Somehow, the hunter twisted /under/ Isaac’s arm, even while the grip on his wrist tightened, and pulled the werewolf’s arm up behind his back. He hissed, “Hard to do when you’re holding on to me,” and jerked his wrist free. “I’m coming back for her. Decide whose side you’re on, wolf-boy.” Then he was gone, back down the hallway and out a different set of doors, seeming perfectly casual.
Summer could sense him leaving, the absence that meant his presence weaving through clusters of the brilliant sparks that were people, normal people, ordinary people. She closed her hands, pulling the fire back into herself. It burned inside her wildly, but she forced every bit of control she had ever learned on it, closing it up, closing herself up, until finally it died, smothered.
Her legs still felt wobbly as she went back across the field toward Isaac. A werewolf. He was a werewolf, and he had just saved her life. “I think I owe you my freedom,” she said, when she was near enough to look into his golden eyes.
Isaac bared his canines at her, but his shift took precedence over his emotions. With a twist of his neck and a pop of his bones, he was human again, fur, brow bone, teeth, claws receding, eyes fading back to their soft blue.
“The sooner you make use of it, the better.” It wasn’t his intention to sound like an asshole, but—”Next time I won’t be around to save your ass.”
A pause, and he turned his face away from the scores of students flooding out of the doors and gathering around campus. “What exactly are you?” he asked, still maintaining eye contact with some far away tree.
She should be frightened of him. She should be terrified.
He saved her life.
“I’m an empath. And … something else. I don’t know what. I don’t — know how I do that. Other thing. I don’t know how I can.” Her knees wobbled a little again, and she was a little worried she might collapse. She hoped not. That would be embarrassing.
Rather than touch him, she walked around until she could look in his face again. “Hey. Thank you. Again. A lot. Can I know your name?”