I wasn’t the type of prey this hunter was used to, but I also couldn’t deny the way my cheeks flushed and I was still choking on nothing but apparently solid air. My blonde hair, blue eyes and full lips were nothing but a mirage painted there by my genetics. They were skin deep, but I knew how to wield their power when I needed it. This guy clearly knew how to wield his own power too. But where I wore my skin like a shield, he wore his like a weapon.
He walked forward in the slow, casual way that said he was in complete control and he rolled up his sleeves before leaning down to knock on my window. Dad lowered it from the master button, opening it an inch as he glared out at the heart-eater.
“Yes?” Dad asked curtly.
“Hey sir, you must be Mr Rivers? I’m here to show your daughter to her dorm.” He tossed me a flirtatious wink like my dad wasn’t looking, even though he’d addressed him and not me. I casually flipped him the finger in response and his hungry smile widened.
Dude had balls, I’d give him that much.
“It’s Dr Rivers,” Dad growled, closing the window again before the guy could reply and he laughed as he backed away from the car.
I unclipped my seatbelt but before I could get out of the car, Dad pressed his hand to my knee to keep me in place. “Don’t take any shit, kiddo. You remember my self-defence lessons against rapists?”
I laughed, shaking my head at him. “I remember. How could I forget? Always go for the balls,” I echoed from his teachings.
“That’s my girl.” He tugged me in for a hug, pressing a kiss against my temple and something in the tightness of his hold made me worry. “Nothing can hurt you here.”
I smiled as I pulled away, my heart twisting as I reached for the door. “Love you Dad.”
“Love you too, kiddo.”
I stepped out onto the gravel, taking my backpack with me as Dad popped the trunk from inside the car. My escort moved around to it promptly, flipping it open and lifting out my big ass suitcase which was covered in worn stickers from every state we’d ever visited.
“You get around,” the guy commented with a smirk, closing the trunk.
I nodded vaguely as I waved goodbye to Dad. He blew me a kiss before he drove away and I swallowed the hard lump in my throat as I was left behind. It had just been the two of us for so long. What was life even going to look like without him in it?
“I’m Blake Bowman, quarterback of the football team.”
I turned to the guy, throwing my pack over one shoulder and masking any pain that might have dared slip into my features.
“That’s pretty typical of you,” I teased and he raised a brow.
“What? Good looks and star player for the Titans?” He pushed a hand into his hair, making his shirt ride up to give me a glimpse of the muscular V tapering beneath his waistband. I dragged my eyes back to his face again as heat licked down my spine. He was a stereotype of every woman’s fantasy. Tall, dark, handsome. And I could have made a pretty solid guess that he was also rich, charming and heartless too.
“No…arrogant and predictable.” I turned my gaze to the building beside us, gazing up at the honest-to-god spires poking out the top of it. Weirdly, there was a classic red Ford Mustang parked up before it with a little plaque saying it had been donated by a former student. This was only the beginning. The map I’d received in my welcome pack showed an entire campus awaiting me. The estate had been built on a huge plot of land between miles and miles of pine forest. There was a lake, a football stadium, a boat house, a state of the art gym and so much more. It wasn’t just a prep school, it was a damn resort. And I couldn’t deny I was pretty keen to see it.
“Arrogant, maybe,” Blake chuckled. “But predictable?” He walked up behind me, laying his hand against my back and sending a shiver through to my core. His rich scent of spiced cologne was too delicious not to notice as he leaned in close to my ear. “You won’t ever be able to predict my next move, Tatum Rivers. I promise you that.”
I lingered there for a long moment, the allure of him drawing me in hard. Expelling a breath, I pulled out of his honey-trap, glancing at him over my shoulder as electricity skittered through my skin. Maybe I’d read him wrong, maybe he wasn’t Everlake’s golden boy. Because right then he looked dangerous, like a hunter who hadn’t eaten for days.
I painted on a smile as a cold breeze wrapped around me. “How do you know my name?”
“Because I was assigned the task of showing you to your dorm, duh. Come on.” The darkness in his eyes faded from existence and I watched as he dragged my suitcase along behind him and led the way down a path to the right.
“Aren’t we going inside?”
“That’s Aspen Halls. For classes only. And as it’s Sunday, it’s locked up tight. If you wanna study on the weekends you can head to the Hemlock Library on westside. Accommodation is on east.”
We rounded Aspen Halls and my pulse elevated at the sight before me. A hill rolled down to the most beautiful lake I’d ever seen. Its glistening blue water stretched out towards a snow-capped mountain in the distance. It was picturesque, breath-taking.
“That’s Tahoma Mountain.” Blake pointed it out. “And right down at the base of it is Sycamore Beach. It’s a decent hangout, especially in the summer.”
“Nice.” I smiled.
Everlake Preparatory was right on the edge of the Chinquapin Mountain Range and though the air was cold, it was also the freshest I’d ever tasted. It was a far cry from the beach town in SoCal I’d been calling home for the past few months. I could practically feel my tan fading already as a lick of Fall hung in the air.
Most of the trees that circled the lake were pines and more gothic buildings poked out from within them, while others sat right on the lake’s edge. I spotted the huge boathouse in the distance and students out kayaking on the still waters. The landscape lured me in, begging me to explore the rising hills of forest either side of the lake and the sun gilded beach at the most northerly point of campus.
“Wanna know the story of the Everlake, Tate?” Blake asked, his brows arching as that dark look entered his eyes again. He spoke to me like he’d known me a lifetime and I couldn’t help but start to feel comfortable around him already. He had the kind of aura that drew people in and made them hang on his every word. I could see what he meant about being unpredictable, there was something purely wild about him which a part of me longed to know.
“Sure,” I agreed as he led me down the hill toward the path that curved to the east of the lake. I hugged my coat tighter around me as a cool wind washed off of the water and brought the scent of reeds and the sound of chattering birds with it.
“There’s a Native American legend from the Kotari tribe who used to inhabit this land. They warned the men who came here and settled around the lake that the Night People who lived in the forest were always watching them.”
“The Night People?” I breathed. That sounded seriously creepy.
“Yeah, they’re dark spirits who come in the night and drag their enemies into the trees never to be seen again.” Blake’s dark green eyes sparkled with the story and a grin pulled at my mouth as he went on. “The Kotari tribe warned them that if they didn’t send sacrifices into the woods once a month, their entire people would be slaughtered.”