Prologue
It was another cool day out in Washington state; gray clouds covered the sky and the ground was still wet from the early morning rainstorm that woke Meria from her nightmares. A gentle breeze blew a few red strands of hair into her crystal blue eyes as she walked through campus to get to the athletic building. It was only a little before 7 a.m. and the campus was deserted, the eerie quiet of morning causing a chill to spread up Meria’s spine. She shivered and wrapped her arms around her body. God how she missed the heat of Arizona.
Meria was a second year English major and she had hoped to be a writer someday, though she hadn’t thought much of the future lately. A year ago, Meria’s sister Mya died on this very campus. The police told her that an animal was responsible and that they would hunt down the beast and kill it so that it couldn’t harm any other students. She never found this very believable. The police never specified what kind of animal had killed her sister and they never did find an animal near campus. Also, a hungry animal wouldn’t have done the horrible things that had been done to Mya’s body. Meria had to identify her sister since they didn’t have any other family and it was the single most horrifying thing she had ever seen in her life. The image of her sisters body was burned into her memory, destined to haunt her nights for the rest of her life. After seeing what had been done to her sister and realizing that the police weren’t going to be of much help, Meria uprooted her life. She had decided to transfer from the University of Arizona to Grandview University, the school her sister had been attending and died at. Meria refused to believe that an animal had killed her sister. She felt it down to her core and she was going to figure out what really happened if it was the last thing she ever did.
Snapping out of her daydream, Meria looked up to see that she had arrived at the athletic building. She needed to start on the days’ worth of laundry she had to do for the athletes. It wasn’t the most glamorous job in the world, but it kept a roof over her head and food in her stomach, so she wasn’t going to complain about it. As she was walking down the hall, she noticed the football players trickling out of the locker room to begin the days practice. Meria sprinted to the laundry room she works in to avoid the gorgeous men she knew would soon be leaving the locker room, James, Kyle and Axel. The three most beautiful men she had ever laid eyes on.
James looked like most guys around here but godlier. He had longish brown hair with the sides of his head shaves down short and he had sweet caramel colored eyes. Meria always thought he was probably a nice guy, but she had never really heard him speak and people were intimidated by his face piercings and the tattoos that cover his body. He was one of the linebackers on the team and everybody knew it. He was tall, probably 6’2 at least and he was built to take guys down.
Kyle on the other hand was only 5’11 with a lean body like you would expect of a quarter back. Meria couldn’t deny that he was good looking with his yellow blond hair and deep blue eyes, eyes she was always jealous of, but she hated his attitude. He was arrogant and cocky and an absolute flirt. She had never seen him take anything seriously. Girls threw themselves at him and he loved it.
Neither of them even compared to Axel though. He was an absolute giant. Standing at 6’4, a whole foot taller than Meria, and weighing 220 pounds with absolutely no fat on his body. His jet-black hair a little long, curling over the tops of his ears and just barely falling into his emerald green eyes. Add to that his sleeve tattoos and the sexy lip ring and he had all the girls wet for him, especially Meria. She’s had a thing for Cassius since she first laid eyes on him and smelled his strong masculine scent on the first day of classes. Most girls were too scared to actually talk to him. He dripped power and authority and walked around like he owned the damn universe. Meria had never seen a more intimidating person in her life. She never thought a man like that would ever want anything to do with her, but she had been wrong.
