walking in the hallway, on our way to fourth period together.

“You know. I’m thinking that I should have just made that appointment right away.” I said, knowing how boring the next hour of my life was going to be.

He laughed at this, and it made me smile. I liked making him laugh…

“Yeah. I’m not fond of Ms. Hardass either.” I busted out laughing.

“That’s a good nickname for her.” I told him, knowing how her butt was bigger than the rest of her body.

We both chuckled a little, before approaching and opening the door.

“Ms. Hardass” got all upset that we were late until I showed her my leg and the nurse’s note. She frowned at it, and told us to take a seat.

Colton sat right beside me, and I cocked an eyebrow at him. He seemed to notice this.

“What?” He whispered as the teacher yelled loudly over the sleepy students about her latest lecture on rainforest animals.

“I thought you were getting a seat change?” I smirked at him, when I could have sworn I saw him blush a little.

But it couldn’t be. Nothing fazed the one and only ‘Colton Sparks’.

“Well, not anymore.”

I smiled a little at this. “So I’m not a horrible person who has some deathly disease like the Bubonic Plague, that is highly contagious?” I spoke, overdramatically, cupping my hand over my heart.

He rolled his eyes.

“Your Alright.” He said, giving me a genuine smile, and I had never seen something so full of happiness from him since… well, my childhood.C