A Wolf in the City

23. This type of Chemistry.

DANTE.

A scowl mars my face as Kai leads Raven into the environment. The pink of her cheeks darken as she glances around her surroundings, her gaze locking on me at the spot that I am at. Her hands twist together, and I bite back the satisfaction at seeing her nerves play so visibly. “Is she supposed to be here?” I say to Adalee, my eyes never moving from Raven.

My eyes rakes over her body, taking in the flats on her bare feet, slender legs, ugly denim dress, and the flowery atrocity she wore as a top. Finally, my eyes settled on her face, pretty and free of any form of makeup. She packed but the rest of her hair was long and wavy, trailing down her bare shoulders.

She raises her eyes when I didn’t make a move to say a thing and stiffened, obviously surprised by my unwavering attention. I have to admit that she actually does not look half bad in her dress and denim. She is very pretty. A lovely girl. That is the problem. Dressed as she is, she looks like a teenage girl, not a woman— definitely not the age she is meant to look. She touches her hair with shaking fingers, a blush creeping over her cheeks.

The air is thick—the same way it always is when she’s here—the energy crackling between us. It would make things easier for me personally if I am not feeling this attracted to her, this bond that my wolf seems to have with her because having this type of chemistry will undoubtedly help my plan get dragged down. Help make it all chatter, she is to be punished for her father’s sins, not pampered.

She moves closer, her pale blue denim dress swishing around her knees, our eyes lock again, and my chest spasms. She looks at me as though she’s trying to see the colors of my soul, and the feeling makes me itch, so I break our stare, knowing the only thing she’ll find is its absence.

“Ugh, the tension in here can be cut by a knife, you know?” Karen says as she rides her horse closer to where we stand.

“Okay, I am sorry for the intrusion but this is Kai Huan, the son of Wei Huan, the country’s minister of education, he is another friend of ours and we usually do this together, always and Kai, that is Dante Barlowe, his father runs the fast rising chain of clubs in town and he also personally works at the palace as a high ranked ” Micheal Lodion introduces while Kai and I merely stare each other down like our last encounter had ended in us punching each other’s guts out or something.

“I know him. We’ve met before.” Kai says as he stares me down while I smirk.

“Yes, we sure have met before, courtesy of the lady here.” I watch as Raven continues to act like I am suddenly invisible and I smile at Kai trying so hard to act like his hands on her waist is supposed to make me jealous or something.

Humans.

“That is enough tension for the day, we should race.” Micheal Lodion says and Karen nods in support of the motion. “We should, I can’t wait to see if you’ve still got it, Micheal?”

“I want to see if Kai can finally beat me too, are you in, Kai?” Micheal asks.

“You are always so eager when it comes to that part just because you want to gloat, you know that field things like this is not my forte and you just want to rub in on my face, in the presence of my date for that matter. When it comes to intellectual aspect, you know you do not stand a chance against me.” Kai says and I scoff, loudly.

They all look in my direction and I stare back at them with a raised brow, “what?” I ask.

“You scoffed like something is wrong with what I said.” Kai says in a gruff tone and I find myself wondering where all these grudge against me is coming from, he seemed fine and cool with me the last time.

“I am just wondering who made the rule that you cannot be good at both.” I say in a very cocky manner.

“Oooooh! Looks like my Dante is good in all aspects then?” Karen says as she starts to get off the horse.

My Dante... yea, right?

I mirrored Raven’s expression at the personalisation and even she can’t hide the way her ears perks up at that.

When I did not say anything more, Micheal speaks, “looks like its on then, let us see who the champion will be, shall we?”

We all go into the stable to pick a horse and even while Karen follows me around telling me that she wants me to pick the best so I can win, I find it hard to stop myself from glancing in the direction where Kai is trying relentlessly hard to be a gentleman to Raven while she smiles sheepishly.

After finally picking a horse of my choice, Karen stares at me like I am running mad when she sees it, “you choose him? Mane is sick, he had a leg injury that did nt really heal, he has not raced in years, nobody even races with him anymore, choosing him is like choosing to loose the race.” She says.

“Well, I am choosing to believe in Mane and I am confident that even with whatever happened to him, I believe that I can still win.” I say with a shrug and this catches the ears of the other people in the stable.

“I am only looking out for you, I can borrow you my own horse if you want. Mane is a bad choice, trust me, Dante.” Karen says adamantly and I start walking away while resisting the urge to just uproot her tongue and stop her from talking forever. Her whiny high pitched voice is nothing short of annoying.

I mount Mane at the same time that everyone of us starts to mount their chosen horses. Karen rides side by side with me, Adalee and Micheal Lodion rides side by side and so does Raven and Kai.

My eyes did not really leave Raven even as Karen continues to talk about what I am not bothering to listen to so I clearly see as Adalee suddenly hits Raven’s horse intentionally causing the horse to speed off and Raven starts screaming in frenzy as this is obviously her first time on a horse.

Without wasting time, I ride on my horse and run after her horse and just when shes at the end of a sloppy land, I jump onto her horse and manage to control to horse to come to a stop. I help both of us down as she grips my shirt so tightly, obviously scared for her life. Kai is able to get to me first before the others do so he runs to Raven’s side with worry.

“You always find yourself in life or death situations, you know...” I say to her in a harsh tone as I feel somewhat pissed and before she can say a thing, I walk away from there and go to the rest room.

“Naive.” I say while i wash my hands.

Adalee comes into the restroom and she stands at the entrance, staring at me, “we are supposed to be acquaintances, Adalee and nobody will walk into the men’s restroom so freely while someone she is barely acquainted to takes a leak. Let us get our roles right.” I say sternly.

“What has got you cranky all of a sudden?” She asks like she does not know what exactly it is that she has done.

I scoff, “I know what you did, Adalee. You seem to forget that I see everything, I can only pretend not to. What was that for?” I question, almost snapping.

“Oh, that? It is so not a big deal, she’s the daughter of the enemy, I just felt like playing around, that’s all. If she dies that way, its one more person ticked off our lists, right?” She says nonchalantly succeeding on getting on my very last nerve.

“Adalee, let this be the very last time that you will play around with someone’s life like that. Always stick to the plan and make sure that that plan is mine and not father’s. Otherwise, Pick a side plainly!”