Chapter 206

We moved aside my studying notes, and placed the knifed helmet on the table. Immediately, Asher retrieved his phone and began taking pictures.

“For Chase and his article,” Asher said.

“Should we call the police?”

Asher hesitated for a moment. “No. We should let Joseph believe for now that his scare tactics have succeeded. This might get him to back off of you for a while, and hopefully keep him from noticing Chase snooping around.”

Asher spoke with his usual unwavering confidence. I wasn’t sure how to tell him that Joseph’s scare tactics were working on me.

He’d made threats against me before, but this one… This was against Asher. Joseph knew my weaknesses well: my baby and Asher. It was no surprise that he would choose to threaten those two to get to me.

Yet knowing Joseph intended to use them against me didn’t diminish the very real fear I felt.

Fear so real that before I knew it, Lamar was standing in front of me. I didn’t scream, but my heartrate quickened.

Asher turned, like he could sense it. At the sight of Lamar, he rushed forward, stepping between the apparition and me.

Looking at Asher, I felt strong enough to reach for the projection and dissipate it. Making it disappear this time had been much easier than any time in the past.

Perhaps because of the rebuilt mating bond between Asher and me? Was I getting stronger?

Asher pulled me into his embrace. “You are safe.”

I closed my eyes, soaking in his warmth. “But what about you?”

Asher kissed the top of my head. “Trust me, Cyn. I will protect all of us from this threat. Even myself.”

I wanted to believe that. I knew better than most how strong Asher was. But I still worried.

“His threats are becoming too real,” I said. “What if he sneaks up on you?”

“Not possible.”

“But if anything happened to you…” I couldn’t give voice to my truest fears, afraid speaking them aloud might make them come true.

He held me closer. “You won’t lose me, Cynthia. Not to Joseph. Not to anyone or anything. I am here by your side and nothing and no one will tear me away. We’re bound, remember?”

“I remember.”

Comfort spread through me at his words. He sounded so sure, like he would fight off the entire world to stay by my side.

I loved him for it.

Later, when it was time for me to go to class, Asher insisted on walking me.

“After this threat,” he said, “you shouldn’t be alone, even during the day.”

I enjoyed his companionship and the protection he offered, so I had no objections.

Some of the girls in class, however, seemed to take offense to Asher’s presence at my side, even if only so long as to see me enter the classroom. Once I was safely inside, he left.

I could feel the piercing glares of the girls on my skin, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Their whispered voices sounded behind me.

“What does he see in her?”

“She’s leading him on.”

Aimee, from beside me, turned around and scowled at them. They softened their whispers so that I couldn’t hear them, but every once in a while, I still caught my name in their mumblings.

When the professor started class, they finally quieted down.

The class itself went well-enough. My grades were improving. I aced the day’s quiz!

The satisfaction and pride I felt pushed away any annoyance from the girls’ earlier bitter snickering.

I showed the grade to Aimee and she gave me a smile and a thumbs up.

“I knew you could do it!” she mouthed.

Yet the good feelings lasted only for the length of the class.

When class was done, the girls’ ugly attitudes ramped up to maximum. A group of them cornered me in the hallway. With them was one of the cheerleaders I knew from the squad.

“Explain yourself, Cynthia,” she said, her hands on her hips.

“What do you mean?”

Another girl stepped forward. “We saw Asher walk you to class. He’s a good guy. We all care about him.”

“Because we care about him,” another girl cut in, “we want to make sure he is with someone who deserves him.”

“Exactly,” said the previous. “So we ask you, just what is your relationship with Asher?”

My relationship with Asher was not their business. At all. But I could recognize that they were only worried about him.

I understood, in a way. I’d be nervous too if the guy I liked seemed attached at the hip to a girl pregnant with someone else’s baby.

Yet, sympathetic as I was, I couldn’t answer their question even if I wanted to. Truthfully, I had no idea how to define my relationship with Asher.

I wasn’t ready to tell strangers that he and I were mates. But to lie and say we were just friends would hurt too much.

Fortunately, Aimee had stepped into the hallway just as the question was asked, caught sight of me surrounded by jealous girls, and stepped her way straight through them to stand at my side.

“Cynthia and Asher are dating,” she said. “So the rest of you had better back off. Unless you want Asher to hate you.”

That was enough to silence most of the girls. A couple of them paled. One of them even scuttled away.

Dating. That label didn’t seem to fit right either. It didn’t seem like enough for what Asher and I shared. But, for now, for the sake of these girls, it would do.

The explanation, however, was not enough for the cheerleader. Her gaze sharpened.

“You’ve been trying to trap Asher for months. You honestly can’t expect us to believe he would be in any relationship with you willingly.”

“They’re crazy about each other,” Aimee snapped. “You are blind not to see it, especially as someone who has been around the two of them before.”

“Aimee…” I appreciated her support, but she didn’t need to push quite so hard.

She was fired up though, in her defense of me, and wouldn’t back down. “They’ve danced around their feelings from the start! Where were you, to not notice that?”

The cheerleader crossed her arm. “She chased him. He felt sorry for her. That’s different than sharing feelings.”

“That’s not what happened!” Aimee said.

The cheerleader persisted. “And now she’s trapped Asher in a relationship while she is having another man’s baby! How can you be okay with that? How can you live with yourself Cynthia?”

Trap him? I hadn’t trapped him! Sure, he was protective, but he didn’t stay near me just because of the baby.

Aimee took an angry step forward, likely to give this girl a well-deserved verbal lashing. But I placed my hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

Someone like this wouldn’t listen to reason.

I was about to tell her off myself, tell her to get lost, when a voice cut through the hallway before I could say a word.

“Stop.”

Asher. He had come to walk me to my next class.

He stared at the girls surrounding me with an ice cold gaze. When he looked at the cheerleader, his eyes narrowed.

I thought he might be angry. Maybe he was. Yet he still smirked a little as he spoke.

“Who says it’s another man’s baby?”