Chapter 30
THIRTY
BLAKE
Ieyed Monroe from across the school parking lot while I waited for Mave to arrive. He was surrounded by his fan club, as usual, but he was ignoring them all to scowl back at me with all of the fury he only wished he could unleash on me.
Sucks to be you, fuckface.
I darted a quick glance around, and finding no one else was looking in my direction, I lifted my hand like I was going to run my fingers through my hair, but instead I popped just my middle finger out right where Monroe could see it.
I let a hint of orange fire flash right up my finger, and I grinned at him.
His eyes widened for a second, then narrowed menacingly. Had to hand it to the guy—he really wasn’t afraid of me.
As I was contemplating whether I could fuck with him some more without getting caught, the Tesla pulled silently into the parking spot next to me.
"Good morning, brother-in-law," Ben said, grinning broadly at me as he unfolded his giant body from the driver’s seat. He swaggered over to me and gave me a quick fist bump.
Mave popped up from the other side of the car, looking gorgeous as always. She had her long blonde hair pulled back in her signature french braid and just a touch of makeup on her face. She beamed at me as she trotted around the car, then launched herself into my arms.
I caught her easily, taking the opportunity to run my hands over her bare thighs under her skirt as she wrapped her legs around my waist.
"Morning, Wolf Girl," I whispered in her ear as she squeezed me tight.
"Hey, Mr. Blaze," she purred back at me.
She planted a long kiss on my lips, and for a few moments, the rest of the world melted away.
Here, pressed up against each other, we could just be a couple of teenagers experiencing the highs of first love, not a wolf and a mage doing battle against the Moon and the Pack Alpha and everything else that was weighing on us.
"Missed you," I said as I sat her back on her feet. Harriet had pulled into our line of cars and was currently whistling at us from her convertible.
"You two save that shit for later!" she yelled. "It’s too much for my innocent eyes in the morning!"
Her argument was instantly undermined as Tyson ambled over and threw himself over the door and into her passenger seat where he proceeded to kiss along her neck while she giggled and slapped at him.
"There’s condoms and lube in the center console of the Tesla, Harriet!" Ben hollered at her.
We all laughed as the bell rang, and the mass exodus from the parking lot began. I held Mave’s hand as we walked to English, and I couldn’t help but smirk at Monroe as his eyes followed us across the parking lot.
Wolf Girl noticed and rolled her eyes dramatically.
"I have so much to tell you, Blake," she whispered as we headed up the front steps of the main building. "But one item of interest was Ben and I catching Ice Man fucking Tits over a conference room table at the Pack Party. So, as always, it’s real rich that he’s looking bothered by us holding hands. "
I laughed. Of course Monroe couldn’t go one night without sticking his dick somewhere questionable.
"Damn," I replied. "Too bad I wasn’t there. I could’ve encased his dick in ice mid-thrust or something."
"Ben has a video if you’re interested in viewing the carnage."
I shivered. "I’ll pass on that, but thanks, baby."
We took our seats in the back of the English classroom. I pulled out my tablet and my worn copy of Wuthering Heights while the rest of the class filed in.
I reached across the aisle and grabbed Mave’s hand. "I have some stuff to show you. Can we grab a study room in the library during Study Hall and talk?"
She squeezed my hand and gave me a hopeful smile. “Hell yes. I’ll reserve a study room for last period." She started scrolling on her tablet.
Hayes entered then with his usual entourage, and he nodded his head at Mave. This was the new thing he and James were doing—treating Mave with polite respect, like their being in her good graces would somehow transfer to Monroe.
Which gave me an idea.
I opened a group message on my tablet.
Agnon, Blake: yo ben, I hear you have an interesting souvenir from the party
Fortune, Ben: lol which one
Fortune, Mave: what are you up to blake
Agnon, Blake: it would make my day if you’d forward it to hayes’ phone right now
Fortune, Mave: lol!! do it ben
Fortune, Ben: give me 30 seconds and take a picture of his fucking face plz
True to his word, Ben must’ve let the video file rip to Hayes’ phone exactly thirty seconds later. We watched as he dug his phone out of his pocket, still engaged in conversation with one of the wolves that hung out in his orbit. There was about a minute left until the final bell rang.
I knew the exact moment he opened the video.
He narrowed his eyes for a second, then his jaw dropped open ever so slightly when he registered who exactly was on the video and what they were doing.
His shock quickly morphed to angry annoyance, as he whipped his head around to give Mave and me both an unimpressed stare.
Mave winked at him, then snapped a quick photo with her phone and fired it off to Ben. I gave Hayes an amused smile, then motioned for him to turn his ass back around since the teacher had begun her lecture.
After class, I walked Mave down to the second floor and dropped her at her super-secret shifter history class, giving Mason and Thad a dimly flaming middle finger as they walked past us into the classroom.
"Control your boyfriend, Mave,” Thad hissed as he went by.
"Worry about yourself, Nerd Porn," she shot back. "Better yet, worry about your boss. Man Bun has something he wants to show you…."
She cackled as she disappeared into the room.
The rest of my morning was much less entertaining.
Ben had sweet-talked the girl who used to sit next to me in Biology out of her seat sometime last week, so he and I used most of the period to bullshit with each other.
I sat with Tyson, Matt, and Damien in third period Human Geography, where I had to listen to the three of them go on about the NBA pre-season for some godforsaken reason while we worked on a group project.
Third period always moved at a glacial pace because I was antsy for lunch—the next time I’d see Mave.
Lunch was more of the usual, with the homecoming dance happening on Friday being the most popular topic of conversation. I watched Mave like an obsessed creep as she drank her daily iced coffee, looking contemplative as she stroked my thigh absently under the table.
"What’s on your mind, Wolf Girl?" I asked her.
"Nothing much," she replied. "I’m excited for the dance, which is a first for me. I’m intrigued and hopeful about what you’re going to talk to me about during Study Hall. I’m nervous and anxious about what the Alpha might be up to."
That didn’t sound good. I knew I wasn’t the only one with news from the weekend.
Mave nodded at Vivi and Clare, who’d just agreed to go dress shopping with Harriet sometime this week.
After confirming her normal human friends were no longer paying attention to us, she quietly filled me in on what she and Ben had witnessed at the Pack Party and afterward when they’d tailed the Alpha into Bossier City.
That. Mother. Fucker.
"Shit," I whispered, feeling alarmed. "Do you think he has his own fated mate, and he’s treating her like garbage?"
"I don’t know for sure, but Ben and I think that might be what we saw. It could just be another woman he’s cheating on his mate with, but we’re going to try to get more information. It would explain why he’s been such a psycho about me ‘belonging’ to Knox."
"Why the fuck didn’t he just take her as his mate? I’m sure he would’ve forced her into it even if she didn’t want it."
"My guess?" she said. "His marriage to Bianca is what united our pack with the East Texas Pack. He chose to make a power move. But he’s trying to have his cake and eat it too if what we saw is any indication."
"All the more reason we need to break the bond," I replied, lifting her hand to my lips and lightly kissing her knuckles. She flushed slightly, then she let the hand she’d had on my thigh lightly graze my dick as she removed it from my lap.
Touché, baby.
After lunch, I dropped Mave and Harriet at their Chem class.
I did not miss the look of absolute loathing Parker shot at Mave’s back as she made her way to her seat.
I knew Wolf Girl had thoroughly put Parker in her place, but I didn’t like that look.
We all knew how desperate she was to become Monroe’s mate, and I didn’t doubt she might be plotting something else to try to get Mave out of her way.
Not that Wolf Girl had any desire to be in her way.
After a rousing game of dodgeball in Gym in which I absolutely dominated Tyson, Vivi, and Jaime, I showered and headed to Stats, eager to see my girl again.
She was already seated when I waltzed in the room.
I stared hungrily at her long, tanned legs that were crossed underneath her desk, her skirt having ridden up enough to flash me a healthy bit of her lean, muscular thigh.
She was engaged in conversation with Hayes, so I made a detour over to her desk, stopping to put my hands on the desktop in front of her.
I leaned in a gave her a blistering kiss, mostly because I wanted to, but also to piss off Mason and Thad.
She grinned at me. "Missed you too, baby." She gave my ass a slap as I turned to head back to my seat.
To their credit, Hayes just rolled his eyes at us, and James shook his head with a look of only mild annoyance on his face.
I spent the rest of class in exile over at my seat on the far side of the classroom.
As usual, I made polite conversation with Amanda, who I learned Mave refers to as Pink Bra (though we could all see it was purple today), and Hailey.
They both continued to flirt with me despite the fact that I just made out with my girlfriend in front of the whole class.
"Blake," Amanda whispered over my shoulder as the class neared its end. We were supposed to be working on practice problems in our workbooks. "Are you going to the dance on Friday?"
"I am," I replied absently as I sketched a little dragon in the corner of my practice sheet.
"I’m looking forward to watching your game that afternoon, too," Hailey said from her spot on my right. "You guys are sooo good. The other teams never have a chance."
Yeah, because we cheat by stacking the team full of wolf shifters.
"I knooow," Amanda purred from behind me. "It’s easy to pick you out on the field, too, Blake, since your gorgeous tattoos stand out against your jersey."
"Mmmhmm," Hailey cooed in agreement. Then she said, "Are you going with anyone to the dance?"
Is she serious?
"Uh, yeah," I responded, finally looking up from my tiny dragon. "You girls know I’m with Mave."
"Yeah, well, I mean," Amanda gave a little high-pitched laugh from behind me. It grated on my ears. Wolf Girl had such a sexy, husky voice, so maybe I was biased. "Claudia says you guys aren’t exactly serious. And Knox isn’t with Nikka anymore, so…."
I turned in my chair and narrowed my eyes at her.
"I see," I said slowly, giving her a look like she was very dense. "You can take it back to Claudia, and whoever else thinks my relationship is their business—Mave and I are not a casual fling. We’re serious as the fucking grave about each other. Monroe has no claim on her, and I’m not going to be lured away from her, either, especially not by things like the promise of a three-way with you and Claudia, or did you forget how I turned you both down at the back to school party? "
Amanda’s face turned the shade of her favorite bra, then she huffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Enjoy fighting with Knox for that skank’s attention."
That pissed me off. I know the mean-girl insults rolled off Mave’s back like nothing, but I’d hated every single instance of hearing her being called some version of a slut. I sucked in a calming breath and glanced over at Mave’s side of the room.
Her brow was furrowed as she stared threateningly at the side of Amanda’s head. She caught me looking, and once our eyes met, she relaxed and gave me a little smile. She mouthed don’t worry about it at me, then went back to her work.
That wolf hearing. Poor Amanda was probably going to be in for it later.