Chapter 16 #2
I ignored them for the rest of the class. When the bell rang, I sauntered over to Blake's desk while he was packing and grabbed a nice handful of his ass and kissed him on his neck in front of his fan club.
He grinned at me and threw an arm over my shoulder as we walked to the library for Study Hall. "Staking your claim on me, baby?" he asked.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to act like an insecure bitch," I replied, "but Mason and Thad pissed me off so I was acting out."
"Never apologize for putting your hands on me, Wild Girl," he said as we walked out of the main building into the blazing late September sun.
"I'm just going to return the favor tenfold the next time we're alone.
" He let go of my shoulders, but he reached down to clasp my hand instead. "What's up with Hayes and James?"
"Well, as you could probably guess, they're team Knox, and it has not gone unnoticed that you and I are acting... closer."
I watched him closely as I said this since I still wasn't sure if he had any idea what was actually going on with Knox.
A truly clueless person would ask questions like "Doesn't Knox have a girlfriend, why would he care?
" Or "You've never given him the time of day, so that doesn't make any sense?” Or something.
His face lacked confusion, and he just nodded.
"How are you feeling about all of that... lately?" he asked, with genuine concern but also some... evasiveness.
"I'm... much better," I said carefully. "The first week of school was pretty rough, but it's only getting better by the day. I don't think that the Knox issue is going away anytime soon, though, Blake. So I don't really know what to say except I'm sorry."
He looked at me thoughtfully as we entered the library. "I think maybe we should talk soon. About all of that. I just want to... help, I guess."
"I'd like that." We were dancing dangerously close to the line where the rigid code of silence of my kind (and I suspected also of his "kind"—whatever it was) was about to be broken between us.
We hadn't even been dating for twenty-four hours yet, so this was a pretty dangerous game we were playing.
But….
There was just something about Blake. Even before I saw him playing with fireballs and glowing a little bit, I'd always thought there was something that called to me.
It felt different from the bond with Knox.
Of course, I didn't know what a healthy, loving mate bond actually felt like, but I did know the feeling of the pull toward my mate.
The bond was more in your face and physical.
It connected to my wolf, and I could feel her emotions going up and down as more and more damage was done to the bond.
But, before the fated mating happened, I remembered my wolf perking her ears up at Blake, like he interested her in a way no other male had.
His draw was more subtle than the bond, of course, but it was present.
Since I'd seen him in the library, I'd been wondering if he has some kind of internal magic in the way that we have our Alpha powers.
He may just call to the magic of me and my wolf in a different way.
Speaking of my wolf, she was starting to get antsy since I hadn't shifted and let her out to roam in weeks, other than a few backyard play sessions with Ben's wolf.
At this point, if I were to let her out right now, my guess was she'd just spend the entire time licking Blake’s face and trying to snuggle him.
She was angry and hurt at Knox and wanted nothing to do with our garbage mate.
Blake kissed my hair and gave me a knowing look as he dropped me with Harriet and Ben at our study table. My face heated as I remembered what we'd done on this very table last night.
"Oh gross, are we sitting in your sex residue?" Ben asked, and I smacked him in the back of the head.
"No, asshole," I retorted. Then I muttered, "It was the other end of this table."
Harriet gasped. "You better start talking right now, you bitch!"
I made sure Clare, Vivi, and Jaime were absorbed in their work, then I whispered a very quick version of the story, leaving out the fireballs and shifter library B&E.
I just told her I'd seen Blake's car here after work, guessed he was in the library since there were only so many places we could access after hours, and that we'd finally hooked up in a heated, frenzied quickie.
She said, "YAS, GIRL" way too loudly, gave me a high-five, then went back to her Chem homework.
I saw Blake look my way after her outburst, and I just winked at him. He shook his head at me, turned to stare longingly at the end of the table, then appeared to be adjusting himself under the table.
As the end of the day neared, I finally dared to take a peek at Knox. I'd pointedly ignored him all day, refusing to even look in his direction. I knew he'd probably felt my late-night tryst with Blake, and I didn't want to deal with his fucking attitude about it, even from afar.
It chafed me to no end that he thought he could act like he had a problem with me hooking up with a guy when he'd been doing the same with multiple people since we'd been bonded.
I now knew that his ego truly had no limit to it after overhearing his conversation with his boys.
He just honestly thought I should be pining away for him, the mate who rejected me, because of who he was—and who I was not.
So, as expected, I found Knox looking furiously at me when I glanced his direction.
Nikka was snuggled up next to him, and she poked him a few times trying to get his attention back to her.
She'd noticed him staring at me, so she looked my direction with absolute murder on her face.
She'd probably kill me for real if she thought she could get away with it.
But, hey, at least her nose was looking mostly healed.
I just rolled my eyes and started packing my shit. I was taking a short shift at Marilynn's, then running home to change before the game at seven tonight. Harriet was coming with me to sit at the bar, do homework, and eat cheese fries.
I hugged Ben goodbye, then started for the door with Harriet. Blake fell in next to me.
"See you after the game tonight, Wild Girl?"
"I'll be there, Mr. Blaze."
When we were outside, Blake gave me a goodbye kiss while giving my ass an affectionate squeeze. He headed for the gym, and Harriet and I made our way to my car to head off to the bar for a couple of hours.