Chapter 26

My eyeball twitched in it’s socket.

What the fuck?

“Um, is this a joke?” I managed to get out. Maximus immediately frowned at me.

“Why would I joke about this?”

Okay. Noted. Mateball is not a joke. I shrugged, trying to be as casual as possible about it. “I thought you hated me,” I said. “This being another way to mess with me wouldn’t surprise me.”

Maximus grabbed my forearm and held my wrist in front of my face. It was limp in the air cast. He ground his teeth together.

“I think you’ve been messed with enough,” he sneered then dropped my arm. I let it fall limply to my side. I blinked at him again.

Unfortunately, I think he’s serious, My inner voice said.

He can’t be, I shot back. I mean he’s had it out for me since I got here. Now, all of a sudden, he want to take me as a date to prom? Fuck that.

My inner voice shrunk back in my mind and I figured I won that argument. I turned my attention back to Maximus, who’s brows were furrowed. He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something but I cut him off.

“No,” I said, short and sweet.

“No?” Maximus raised an eyebrow.

“No,” I repeated. I crossed my arms over my chest and raised my own eyebrow. “You’ve been nothing but an utter dick since I’ve arrived on campus. You cannot think that asking me to some stupid dance is going to make me fall at your feet.”

“It’s not a dance,” Maximus gritted from between his teeth. “It’s Mateball. It’s highly important—”

“Important to you,” I cut him off. “What’s most important to me is surviving.”

I turned on my heel and left Maximus in the alley. With one more glance over my shoulder, I added to the knife I’d left in his chest.

“Something I don’t think I’ll be able to do if I go with you to Mateball,” I whispered. “Everyone already has it out for me. Going with you would add another target for people to attack me at.”

I left the alley and stormed off to Basics. When I arrived, Coach had a special spot for me to watch the sparring. He sat me in front of the mat where Loren was energetically trying to fight a third year and failing. She gave me a concerned look when I finally walked in, her eyes darting from me to where Maximus was trailing behind me.

“Later,” I mouthed to her. She nodded in reply.

I sat and tried to learn as much as I could from the people around me. It wasn’t until halfway through class that I looked across the gym and spotted Kairos. He looked like shit.

Both of his eyes had deep bruises around them. He had a gash on his jaw, no doubt from me, that looked like it had to be stitched back together. His movements were sloppy and lazy. His opponent almost got the upper hand until Kairos slammed him into the mat. He stood up wincing and looked at me across the gym. His deep gold eyes glared at me from beyond his bruised eye sockets. I held his gaze until he looked away.

Part of me was proud of myself, I clearly managed to do some sort of damage to the fearless warrior that was Kairos Moonraiser. Despite that I was wolfless, I was not completely lost.

Class ended and Loren immediately dragged me to the cafeteria. We grabbed lunch and then walked out to eat it on the campus lawn. We sat down and started unwrapping the lunches we’d gotten to go.

“So what did Maximus do for you?” Loren asked, as casually as she possibly could. I could sense from her twitching she was dying to know.

“Well, apparently my wolf hearing kicked in,” I sighed. “It was like everyone in the world was in my ears. So he helped me with that.”

Loren gasped and grabbed my arm with a huge smile. “That’s amazing Zora!” she said, shaking me slightly. Then she dropped my arm and frowned. “Well, not amazing that you felt that. I remember when mine kicked in.” She shivered. I chuckled around a bite of sandwich. I swallowed before continuing. I tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

“And he invited me to Mateball,” I mumbled.

Loren paused mid bite then slowly brought her sandwich away from her mouth. Her eyes were wide with wonder. I took a small nibble of my own sandwich avoiding her gaze.

“Tell me you said yes,” Loren said softly.

I groaned and dropped my sandwich back in it’s wrapper. At the same time Loren whisper yelled my name in shock.

“I can’t believe you rejected Maximus Wolfham as a mate!” she whisper yelled.

“I didn’t reject him as a mate,” I said. “I just said no to being his prom date. He’s a weird guy and I never know what his true motive is with me. I could see this being another way to embarrass me.”

“Zora,” Loren shook her head. “You’ve got it all wrong. Wolves never mess about with having a mate. Mateball is like the most important day in some wolves’ lives!”

I flinched. Maybe I had mistaken Maximus’s intentions. I poked at my sandwich again. Suddenly, my appetite was completely gone.

“He hates wolfless,” I said softly. “Told me so himself. So how could he have possibly been okay with me being his mate.”

“I know Max has been hard on you,” Loren put her hand on my shoulder. She shook it lightly. “But he wouldn’t joke about this.” She sat back on her heels and smiled.

“Honestly, maybe it’s the Gods’ way of telling him that wolfless aren’t as bad as he thinks,” she said. She laughed lightly.

I couldn’t help but smile. “It would be high ironic for the guy who hates wolfless to be stuck with a wolfless girl as a mate,” I picked my sandwich back up and chomped another bite.

Maybe Loren was right. Maybe Maximus was more okay with me being his potential fated mate than me being wolfless? But then there was this whole princess thing. I tried to ignore the sinking feeling as I finished my lunch. I figured a topic change would be better.

“So what do people wear to the Mateball?” I asked Loren.

Her eyes went wide. “Oh it’s the most fashionable event of the year!” Great. Fashion was not my forte. I fidgeted in my oversized tee from my time in the human world.

“I’m thinking I’ll wear a pink gown,” Loren went on. “My mother had matching gowns made for sissy and I when we were young. But sissy’s already chosen a mate so she won’t need it.” Her nose wrinkled.

I laughed. “When am I gonna meet this sister of yours?” I asked.

“She’ll be at Mateball,” Loren assured. “But she won’t take part in the dance.”

I frowned. “Dance?”

“The Dance of the Moon!” Loren said cheerfully. “Where the Moonlight streams in through the moonroof and lights us to our mates!” Her face fell as she saw my own expression.

“You didn’t know did you?”

I shook my head and finished the final nub of my sandwich. “I suck at dancing,” I said around a mouthful of sandwich.

“Don’t worry,” Loren waved a hand. “It’s really primal. Usually a bunch of sniffing and letting your wolf take over.”

My heart dropped down to the pit of my stomach. How was I supposed to let a wolf take over when I didn’t have one?

Somehow, this was worse than just some wolf-y prom.