Chapter 14
Sena
The short black dress hugs every damn curve I have while the front dips low enough to reveal the top of my breasts. I was shocked that it stretched enough to cover my ass and reach mid-thigh. Luckily, it’s just long enough to cover my mate markings and any questions they may bring up.
We pass the male dorms and into the forest. I don’t have a clue where we’re going. I’ve avoided this entire area knowing the guys are close by.
They’ve gone out of their way to completely avoid me, so it seems only right that I give them the same courtesy.
I push the guys to the back of my mind and immediately focus on the girls and the ease I feel around them. I don’t know what I would have done without them lately.
Probably stayed inside my room and rotted away in bed while mopping over four assholes that no longer care about me.
Maia grabs Remi’s arm and moves closer to me and Ember. “Seriously, if I wasn’t into guys, you’d totally do it for me.”
I laugh at her. “Same, girl.”
I make a show of scanning up and down her body before smiling at her. “Alas, we unfortunately like dick. But if that changes, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Chicks before dicks,” Ember shouts and we all laugh as we head further into the forest. It’s not long before music sounds in the distance, beckoning us forward.
We follow the pumping sound to a small clearing where we find a table of drinks and snacks and a large sound system.
There are at least a couple hundred people here, though none I really recognize. Even though there are more females here than in the Shadow Academy, the males still vastly outnumber us. Even now there’s only about twenty-five females here in total, including the four of us.
But maybe the lack of females in the crowd has more to with their good decision-making skills than anything else. Considering most of the guys here are watching every female with a hungry look in their eyes, as if they’re about to have a wild night.
Maia leads me over to the table of drinks and I grab a bottle of some cheap beer from the table before glancing around.
“Em?” Maia calls. “Why is Jeremy staring at you like he’s waiting for you to come over to him?”
Ember grabs and drink and downs half of it. “Been there, done that—won’t be going back.”
Remi rolls her eyes. “You say that every time. And each time you go back to him.”
Ember gives her a blank expression. “I need some good dick and he’s always available.”
I smile at her and she shrugs.
“I’m not interested in messing around this semester, and he knows it,” Ember says.
“Did he get the memo?” Maia asks. “Because he looks like he’s about to eat you up.”
Ember glances over at Jeremy and her face immediately softens.
Damn, that girl has it bad. Maia and Remi share a knowing look with me as Jeremy walks over and scans Ember from head to toe before taking her drink, placing it on the table, and dragging her out to a spot in the middle of the dancing.
“Do I need to knock him upside his head or is he one of the good ones?” I ask, keeping my eye on Ember.
“Jeremy is one of the good ones. Ember is the one that doesn’t know what she wants. Looks like Jeremy has decided to up his game, though,” Remi says.
Ember wraps her arms around him, and they stare silently at one another as if they’re all the other can see.
Something in my chest tightens as the scene instantly reminds me of the four assholes and how close we were getting. My stomach churns, but I knock back half of my drink and try to shove the thought of them to the back of my mind. Again.
I’m supposed to be having fun.
There’s a group messing around with a few blades and makeshift target practice. Maia and Remi catch me staring and drag me over.
“She wants in,” Remi says, shoving me forward beside a tall, pretty boy with deep blue eyes. He stares at me like he knows he’s pretty and has no problem using it to his advantage. Unfortunately, my brain is now hard-wired to four specific males.
“It’s best of three shots,” Blue Eyes says as he hands me a small silver dagger.
I down the rest of my drink and throw it to the side before taking the blade and twisting it in my palm.
“What do I get if I win?” I ask him.
His eyes darken as he stares down at my lips. “Whatever you want. But if I win, I get a kiss.”
“Keep it in your pants, Reed,” Remi tells him, making him laugh.“Sena doesn’t want any of your shit.”
“But you do,” he says with a cocky grin.
She narrows her eyes on him. “Not now, not ever.”
He grabs his chest and fake winces. “Ouch.”
She raises a brow. “Your ego or your dick?”
He smirks. “And if I say my dick?”
She pretends to think about it. “I’d say I’d kiss it better, but I’m more likely to bite it off.”
His eyes darken with lust. “I’m still up for it.”
She rolls her eyes at him. “Play your damn game and get your head out of the gutter.”
He winks at her before turning and throwing the dagger. It lands just beside center ring but not directly on it. He seems proud of the result as he turns and gives me a smug expression.
Grabbing two more daggers, he throws another and lands it directly next to his first one. The third lands closer, though still a few centimeters left of the center.
He turns to look at me with a confident smile.
“If I win…” I glance over at Ember to find her giggling as Jeremy pulls her out of the clearing and back the way we came. My gaze then slides to Remi finding a similar longing in her eyes, though unlike Ember and Jeremy’s glances, Remi’s is more… intense.
“I want… Remi to decide what to do with you,” I tell him, and his brows rise before he stares over at Remi.
She quickly drops her shocked expression to give him a bland look, though I doubt he misses the heat in her eyes.
He smirks at her, his eyes glued to hers as he replies, “deal.”
I take another two daggers and send Remi a wink before throwing the three daggers one after the other. They fly toward the target and all land dead center, shocking everyone silent.
“Well, fuck me,” Reed mumbles.
“I think that’s Remi’s job,” I tell him, and he barks out a laugh just as Remi comes up beside us and grabs him by the collar of his shirt.
“The deal was whatever I want,” she smirks at him, and he goes willingly as she leads him out of the clearing and into the forest.
Maia sighs. “You good here for a minute?” she asks, and I nod. “I’m going to make sure she doesn’t do something she’ll regret in the morning.” She waves me off before heading in Remi and Reed’s direction.
“So, you’ve been hiding some hidden talents from us,” a guy with chestnut-brown hair says from my left. I turn to him and find his eyes trailing down my body.
“Any other talents we should know about?”
I’ll admit he’s handsome, but I think that’s about all he’s got going for him. He definitely doesn’t have any common sense as he reaches out to touch me.
I’m about to smack his hand away when a long dark tendril coils around his wrist and his eyes widen in horror as he starts screaming in pain. The music cuts out as I follow the dark tendril to find Theon, Knox and Malakai moving toward me.
“Touch her and you die,” Theon grits out being the dramatic asshole that he is. Everyone turns to stare at them when dark shadows spill into the entire clearing, instantly knocking everyone out just before Cyrus comes into view.
My stomach does a little flip seeing them for the first time in a month, but I quickly remind myself that they were the ones that chose to ignore me. I quickly school my features so they won’t see just how much I’ve missed them.
“Was that really necessary?” I ask, watching as Theon coils his tendril tighter around the guy, making him scream and gasp some more before he passes out.
Theon finally releases his shadows and glances around. He’s probably searching for someone else to torment, but Cyrus’s shadows seem to have knocked everyone out.
The four of them move in front of me.
“We’ve decided it’s time to talk,” Knox says, and I freeze, wondering if I’ve misheard him. But no matter how many times I replay it over in my mind, it still sounds unbelievably stupid.
I narrow my eyes on him.
“Oh, you’ve decided? How considerate of you all.” I paste a fake smile on my face before dropping it.
“I don’t want to talk to any of you and I’ve decided that you can all go fuck yourselves.”
Knox rolls his eyes at me like I’m the one being unreasonable. “You’re our mate,” he states like it’s a damn given that I’m supposed to accept them and their shitty behavior.
“You should have thought about that little fact before you all ignored me and blocked me out—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Knox says cutting me off, but I continue.
“…Besides I’ve moved on,” I tell them.
Malakai glares at me. “The fuck you have.”
“Let’s be honest. There’s better stock here anyway.” There really isn’t. But I make a show of glancing around the unconscious males in the clearing. “And honestly, I’m starting to realize how glad I am that you all showed your true colors.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Malakai grits out, as his eyes narrow on me before glancing at the males that are passed out closest to me. He glares at each of them before his shadows snap out and shove them farther away from me.
I guess they were a little too close for his liking.
I ignore his psycho-ass and shrug, trying to act detached and not show every true emotion on my face.
“When shit hits the fan, you all go running,” I tell them.
“We never fucking left. We hate this place, but we stayed, for you,” he says, staring at me like I’ve lost my damn mind.
I scoff. For me… they say they stayed for me, but then couldn’t take ten minutes out of their busy schedule to come talk to me?
“If you hate it that much then leave,” I tell them even as my heart breaks at the thought of it. “No one is stopping you,” I say quietly while trying to shove down the layers of emotions trying to consume me whole.