Chapter 2

• The next day at school was a breeze, by which it I meant it was like a fucking hailstorm.
• As usual, I got taunted and stuff. Pete poked fun at me by mentioning how much I looked like poop in my brown sweater. Which of course, made Flora laugh so hard I thought she would rip her guts out.
• Pete on the other hand, had his resting bitch face on, and he looked at me like I wasn't even worth the dirt on his shoes. Looking at him left a bitter taste in my mouth.
• This guy had no sense of humour whatsoever.
• And I wish I could have said that to his face, I really do... But having anxiety doesn't help and before an attack comes along, I try to scutter off.
• My mouth dry, I sat with Kira on our usual table, the corner one. She was playing with her spaghetti, when she suddenly looked up, her eyes green eyes turned golden.
• I backed up, this was not Kira, it was her wolf. She tilted her head, and sniffed, her pixie cut bobbing as she did. "I smell it." She whispered, more to herself than me.
• People had started staring at our table. The rare occurrence of our wolves taking over without our permission only meant a few things. Either that she had found her mate, or she had smelt her enemy.
• Oh my god. Kira had no enemy, so...
• "Kira?" I asked under my breath. My hair fell down in front of my eyes as I jumped when Kira suddenly put a finger on her lips and loudly said, "Shhh.... I smell him."
• Her eyes were growing more and more lustful but she was not getting off the table. What the hell... She should be running by now.
• Suddenly, her eyes turned green again, and by the beads on her forehead, I guessed it had taken a lot of effort.
• I just stared at her.
• "The spaghetti is good. You should try it." She took three large gulps from her water bottle, wiping off the sweat with the back of her hand.
• "What the hell are you doing?! You just found your mate, you should be running around like a lunatic and have a heated make out session!" Indignantly, I half-screamed.
• "I am not ready, K... I- Oh no." She suddenly stopped, staring wide-eyed at the door. Her cheeks tinged pink and she dropped her gaze.
• I turned to see a very cute, very handsome, blond guy that I had never seen before standing there, eyes tinged with silver, shining so bright even I could see them from where I was sitting.
• "Go to him!" I am going to murder her.
• "Leah, you don't understand. What if he rejects me? I am not ready, I am just not ready for this."
• I turned around again, the guy was respecting Kira's boundaries and still standing there. But I could see it in his posture and the way his gaze had heated that he was barely holding on.
• "Kira, you are absolutely perfect. Look at him, does he look like he is going to reject you from any angle? And you are as ready as you can ever be. Woman up, girl." She was still hesitant. "I said, GET UP!" I shouted so loud, I was sure my eyes had turned red. Half the cafeteria looked up to us.
• As soon as the words left my mouth, Kira jerkily got up. "OK." She squealed and went off, dragging her jacket and purse. I took deep breaths, I had never lost control like that.
• It was small, so small that probably no one noticed, but I did.
• As Kira went to the guy, he smiled and walked out, probably expecting Kira to follow. She looked back once and I made a shooing gesture. Then she went off, and outside, after five minutes or so, I could hear hootings and congratulations. I grinned.
• She wouldn't have agreed or sealed the deal, so to speak, everybody usually waits before doing something as drastic as that. They must be licking each other's throats.
• Kira had turned eighteen last year, she had never yearned for a mate, unlike... Well, everybody. But to say she never hoped for one would be a stupidity.
• And next week, I was going to turn eighteen. All I could hope was that my mate, if I even had one, with my luck, it seemed a bit hopeless, wouldn't be from anywhere near this god-awful school.
• ***
• The full day passed and not once did I see Kira or her mate, whose name I didn't know. I tried looking around for her, but I knew I wouldn't find her.
• She must be bunking school, and "hanging out".
• ***
• I was walking towards where my car was parked, when, out of nowhere, Pete stumbled into me.
• No, I did not stumble into him, he stumbled into me.
• "Hey, watch it." He said. Then he saw who it was and an amused look appeared in his eyes, amused. There was a twinkle in his eyes. You know how when someone slightly narrows their eyes, and a slight smile appears. That twinkle.
• Except it was the kind of twinkle that said, "Ah! Prey!"
• It didn't exactly make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In fact, I wanted to get away as soon as possible.
• I was about to take a step back, when he softly said, "Where is your, Master, Leah?" So, yeah, I took two more steps back.
• "Well? Where is your owner?" He said again, coming closer. Yeah, dog jokes. As I said, he had an excellent humour. I just really wanted to punch the hell out of him, not because he was making fun of me, but because he was doing it so badly.
• "What did you just say?" His eyes narrowed, his tongue sticking out a little from the corner of his lips.
• "Nothing." I mumbled, trying to find a way out. Why did he have to speak so softly? If he didn't have such a low voice, he wouldn't be so terrifying.
• If I make a run for it, is he gonna come after me?
• "Can I go now?" I asked, looking at my shoes. Suddenly, I was looking at his shoes. I didn't dare look up. Why the fuck was he standing so close?
• His smell, soap and pine wafted through my nose, and it was so good that it made me a little dizzy, and now I just wanted to drown myself in my own water bottle because obviously, after that I wouldn't want to live.
• "You shouldn't roam around the school alone, who knows what anybody will do." He whispered in my ears and I wished I would just puke right there on his shiny, expensive shoes. Was he seriously giving me a threat?
• "What do you care? You are normally the one leading your little troop." Jeez, Leah, are you even yourself now?
• A corner of his lips lifted and then he took a few steps back. "That's right."
• And then all I could see was brown. I shut my eyes as a thick liquid was poured all over my body from the top. I gritted my teeth, I should have known.
• Fuck. Him.
• I wiped the liquid of my eyes and discovered it was paint, last time, which hadn't occurred exactly like this, it was rotten eggs. I wiped as much paint as I could off my body using my spare pages while the rest of his clique laughed. Some, who weren't involved, whispered and pointed. Some looked amused. Nobody helped.
• I walked to my car, and didn't look back. Did they do it because it was fun? Because even I could feel the fakeness of their laughter sometimes.
• This had been going since I had joined school last year, after being homeschooled for years. My mother was a professor, so there wasn't much she couldn't teach me. But, lately she had been very busy, and she thought it would be a good idea for me to socialize. Hahaha...socialize.
• School was a disaster, but I didn't have the heart to tell this to my family. They had been so happy, thinking I was making friends, that I was enjoying my time.
• Why would he do it?
• Not just this time, always. He always tried to humiliate me, to scare me, trying and trying to bring me to my knees, to tears.
• I had not cried yet, I didn't care what these people thought, but this is not the life I wanted. Pete had destroyed everything for me.