Page 7

I learned to just ignore it and walk away. I wasn’t going to let him see me as weak. I wasn’t going to let him get everything his way. He’ll get it back at some point in the future. Karma can be a real pain sometimes.
The Moonfire Pack was a real help, and made things so much easier for me. They helped me wash the eggs off my car, clean my locker and caught me when I fell in gym. They also said I should make extra copies of my homework and eat lunch before Kieran showed up. Every time someone stood up to Kieran and told him to back off, he’d just get more aggressive. So, it was pointless. Lila even gave him a couple of smacks on the head and said sorry for him. She even had to stay away from me because Mr Devil told her that if she hung out with me, it made things worse.
But I never felt as hurt by it as I did when I saw him with other girls. After I got bitten, I felt a weird connection with him. It felt like a magnet was trying to pull me to him whenever he was around. I got the shivers if he brushed against me by accident. I also found him even more attractive, and I couldn’t stop myself from running my hands through his hair or caressing his face.
On the topic of being bitten, my shoulder healed quickly, leaving a small Eclipse-shaped mark behind. I thought it was a bit weird, but there’s no denying there was something strangely beautiful about it too. It looked like a birthmark. The mark was right where my neck and collarbone met.
I was startled awake by the sound of snapping fingers. I looked up and saw Kieran smirking. One of his arms was wrapped around Naomi’s waist and I really wanted to look away but I just couldn’t. Every week, he had a new person, but I just kept feeling the same odd pain over and over again. I couldn’t possibly be in love with him. You’re in denial, a little voice in my head teased.
Luca came closer to me and I could tell he was nervous. He was a great friend and almost like a brother to me. He was keen to beat Kieran up, but I told him not to. It would just get me into more mess.
The whole cafeteria went quiet. Everyone was looking at us. This is the usual routine, and I sighed when I realised how horrible I looked. My hair was a complete mess, I didn’t have time to put on any makeup this morning, my clothes were stained from the coke Kieran ‘accidently’ spilled on me earlier, and there were dark circles under my eyes because I had to do my homework twice and that caused me to stay up late at night.
Before I could say anything to Kieran, he spilled all his spaghetti on my white shirt, making even more stains. The whole cafeteria burst into laughter. I just stood up and took the noodles off my shirt. I let out another sigh. “Can you help me clean up?” I said, sounding a bit tired.
Brielle nodded and looked at me with a sad face. I got my bag, which had my clean clothes in it. Before we left, I looked back at Kieran. He was kissing the slut. Naomi’s hands moved up and down his chest and I couldn’t help but wish it were me feeling those muscles. My eyes were welling up, but I didn’t dare let one tear escape. Kieran opened his eyes and saw me staring. He was still kissing her, but he was looking at me. His eyes twinkled with amusement, and then the bastard winked. I clenched and unclenched my fist. When will all this hell end?!
From Kieran’s perspective…
It’s just stupid. I thought to myself, “Oh no, I’m in trouble!” Why on earth did I just mark Tali?!
To mark her as our own and only our own, my wolf growled.
Seeing Luca’s arm around my colleague made me angry. But I was fuming when she called him babe. At that point, I just lost it. I didn’t realise meeting your friend would make you feel so possessive.
I cringed when I remembered her screaming in agony as I bit her shoulder. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I had to, to call her my own. But I was stupid, wasn’t I? I said I couldn’t love her! This would make the attraction way stronger and she’d surely fall in love with me.
I was on my way to her house the morning after I’d bitten her to make sure she was OK when a drunk guy stumbled out of a bush. I grimaced when the smell of alcohol hit me. “Hey you! Hey, have you met my daughter Talia?” He was slurring his words a bit. I looked at him suspiciously. Did Tali come from him? If you do that, can you see if you can get her to have a chat with me? I’m starting to think she’s been ignoring me. She’s been a bit of a handful.”
I just had to know more. “Why hasn’t she been talking to you?” I blurted out. He spilled the beans to me. He told me he made her move here because he loved his new wife. He was drunk, so he made some inappropriate comments about how good his new wife was in bed. To me, he left her for a floozy. Then he told me that her boyfriend had cheated with her best friend.
I felt really sorry for her. And let’s not forget that she deserved a much better father figure. This guy was a real piece of work. I looked at him with a look of disgust on my face before giving him a black eye for hurting her and then walked away from him, trying to calm down.
Anyway, I couldn’t let her fall in love with me. I just couldn’t. The only way to make that happen was to make her think I was a complete jerk. So for the past two weeks, I’ve been doing things that I’ve come to regret. I also used girls to take my mind off her. These girls just weren’t as good as her. I tried to forget about her, but I just couldn’t.
“Luca, are you going to eat that?” I asked with my mouth full while pointing to his salad. I wolfed down my food when Luca gave me a weird look. “Gosh, I’m so hungry.”
“Last week, you could barely finish a sandwich and now you’re practically licking your plate clean,” Luca said, pointing out the obvious. I took his salad and stuffed it in my mouth. He wouldn’t eat it anyway. He said he had plenty of veg at home.
I just gave a little shrug. “I’ve been eating way more than usual recently. Mr Devil probably thought it was funny to make me starve all day, so I haven’t eaten much in the last three weeks.” If you’re still wondering, Mr Devil is Mr Kieran Redford. You might be wondering why I haven’t been eating much at home. Well, it’s because Aunt Mabel caught the flu and I had to eat frozen food for dinner.
“Speaking of the devil himself, where’s he?”
I gave another shrug, took a big swig of water. “I don’t know, but I miss him already,” I said sarcastically. Luca and I burst out laughing.
The chair next to mine made a scraping noise as it was pulled back. I could feel someone sitting next to me. I just had to know more, so I turned my head to look at the person. I was in shock at first, but then I quickly went into horror mode. “You miss Kieran? I’ll make sure to tell him that,” Knox joked and smiled at me.
“Knox, what are you doing here?!” I hissed.
“Well, hello to you, too.”
“Knox, what the f**k? Do you want things to get worse?” Luca asked. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t like seeing her get hurt. She’s practically my sister.”
“Chill out, Carson. Kieran’s pretty busy at the moment, so he won’t be around for a while,” Knox said. I let out a sigh of relief. “And I’m not bothered by what Kieran said. He can’t tell me who I talk to or who I’m interested in.
“You’re interested in me?” I let out a squeak. I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks.
“Oh, so his pick-up lines work, but mine don’t?” What’s wrong with you, woman?” Luca exclaimed. I gave him a little nudge in the ribs. “Ouch! OK, I’ll leave you two to it. Gosh.”
Knox laughed. “So anyway, I was wondering. Maybe you’d like to go to a party with me on Saturday?”
“She’s not going,” a familiar voice said from behind me. His deep voice had me shivering. It isn’t very pleasant when that happens all the time. It also felt like it was out of control. Every time he was around, I found myself doing things without thinking. I didn’t like it at all.
I turned around and shot a dirty look at Kieran. This week, he had Jenifer. I’ve heard she’s had a boob job. Well, it was pretty clear, wasn’t it? Her big fake boobs were suffocating under that red tight shirt. Her shorts were so short! I had underwear that was longer than that. I looked at her with a kind of revulsion as she leaned against Kieran. Her black hair was a mess. S*x hair, I thought. I looked away quickly. That’s why he was so busy.
“Honestly, it’s a bit dull here. Let’s get this show on the road,” Jenifer moaned. Her voice was husky, and she fluttered her eyelashes. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at her ridiculousness.
“Yeah, Kieran. Go back to your entertainment. It’s more fun than being here anyway,” I said quickly, waving him off. I turned back to Knox and smiled sweetly. “I’d love to go. What time?”
“Tali, you aren’t going to go,” Kieran said. He let out a low growl. I gritted my teeth. When did my love life become his top priority?
“I’ll pick you up around seven?” Knox said, ignoring Kieran.
“Perfect,” I said, smiling.
“She’s not going.”
“Who are you to tell her where she goes and where she doesn’t go?” Luca let out a growl in response. “Can’t you just leave her alone for a minute?”
“She’s not going,” Kieran retorted.
“Oh, I’m definitely going. So where’s this party at?” I asked, smiling.