Chapter 41

“What do you want?” I snapped as I pushed myself off the floor.

Despite standing on my feet, Maximus was still a half a foot taller than me. I tried to tip my chin to glare at him but failed. Maximus’s gold eyes bore into me.

“To be able to sleep without hearing you scream,” he spat. “Do you even know what time it is?”

“No,” I threw back, petulantly.

Maximus stepped into my room. The door slammed shut behind him and Loren jumped. He yanked the matching fuzzy pink clock off her desk and shoved it into my face. The cord swirled out from her desk and clattered across the floor.

“It’s eleven-fucking-thirty,” Maximus snapped as he pushed the clock into my chest. I fumbled it slightly before looking back at him to glare.

“Oh I’m so, so sorry for disturbing your beauty sleep, your highness,” I mocked. I even added a fake bow at the end. As I stood back up, Maximus was still glaring at me. Loren’s eyes were darting back and forth between the two of us.

Maximus sucked in a deep breath, nostrils flaring. For a second, I thought he was going to tackle me. Then, he took a step back. His hand went to our door and he wrenched it open.

“Just, keep it down,” he spat before he left. The door slammed shut again and then Loren and I were alone once more.

“That was some serious sexual tension,” Loren whispered. I threw the fuzzy pink clock at her, and she caught it effortlessly. I threw myself on my bed.

“Now that you know my secret, are you going to over analyze every interaction I have?” I said.

“Yep,” Loren jumped up on her own bed. “But don’t worry, I won’t comment unless I feel the need to.”

I rolled my neck on my pillow to look at her. She looked like a tiny pixie on her massive pink bed. She cocked her head to the side in thought.

“But, no promises,” she said.

I groaned and threw my pillow over my head so I could scream into it. Loren laughed. I threw my pillow to the side to look at her again.

“Seriously, though,” she said. “Thank you for telling me. I know you probably have a thousand more secrets but I’m grateful you told me what you did. I won’t say anything to anyone unless you want me to.”

I smiled at her. “Please don’t,”

She mimicked zipping her lips up and throwing the key away. Then she shimmied off her bed and started towards our bathroom. I followed suit and began to get ready for bed.

It took me a while to fall asleep that night. I was second guessing telling Loren. I supposed the potential mate bonds between the school’s assholes was the least of my secrets. Being the Princess was number one and I still kept that one to myself. But, if Loren could handle my weird feelings and my secret meetings with Valentin, maybe she would be able to handle the big one.

We woke up the next morning and quickly got ready for class. I didn’t have anything until ten in the morning and Loren had nothing until eleven so we made our way to the cafeteria for breakfast. I’d become used to people staring at me when I walked in a room but that morning it was especially prominent.

I nudged Loren. “Does it seem like people are especially look-y today?” I mumbled under my breath. Loren did a quick sweep of the cafeteria before looking back at me. She wrinkled her forehead in confusion.

“Do I have something on my face?” she asked.

“I think they’re looking at me,” I whispered.

Everyone seemed to be glaring or scoffing at me. I reached into the back of my mind and let some of the people’s voices I’d been staving off in.

“Did you hear? Apparently the reject is sleeping with Professor Lunerly as well?”

“Really? Gods, she’s such a whore. You think she’d take a second to chill after breaking her fated bond. Guess she’s really desperate.”

I cringed at the names but shifted my hearing to another conversation.

“—she’s sleeping with like half the school! So desperate for attention after being rejected it’s kind of sad.”

“Do you blame her? I mean she had one of the rarest bonds and rejected it. Couldn’t be me—”

Another conversation flooded my brain.

“—saw Maximus Wolfham leaving her room last night! She must be sleeping with him too!”

“What a slut. I’d be so embarrassed if I was her—”

I slammed my walls back up, entirely shocked at the accusations being passed around about me. I looked towards Loren. Her face had gone slightly pale, a frown melted into her lips.

“You heard?” I whispered. She nodded slowly then gestured to in front of us.

Bella was standing in the space we needed to walk passed to get food. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was glaring at both of us. Two other girls were flanking her sides. The one I recognized as the blonde wolf who’d chased me the first day of the hunt. I think her name was Mallory. The second was even scarier than Bella with brown hair and deep black eyes. She looked like she wanted to kill me.

Loren and I stopped short of Bella and her lackies. Loren immediately puffed up her chest and tried to make herself look taller than she actually was.

“I didn’t know the bitch club was meeting in the cafeteria,” she spat. “Personally, I’d pick a better place to meet. You’re kind of in everyone’s way.”

“Fuck off, Moonbeam,” Mallory sneered. “This isn’t about you. It’s about the bitch who can’t keep her legs closed.”

Loren made a noise of fake concern. “Everly, that’s no way to talk about Glass,” she mocked, motioning towards the scary brunette. “She’s literally right there!”

“Mallory wasn’t talking about Kate,” Bella snapped. “She was talking about Sleazy Smith.”

I blinked at the nickname. It surely wasn’t the nicest name I’d been given. Yet, somehow, wasn’t the worst.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said as evenly as I could to Bella. “So if you’d move—”

“We’re not moving anywhere until you admit it,” the scary brunette, Kate, said.

“Admit what?” I said.

Mallory sneered at me. “Don’t play dumb,” she snapped. “We all know your fucking our boyfriends.”

My eye twitched. I glanced towards where Kairos, Maximus and Thorne usually sat. All three of them were watching the altercation with Bella and company. Kairos had a wicked grin, Maximus’s face was neutral and Thorne rolled his eyes as he looked back towards his meal.

“Your boyfriends,” I said slowly. I looked back at the girls. “Right. Yeah. I’m not fucking anyone.”

“Liar!” Kate hissed.

She raised her hand and slapped me hard enough across the face that the crack echoed through the cafeteria. My head whipped with force and I skittered across the floor. I brought my hand to my pulsing cheek. It was hot to the touch. Slowly, I stood back up.

Everyone who wasn’t looking at us, was after that. Even Thorne, who seemed annoyed with the whole altercation, was staring now. He was looking back and forth between Bella and I like he was debating intervening. Maximus was up on his feet, nostrils flaring again and eyes pinned on Kate.

I looked back and forth between Kate and Maximus. In the blink of an eye, Maximus was marching across the cafeteria. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for him to start bashing on me as well. However, I was surprised when I opened my eyes and saw Maximus’s back in front of me.

The man who’d screamed at me for being too loud the night before, was now standing between me and the woman who’d slapped me across the face. I’d never been more confused in my life.