Claimed by the Devils

Chapter 27

Rowan POV

I spent the whole night with Aria. She ate her pizza while I finished off mine. We sat in silence for a long time. I got the sense that talking was the last thing on her mind. After Lucian’s revelation, I waited for her to go bat-s**t crazy. It didn’t happen. Instead, we ended up talking about some old memories of school. Our projects. What we hoped to achieve in the future. My family owned a pharmaceutical empire. Our reach was vast and one of my hopes was to finally find that cure for cancer. I thought I’d like to be the one who got the chance to do it. That was what I would love to do, but the competition was steep.

Aria was impressed. She didn’t think I had a plan for the future. I had an entire dream cast that I’d like to delve into. Cancer was just the beginning. World hunger was another. They were all fanciful dreams at the moment, but I was the kind of guy who believed in going big or going home.

Of course, none of this was even possible unless I completed everything my dad and The Society needed from me. The selection was only part of the process. To be part of The Society, there was an endless list of tasks and initiation procedures. This wasn’t a one-time deal. Halloween night and claiming Aria was only part of it.

To be honest, I didn’t know why taking a woman was considered to be a big deal. I got that it was kind of hot to share a woman between four men. I liked to watch a woman come apart, and I had no problem sharing her with my three best friends. Call me sick, but I liked to think we were close like brothers to be able to support each other and bang the same girl. Yeah, I sounded like an asshole, I knew that.

Aria was … complicated. Even though she was Joan Vales’s daughter, she didn’t have the first clue about what the hell was going on, making this more of a challenge than I thought any of us would have liked.

I didn’t mind struggling, but this was different. Aria was innocent and she hadn’t been a part of our world.

None of it made much sense, but I imagined in time, all would be revealed, or it was just one of those glaring coincidences that mean absolutely nothing. Life f*****g sucked at times.

Still, I got to hang out with Aria. She stopped crying, which was a relief. I hated to see her so upset.

Entering school the next day with Aria between us, I saw how tense she was. I moved in close to put a hand at her back, trying to offer her some comfort and support.

“Remember, you’re in a position every single girl here wants to be in,” I said.

This was all about showing her she was meant to be by our side.

She was our queen.

Aria snorted.

“Heather doesn’t want this position.”

“You had to go and pick her.”

She chuckled, and it was a good sound.

“I doubt for a single second everyone wants to be here. You’re not that great, Rowan.”

I smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“You haven’t given me a chance to prove how good I can be.”

I wanted to do more than kiss her, but for now, I had to settle with that. We entered the school and went straight toward the homeroom. We were running late, and Heather waited for her in their usual seat.

We had all agreed not to make waves between Aria and Heather. She would need her friend throughout this.

After I took a seat, Mr. Connors stumbled into the classroom after the bell, looking somewhat disheveled.

“You think he’s been up all night f*****g?” I asked, leaning toward Sebastian.

“Don’t breathe on me.”

I may have enjoyed a heavily garlic-style burrito this morning. I was a growing man. I needed all my protein.

“Have we checked him out?”

“Damn it, Rowan, take a breath mint.”

“You’re being mean.”

“And you f*****g stink. This has got to be some kind of sin.”

He shuffled his hair away, and I glared at him. Aria didn’t complain.

“Is there a problem, Mr. Knox?”

“Yeah, garlic face here is not a vampire,” Sebastian said.

I stuck my fingers up at Sebastian as the class chuckled.

“This brings us to another topic of friendship,” Mr. Connors said.

We all groaned. I didn’t know about everyone else, but I for sure was getting sick and tired of all the lovey-dovey bullshit. Relationships were what we made them.

“Can’t we just all agree that r****g chicks is bad and move on? I don’t need to have a lecture about the good and bad s**t that goes on in the world. I’m a good guy. No chick needs to be drugged for me to get with them. Isn’t that right, ladies?”

A couple of wadded-up pieces of paper were thrown in my general direction.

“We’re having to go through these difficulties, Mr. Hale. If you continue to have your disagreement, take it up with the principal.”

I smiled at Mr. Connors’s smartass answer. If he thought he’d embarrass me, he was very much mistaken. I’d learned long ago to not let trivial things affect me like how people viewed me. It didn’t bother me if chicks wanted to f**k me or hate me. Nor did I care if guys were looking for ways to kill me. None of it mattered. I was immune to their thoughts and feelings.

“So how about we talk about a student-teacher relationship,” I said.

We’d been discussing so many different relationships that this one had been curiously overlooked.

“That isn’t something we need to talk about,” he said.

“No? How come?” I asked.

“I’ve already set out the process of us having these discussions.”

“But the good thing about being a teacher is the process of adapting.”

I chuckled.

“Come on, teach, aren’t you curious what the good books say about our kind of relationship? Unless of course this makes you uncomfortable. Then I can understand your hesitancy. I’d be hesitant as well if you were already f*****g a student.”

In just a few short words, I’d commanded the attention of the entire class.

Now, Mr. Connors had two ways of dealing with this. Scolding me and then having everyone curious as to why he won’t delve into this particular topic, or show I had more power than him.

Silence filled the room.

With every second that passed, he wasted time.

“You make a very valid point, Rowan. In time, we will come to view that topic.”

“Why wait?”

“We have to go through the facts of what I’ve been told to advise you all.”

He turned to look at the class as if that was going to be the end of it.

“Don’t you think my topic is very relevant?”

“Do you want to risk having detention?” Mr. Connors asked.

There was an audible gasp.

Believe it or not, I liked this guy. He had this injury problem going on. Kind of funny and cool. I wasn’t going to be taken down though.

I stared at him, assessing my options.

“You can give me a detention, and by all means, I’ll drag my ass out of bed every Saturday morning bright and early to deal with it, but you’ve got to give me a good reason why my topic isn’t the most relevant.”

He went to open his mouth and I couldn’t resist adding insult to injury.

“The reason I believe my topic is the most relevant is the timing. I’d understand if these classes started at the end of the semester where we’re going to be going out to parties, getting screwed, all that fun stuff, but we’re dealing with this during term time. Our overall impressionable days are spent with teachers. Shouldn’t you be granting us the ability to understand what is right and wrong in those terms?”

I was a giant f*****g asshole.

Let’s face it, if I was going to screw a teacher, I would, and none of this would make any difference.

Pussy was p***y, but Mr. Connors made it so much fun to rile him up.

On a scale of one to ten, this was right up there on the enjoyment scale. Just like I planned, by the time he opened his mouth again, the bell rang, bringing homeroom and bullshit relationship jargon to a stop.

“Oops,” I said.

“I’m so sorry for wasting your time.”

It took every ounce of restraint not to burst out laughing at his clear irritation. His face was a nice strawberry red, and he looked ready to explode. So cute.

This was really easy. I chuckled to myself as I grabbed my things and headed out the door.

“You’re a d**k,” Lucian said.

“Please, I saved us from having to listen to him drone on.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You really do put a lot of power in your voice. You were talking out of your ass, you know that, right?” Sebastian asked.

“I thought it was funny,” Aria said.

“Me too,” Heather said in agreement.

I didn’t know why she started to tag along, but it wasn’t like we could push her away.

“See, the ladies love me.”

I nudged my way between Heather and Aria, kissing their heads in turn.

“I’m a rockstar.”

“Don’t push it,” Elliot said.

“You know he’s going to be ready for you next time.”

“Please, anyone else finding this all a little extreme?”

“I’m guessing this isn’t just about what happened last year, but also the rumor,” Lucian said.

“We don’t have time to linger. Let’s move.”

The rumor being the relationship between a female student and a male teacher. It had gone through the school like wildfire, especially as said teacher and student disappeared at the same time. They had either left together in a mad whirlwind romance, or they’d been killed. I was an optimist. I was hoping they were off somewhere having lots of s*x and loads of babies. Either that, or it ended quickly for them, and were holding hands when the killing blow happened.

See, forever the optimist.

“You’re a strange person,” Aria said.

I heard the laughter in her voice.

Strange, I could accept. With my happy, optimistic personality, I had to hope one day I’d have the best life with my own personal happily-ever-after.

I knew the guys were only doing what had been required of them, but I wasn’t like them. Society wasn’t going to rule my life, at least, not the whole of it.