Chapter 3 Making deal with a Devil : Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

Tessa — POV

Everyone stared as we walked the corridor, gasps and murmurs rippling behind us. Naomi looked at me in shock and started toward us, thinking I was in danger. I shook my head, telling her to stay back. She did.

Once we were back in the empty classroom, his dark aura had faded like smoke. His eyes were back to ocean blue. I felt my wolf shivering, and I wanted to run. I'd made a mistake agreeing to his deal.

"Thinking of escaping the deal?" I jumped at his impersonal voice.

"You shouldn't have kissed me," I snapped. "That's not what I agreed to."

"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that." His tone was cold, but there was a hint of dark amusement underneath.

"No," I snapped.

"Liar. Your heart was beating so fast." He said it like a fact, not a taunt. I felt embarrassed, wondering how he'd noticed, but honestly, he was probably just messing with me.

"Saying yes was a mistake. I don't want to be your fake girlfriend. You're an ass," I snapped. His eyebrow rose an inch. I'd expected him to mock me, or threaten me.

"Everyone on campus already knows my nature. You're a little late figuring that out. But it's a good start for you to know about me," he said nonchalantly. His eyes still held a dominant look, as if warning me not to take that tone with him.

"You have a question for me, right?" he asked. I nodded.

"If I'm your girlfriend, what's in it for you?" I asked.

"Smart question. Never thought you'd ask me that, weakling." He said it with an eerie dark smile that made me nervous.

"Should I tell you what I want," he said to himself, and I knew he was playing with me. I swallowed hard as his eyes darkened, that alpha aura pressing down on me until my whole body felt like it was bending under the weight of it. I thought he wouldn't answer. Then he did.

"First. I want pack elders off my back about dating, about finding a mate. You show up as my mate in my pack, and that problem disappears."

"And the second thing?" I asked, cutting him off. He stepped closer, looming over me, looking down with a coldness that could've frozen me where I stood.

"To make my mate jealous. Or, to put it more accurately, to make her regret cheating on me."

I wondered who his mate was. His reasoning, at least, made a sick kind of sense.

"Still, why me? You could've had better options." I meant it. I wasn't the popular girl, nor an Alpha's daughter, not even close. In pack standing, I was the lowest-ranked omega there was.

"Why not you?" he asked. "Don't tell me you have low self-esteem issues."

I looked away. Who wouldn't, after being told her whole life that she wasn't good enough, that she was useless?

"You know why you suit the role," he said.

"Wait," I said. "This makes us the talk of campus. The right kind of attention that can help us get revenge on your mate and make Theo come back to me."

"You catch on quick." I wanted to roll my eyes at him, but I couldn't. His haughty stare made sure of that.

"Can you at least tell me who your mate is?" I asked. His shoulders squared, his sweat-damp jersey clinging to the hard lines of his build. His expression stayed a stoic mask, his pupils going a shade colder.

"You should know one thing about Crimson Alphas: we don't reveal our weaknesses to anyone." A warning. He didn't want me asking about his mate. Like he needed to protect that part of himself. I could see it in the guarded look in his eyes.

"So, are you done asking questions?"

"For now, yes." I hesitated. "But you know there's still that rumor about me—"

"I'll take care of it," Alpha Jaxen said. "After you're my fake girlfriend, starting today." His voice was cold and final. This was settled; no going back on the deal. He lowered his face to mine, close enough that I caught his scent, woodsy, mixed with citrus cologne. "Remember one more thing." His voice dropped even lower, a warning I couldn't miss. "No backing out of this deal. If you try to break the arrangement, it will be a problem."

"Wait, how long do we have to keep this up?" I asked.

"Until I say it's over." So there was no telling how long this facade would last. He stepped back, his face unreadable, like he hadn't just threatened me. I should've thought this through before agreeing.

"Here's your phone. You left it at the party." He handed it over. "I put my number in it."

I checked; he'd saved his name as "Boyfriend" with a heart emoji.

"You shouldn't—" He was already gone before I could finish telling him he shouldn't have added his number without asking. Damn him.

I slumped to the floor, wondering what I'd just done. No, I was overthinking this. I needed to get to class, or back to my dorm.

My phone buzzed. A message from Theo.

Please meet me at the back of the college garden after class.

My wolf went still, desperate. Please. Go to our mate. I could feel how badly some part of me still wanted his voice, his excuses, anything that would make the last twelve hours make sense again.

Jaxen's warning was still fresh. No backing out of this deal. If you try to break the arrangement, it will be a problem.

I looked at the message a long time. Then I picked up my bag and walked toward the garden anyway.