Chapter 2
Aiden
Two days. That smart-mouthed, slithering piece of shit has two more days left before I wipe him from this planet.
Julian Heil. Julian fucking Heil.
Goddess, I hate him. I hate a lot of people—too many to count—but at the top of that list is, and always will be, Julian Heil. That guy—that guy—takes first place every fucking time.
There isn’t a redeemable thing about him, not one, but it’s the way he looks down on everyone that really grates.
So he has a white wolf and reads the dictionary every night under his covers, big whoop. It doesn’t give him the right to act like a grade-A jackass every fucking day. But that’s exactly what he is—a condescending prick who’s long overdue for a lesson. And I can’t wait to give him one.
Seething, I walk through the halls without a destination, just a mind to get away from the annoying bastard before I turn around and make good on my promise.
Two more days. Just two.
I turn a corner and stifle a curse as I bump straight into someone rushing from the other side, but Goddess must be feeling generous because it’s not just anybody.
“What the hell!” Emitt swears, stumbling back and landing on his ass with a thud that makes me grimace. I wince as my best friend and soon-to-be beta glares up at me.
“Sorry, man,” I say, offering a hand. Emitt takes it without a fuss, letting me pull him to his feet before he dusts himself off. “I just finished dealing with a certain shithead, and I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“Let me guess—Julian?”
A growl slips past my teeth, and Emitt immediately lifts his hands in surrender.
“Okay, how about we forget about him and head to class, hm? We’ve got bio next.”
“I hate biology,” I grumble as he eases around me to push me towards the labs.
“If you hate it so much, why is it the only subject you get straight A’s in?”
“Divine intervention,” I say, and he snorts.
In truth, I love the sciences. Out of all the subjects that have been shovelled down my throat since I started here at fourteen, they’ve come the easiest. It’s the rooms they’re taught in that I have a problem with.
Even after years of this shit, the chemicals in the labs are still torture to our noses, and enduring them on a Monday isn’t exactly what I call a good time.
“It’s not for long, though,” I say as I move aside so we’re walking side by side. “Pretty soon we’ll be done with this shit. The coronation’s in a few days!” I give Emitt a shove that sends him stumbling. I catch him by the shoulders, but only so I can shake him again. “It’s going to be amazing.”
“Yeah, yeah. Cool down, Incredible Hulk.” He shrugs me off. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to it too. But right now I’m more worried about the bloodshed that’ll come after.”
My mood plummets. “I thought we weren’t talking about him.”
“You’re the one who brought up the coronation,” Emitt says, giving me a pointed look. “You know—the joint one?”
“I don’t need the reminder,” I grumble as we slip into our empty biology lab.
Of all the things my parents have demanded of me, the joint coronation has to be the worst. They couldn’t just let me have this one thing—this one fucking thing that could’ve been mine.
No, they were too concerned with appearances, and a joint ceremony was the perfect stage to show everyone how perfect we are.
“I’m just saying,” Emitt continues dryly, “you and Julian together on a day like that …” He shudders. “It’s got catastrophic written all over it.”
“Now you’re just being dramatic,” I reply as I fall into my usual seat near the back.
Emitt makes a show of dropping into his chair beside me as he sighs and stares wistfully into the distance. “I can’t believe after all my hard work, I’ll be spending my first day as a beta drowning in your blood.”
“You’ve got a real talent for theatrics, you know that?”
His lips split into a grin as he cuts the act. “Maybe I’ll switch careers before then. Goddess knows it’ll make a lot of people happy.”
Nothing about Emitt Smith screams beta, at least not on the surface. He’s five-foot-five with barely any muscle or fat, which is why most of the older wolves in our pack, my parents included, think he’s the wrong fit.
They’re wrong though, and blindly so.
Emitt may be smaller than most, but he has a kind soul, and that’s exactly what will make him a good counsellor.
He’s always spoken sense into me when nobody else could.
He’s loyal, to me above all, and that’s more important to me than broad shoulders.
Besides, while he might not look it, Emitt can handle himself just fine.
“Well, fuck them,” I snap, propping my feet up on the table. “You’re going to be a great beta. If anyone says otherwise, I’ll kill them.”
“Sure, let’s start off with tyranny,” he retorts, his grin dimpled. “This is going to be a shitshow.”
“I don’t think it’ll be that bad.”
Emitt turns and watches me with new suspicion. “Why are you so calm about this?” His eyes narrow to slits. “What the hell are you planning?”
“Nothing!” I promise. “Why do you always think I’m planning something?”
“Because you’re a sneaky guy.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m trying the optimistic approach. Ma said if I tried a lighter approach to life, I would probably be more relaxed.”
That was a nice way of putting the most recent lecture I’d gotten on “controlling my outbursts in front of others.”
Emitt hums just as the bell rings and students begin to pour in, including a certain long-haired rodent that meets my scowl with a glare.
Biology is the only class we have together.
The first day he showed up, I thought I was cursed, stuck with the person I hate most in the one class I actually like, but it soon revealed itself to be a blessing.
Biology is the only subject the oh-so-perfect Julian Heil completely sucks at. The rest of the sciences he manages to get by on, barely, but biology? It baffles him, and I take great pleasure in exploiting that.
Whenever he dares to ask a question, I answer before our teacher can, just to see his eye twitch when he aims one of those piercing glares my way. His proud brain can’t handle me besting him in anything, so of course, I do it all the time.
Today’s plan is no different, until our teacher takes centre stage and says, “Group projects everyone!”
The announcement makes almost everyone groan, but Emitt and I stay quiet where we would’ve normally joined in. By Friday, we’d be neck-deep in orienting ourselves as pack leaders, so this shit did not affect us in the slightest.
“Oh, stop your whining. It’s giving me a headache,” Mrs. Maxine says with an angry wave. “I’m being generous and letting you work in pairs. Come pick your numbers. Whoever has the same one is your partner.”
I wait until everyone collects their scrap of paper before going for mine—number eight.
I wave my lone slip overhead while scanning the room. “Number eight?” Nothing. I turn back to the front. “I think you miscounted.”
Mrs. Maxine rolls her eyes. “Rapunzel over there is number eight.”
I follow her pointed finger to where a bored-looking Julian scowls at me, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that the wicked fucker saw me looking and stayed quiet anyway.
“God, no,” I groan, turning back to her. “Look, Mrs. Maxine—Johanna,” I add, and she snorts. “I’m like your top student. Can you do me a favour and switch me with someone else? Just this once? Please. He can’t even label a cell.”
“At least I can spell cell!” Julian snaps from behind me.
I flip him off behind my back, keeping my focus centred on my amused teacher.
“Normally, I’d let it slide since you’re one of my best students,” she says, then glances towards Julian and lowers her voice. “But he needs the help—desperately. I’m sorry, but you have to stick with him.”
As a human, Mrs. Maxine couldn’t know that Julian can hear her perfectly, but that small pleasure hardly makes up for what she’s putting me through. An hour spent with the serpent.
“Go on,” she says, shooing me away.
I drag my feet over to the empty seat beside the source of the foul scent that made the acid in the lab smell like roses. Lips sealed together, I hold my breath and sit down.
While Mrs. Maxine runs through the project’s requirements, I try to ignore the creature at my side. It’s useless; he’s too fucking close and with the amount of animosity living between us, it leaves Max pacing restlessly in my mind.
Julian, on the other hand, is too busy jotting down everything Mrs. Maxine says. So much so, that I’d think he’d forgotten about me entirely, if not for the white-knuckled grip on the pencil I can hear splintering between his fingers.
Only when Mrs. Maxine finally finishes her explanation, leaving everyone to start their planning, does Julian turn to me. As always, his crisp blue gaze makes an unnerving shudder run through me. There’s no life behind those cold eyes, just a dead, neutral stare.
“What animal do you want to do?”
I blink. “You actually plan to do this?”
Those lifeless eyes spark with annoyance. “Yes. So, what animal? If you weren’t listening, we have to analyse an animal in our region down to its molecular makeup.”
Julian starts a dull recap, and I stare at him, wondering if he truly is this stupid.
“You plan to keep coming here after the coronation?” I cut in.
His jaw ticks. “Yes.”
“Why?” I ask as my brows dip. I’m not so much concerned about what Julian’s life plans are as I am curious to know if I’m missing something here.
“Why are you still breathing? Questions we would both like to know the answers to,” Julian replies coolly, returning to his notebook. “If you won’t be here, then I’ll do it on my own.”
A loud cackle escapes me, one that makes Julian’s gaze dart back to me, this time as icy shards.
“I’m sorry, but we both know you ‘need help desperately,’” I remind with another chuckle. “Might be better if I did the entire thing and just put your name on it.”
“I don’t need or want your help,” he snaps back.