Page 47 of The Order

“Was it Adam?” he questions. I offer him nothing.

He pauses, touching my chin, pulling my gaze back up to him.

“Was it Nick?” he questions. Without thinking, I grasp his forearm a little tighter at the mention of the man’s name.

Xavier curses, clenching his jaw, letting his gentle expression melt away. I watch his frustration grow, festering the longer he looks at the wound.

“That arrogant asshole. I swear, your father and I can get him in tremendous trouble, but I’ll start by dragging him across your living room-” he begins, moving back toward my house.

“No!” I yell, yanking him back toward me, watching him stumble in an attempt to stabilize himself. I hold him with all I have, hearing my rapid heartbeat fill my ears as he now stands over me, both of his hands on the wall above my head.

“If you tell him I know that he did it, it won't be safe for either of us,” I whisper, grasping the front of his uniform with shaky hands.

“Forest, I need more than that-”

“I can't. I can't tell you,” I begin, pressing my head to his chest with a large sigh. “But please, please, trust me when I tell you that I want to,” I say, and I hope he can hear the heavy emotion coating my voice.

There is a pause between the two of us. It’s a moment where the silence is close to deafening.

His hands come over my head, gently running them through my hair, starting from the top of my neck and trailing down the length of my back. Instead of pushing me away, he pulls me closer, moving his hands from my hair to my waist, touching my hips with his large hands. I try to deflect his hand’s graze over my mark, nearly losing my breath once his fingertips glide over the top of the rough skin.

Something awakens inside me, clawing free from the depths of my mind, sending all of me into overdrive. It coaxes my mind, making every part of me burn hot. Every emotion flows through me. Pain, fear, power, and lust all come together to sink the teeth into the comforts of his touch. His hand grasps tighter, pulling me in closer, seemingly unable to see on the surface what is happening within me. I close my eyes, letting myself sink into his touch. Once more, I can sense another presence in my mind. I focus on that foreign energy within me, expecting to want nothing more than to shove it away, but instead, I embrace it, feeling the mix of pleasure and security it brings me the more I allow it to explore my mind.

His hands move up from my hips, traveling to the side of my face, touching my heated cheeks. I grasp his front tighter, feeling the muscular torso lingering beneath the black uniform.

“Where were you just then?” he questions, running his thumbs over my cheeks in gentle motions.

“With you,” I mutter, smiling against the rolls of his thumbs over my face.

The feeling fades away, leaving as quickly as it came. Unlike every other time before this, my mark fills with pleasure instead of pain, expanding out into my body in relaxing waves.

Is it him inside my mind? I question internally, looking over Xavier’s kind eyes.

“Was it you just then?” I whisper, seeing his eyebrows pull into a look of confusion.

Several footsteps scuff the ground, growing closer with each passing second. Xavier looks ready to say more but is promptly cut off by the sound of my friends’ mindless chatter.

“This conversation is far from over,” Xavier whispers, pressing his lips to my ear, sending a wave of chills through my body.

He pulls his hands away from me, taking a step back and shoving them in his pockets instead. My father, my brother, and friends round the corner of the house, looking between the two of us with wide-eyed gazes. Xavier leans onto the wall, looking down at the shattered camera my father has now noticed.

“What happened?” he questions, moving to get a closer look.

“I’m assuming a bird hit it. Can’t trust those genetically modified flying rats,” Xavier says, giving himself a solid alibi.

I smile at his quick response, watching him shrug his shoulders in amusement.

“I guess maybe we should have just kept them as target practice for Officials in training instead of letting them breed and explore New Haven,” my father says, shaking his head at the broken camera.

“Officials get to do target practice?” Max questions, relaxing his rigid posture.

“That, and so much more,” Xavier says, flashing his mesmerizing grin at Max.

“How hard is it to be placed in the Official training program after you complete Judgement Day?” Max questions, stepping closer to the man he wanted nothing to do with moments ago.

“Why don’t you three get to school? Xavier can take Max back once they are done with their conversation. Only one of you needs to be late,” my father says, urging us forward and away from the side of our house with a nudge of my back. I don’t argue, giving Xavier one last look.

“If you want to make it, you’d better go now,” my father says, pulling my attention away from the two blondes gradually getting deeper into a conversation about the training program.

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