Chapter 6
SIX
Wolves made up only a small percentage of the students at Blackstone Academy, so it was only every fourth or fifth person that was openly gawking at Ben and me as we strode through the cafeteria.
Harriet texted us on our way over to let us know she’d saved us seats at her usual table on the junior/senior side of the dining hall.
We spotted her happily chatting with several human students at one of the round tables in the center of the room.
Adding to the shit pile that was this day, the tables containing the majority of the senior shifters were right next to Harriet’s, and the Elites and their fan club were only a couple of tables to the left.
Compounding my torture, another table of popular jock-type humans was next to them, where Blake sat engaged in conversation with a shorter, muscular boy with dark skin and braids.
At the Elites’ table, Knox sat looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Nikka was perched on his lap, talking animatedly with another of the Alphawhores across the table.
Knox also had his hand creeping up the skirt of a pretty human girl who’d stopped to flirt with him—the girlfriend on his lap be damned.
Man Bun was sitting stoically next to Knox. He looked up at Ben and me as we approached Harriet’s table. I kept my chin up, and I held his gaze, stoic and emotionless. Ben did the same. Mason just shook his head and looked down at his food.
Thad’s eyes tracked Ben for a minute, but this time Ben ignored his presence completely as we approached Harriet’s table.
"Omigod, did you see how the new girl threw herself at Knox in Gym?
" Nikka, the bitch, shouted loudly across her table so that tables of shifters and popular humans alike could hear her. She pawed at Knox’s chest with her cherry-red nails.
"He obviously told her he didn’t touch weak-ass omega bitches. "
Jesus, are we just shouting the word omega in front of all of the humans?
The shifters in the Elite orbit all laughed loudly at her comment.
Dani or Madison or whoever the fuck cackled and shouted, "What a dumb whore!
" Some of the humans giggled along with them, but a lot of them just looked disinterested or slightly confused.
I tossed a quick look at Blake, who must’ve caught the omega bit because he also looked puzzled. I turned away, so if he looked in my direction, having figured out I must be the “slutty new girl" in question, I didn’t see it.
I didn’t want to.
I sat down next to Harriet, and she looked at me with eyes full of concern and confusion. Since we had humans at the table, I couldn’t exactly announce that my fated mate had publicly rejected me in front of every wolf-shifter in the school. I concocted a quick lie instead.
"Ignore them. Just some new girl hazing," I said, looking at Harriet’s human friends. "You know, the whole ‘popular guy hits on you and makes you think he’s interested, then embarrasses you in front of his friends’ game? Not very original if you ask me."
They nodded sympathetically. "Don’t worry about it; those guys are complete assholes," the Latino boy with kind eyes said. "I’m Jaime. This is my sister Viviana." He nudged the pretty girl next to him. She had the same kind brown eyes and wavy black hair.
"Mave," I forced smile.
Harriet squeezed my hand. She knew something was up. "And this is Clare," she said, pointing to the quirky-looking girl with short blue hair and glasses sitting next to Viviana. I nodded to her, then Ben materialized in the chair to my right and plopped a sandwich and iced coffee in front of me.
"Are we discussing the very mature antics of our elite students?" he drawled lazily, as if it was all such a bore. He smiled around the table as Harriet reintroduced her friends.
Nikka’s loud screeching carried over the low hum of the students again.
"I know! Too bad Blackstone doesn’t screen for skanks. Knoxy told me the nurse let it slip that the new girl has chlamydia! Think of our poor males."
Roars of laughter followed. "And to think she told Knox she belonged with him! Such a presumptuous slut," Dani sneered. More laughs.
Harriet and her friends gaped at the Elite table. Ben looked at me and rolled his eyes. This time I did catch Blake looking my way out of the corner of my eye, and he just frowned.
As far as mean-girl bullying went, the whore comments were pretty predictable and weak.
It was nothing I hadn’t endured from Pack girls and occasionally even their mothers back in Utah.
Comments about my clothing choices and my "propensity to run around with human boys" always morphed into some form of slut-shaming.
Honestly, it was pretty rich they were calling me a slut when not five minutes earlier, Knox had his hand up some chick’s skirt while his girlfriend sat in his lap. Double standards persisted in wolf and human culture alike.
I sat quietly between Ben and Harriet, slowly munching my sandwich, with Harriet holding my left hand under the table and Ben’s strong arm slung across the back of my chair.
I was mostly successful in keeping an unaffected mask on my face, and normally the name-calling wouldn’t have been that big of a deal to me.
But the bond. The fucking Moon-gifted but utterly tainted bond was burning me from the inside out.
The nausea persisted, and I was having to actively resist the urge to run to Knox’s side just to touch him, seeking some kind of relief from this torture.
Instead, I allowed myself a brief glance in his direction every few minutes.
At this moment, the Ice Man had his tongue down Nikka’s throat while his hand roamed up her skirt. Gross. Still, it sent a sharp pain to my chest.
"Man, they must’ve pegged you as some stiff competition for their boys if they are coming at you this hard, this early," Clare mused, giving the Elite table a disgusted look.
"Yeah, I’m real sorry, Mave," Viviana chimed in. "I’m not sure what’s gotten into them, but I think they’ll get bored soon." I just nodded and gave her a tight smile.
When about ten minutes remained in the lunch period, Jaime, Vivi, and Clare excused themselves to get to their Gym class. Harriet let out a loud sigh of relief, then turned to Ben and me.
"Ok, fucking spill it, right now. What in the fuck happened in your Gym class?"
Ben and I exchanged a look, then I gave her the quick rundown of the most humiliating moment of my life.
"He what?" she shouted. "Are you fucking serious? He just got handed one of the most precious gifts the Moon will ever bestow on a shifter and he just was like, no thanks I’d rather keep sticking my dick in desperate, social-climbing pussy instead?"
By the time she finished her screed, her voice had gone up an octave and she was loud enough that I’m pretty sure the human jock table caught at least some of it since someone coughed to cover a laugh.
"Pretty much," Ben grunted. All pretenses of his earlier good mood were gone.
"Girl… are you okay? I mean, no way, I know you’re not okay, but… do you think you will be?"
While we were talking, most of the students had trickled out of the dining hall to head to fourth period.
I slumped in my chair and rubbed my chest where the echo of the earlier pain remained.
I took a calming breath and focused on pushing my power inward.
My wolf perked up and felt… sad but determined.
"I will be, Harriet. This is my life now, so I'll have to be."
Our Chemistry classroom looked like every school science lab I’d ever seen, just fancier.
Lab tables lined both sides of the room, with two students per table separated by a small sink and some drawers of equipment.
Harriet and I were seated at the furthest table from the front on the right side of the classroom.
I eyed every student who walked through the door, and few paid us any mind. None of the Elites were in the class, thank the Moon, but of course Nikka had flounced in with one of her minions—the brunette with the bob and the huge tits. They occupied a table in the front row.
Keeping with the day’s theme, the teacher (a little old man called Dr. Fergus) stuck to reviewing the syllabus and other general first-day housekeeping.
When we had about fifteen minutes left in class, he gave us a partner assignment involving reading from our textbook and answering a few questions.
Harriet and I were both reading the assigned chapter on our tablets and messaging each other on Instagram while the hum of other students chatting filled the room.
"Dr. Fergus!" Nikka’s hand shot up. "I seem to be missing my workbook with the challenge questions. Can I borrow one of the classroom copies?" She gave him a little smile and batted her lashes.
"Of course, Miss Parker. There’ll be some on the back table."
Oh, now I knew what she was up to. I watched her poke Tits in the shoulder, and they both stood from their stools and slunk to the back of the classroom. Right toward our table.
"Incoming," I hissed at Harriet.
She looked up from her tablet and narrowed her eyes as she saw the approaching bitch patrol.
"Bugs. Skank." Nikka quipped as they slowed next to our table.
I just raised my eyebrows and glanced at Harriet with a questioning look.
"She calls me Bugs Bunny," Harriet drawled, bored, as she continued to scroll her tablet without looking up at the pair. "Never heard that one before; she really should take her show on the road."
I snorted.
"Something funny, you diseased whore?" Nikki snapped at me.
"Jesus, Nikka, get a new schtick," I said evenly. "The slut-shaming thing is so fucking fifteen years ago. We’re about sexual empowerment for women now. I mean, your boyfriend was practically finger-banging you in the cafeteria in front of everyone, so I know you’re well acquainted with the movement. " I gave her a shitty smile.