I stood back up straight. “Sorry,” I said, walking away so everyone else could deposit their trays. “Force of habit.”
The girl laughed. She had dark, curly hair. Her curls were much sleeker than my unruly red ones. I figured they were probably fake, woven into her hair rather than waking up with them. She had similar shiny purple eyes to Loren. Hers were more blue purple than true purple. She smiled light at me.
“Zora, right?” she said. “I’m Megra. But you can call me Meg. You ran third string behind me for the Run.”
“Oh,” I said. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Meg laughed. “I just wanted to say I’m really impressed by you.”
“Oh?” I said, again. I started towards the door, hoping that Meg wouldn’t follow me out into campus. Something about her threw me off. It felt forced.
Unfortunately, she kept walking with me. She held the door open for me and I ducked outside. “Yeah,” Meg continued. “I mean you’re the first wolfless I’ve seen come that close to finishing the run. Were you an athlete in the human world?”
“Sort of,” I mumbled. God, why couldn’t she take the hint. “That’s cool!” she said. Again, so forced and so fake. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that were having a get together before Mateball. If you wanna come hang just let me know!”
I stopped and furrowed my brows. “Mateball?”
Meg stopped as well. She smacked her hand to her face. “Shit, sorry,” she said. “I should’ve figured you didn’t know what Mateball was. Didn’t you grow up in the human world as well.”
“I did,” I replied, tentative as to what her point was.
“Right,” Meg went on. “So Mateball happens on the night of the fullest moon. This year, it happens to be at the beginning of the semester. It’s the time where everyone dresses up and attends the dance to try and find their fated mate, you know what that is right?”
My face fell. Great. More mate bullshit. I nodded once.
“It’s really important,” Meg expressed. “Further more, it’s really fun! Sometimes the older guys slip a little booze into the punch then it really gets the party going.”
I cringed. Sounded awful. “Yeah,” I said pushing past Meg. “No thanks.”
I started to leave when Meg stepped in front of me. She gave me a knowing smirk. “You know,” she said, as if she knew something I didn’t. “I see the way Maximus Wolfham looks at you.”
“Like he wants to kill me?” I humorlessly-laughed. “Don’t tell me you think that’s flirting?”
“No, no,” Meg shook her head. “But really, he’s made eyes at you when you’re not looking. He was staring at you all morning at Basics.”
Yeah ’cause we finally had enough strength to push him off me and he felt threatened, My inner voice said. I ignored her. She really needed to learn to shut up.
“I don’t think – “
“He’s never brought anyone to the Mateball,” Meg cut me off. “Just saying, maybe you could be his first?”
I shook my head at her. “Isn’t he like in the running to become King?” I said. “Why the hell would he give anyone else attention?”
Meg shrugged. She looked down at her perfectly manicured nails. “I don’t know,” she said. She looked up at me again with that stupid knowing smirk. “Maybe he’s looking for a bit of fun.”
“Not to be rude,” I said sharply. I started to walk away. “But I think your overanalyzing this.”
“I think you’re under analyzing,” Meg drawled. I paused in my walk and turned back to narrow my eyes at her.
“I don’t know what your goal is here,” I sneered. “But I will not be going to the Mateball with some as arrogant and pretentious as Maximus Wolfham. The guy is a total dick and not someone I’d like to associate with.”
Meg burst into laughter. She turned her shoulders to face the doors of the cafeteria. It was right as Maximus was leaving.
“Oh, brother,” she called. My blood ran cold. She turned back to me with a sick smirk. It was the same one I’d seen on Maximus’s face earlier. “I have some terrible news for you.”
Maximus
Maximus heard his name being called as soon as he left the cafeteria. He thought it was one of the younger guys, trying to get his attention to do something stupid. He was surprised to see his sister standing in front of me.
With Zora. His mood immediately turned sour. She’d left him in the forrest a few hours ago, after sending her first into his chest and sending a bolt of electricity across his body. She, though seemed unphased. It left him with more questions than he had answers.
Seeing her standing there, in her little shorts and her baggy tee shirt, red curls wild around her face, he couldn’t help but feel angrier. Why was he attracted to such a mess of a wolf?
More so, a wolfless wolf.
He walked towards Zora and Meg. Just as he was about to approach them, Zora whispered something then stomped away. Max stopped with a sigh in front of Meg.
“What now?” he said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“She thought I was fucking with her,” Meg stated, matter of factly. “I tried to test the waters and see if she’d go to the Mateball with you.”
“Why the fuck would you do that?” Maximus growled. “I told you to stay out of it.”
Meg turned and crossed her arms across her chest stubbornly. “I’m trying to help, you know,” she snapped. “Maybe if been kinder to her in the beginning, instead of acting your vendetta against the wolfless, you wouldn’t be in the situation.”
“How was I supposed to know,” Max gritted from his teeth. “That she was going to be my fated mate.”
Meg shrugged. She patted her brother on the shoulder gently before walking off. “Figure it out, baby brother,” she drawled. “Lest you ruin your chance at happiness, again.”
Maximus growled at her as she walked away. He felt the wolf within him pushing at his bones, wanting him to shift and hunt. He ignored it and turned back towards where Zora had walked off. She was still stomping away back toward her dorm – their dorm. He considered following her but gave up.
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed again. He looked up at the sky and pleaded to the Gods to help him make things right with Zora.
The first time he’d been shocked by her, he was appalled. Disgusted even. He had spent his entire adult life bringing the wolfless down. He had a goal. It was one he promised to his eldest brother, Morrigan, as he went through countless surgeries and physical therapy to recover his missing arm. Destroy all wolfless.
He’d spent the rest of the day trying to convince himself that there had to be a mistake. There was no way a wolfless could have been his fated mate. He was the strongest third year at the Academy. And she, well, she was nothing.
But then, she touched him again and he touched her. And their heartbeats were thrumming in his head like a warning bell. He had to recognize that she was his fated mate. That’s why he followed her out in the woods that morning, to tell her so and try and convince her he wasn’t all that bad.
Instead, he wound up looking like an idiot with his dick in his hand after she gave him a surprise punch. He sighed again and broke out of his angry daydreams. He had to prove to Zora that he was worthy of being his fated mate. Fuck whomever the Princess he was supposed to be married to was. He had a chance at being with the one who could make happiest, and strongest. The Queen would have to be understanding.
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