Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
I stop and give him my full attention. “What’s up with you, loser?” I call in a cheery voice.
Asher stops, too.
Abe bumps into me from behind. His hand finds my hip. I knock it away.
We’re blocking all the traffic in the crowded hallway now.
“Ooh, too good for all of us, aren’t you, rich girl?”
“Lay off,” Abe growls.
Asher looks over in surprise.
I sense Abe take a step back, away from me. I turn to look and see his nostrils are flaring, and his eyes have turned ice-blue. He looks off-balance. I’m not sure if he can see anything right now. He’s having one of his episodes.
“Dude... you’re, um–” Asher taps his temple.
Abe crashes to the floor in a dead heap. His head slams against the hard linoleum with a sickening crack.
“Oh shit.” I drop to my knees beside him.
Abe’s body convulses. I don’t know if it was his fronting that made me believe he really could handle what was going on with him before, but I realize that was all just bluster. Abe has a serious medical problem he’s been covering up for fear of appearing weak. Terror strikes through my heart now.
“He’s having a seizure!” I call out. “Get a teacher.” I cradle his head to keep it from banging against the ground. Abe’s legs jerk, his body flops.
Oh, God.
Bodies crowd around us, kids pressing in to see, everyone staring.
“Get back,” I wave an arm. My stomach is in my throat. “Somebody get help!”
Tears smart my eyes.
Abe sucks in a hard breath with a huge whoosh, then sits up, gasping. He blinks, his eyes changing back to slate grey. He looks around at everyone staring at him. “Fuck.” In a flash, he’s on his feet, and I’m still kneeling on the ground.
“Dude,” Asher says, eyes wide. “What just happened to you?”
“Abe, you have to stop pretending you’re okay, when you’re not.” I climb to my feet. “You need to get help–this is dangerous. What if that happened while you were driving or something?”
Abe scrubs a hand across his face, taking in the throng of people around us. I should have expected it, but it hits me like a slap when his face contorts into an all-too-familiar expression of scorn. “Don’t pretend you know me, Princess.” He makes a shooing motion. “Go back to your mansion. You have no idea what’s really going on.”
What’s really going on?
Is that his way of pretending I don’t know he’s a wolf?
You know what? I don’t care. Abe could find a million other ways to protect me. He’s just being a dick, as he has always been.
Why I thought I could actually care about someone as flawed as him is beyond me.
“Yeah, keep covering up with bullshit. That’s what you’re good at.”
Abe is already walking away from me, redirecting the crowd away from the scene he was so desperate to avoid. I don’t even get the dignity of him waiting for my comeback.
I watch his retreating back–those broad shoulders that look like they belong on a man, not a high school student. My continued attraction to him hits me as pain.
“You’re so afraid everyone will think you’re weak, Abe,” I say to his back.
He doesn’t turn but others stop to listen to me. They want to know what I dare say to their king.
“Well, you are weak. You’re so afraid of showing who you really are to the people around you, and it makes you the biggest coward in this school.”
He rounds the bend without ever looking back.
I blink rapidly, fighting the hot tears threatening behind my eyes.
Rayne appears at my elbow, her expression wide and concerned. “You okay?” she murmurs, taking my arm and pulling me in the opposite direction of Abe.
“No.” I fight down the swell of emotion choking me. “But I will be.” I square my shoulders and hold my head up high as I march out the school.
I don’t need Abe Oakley.
I have me now.
He and all his alpha-hole friends can go screw themselves.
I’m officially done.
Abe
I shake the crowd by heading into the locker room, even though we don’t have practice today because of the game tonight.
I just fucked up. Big time.
It takes me a few minutes to realize the reason my heart is pounding, and I’m cold with dread. It’s not because the whole school just saw me have some kind of seizure. It’s not because a human just called me a coward in front of everyone.
It’s because I hurt Lauren.
The moment I pull my head out of my ass, I run out the doors toward the parking lot. “Lauren!” I spot her getting into the passenger side of the Tesla.
She tosses her copper hair and slams the door shut.
I drop my backpack and run toward the car. I need to fix this before it’s too late.
The bile in my throat tells me that ship has sailed, though.