Page 76 of Moon Kissed

“Is this about Lucia?” I didn’t move an inch from the door. I stupidly promised Luame I wouldn’t defend myself from these jerks. If they started something, I’d be gone in a second before I was tempted to break that promise. “Would you like to chat her up yourself? That should put an end to your bleating that she can’t possibly be a vampire.”

“No, thank you,” Edric said smoothly, sliding out from behind Mr. Choppino’s—the new homeroom teacher—desk. “You don’t need to prove it. We have no trouble believing you’d sink that low.”

“Well, then, what do you want? Because I’ll tell you right now, we have to stop meeting like this, and I promise you, we fucking will.”

“Oooh,” Nyx hissed, expression pained. “See, that’s the problem right there. You keep talking and walking around here like you’re in charge.”

“And you’re not,” Orion finished, eyes hidden behind the glare coming off his glasses. “But we believe you, Volana. Between being the mother wolf and stashing that video away with a vampire, you’ve made yourself all but untouchable.”

“We understand that we can’t threaten you with Dagem, the council, or any of those weak-ass pussies,” Edric dropped, pinging my gaze back to him.

“So the only thing to do,” Badr said, “is to appeal to your better nature.”

My brows shot up my forehead. “My better nature? Is this a joke?”

“You’re going to come clean and turn yourself in all on your own,” Badr continued like I hadn’t spoken. “You’ll be the one to call off your vampire friend, you’ll confess to killing Hall and that lunch lady, and you’ll tell the world the true reason you killed my brother. After that, you’ll happily jump in the deep, dark pit that’s awaiting you.”

I bobbed along, lips pushed out. “Hmm. And let me guess, you’re going to encourage me to do these things by ‘making my life hell’ and ‘turning every day into my worst nightmare.’ Blah, blah, blah,” I blared. “So far you’ve been promising me a lot in that department, and under delivering. Just a peek at what I would’ve had to look forward to our mating/wedding night.”

A muscle in Nyx’s jaw ticced—the only crack in their choreographed routine.

“You’re right,” Orion said. “We have been holding back. My wolf has been holding back, but no more. He’s getting fucking sick of you too.”

“This is your one and only warning,” Badr said. “From now on, none of us are—”

I phased through the door and walked out. Those four really could burn up the patience of a Tibetan monk.

As if I’d let a few sleepless nights and videos on Loop-Garou get in the way of what I came here to do. My plans were bigger than my fates. Bigger than me. Bigger than Wolf Nation. As I told Nia, I got stronger. Now it was time to get even.

And there was nothing Edric, Orion, Nyx, or Badr could do about it.

NO ONE HAD EVER MADEme eat my words so hard or so fast.

“I’ll take untoasted bread and a banana,” I shouted through the kitchen serving window. “Anything!”

The cooks and servers didn’t so much as glance in my direction.

“Hey? Hey, are you listening to me!”

They damn sure were not.

Turned out that Holly didn’t serve me because she liked me. She did it because none of the other staff would.

They wouldn’t serve me. They wouldn’t come near me. They wouldn’t speak to me. They looked at the air around me.

For breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire week, I didn’t eat a single thing off a plate.

“Here you go, psycho.” Something hot and wet splatted on my back. “Eat up.”

I knew where this was going. Giving up, I turned away from the window, and phased just as the first wave of thrown food and coffee flew at me.

“What the—! Where’d she go?!”

Silently, I stepped over the mound of eggs, steak, croissants, and milky cereal, and walked out. My wolf snapped, snarled, and growled at me to feed her, and that was my only source of conversation.

Nia had been keeping a healthy distance since the entire school declared war on me. No more sitting with me during mealtimes. No more walking next to me in the hall. I was well and truly on my own.

My fates promised to make my life hell, and sadly for me, they addressed their performance issues. Every day for the last seven days, their torture had been relentless.

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