Chapter 38

I was about to leave class, blissfully unbothered and conversing with Loren when I felt a hand on my elbow. I whipped around, eyes wide and hands coming up to fight. I was shocked to see Thorne standing behind me, hands up in defense.

“Gods above,” he hissed. He dropped his hands. “Are you always so quick to attack people?”

“Seeing as everyone at this fucking school has it out for me, yes,” I dropped my hands. I gestured to Loren to continue out of the classroom. She frowned but went ahead. I turned back to the wolf in front of me.

“What do you want, Thorne?”

“You know my name,” he said softly. “How?”

I froze. He didn’t know I had stayed in the same castle as him. He didn’t know I knew who he was and he still had no clue who I was.

“You’re always with Maximus and Kairos,” I said quickly. “Friend of my enemy is my own enemy and all that.”

Thorne smirked. His bleach blonde hair was braided back from his head. Two stray strands sat against his forehead. His black eyebrows looked funny next to the bleach blonde. They hung over his canary yellow eyes, not quite as deep gold as Kairos’s but not the white gold that Valentin’s were. Maximus’s eyes sat in the middle of Valentin’s and Thorne’s. I wonder if there was a relation between eyes and status.

Mental note for later, I thought.

You own pens and paper, my wolf drawled. I am not your secretary.

Once again, I ignored her. She was getting on my last nerves. I shifted my attention back to Thorne. He swung his backpack higher up on his shoulder and blinked at me. I realized I’d been off in la-la land once again.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. I pointed to my head. “Wolf, ya know.”

Thorne nodded sharply. “It’s hard to tone them down in the beginning,” he said. “But if you use the same tactics for turning off your hearing, you can at least make them not as loud in your head.”

I nodded. Why was he helping me? Didn’t he hate me like Maximus and Kairos…maybe? Did they even hate me anymore?

They certainly feel something, my wolf mused. I ignored her again. I had to start working on shutting her out.

“Thanks,” I mumbled to Thorne. “But was that really wanted to tell me?”

“No,” Thorne shifted awkwardly on his feet. The Professor had retreated to his office and Loren was outside. We were the only two left in the classroom.

“I have a new assignment,” Thorne said. “I don’t know if you know, but I am one of the Queen’s Knights. She assigns me to protect people of interest.”

“Oh,” I said. I knew where this was going and I already hated it.

“Yeah, so,” Thorne rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “The Queen has assigned me to protect you for whatever reason. So I’ll be following you to and from classes for the rest of the semester.”

I knew exactly what Victoria was doing with this. She was trying to force Thorne upon me as a chosen mate. As if him rejecting me as a fated mate wasn’t enough of a “no, thank you” from him. Anger bubbled in the back of my mind. I clenched my fists and felt the familiar warmth of a shift start in my toes.

Stay calm, my wolf demanded. Two outbursts in one day will not bode well for you.

Go away, I threw back. She darted off into the back of my mind.

“Tell her I politely decline,” I said sharply before turning on my heel and starting out of the classroom.

Thorne grabbed my elbow again before I could get far. I felt the familiar hum of electricity from his grasp. It was dull, but it was surely there. Thorne clearly did to by the way he dropped my arm.

“Look, I’m not happy about it either,” Thorne spat. “But you don’t ‘decline’ the Queen.”

“But I am. Declining, that is,” I threw back at him. I ushered him away from me. “So bye.”

I turned and started out of the classroom, leaving Thorne behind to stew in his own rage. Loren was standing just outside the classroom and looked confused as I left. I furrowed my eyebrows at her.

“What?”

“The Queen wants you protected?” she asked. She shook her head. “What’s going on, Zora? First the most popular designer shows up at our room before Mateball. Then the Queen starts protecting you? Are you some kind of spy?”

I grimaced. I should’ve known she’d been listening in. I immediately felt guilty for lying to her. I started to walk down the hallway away from class and she followed. I waved my head back and forth on my shoulders.

“Uh, sort of,” I said.

Loren snorted. “You can tell me, you know,” she said. “I won’t go run off and use it against you.”

“I didn’t think you would,” I replied. “But it’s not exactly a secret I want to get out yet. Promise me when people do begin to learn, you’ll be the first to know.”

Loren glanced sideways at me. She huffed before sighing and throwing her head back. “Fine,” she said. “But if I’m not you’ll hear from my lawyers!”

I laughed at her and bumped our shoulders together. “Do you even have lawyers?”

“No,” Loren said quickly then smirked. “But my family does.”

The two of us giggled our way across campus back to our room. When walked up the stairs to our door. No one seemed to bother us along the way, though they were looking at us like they wanted to. I ignored all the angry glances.

When Loren opened the door, a slip of paper with my name on it slid from the frame. I frowned and picked it up. Loren raised an eyebrow at me.

“Another secret?” she asked. I gave her a half a smile. When I didn’t answer she sighed and pushed past me into the room. I stood next to the door and unfolded the letter. The handwriting was all I needed to see to know it was from Valentin.

Gym. Tomorrow. 7 in the morning.

I sighed and shoved the note in my desk where the rest of his notes were. I threw my bag on the floor and then flopped myself onto my bed. I grabbed my quilt and pulled it up to my chin while I stared at the ceiling. I was beginning to grow tired of my secret life.