Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Point t-to y-you.” I was trying desperately to appear unaffected, but the horny animal that was my better half was going out of her mind. My senses were heightened like they’d never been before. Strong, calloused hands on my thighs. His warm breath tickling my stomach. Deep, rough growls scrambling my head. All of him consumed all of me. “So I guess my last question is... what are you going to do now?”
Hooded, glazed eyes beheld me. “No,” he murmured, nuzzling my stomach. “That’s not your last question.” Orion swiped a tongue past my folds, catching my breath on a moan. “Your last question is why does Mara hate me?
“She hates me, Volana, because my father was a serial killer. And he murdered her sister.”
My moans stopped. My breaths stopped. My heart stopped.
Orion stopped.
“When he was finally caught and the truth came out, my life imploded.” Orion rose to his feet and I saw those beautiful eyes weren’t glazed with lust. They were cold and dead. “I had no idea who he really was, or what he’d done, but no one looked at me the same again. They’ve all been looking, watching, and waiting for me to become a monster too.” His grin didn’t meet his eyes. “And then, who should Luame choose as the woman I was fated to be with but a fucking sociopathic killer?”
“But I—”
“That was all the proof Mara needed,” he hissed, backing away from me. To say the mood was dead was an understatement. “So no, Volana, I won’t mate with you, and I won’t give in to your lies and manipulations. Not again. Never again. This disgusting, cursed bond between us will die if I have to reach into my chest and rip it out! I’ll see your ass punished for everything you’ve done, even if I have to do it myself.” Orion snatched up my clothes and threw them at me. “Got any more questions, or are we clear?”
No. I most certainly did not have any more questions.
I was wrong to think I understood people. I was even wronger deluding myself into believing I understood Orion. His war against me was personal. It might even be more personal than Badr’s. Badr had someone to avenge. But Orion had something to prove.
Stiffly, I turned my back on him and redressed.
“Let’s forget this—”
“Already forgotten,” Orion sliced in. “But you won’t forget that there are no weak links in our group, so stop trying to pick us off one by one.”
I clenched my jaw, stopping me from saying something stupid. Orion was smarter than I gave him credit for. That was a problem. “Paranoid much?” I said when I found the words. “I just wanted some red-hot detention sex. Maybe the next—”
“Ahhh!”
A scream ripped through my sentence.
We spun toward the window where something large fell and landed with a thud that resounded through my chest.
We didn’t hesitate.
Leaping over the chairs, we raced to the windows and stuck our heads out.
“Fucking hell,” Orion cried.
Lying in a broken, crumpled heap on top of the rose bushes was Mr. Hall. We didn’t need to check if he was dead. The wrong-ways limbs and unseeing eyes told that story.
“What happened!” Orion twisted his neck looking up. “Did he jump? Why would he do that?!”
“Eh, who knows. But good news.” I breezed by, patting his incredulous, bug-eyed self on the shoulder. “Detention is over.”
THEY CAME FOR ME THREE bites into my steak and potatoes. I was groaning before they stepped up to the table.
“Get up.”
“Oh, come on. Can I get through one meal without interruption? At least let me finish.”
Dagem bared her teeth, still managing to look intimidating while holding Nia out in front of her like a human shield.
Standing right beside her were two of her staff and my fates, each exhausting all the ranges of emotions.
“Get up now!”
“All right, all right.”
The mess hall was mostly empty. The rest of the students had long since blown in, gotten their food, and went off to enjoy their little bit of free time before bed.
That left few people to witness them frog-march me through the building, out into the courtyard, and through to the administration building. I chattered the whole way.
“So what’s up with you guys?” I asked. “Having an eventful first day?”
Silence.
“I sure have. This new back-to-basics curriculum has shown me how rusty I am. I almost said ow when I punched the dummy during martial arts. I know, I know,” I sighed. “You have to practice every day. Can’t let those skills slip, but everyone needs a cheat day. Or fifty.”
The stony-faced group didn’t even look at me. Only Dagem’s ticcing jaw proved she was listening.
I swung to Nia. “What about you? How was your first day?”
“Uhhh...” Nia looked to Dagem for help as we rounded the corner out of the great hall, but the headmistress stared straight ahead. “It... uh... It actually wasn’t so great. I found out today that they took landscaping off of the approved omega job list. It’s for betas only now.”