The Devil teaches women what they are – or they would teach it to the Devil if he did not know.
-Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly

"I can't believe you named it Demon." Xavier says.

"Ah, so that's what's bothering you." I grin at him. "It's a cute wolf. Just like you. Devil, Demon. Close enough. I see the resemblance." 

"I am not cute." He growls, much to his namesake, now offended by my words.

"Sure you aren't." I giggle into my Blue Moon ice cream, Xavier raises a eyebrow at me from behind his plain- -and boring- -vanilla waffle cone.  "Last time we did something with ice cream," I elbow Jules. "Remember." He frowns before chuckling slightly, cheeks tinting pink.

"What happened?" Jessamine asks, her brown eyes glancing between us. "Is this when you and Nolan..." She trails off.

I give her a incredulous look. "You'll have to go into more detail if you want a answer. I've done a lot of shit with Nolan."

"At the beach." She specifies.

Instantly I'm giggling, nodding at her. "Yeah, that was fun."

Julian snorts, being the one that goes on adventures me and Nolan, and sends me a glare. "That wasn't fun."

I wiggle my eyebrows, remembering how the guy was flirting with him and I got to watch how uncomfortable the not so obviously straight Julian was. "Was for me."

His glare becomes twice as deadly. "You're not the one who got punched by a life guard because he thought he caught me flirting with his boyfriend. That came onto me!" His voice cracks.

"That's because I'm smarter than to flirt with gay people. Also, I know how to avoid punches." I snicker. "And Nol is smart enough to know when to run."

"I'm smart enough!" Julian snaps.

"I'm sure you are honey," I nod sympathetically as I pat his head. "I'm sure you are."

"Nice joke," Xavier snaps back, grabbing my hips and pulling me out of the way of Julian's swinging hand and straight onto his lap. "Who's Nolan?"

I grin at this. "He's awesome, only here during summer and some odd weekends bit it's enough." I pause, realizing how tense he grew under me. "He's a super gay, goofy guy I love to hang out with and we always get into trouble together. He's a Thatch, their cousin." I motion to my best friends.

"Oh." Xavier mumbles.

I snicker lightly, turning my face towards his. "Jealous Wolf?"

With a smirk and a his sharp teeth exposed he glances down at my chest in a completely observational way. "Read your own damn shirt Carter. I'm not jealous, that's wanting something  that is someone else's. As far as I'm concerned I'm territorial. You said it yourself when that guy stopped you at the food court, you belong to the Devil." He leans over me. "So you're mine."

Leaning back he grins at me smugly, continuing to eat his ice cream. Well...lick it. I have to look away due to the flickering sight of his tongue.

Realizing I'm still sitting on his lap without complaint, my legs over his thighs with his arms around me and hand loosely clamped onto the outside of my hips while I hold my ice cream -Jessamine is currently gawking at Demon with him in her lap.

"Am I light?" I ask, clearly surprising him with the question.

I have been on him for a while and he's always picking me up- -along with everyone else- -and moving me around.

And never have I cared about my weight, as long as I was healthy and could lift things I needed too and didn't feel uncontrollably bloated I was okay.

I've always been skinny.

But I have curves, so I have no clue about light. 

Licking across his lips Xavier nods, "Yeah, you're pretty damn light." He says, looking as if he's surprised he has to say it. "Why?" 

I shrug, shoving another mouthful of Blue Moon in my mouth. "Just plain old curiosity."

He mimics me by shrugging. 

Soon we take to watching our friends act like idiots while playing with Demon before finishing our ice cream, soon they get too rough with him and throw him too far so I stand.

Before I can do anything a yawn over takes me and I stretch only to have two large thumbs land in the curve of my stomach. I shiver as his palms press into me.

"Why dragons?" Asks the Devil, probably noticing there's more to it than jewelry. He's well aware what he's doing to me while examining my belly button piercing and the red swishing tail. "They're all over you and you draw them a lot on the back of photos." He says. "I won't even mention that sexy red scaled tongue piercing." 

I narrow my eyes at him, despite the growing blush on my cheeks. "But you just did."

"Nah," He grins. "I didn't, must'a been you. Seriously, why dragons?"

Seeing my father's face I cross my arms, he traces distracting patterns into my bare skin so I give Xavier a pointed look. "Why biting?"

He grumbles darkly, leaning towards me until his forehead is against my abdomen. "I guess we'll never know." He pulls away, gently moving me back as he stands. 

"I got the trash," I say with a small smile. "You get Demon." At this he scowls and gives me a dark look -which I choose to ignore. I choose to skip past him to the trash bins -my home.

When I turn around I see my 6'5, black haired, glaring Wolf boy standing in front of my friends with a solemn expression while holding a equally as giant glittery black plush wolf with even brighter blue eyes. 

They don't go together at all but look adorable next to each other all the same.

My fur babies.

I snicker at the thought, scrambling to point my camera out to him. He looks up as if sensing my gaze, hell with his wild animal ways I wouldn't be surprised if he could see me a mile away, grinning slightly as I take the photo -then he realizes what I'm doing and I get to capture his sexy glare and smirk before pocketing my phone again.

Suddenly a hand curls around my wrist making me jerk back and out of the obviously male hand.

The fear in me pauses and reverts back into confusion as I find my desk partner in chemistry looking down at me with something close to awe. 

"Aspen." I ask, waving my hand in front of his face. "You good man?"

"Emma?" He chokes, eyes flying wide as saucers. "Uh, I'm just -I'm just saying hi."

"Yeah?" I frown, raising a eyebrow at him in question. "Oh, hi."

Suddenly Aspen looks up and freezes in place. "The Devil's glaring at me." He says, fear lining his tone. 

Smiling softly I meet his boring pale green eyes, they don't have the spark Cal's does or even the  mischievous glint in Julian's, definitely not the sparkles in Xavier's eyes -or the heavy coldness he often has when he looks away from me.

I flinch slightly, and I don't know why.

"H-he does that." I step back, and I can see Xavier tense up out of the corner of my eyes. "What's up?"

"Oh, oh." Aspen says, reading my shirt. "You're with him." I nod, taking another step back. "He's dangerous."

Stepping back further when he steps towards me I quickly shake my head, I feel so intimidated right now and I have no clue. "He's the safest place I could be." I protest.

"You seriously should go," Aspen says, taking another step towards me. His eyes drop down my figure, moving over me in a much too sensual way. "You can come with me. I'm sure Caleb won't mind." 

Caleb, as in the sleaziest guy in school, baseball jock that loves to harass girls.

I forgot they were best friends.

"You look so different, I didn't recognize you." He continues forward, by back hits the edge of the bathroom wall. The one time I curse my town not having Porta Potties, instead we have a building. 

"If you didn't recognize me why did you grab me," I frown, looking to where Xavier was not even 200 feet away only to find him gone. 

Fuck. 

Nope, still need a stronger word then that.

Aspen shrugs, his lips spilling over in a smile. He's never smiled at me like this before, hell he barely even looks at me. He only knows my name because he reads it every day on top of my paper while he tries to copy me.

"I guess I must have gotten confused." He laughs. Aspen leans forward, grabbing my still hurt wrist in his hands. I didn't know until now how light Xavier's hands are, until heavy hands made me gasp in pain.

The glass wounds healed into small cuts but some of them were quite deep and the pain runs deep when Aspen grabs me. "Let go!" I shout, startling him. His hands instantly shoot away from me and a snarl comes onto his lips. 

"What the hell, bitch?" He asks, reaching towards me again.

He's thrown away from me, back slamming into the opposite bathroom wall as he releases a sharp cry of pain. 

Relief floods me as Xavier fills the space between us, his rigid posture only adding to his startling height. Where the boy I thought was intimidating is only around 5'10 and lean, skinny even, but my Wolf boy is strong, tall and even scarier.

But I'm not afraid of him.

With Demon gone from his hands he aims a punch straight towards Aspen, my body comes out of the shock when I hear the contact. 

Neither of them are looking at me as I stay frozen next to them.

"I told you to stay away from me," The Devil growls, his other hand pulling up Aspen's jacket and almost lifting the other male off the ground. I gulp at this, realizing he is prepared to do actual damage. "And you involve her? Wrong move." 

Aspen manages to push Xavier of him when he glances at me to check if I'm okay, I gulp, sending my tongue piercing into the roof of my mouth. "Was that a stuffed toy I saw you carrying around?" He asks, making me stiffen.

So he did see us, he knew who I was when he grabbed me.

Something's not right here and it's not Aspen's inability to keep his hands off other people.

"It doesn't look good with you," He chuckles, continuing. "It's not the only thing." His flicker to me making Xavier release a angry noise and tense even more. 

"Would it look better shoved up your ass?" The Devil tilts his head, sharp teeth showing in a different way. There is nothing teasing about this, nothing safe. "Your face would look better rearranged by my fist.

Seeing his next move I bolt over to him, not fast enough to stop the first punch that has Aspen's head smacking into the wall. I wince at the sound and realize with a start he's unconscious.

Quickly grabbing the arm Xavier has aimed for him, with me clutching onto his bicep he stops, giving me a small glare. "Xavier, stop." I say softly, dunking under his arm to put myself between them. "He's out, you have to stop now." 

The look on his face is deadly, yet it still softens considerably when he meets my eyes with his dark blue ones. 

"Him and his goons always fucking mess with me, I'm sick of it." He spits. "I warned them, I warned them what would happen if they mess with me or Cal again. And then he fucking involves you." Xavier shakes his head. "No. Fuck that."

"Xavier back up." I tell him, pushing on his chest. "Back up."

 Reluctantly he does, dropping his hold on Aspen for a second. I squeal as hands suddenly pick me up, moving me against a chest. My struggling stops as I recognize Cal, but I watch as Caleb and a whole pack of jocks stop in front of Xavier -who casually shoves his best friends knocked out body in the center of them.

"Devil," Caleb spits, looking as angry as I've ever seen him. "What the fuck, we didn't mess with you and now you-"

"Me?" Xavier says, I can hear the malice in his voice. "He's the one who saw me and my girl. He's the one who hurt her, so if want to blame anyone blame your stupid friend. If any of you come near me, near Cal, near his girl. Near what's mine," All their eyes shift to me, but look away a second later. Too scared to look at me. "And I will destroy you."

"We w-won't." Their fearless leader stammers, motioning them all back as he grabs Aspen around the shoulders. They're gone as soon as they came, all the baseball players afraid of taking on one guy.

I realize how hard I'm breathing the same time I take in how nervous and scared I still feel, how tense I am. "Let go of me!" I cry out, trashing in Cal's hold. He only holds me tighter, clasping my wrists to my chest. "Xavier." I yell, seeing his head snap over to us.

"He's still mad," Cal cautions in my ear. "It might not be safe to touch him right now." 

I shake my head, trembling slightly.

After a event like this my mind is always panicked, on the verge of a break down because of flash backs and adrenaline. 

Noticing Jessamine clutching Demon, Julian beside her protectively does nothing to cease my worry, even as my best friend starts forward. 

"He's always safe to me." I say, thrashing again. "He won't hurt me. Let me go."

Calum's hold loosens from my movement and I use all my strength to push him off me, sending him stumbling back to his girlfriend. 

My feet carry me faster then I thought possible, I launch myself at Xavier. Our bodies press together as my hands dig into his shoulder and hair, I notice how he's shaking.

He didn't like that, not at all.

Xavier's hands are whispers against my back as he hunches over, the shaking continues. "You can," I say. "Xavier you can." Faster then I anticipated his hands are holding onto my waist, letting him breath ragged breaths into my hair. 

Sliding onto one knee his arms tighten around me, letting him bury his face into my collarbone and slowly calm down. 

"Emma," He says. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I breath out, moving my hands to his face. "You?"

He nods, grabbing my hips to help himself stand. "What did he want from you?" Xavier's voice is cold, but I feel anything but when he touches my chin, raising my face as he scans me. Unlike Aspen, he actually sees me. "Does your wrist still hurt."

"I don't know. We're lab partners in chem, at first he said he was just saying hi. But then h-he tried to get me to leave with him, just because I was with you. He kept backing me up and when I hit the bathroom he grabbed my wrist." I explain, holding up my injured wrist as a example. "I don't know why that freaked me out so much. There's just, just something wrong with him." 

During my description of what happened Xavier's jaw clenched tightly and he became rigid.

I hug him tighter, burying my face into his chest. 

His arm comes around my shoulders in a protective gesture, he relaxes against me before pulling away. Fingers- -that I know now are forcibly gentle- -brush against my inner wrist, raising it so he could see.

Thankfully there's no bruises and I'm not bleeding again, there is just a small lingering pain that's easy to ignore. 

"Come on," He says, a small smirk on his face. "You can't go to the carnival without going on a grotesque cheesy Ferris Wheel ride." I smile at this, instantly feeling relieved at his words. He meets Cal's gaze head on, giving him a small nod.

I have to rip Demon from Jessamine's hands, glaring as he tries to steal him back. 

Pouting she sticks to her boyfriends side, "We're gonna head back, meet you guys at the house. Don't take too long, we're probably gonna crash."

Raising a eyebrow at her I mumble, "Your room's soundproof." I glance at Julian, letting a small smirk fall on my face. "Yours isn't. You don't get laid enough Jules."

Yelping as he smacks my arm a strong hand pulls me into Xavier's chest, backing my hips into his. "I wouldn't test me right now idiot," The devil addresses Julian, who's jaw drops at the blatant insult. "Go jerk off somewhere else."

"That's it," He throws his hands up, pulling on his sister. "We're leaving."

The Angel pats the Devil's shoulder, sending me one apologetic glance that I meet with a challenging one before turning on his heel and following the Thatch siblings. 

"You're seriously okay?" I ask Xavier, who chuckles at the sight up my face mushed on the top of Demon's head. "I know that bothered you."

Pulling my in he kisses my forehead. "What bothered me was one of those pricks tried to hurt you." He growls. "Nobody gets to do that to you."

At this I raise a eyebrow, "You iced me out for like, one and a half weeks. That was cold." He winces at the reminder, his blue eyes focus on my own.

"Being a dick and forcing yourself on someone are two different things. I'd never do that to you," I smile softly as he bites his lip. "You know that, right?"

Nodding I move up onto my toes to kiss him. "I know Xavier, trust me. I know."