I wish the room was darker. I'm wearing one of those outfits that feels like too much but not enough and I'm wondering if people can tell that my fingertips are holding the sequined skirt in place. My cheeks are flushed and my hair is sticking to my neck. The apartment is filled to every corner with people too drunk to stand without leaning against a wall, their bodies are limp like puppets as alcohol pulls the strings. Lucy told me this would be fun and I believed her. But then she disappeared into one of the bedrooms with someone who is definitely not her boyfriend.
A guy across the room is staring at me, looking me over with his eyebrows raised in approval, like it's something I've been asking for, pining for. His teeth are glistening under the tacky neon signs, menacing. He licks his lips and I have to stifle my laughter.
This doesn't make him very happy.
He's walking toward me with such purpose that I feel my feet shuffle backwards. I've never seen eyes so black. Then there are fingers, a fist clenched tightly around my wrist. He pulls me to him, almost violently, my head snapping backwards, struggling to keep up. No one looks at us. No one notices. He's pressing himself into my thigh, backing me into the wall, his lips at my neck. "Something funny?" he whispers, his teeth scraping my collarbone. I'm cemented to the wall now and I can't wrench free from his grip. Panic starts to prickle in my stomach. But I see Ryan walk in the door over his shoulder and I'm hoping that telepathy works as I plead with him to free me from this wolf.
It doesn't work.
Fingers are sliding up my thigh and the thought that Lucy will want this skirt returned with sequins still in tact slips through my head. I struggle to push him away from me and I'm asking him, telling him, begging him to leave me alone, my eyes squeezed shut. Then Ryan's here, shoving this pervert off of me. But as his arm winds back, I open my eyes to see blonde hair, not brown. And then his fist connects, blood gushing from my attacker's nose.
"Let's get you out of here," soft blue eyes meeting my terrified ones. People are staring. Ryan is staring. My knight reaches for my hand and I let him take it, my heart fluttering in relief or fear, I'm not really sure. But I never wanted to be the damsel in distress.