Chapter 4
Eden
I wish I were one of the laughing girls having fun at Luca’s party.
I’m not.
While other people might remember the parties they had before they graduated, I know I won’t remember this at all. The music is too loud. The vibrations are making my heart pound and seeing people make out with each other is making me blush. There’s a couple on the couch right now, a girl sitting in a guy’s lap–I think it’s Axel–and she is thrusting her tongue inside his mouth while feeling up his chest.
Scandalous.
Yet I’m envious–not of her being with him, but of what they are doing, I’ve only ever read or written romance; never experienced it.
Hopefully that changes after my birthday.
But ugh, why did I come here now? Being here today isn’t going to change anything. I’m just going to become a target for bullies since I look like a nerd. My mascara looks like spider legs, and my red hair isn’t properly brushed. The tight sweater hugging my thin body is the only nice thing I’m wearing.
“Don’t look so gloom!” Elvira claps a hand on my back so hard that I almost fly forward. She is already drinking, already grinning as if she belongs here.
“I. I’m sorry, I just thought…” I don’t know what I thought. I came here to steal a glance at Azriel, just look at him and see if he might look back, but this? This chaos? It’s making me feel like an imposter.
We weren’t even invited.
“Just relax,” Elvira drawls and catches the straw from her drink with her lips. Sucks, Drinks. Grins. “No one is going to throw us out. People are too busy focusing on their own agendas-” she nods ahead. “Look, even Logan is saying nothing, and he has been staring at us.”
He has?
I look around, my eyes landing on Logan. Elvira and I are standing by the refreshments, and he is sitting in a chair a few feet away. His fingers hide his lips since his chin is resting in his palm.
“Quite a looker with his styled hair and piercing blue eyes, isn’t he?” Elvira mumbles.
“Pity his heart isn’t as pretty,” I whisper, blushing from the attention given by Logan. He keeps looking and looking until…his eyes are cast elsewhere. Almost looks as if he is blushing as well.
“Mhm, his ugly heart is the only reason I don’t feel bad for the guy.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why would you feel bad for him?”
“Because his family is forcing him to marry Paris against his will? I thought you knew it was an arrangement. After they have married each other their families just need to find an omega to carry their babies since Paris isn’t his mate.”
“I see….”
I had no idea Logan didn’t actually love Paris, not with the amount of kissing they do in the school corridors. I always look away when I see her glued to Logan’s strong body, embarrassed when she feels him up since I haven’t even held a guy’s hand, much less kissed anyone.
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10:19 Mon, 23 Jun
Chapter 4
“Come on via says “Tero go do something for
fi
Vivira and I watch some of the pack members play Villards in for putour Werden rotten them and Jews, are playing and the is cheering them on. I smile when den gave her a head nudge and feel a bit more a car was I need to visit the bathroom
“I will be right back!”
Elvira doesn’t even look up. She is in deep conversation with her brother and probably wort notice that I’m gone. I’m going to be quick 1 head for the main honne, swaying a little due to the alcohol I’m a lepement, and I me it as a latte miracle that I make it to the bathroom
I do my business, smell myself, steal some perfume from the cabines, and head for the door Bar when I walk out, a bucket falls down on top of my head, and I wince, checks burning when I’m covered in dime while Paris and her friends belt our laughter
My eyes sting from the slime. It drips down my forehead and gets into my eyes. Minging, Burning, is it made of some dangerous chemical?!
“Oops!” Paris‘ voice cuts through my humiliation. “Looks like Elf needed a beauty treatment for that pizza facet
I can’t see through the goop, but I hear the clicks of phone cameras while I try to remove the slime with my sleeve. Each flash is another nail in my social coffin
“Seriously, we did her a favor.” Hilda says. “At least now people will be looking at the slime instead of her disgusting skin.”
I hate this. I thought tonight would be different, that my bullies would leave me alone, but tears are already burning behind my eyelashes, just fuck my life! I don’t want to cry at this party. I can hold it in. I’ve been through worse than this, like my own mother not loving me. This is nothing, I can just leave, but my legs aren’t working, I’m stuck in place while the girls keep taking my picture, while the mean laughter continues.
“Is she crying?”
“Looks like it”
“Such a sensitive little omega.”
That’s it. I can’t take more of their laughter and flashing phone lights and get back inside the bathroom. Leaving would be a better idea, but the room feels like it’s spinning I can’t even register faces or voices over the sound of my own pulse.
Is this a panic attack?
I stumble to the sink, my shaking hands gripping the porcelain edge. The slime drips down my face, staining my only nice sweater. I can still hear Paris and her friends cackling outside the door.
“Come out, come out, little Elf!” Paris sings while rattling the doorknob.
I try to block out her taunts while frantically grabbing paper towels to wipe off the sticky goop.
My shoe, now smeared with green, presses down on the pedal to open the waste bin. How will I explain this to my mother? She will be angry about my ruined clothes, not about the bullying
“Is this the bathroom line?” Azriel’s sensual voice asks, and the hallway goes quiet.
“Yes,” Paris lies, her voice suddenly sweet. “We are just waiting for the bathroom.”
“With your phones out, recording the door?” Azriel’s voice is cool and calm. “Interesting way to wait.”
There’s a shuffle of feet, suggesting some people are nervous.
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Mon, 23
Chapter 4
“Look” Paris says, “we’re just having some innocent fun. The girl in there is-”
“Love”
I don’t expect Paris and her friends to listen. They are on top of the food chain, but the hallway outside the bathroom goes silent. Too silent. I freeze by the mirror, holding my breath when the door opens. Did I forget to lock it? No. I did. Paris was rattling the handle and-
Azriel is staring at me.
Looking at him makes everything stop–the world, my heart, even the tremble in my legs. His hair resembles raven’s feathers in the bathroom light, and his eyes, dark and intense, are gorgeous but wrong.
Something about his appearance gives me a headache. I cringe and his seductive eyes twinkle with amusement, suggesting he knows he is the cause of the throbbing inside my skull.
What is he?
Werewolf?
No.
Vampire?
gan and his family wouldn’t let him be on their territory.
looking at him without saying a word. Thanking him for chasing away Paris and her crew would be in place, but feels too tight to manage speech.
mile plays on his lips. “Do you want me to drive you home?”
heart thuds faster. I didn’t expect his help, and even if he makes me nervous, I need it. But at the same time, I don’t want dirty his car.
“L… I’m a bit of a mess…” I gesture helplessly at my slime–covered clothes, expecting him to laugh at me.
He doesn’t
Azriel closes the door and speaks in a low, sensual voice, almost like a lover’s purr, “I have a jacket in my car.”
My heart is pounding even faster now. It gets worse when Azriel moves since he is everything I’m not: elegant, collected, and terrifyingly beautiful. Even his reaching for a towel is graceful, like water flowing over stones. He runs the towel under warm water and offers it to me.
“Thanks,” I mumble, taking it with trembling fingers.
I dab at my face with the warm towel, painfully aware of Azriel’s eyes on me. The slime is stubborn, clinging to my hair and skin like some toxic parasite.
“You know,” Azriel says, leaning back with casual elegance, “green isn’t your color.”
A surprised laugh that almost sounds like a snort escapes me before I can stop it. “A–are you saying some other color of humiliation would suit me better?”
His lips quirk upward. “I’m saying humiliation doesn’t suit you at all.”
The earnestness in his voice makes me freeze mid–pat, towel smushed against my cheek. Our eyes lock in the mirror, and for a split second, I swear his irises flash–not brown, but violet. I blink, and they’re normal again.
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Chapter 4
Azriel straightens but doesn’t look away, and his gaze pulls at something deep inside my chest.
“Is your place far from here?”
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AD
