Slow Shift by Nazarea Andrews (best ereader for pdf .TXT) 📗

across from Aurora in the library, chemistry books spread out across the table, and he can’t stop staring.

“I thought,” she says, exasperated but crisp, “that you were over your obsession with me.”

Chase gapes at her. “You knew about that?”

Aurora doesn’t even look offended, just vaguely annoyed and impatient. “Of course I knew. Why do you think we haven’t studied together before? You’d get like this and it’d be all—uncomfortable.”

Chase winces. She isn’t wrong, but hearing it put like that—it’s blunt and almost painful.

Even Lucas had heard about Aurora. His infatuation with Aurora was a quiet steady thing in his life, something that was almost comforting, even at the worst points in his life.

“I’m sorry,” he says sincerely, “I never meant to make you uncomfortable.”

She lowers her pencil and for the first time since they sat down, the pretty brilliant girl gives him all of her attention. “You haven’t. But before now, you’d never have been able to focus on studying, and that’s what I need you for.”

Chase flinches. Her expression tightens, then goes as close to soft as he has ever seen from her. “You don’t like me, Chase.”

“No,” he agrees softly, thinking about Tyler, “I haven’t for a long time.”

Aurora smiles then, all quiet satisfaction. “Good. Then we can be friends. And we can finally study together.”

She tugs the books back in front of her and gives Chase an expectant stare. Chase grins, wide and bright and eager. “Yeah. Ok.”

~*~

“It’s weird,” Chase grumbles.

“You’ve been trying to get Aurora to notice you since before we met,” Tyler says, and his voice is dry, his expression quiet and easy.

“But that’s why it’s weird,” Chase persists, “It’s not like she’s noticing me the way I wanted her to. It’s just—a friend. It’s like Ben or Lucas,” he says. He pauses and shakes his head. “Like Brielle, wary but friendly.”

“Who is wary?”

“Me,” Chase says immediately, scooping chili into a bowl for Lucas and then himself. Tyler carries their drinks and his own chili to the table, then studies Chase, his brow furrowed into a frown.

“Why?”

He shrugs. “When am I not? It’s Aurora Black. She has to want something.”

Tyler pauses. There’s a part of him, the insistent part that refuses to stop seeing the changes in Chase, the part that notices and wants to drag the boy close and never let go—that doesn’t want Aurora anywhere near him, that wants to keep Chase away from the girl he’s pined over and that has so completely ignored him.

He forces out the words, “Maybe she just wants a friend. Give her a chance.”

Chase gives him a doubtful look and Tyler sighs. “You can bring her here if you want.”

Tyler has been very vocal about who he doesn’t like since Ryan, even if Chase never brings anyone but Ben to the house. Chase had laughed and teased him about being a stalker and Tyler had shrugged, unbothered, because even if that was an accurate accusation, he’d wear it to keep Chase safe.

“Maybe,” Chase hums, thoughtful, but then his attention is drawn to Lucas, and Tyler relaxes into his presence, totally and completely focused on them, for now.

~*~

He spends a lot of time on his tablet, reading through the lore and pack law that Tyler gave him. There’s a whole world of supernatural, a hierarchy of pack and werewolf politics that makes him anxious and curious at the same time.

It’s frustrating because he has a lot of questions, but Tyler doesn’t always have answers. Sometimes Chase will burst into the house rattling off questions about why the Alpha can heal and not just steal pain and will get a blank-eyed stare in return.

It’s especially encouraging when the blank stare is accompanied by alphas can do that?

He has a whole list of questions for Lucas when he ever wakes up.

“What is it?” Aurora asks, one day when they’re alone at the lunch table. Chase glances at her, that familiar tug of surreal pulling on him.

“Nothing,” he says, sliding the tablet into his bag and giving her a wide grin.

She eats a grape and studies him. “The same kind of nothing that keeps you busy Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday?” she asks archly and he flushes. “I’m not Ben or Brielle, Chase. I have noticed.”

“I have a life,” Chase says dryly.

She gives him an unimpressed look. “So what is it? A secret girlfriend?” Her eyes turn wicked and playful. “A secret boyfriend?”

He thinks about what Tyler told him about Aurora, about how the house is his as much as Lucas and Tyler’s, about how he still hesitates to take Ben there, and his father only goes for their twice-monthly dinners.

He grins at her suddenly, his heart pounding. “You wanna see?”

~*~

The knock on his door startles him because he doesn’t get a lot of visitors on Saturday at ten o’clock at night, and the ones he does get usually don’t require knocking.

He’s considering the wisdom of opening the door in his faded HPD shirt and Spiderman PJ pants above bare feet, when he does open the door and immediately decides this was a mistake.

In the years since the Drakes came to town, he’s managed to keep his distance from them, only spending time with Brielle during school and when Ben made it impossible to avoid her.

Tyler’s been less violent when the Drakes came up, but he still didn’t seem inclined to let them near Chase.

He knows there's more to the story, to the history between the Reid pack and the Drake coven, but he hasn't asked, and now he thinks that’s monumentally stupid because Andre Drake is dressed in black and standing on his doorstep, the Drake emblem—silver pair of snakes twisted together—the only spot of color he wears

“I request a meeting with the Reid Alpha and Pack Shaman in regards to the peace treaty,” he says formally.

Chase blinks. “Uhh.”

Drake stares at him while Chase stands there, milk on his lips from his cereal and no idea what the hell is happening.

“Gimme a sec,” he mutters and flails a bit before he