Omega. Playboy

12. CHAPTER TWELVE

CLARA’S POV

I’m not one to be superstitious but it was hard to believe I hadn’t done anything terrible in my past life to deserve the horrible present I had. When misfortune becomes the order of the day in a person’s life, it’s not hard to begin to speculate on ridiculous ideas that may have caused the misfortune. For example, it was very possible I had been a bully in my precious life to deserve the bullying I was facing or maybe I used to kick puppies or something equally as wicked. What other explanation could there be for my misfortune?

My lips still tingled from the kiss and I wanted to bang my head against the desk in front of me. I had been stupid, really stupid. He had rejected me for goodness sake! Why had I melted against him the moment his lips had touched mine? Why did I tremble so badly when his palms had gripped me? I didn’t want to go about kissing him after he rejected me. I was supposed to be looking for a way to get over him, to destroy whatever connected us. I shouldn’t be letting my mouth fall open for him to sweep his hot tongue into.

He was seated behind me as my mind wandered and I wondered what was on his mind. Was he thinking of the kiss? Were his lips still tingling? Did he want to do it again? I dispelled that thought with a shake of the head. I had no business fantasizing about someone that had rejected me so cruelly. In fact, I was supposed to hate him.

“Jake White and Clara Hansen,” our wicked English teacher, Miss Houston, was saying and that brought me out of my reverie. 

I noticed that the class sitting arrangement had changed and I cussed myself for zoning out during a lesson. As a punishment, I didn’t seem to understand what was going on and Miss Houston was glaring expectantly at me. 

“Do we have a problem? Jake White and Clara Hansen!?” She called out furiously and why was she calling our names? I didn’t understand a thing. 

‘You don’t really expect me to come sit up front with you, do you? Move your ass to the back,’ Someone had opened up the pack link to talk to me and it was so shocking it pushed me out of my seat before I knew it. 

Pack links are a way of communication amongst wolfs in the same pack and no one ever bothered to open a pack link to speak with me. No one even spoke with me in the first place. Not everyone liked to use pack links because they take a lot of concentration and one can mistakenly broadcast a thought to the whole pack if they didn’t concentrate hard enough on the person they were trying to communicate with.

I gathered my things and quickly walked to the back of the class where Jake and some of his buddies liked to seat. 

“Took you long enough,” He huffed as I settled beside him. The proximity of his presence was driving me f*****g crazy though!

“To those of you who seem to abhor the sound of my voice, I’ll repeat myself and you best listen,” Miss Houston started after calling out some more names. It seemed we were being paired up for a project and I was paired with an asshole. 

“You’re to write a short prosaic work that will be submitted in exactly six weeks and the subject matter must resonate with your person because I expect you to stand before this class to educate us on how the topic you have picked resonates with you. Of course you know that you’ll have to find a common ground with your partner to work with,” She said and a lot of people groaned, myself included. 

How was I to find a common ground with Jake? The only thing we had in common was that we were both wolves and we couldn’t possibility write about the feeling of the full moon without exposing our existence to humans. 

“Grading will be based on correct use of grammar, application of the figures of speech and finally, the coordination of your presentation,” She concluded and finally she asked “Any questions?”

“Can we switch partners?” A human boy, Robbie, asked and the teacher sighed as if it was the most stressful thing to answer that question. 

“No, Robbie, you can’t switch partners. Put up your hand next time before speaking in my class. We are not barbarians,” She reprimanded which made a few people laugh. “Any other question? At least one that isn’t a silly one?” She asked. Silence answered her and she nodded, turning to face the board. “Now, to today’s lesson,” She started to scribble on the board as she went on about embedded clauses. 

******

Kieran was on the way I had met him the previous day and I knew he was waiting for me. The thought made me warm to my toes. Gah! What was this feeling!

“Hello,” He smiled a dimpled smiled as I approached him and my heart stuttered. He smiled wider. s**t!

“Don’t I just make your heart go – what the f**k happened to your face?” His friendly smile dropped and was replaced by a look of concern. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cuss. What happened to you?” He asked in concern. 

“I fell down the stairs in a dramatic tumble,” I said robotically. It was the response I had rehearsed to tell people who asked, namely Remi and maybe Dylan as they were the only people I had actually expected to care.

“That – I know I’m still a stranger to you but I promise you can trust me. You don’t have to lie to me,” He said softly and I wanted to scoff but I ended up nodding. 

“I fell down the stairs. Why doesn’t anyone believed me?” I fake grumbled and he smiled a weak smile. 

“Fair enough but your face is badly bruised like you got punched. Repeatedly. Usually when a person tumbles down the stairs it’s their arm or legs that suffer,” He said. “But since you don’t want to tell me, I have another question,” He announced and I was grateful he was dropping the subject.

“Shoot,” I answered, kicking a lone stone on my path. 

“Why haven’t you healed? I mean – you’re a wolf and these bruises are not fresh. I’m guessing they’ve stayed overnight. Why haven’t they healed?” He asked curiously. 

I paused for a long time, contemplating if I wanted to tell him. He wasn’t at our high school and he didn’t seem to associate much with other wolves so he was kind of out of the loop of gossip therefore he hadn’t heard. Everything would change once he did. He certainly wouldn’t want anything to do with me anymore if he learned what kind of a freak I was.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. I’m curious but I’m not trying to force information out of you,” He said and to show his sincerity, he flashed me a dimple.

“My wolf disappeared,” I whispered in shame and I swear he stumbled lightly. 

“What? How did that happen? How does that happen?” He questioned with blown out eyes. 

“I take it you haven’t heard,” I chuckled without mirth. “I was supposed to shift on Sunday since it was a full moon and my birthday was the Friday before that,” I started and he cut me off.

“Oh! The party was for you? Weird – I was there but I didn’t see you – Sorry, go on,” He excused. 

“Yeah, the party was for me but I got – held up. I got preoccupied doing something else. Anyway, I went into the woods on Sunday night during the full moon and something happened. It felt like my wolf was going to come out but rather, she disappeared. That’s all I know,” I answered with a nonchalant shrug. “I’m surprised you’ve not heard of the story. Everyone seems to be talking of the pathetic omega,” Again, I shrugged. 

“Don’t say that about yourself. You’re not pathetic,” He said in a soft tone and I shook my head.

“Why else would a werewolf not shift on the full moon after their birthday? Nothing short of being pathetic,” I answered. Surprise, surprise! My self depreciation had come out to play! 

“You’re not pathetic,” He said firmly “Maybe – maybe you got your birthday wrong or something – stop laughing! Anything is possible,” He exclaimed but I laughed anyway. 

Sure I could have used that to console myself if I hadn’t found my mate that night. I would never have realized Jake was my mate if I hadn’t been old enough, if I hadn’t been eighteen, but I couldn’t tell him that though.

“I’m eighteen. My birth certificate wasn’t wrong and my mum didn’t lie to me,” I answered.

“You can’t be so sure if you haven’t found your mate but whatever. You are NOT pathetic,” he reiterated and I smiled with my cracked lips. “You’re beautiful, “ he whispered and I could feel the air starting to get charged. 

His hands raised as if to touch me but another caught it. "Don't you dare touch her," Jake growled threateningly and our eyes, Kieran and I, widened. Where the deuce had he come from and why couldn’t Kieran touch me!

"Why? Who the f**k are you anyway?” Kieran demanded, yanking his hand out of Jake’s grip. 

“ I am your gamma and you will not speak to me with any tone asides a respectful one or I will break at least six of your limbs,” Jake threatened with a growl. Kieran's eyes dilated in fear for a second before a cocky quality overtook his looks.

“Sorry gamma but I don’t think it’s against the pack rules to touch a beautiful girl,” He smirked while I blushed. His hands reached up to touch me and Jake caught it. Holding Kieran's bicep with one hand and his wrist with another, he bent his hands and snap! Kieran's elbow was dislocated. 

“What the f**k man!” He cried out in pain, using his other hand to hold his elbow in place for his body to start knitting it back. 

“Don’t test me and don’t touch her,” He snapped and I had had just about enough. 

“Oh my goodness Jake! He hasn’t done anything wrong,” I exclaimed in frustration, pulling at my hair. 

“He did everything wrong!” Jake shouted back. “He doesn’t know his place and someone needs to teach him. When I say you shouldn’t do something, you listen or else there will be hell raining on you,” He threatened Kieran. What in the goddess’ name was happening!

His eyes glowed golden as he glared at Kieran who looked on wearily, elbows still broken. His chest heaved and Kieran took a step back but annoyance still danced in his eyes even though he was weary of the guy attacking him for no reason.

Something was wrong with Jake and it reeked of possessiveness which didn’t make sense since he had left me on the bed that day after telling me he didn’t want me as a mate. I had been like a one night stand, a regular f**k for him, and that s**t still hurt. He had rejected me so he had no right to lay claim on me in such a possessive manner. If my wolf hadn’t vanished into thin air, I would be crushed, carrying her grief and mine for being rejected but because she wasn’t with me, the pain was less and if I tried hard enough, I could pretend my mate hadn’t used me the way he used other girls only for him to discard me like a used tissue.

“Please just leave us alone. Please,” I literally begged but Jake was still heaving in pointless anger. 

“I don’t know who the f**k you are but I’ll advice you not to f**k with me,” He growled into Kieran’s face. 

And Kieran, the goofball, he replied “I’m Kieran Witcher, nice to meet you,” He stuck out the broken hand that was already healed. Alarmingly fast for even a werewolf. Jake regarded the hand with a sneer before turning to me.

“I’ll drive you home, “ He grumbled, stalking away. 

“I’m sorry about that, “ I apologized for the trouble I had cost him but he only grinned wider than usual. 

“I take it your mate doesn’t like me,” he said and my eyes popped.