Chapter 2 The After effects of party : Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

Alpha Jaxen left with that question hanging in the air, not waiting for an answer. I lay on the bed with my eyes wide open, because whenever I closed them, all I saw was Theo and Marcy kissing. Her mocking smile burned into the back of my eyelids, making me feel nauseous and enraged in the same breath.

I sat upright and stared out the window, watching the skyline shift into dawn. I should leave. I tested my ankle, the one that had been hurt, and found it healed. I could stand on my own again. The cuts and bruises had faded, thanks to Selene. I grabbed my coat and stepped out of the guest room. I got ready for class, wearing my well-ironed college uniform: a white blazer over a blue shirt, paired with a pleated skirt. I slipped on white shoes and braided my hair.

Stepping into Wolveshire Academy, it looked like an old castle. Cobblestone paths, a building out of fashion by modern standards, yet still the best college for pure werewolves.

I crossed the courtyard, and people kept glancing at me with strange, knowing smiles. A few guys watched me with a hunger in their eyes that made my stomach turn. I quickened my pace, my skin prickling under the weight of all those stares, and slipped into class just in time.

Naomi rushed to my side the moment she saw me, concern written all over her face. She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room before I could even sit down.

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked.

She didn't answer until we'd found somewhere quiet.

"What's going on? Why did you drag me here?"

"I heard what happened last night." She searched my face. "How are you?"

Bless her. She was the one person I could always confide in, the one who actually worried about me.

"I'm not okay," I whispered.

"Yeah, I figured." Her expression darkened. "That bitch Marcy had no right to go spreading rumors."

"Wait, what kind of rumors?" I asked.

She looked at me, her face grim and tense. "You didn't check the college group chats?"

"I don't have my phone on me. I don't know where I dropped it."

She sighed and showed me the college chat. My blood ran cold. Someone had morphed my photo onto a naked woman's body, and beside it, a guy, his face morphed onto an obscene scene, positioned between her legs. My stomach turned. My whole body shook with rage.

This had to be Marcy. She'd been bullying me before, back when I was still dating Theo, but she'd backed off once he warned her. Maybe she'd been scared to cross him then. Or maybe that was exactly when she started planning to steal him.

"Tessa, this image will come down. I already asked our class rep to get help." I couldn't hear the rest of Naomi's words. I ran from the classroom, away from every eye that might find me and give me that same dirty look.

I couldn't stand it. How had everything changed so drastically, so fast? I kept running until I found myself at the football field, of all places. Why here? Theo was practicing with the rest of the team. On the other side, Marcy sat on the bleachers, her eyes glued to him like he already belonged to her.

Her gaze found mine. She smiled wickedly, the kind that made my skin crawl. Marcy called out to Theo. He looked over, walked to her, and let her pull him into a kiss. He didn't resist at all.

"Do you want Theo back, or keep crying like a weak she-wolf?"

Alpha Jaxen's words from last night surfaced in my mind.

My eyes drifted back to the field, to the captain passing the ball to a teammate.

"Get your ass back in it, Theo, or you'll sit out," I heard Alpha Jaxen call out, a warning that made Theo's jaw tighten. He hated that tone, hated the alpha aura Jaxen let show when he said it. Theo got back to the field.

I don't know what came over me. Before I'd even decided to move, I was marching onto the field. Someone blew a whistle, the coach, probably, saying something I couldn't process. My eyes found Alpha Jaxen instead. He'd stopped mid-drill, his expression unreadable, his eyes locking onto mine.

He was so tall I had to rise onto my toes just to reach his ear.

"I want Theo to get jealous and make him beg to get back to me. I want you to humiliate Marcy as revenge," I whispered. "So tell me, what's the plan?"

I stepped back to look him in the eye.

"Just say yes to fake dating me, Tessa, and you'll have your revenge. No one will bully you," his voice said in my head.

I froze. Only the Alpha of my pack or my mate could speak to me through the mind-link.

What about you? I linked back.

I won't bully my girlfriend, he mind-linked me.

I didn't believe him, but I had no other options. I needed to fight back, even if it meant taking help from my other bully.

"So what will it be, weakling?" he asked.

I nodded before I could think it through. I could feel his dark aura, his dark smile making me nervous, making me feel like I'd made a deal with the devil. Jaxen stepped closer to me, my heart beating faster as his arm circled my waist and my body pressed against his side.

"Jaxen, we're in match practice," the coach said sternly. "You're captain. Act like one."

"I need a break, Coach," Jaxen replied, cold and flat. The coach flinched under his gaze but said nothing else, just gave a single nod.

"What do you think you're doing?" Theo snapped, blocking our way, his eyes burning with something that looked a lot like jealousy. And that felt good. I finally understood the satisfaction people talked about when they said revenge was sweet.

"Out of my way, Theo, if you don't want a swollen face," Jaxen muttered coldly. Theo flinched, and I could feel the dark aura pressing outward slowly. The teammates backed off in fear, and so did Theo, though he tried to fight it off.

"Take your hands off my mate," Theo snapped.

"I'm not your mate anymore, Theo. I'm Jaxen's girlfriend," I answered before Jaxen could put his fist in Theo's face. His eyes met mine, shocked, not expecting this.

"Come on, you're lying. You can't be dating this psycho who bullied you," Theo snapped. "It was because of me he backed off. You dating him? What a joke."

Jaxen had never stopped pestering me, but I lied to Theo anyway. I didn't care. I needed him to make Marcy back off, to make her pay for what she'd put me through.

Before I could understand what was happening, I felt my body turn to meet Jaxen's face. His dark blue eyes looked down at me, dropped to my lips, then back to my eyes, and before I could understand, his lips were on mine. My heart beat in sync with the pulse I felt under my palm, my hand pressed flat against his chest. When he pulled away, his eyes found mine. Wait. Did my bully just kiss me? My body thrummed with a heat that wasn't rage. No. This was all wrong. I turned to find everyone gaping in shock like fish. 

"Bastard, you stole my mate—" Theo screamed, lurching at Jaxen. Jaxen sidestepped and drove his fist into Theo's face before he could get near me. Then he dragged me off the field, his grip iron around my wrist.

I looked back once. Marcy was already crouched beside Theo, cradling his bloody jaw, worry etched into every line of her face. Something in me twisted, some part of me that still wanted to run to him too.

I turned back to Jaxen instead.

His aura hadn't settled. It rolled off him in slow, dark waves, and for the first time, I wondered exactly what I'd agreed to.