Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
The rest of the week crawled by without much fanfare. Blake and I weren’t able to hang out much outside of school with our respective sports and job obligations, but at least we had a hot date to the dance on Friday night to look forward to.
Knox made it a point to speak to me with at least some civility most days.
I suspected Man Bun and Nerd Porn had another talk with him, because he kept it respectful and continued to refrain from obvious PDA in the halls of the school with any of his adoring female fans—not that it would have bothered me if he hadn’t.
He did corner me after Gym on Tuesday to press me about going on an actual date with him so I could, and I quote, "get to know him better before he showed me how hard he could make me come."
We can all imagine how well that went for him.
As an added bonus, Nikka and Dani strolled past in time to catch the end of our conversation but then had to divert to the bleachers so that Dani could console her visibly distraught friend.
Even I was starting to feel bad for Nikka at this point.
Wednesday afternoon was our girls’ shopping outing to one of the high-end boutiques in the historic downtown.
As much as I was not a shopaholic type, I found myself enjoying the clothes and the company of my friends—an excited and tittering Vivi, a no-nonsense shopping drill sergeant in Harriet, and a content and mellow Clare—as we tried on dress after dress for the dance.
Somehow in that tiny boutique, we each found something that suited our particular style and taste, and we all left feeling enthusiastic about Friday.
As the weekend crept closer, I was growing more and more anxious about the Unbinding spell. Blake’s easy confidence that everything was going to work was a soothing balm at my most stressful moments, but the anticipation and the nerves were starting to take a toll.
I wanted to have hope, but I still felt the pressing need to prepare myself for the crushing disappointment of having the attempt to break the bond fail miserably.
Blake and Ian would go back to the drawing board, I was sure, but at some point I knew we’d all need to accept that this was indeed my fate, and I’d continue to learn to live with it.
We’d need a Plan B for dealing with the Alpha, and after we got through this weekend, Ben and I would get back on the hunt for blackmail material if we had to.
The bond itself had begun to flare up inside me this week like an itch I couldn’t scratch. After my weeks of careful work breaking it down so that it was usually only faint, dull pain most of the time, it had suddenly decided to work itself back to life again.
By Thursday, I noticed that I was exhausted by the end of the school day.
My schoolwork was suffering, as I was spending more and more time trying to meditate with my wolf and push my Alpha power inward to counteract the resurgence of nausea, misery, and confusing feelings when I was in the same room as Knox.
My best guess? Knox himself was responsible.
Now that he was, at least sometimes, trying to care about repairing the bond—going out of his way to speak to me, asking me out, and probably doing a terrible job of convincing his wolf not to be interested in mine—I wondered if he’d revived the rotten bond enough that it was tugging on me harder.
All the more reason that Saturday night needed to go off without a hitch.
The boys won their soccer game on Friday afternoon three to one, with Ben having scored two of the three goals.
It was a true miracle of the Moon that neither Harriet nor I fell to our doom from the bleachers with how much we were jumping around like idiots cheering for him.
If he’d scored again, I would’ve probably lost my voice.
Blake didn’t look too shabby out there either, but I preferred to admire him in focused silence while I imagined what that powerful body was going to do to me later.
After the game, Ben, Harriet, and I retired to Casa Fortune to fancy ourselves up for the dance.
"Oooh, girl," Harriet whistled at me as I twirled in front of my dresser mirror. "You’ve already locked up your dream man, save some of that sexy for the rest of us."
"This is all your doing, you know," I replied, but I couldn’t help but crack a smile at my reflection. Harriet had curled my hair into soft waves and secured them into a low off-center ponytail that draped elegantly down my left shoulder. She’d done my dramatic makeup in natural hues that complimented my lightly tanned skin, so I looked glamorous but still like myself.
I knew that would please Blake to no end.
My dress was killer and I was in love with it.
Harriet had found me a sheer white lace dress with a strapless corseted top and a long, flowy tulle skirt that opened with a high slit over my right leg.
I wore a stack of gold necklaces that matched my tiny ear studs.
Harriet also threatened me with a painful death if I wore my combat boots with the dress, so instead I wore nude stiletto sandals that would put me almost eye-level with Blake.
I would be wearing my leather jacket, though, and she could pry it off of my cold dead body.
Harriet’s makeup was more dramatic than mine and played with more colors, accenting her warm brown eyes and gorgeous brown skin. Her yellow dress was a fitted mermaid style that hugged her curves perfectly, and she wore her usual sky-high heels.
"Ladies," Ben drawled, entering my room without knocking as usual. He whistled as he looked us over. "Harriet, you could almost turn me straight. Magic, you look hot, and I mean that in a very brotherly way."
I walked over to him and kissed his cheek.
"You look wonderful, too, Benji-bear."
He was wearing a slim-fit navy blue suit with a crisp pale pink dress shirt under his perfectly tailored blazer. He wore his blinding white Nikes and a dark blue tie which hung loosely around his neck. His hair was styled to perfection and his skin was glowing.
He beamed his megawatt smile at me and then at Harriet, offering us each an arm. "Shall we? I heard our dates congregating downstairs. Mom has probably already mauled each of them."
We descended the stairs together, snickering at our teen-movie moment. As the living room came into view, I could see our handsome dates lined up and awaiting our arrival.
There was Tyson, locs pulled into a neat ponytail and wearing the hell out of a maroon velvet suit. He was eyeing Harriet like a hungry wolf.
There was Asher, super cute swimmer wolf from the junior class, who could only stare at Ben with stars in his eyes. It was total adoration, like he couldn’t believe Ben was really and truly his date tonight.
And finally, there was my dark prince. Blake wore all black, except his suit jacket looked like it was actually the darkest of purples.
He wore no tie, and his black dress shirt was unbuttoned just enough that I could see the tattoos along his collarbone peeking through.
His bright green eyes met mine, and I could feel the heat in them as he watched me descend the stairs on my brother’s arm.
He looked me up and down as I approached, and his smile was feral and predatory.
"We are not going to the dance, Wolf Girl," he whispered up against my ear as he pulled me into his arms. "We are going back up to your room where I will lock the door and cast a silencing spell, and then I am going to absolutely wreck you in that dress. I am going to fuck you on every surface in that room until you’ve come more times than you can count, and then I’m going to wrap myself around your naked body and hold you until morning. "
A violent shiver ran up my entire body and molten heat pooled at my core. Whatever reaction I’d hoped to inspire in him with my look tonight, that beat my expectations by a mile. I’d knocked the ball not just out of the park but well into the parking lot and busted some windshields in the process.
My wolf rumbled happily in my chest.
I leaned in to murmur in his ear now.
"Now I’m going to have wet panties all night long, Mr. Blaze. This is a troubling pattern with you."
He groaned and gripped me tighter, running his hands over my ass.
Luckily, Mom and Dad appeared in the room to force us to take a bunch of pictures before Blake and I could start groping each other in a manner unfit for company.
Ben took Asher in the Tesla, and the rest of us piled into Blake’s BMW to head back to the Academy. The dance, in true homecoming tradition, was being held in the school gymnasium.
We entered through the open double doors as a group, and I took a moment to survey the scene in front of me.
Most of the students had beaten us here, having skipped the soccer game entirely or left early. The gym had been tastefully decorated, by whatever student committee did that type of shit, with streamers, flowers, and table decorations sporting the Academy’s maroon and black colors.
The dance floor pulsed loudly at the back of the gym, already crowded with enthusiastically moving students and even the occasional faculty member who mistakenly thought they didn’t look completely ridiculous.
I spotted the Elite trio near a center table surrounded by their usual court of Alphawhores, AWITs, and generic cool kids.
Knox was still not taking my advice to reconcile with Nikka, as he had his arm loosely draped over Tits 2.
0, who was barely contained in her dark purple bandage dress.
He looked sharp in his dark gray suit, and he caught my eyes as I scanned them over his group.
His eyes widened a fraction while he took in my dress, my hair, my face, and just when I expected his patented smirk and leer combo, I was hit instead with just a look of profound… sadness?
I felt a slight twinge in the bond. Good; maybe he was finally accepting the facts after all this time.