Chapter 6 #2
"Listen, bitch," she spit out, "I know you think you have some kind of magical claim on Knox Monroe, but he’s mine. Everyone in the Pack knows I’m supposed to be the next Alpha Mate."
I rolled my eyes, keeping as unaffected a look on my face as possible, even though just talking about Knox caused me physical pain.
"Did you inhale too much of your hairspray fumes this morning? Or were you not at the same public rejection that I was earlier today? It’s not happening—you can fucking keep him."
Tits decided to interject her brilliance. "Whatever, slut; nobody trusts you not to try to steal him. He's the future Alpha. You’ll try to use the bond to make him pay attention to you. Or like, guilt him into choosing you instead."
Now Harriet had enough.
"Personally I think Mave dodged a huge bullet here," she snapped, glaring daggers at Nikka. "Knox is an egotistical asshole manwhore who can’t keep his dick in his pants. That’s what you’re worried about, isn’t it, Parker?
You know he’ll drop you again in a few months when he gets bored and wants to stick it in someone new, like he always does.
Newsflash—Mave wouldn’t touch his diseased cock with your pussy. "
"Fuck you, rabbit girl," Nikka hissed at her. "Figures you’d be friends with the new omega trash. You’re practically both prey."
"Miss Parker, Miss Stephens!" Dr. Fergus called from the front. "Please head back to your seats. This isn’t social hour."
Nikka and Tits stepped away from our table with one last death glare.
I let out a long sigh. "This is gonna be how it is for awhile, huh?" I whispered to Harriet.
"’Fraid so, girl. But damn, I thought you handled that pretty fucking brilliantly. You weren’t rattled at all."
"Ha ha, thanks. But, I mean, I only had the assist. It was you with the slam dunk."
She laughed and fist bumped me, and then I added, "I’m glad I seemed like I had that under control. Her mean-girl shit doesn’t bother me, but talking about the whole thing is still… hard. It feels like a fucking bomb went off in my soul."
She nodded, giving me a soft smile. "It’s only been a few hours, Mave.
If you’re keeping your shit together this well now when you should be curled up in the fetal position on the floor of the girls’ bathroom, I don’t think it’ll take that much longer for you to really move past it.
I mean, as much as that is magically possible? "
"Right. Whatever that means."
The bell rang, and we filed into the crowded hallway. We said our goodbyes, and I made my way up the stairs in search of my Stats class. Since my locker was on the second floor near the classroom, I lingered there for a minute to center myself and focus on calming the tainted bond.
I was about to head into the classroom when a large body leaned against the locker to my left. At first I assumed it was Ben since his locker was next to mine, but when I turned, I was met with Blake’s intense emerald green gaze.
Fuck, I had no idea what he was thinking about me after the lunchtime horror show.
And at any rate, I didn’t know if I had the mental energy left to force out some comment or quip that would keep up our flirtatious banter.
Before I could try, Blake just gave me a little smile and squeezed my shoulder.
Then he turned and marched into the classroom.
I stood there for a second, confused, but I guess relieved. Then I followed after him.
Our Statistics teacher was a rotund older man with a receding hairline and a mustache. He had posted a seating chart at the front of the classroom, requiring us to sit in alphabetical order.
I made my way to my seat in the middle of the second row of desks, this time arranged auditorium style. Blake had an "A" name, so he was forced into the seat furthest to the right on the front row. A few human girls were seated around him, and they eyed him appreciatively.
Then Man Bun Mason Hayes slid into the desk next to mine. Fucking perfect.
"Uh, hey," he whispered as the rest of the class got situated in their seats, and the teacher began to scribble on the whiteboard.
I sat there, twirling my pen between my fingers. I couldn’t decide if I was going to have Ben make me some kind of a tequila cocktail when we got home, or if we should just take shots. I needed the big guns to forget this day.
"Hey," Mason said again, a little louder.
I glanced at him, startled. "Surely you are not talking to me?"
"Uh, yeah, I am?" he said, making it sound more like a question. "I just… I guess I wanted to say I’m sorry about how everyone was acting at lunch. It was unbecoming of the Pack."
I snorted. "Oh, you think?"
He frowned at me, like he was surprised I wasn’t graciously accepting his apology.
"Look," he said, sounding serious. "I know you’re new here and unfamiliar with the Pack and with how we are at Blackstone. Knox is the Alpha Heir and runs the wolves and really most of the school, and I’m his number one beta. I understand the gravity of this… situation, and I just don’t want you to jump to any negative conclusions about Knox or the Pack.
I’m sure things will… work themselves out. "
"Excuse you," I hissed at him. I was not in the mood to be condescended to by "Knox’s number one beta" about what I did and did not know about the Pack and their bullshit social hierarchy at Blackstone Academy.
And I sure as shit would not have him insinuate that I might have the wrong idea about Knox, given that he both humiliated me and crushed my heart and soul into the ground mere hours prior.
"Fuck off, Man Bun. You have no idea what it was like to endure that this morning. Stop talking to me, and you can tell your boss to go fuck himself, too."
Mason sputtered in surprise then hacked out a cough to cover it.
The teacher was addressing the class at this point, walking through the syllabus, and assigning homework problems. Mason and I were both facing forward, feigning paying attention, while we hissed back and forth at each other under our breaths.
I belatedly noticed Nerd Porn Thad James was also here, listening intently from the row behind us.
"You’re not seriously—" Mason started to say before I cut him off.
"Fuck. Off. Mason."
I knew what his hang-up was about. He probably didn’t expect this level of attitude from the new omega wolf. He, like everyone else, probably thought I was pining away for Knox, hoping he’d see the error of his ways and change his mind.
That I would be grateful for any scrap of decency or attention from the Elites in the meantime.
That I was just longing to find a place to belong in the Pack.
But my attitude wasn’t really meshing with that whole idea.
He wisely stopped trying to talk to me for the rest of the class. I worked on my practice problems and kept my head down. The bell rang and I darted from the room before he could try to say anything else to me.
I caught Ben at our lockers.
"How’s it been?" he asked, enveloping me in a hug.
"Shitty, but I’m surviving."
"Well, good thing we only have Study Hall left for the day," he replied. "With every junior and senior in school. Should be as fun as lunch was."
I sighed. I survived it then, I’ll survive it again.
"Let’s just get through this, then you’re making me a strong fucking drink when we get home."
"Deal."
Study Hall was held in the massive, gorgeous library building that sat about a hundred yards behind the main classroom building.
It consisted of two open stories of bookshelves that faced the inner atrium, which was lined with long study tables.
Huge stained glass windows above the second floor level allowed the afternoon sun to bathe the tables below.
Some private study rooms and offices were located at the back of the building.
According to Harriet, a shifter faculty member staffed one of the offices, and it was through there that we could be granted entrance to the secret shifter library section.
Ben and I were seated on one side of a long table at the back of the room. Harriet and her friends from lunch were seated around us. The assorted hot-jock human crew was mixed with some more bookish types at the other end of our table, all chatting amicably with one another. Blake was among them.
The Elites, Alphawhores, and their fan club were a few tables away, which was not nearly far enough for my comfort.
Knox was sitting between Mason and Nikka, smiling and laughing with his buddies.
Nikka kept a hand on him at all times, though he wasn't really paying attention to her.
He caught me looking in his direction a few times at the start of the period, and he just glared at me.
Mason was mostly focused on his work, not laughing quite as much as the rest of the crew. He frowned at me a few times, too, but he was pretty much frowning at everybody. Thad sat across from them with his back to us, so at least I didn’t have to see his snobby face.
We were all expected to be studying and working on homework or school projects during the period, and there was little supervision except for a bored-looking woman perched behind a desk at the front.
She didn’t stir once, even when the "ugly skank" comments and loud laughter started to carry over the hum of the other students from the Elite table.
"They’re so original," Vivi said to our group. "Guess it’s been a day, huh Mave?"
"Yeah, they're like a dog with a bone," I huffed. My chest was hurting again since Knox was nearby.
"Don’t worry, Mave put Nikka in her place when she tried to start shit during Chem," Harriet added, deliberately upping her volume so her voice carried.
"She just calmly pointed out that it was pretty rich of Parker to be throwing around the ‘whore’ comments when Knox had his hand up her cooch in the middle of the lunchroom.
You know, stones and glass houses and all that. "