My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. The look in her eyes absolutely killed me. The pain of betrayal flashed through her eyes. I never wanted to cause her that pain.
Jace was furious, thrashing around inside me as I tried to get him under control. She turns around and walks away and into school, following Oliver and her brother.
"Baby, is everything okay? We can skip first class. I have study hall," Grace's voice rang through my ears as she tries to reach for me.
"Don't," I growl back at her. I know Jace was showing in my eyes with the amount of command that radiated off me.
She looked back at me startled, her eyes blinking up at me wide in fear. "I... I'm sorry, Alpha," she whispered and bowed her head in submission.
I took another step back, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to try and get Jace under control, and said to Grace. "We're done, you need to find your own way to and from school from now on."
"But, but why? What did I do?" she whispers, her voice barely audible.
"This isn't working anymore," I say as she starts to sob. I moved away and started to walk towards the school gates.
"But I thought you loved me," she murmurs through her sobs.
I stop dead in my tracks and turn back around to face her. I was fucking furious. Fuck, Danni was right.
I completely lost control of Jace. He pushed forward and growled. "Don't be stupid. He has never shown you anything more than a good fuck. If you have caught feelings, then it is on you and you should have backed off. Zander was always clear on his intentions. It is your own stupid fault if you fell in love. You knew the rules."
I sighed, 'Did you have to be an ass to her?'
'How else will she learn to back off,' Jace growled. 'We have a mate. I told you time and time again this shit will happen if it’s a regular occurence.'
I roll my eyes internally to Jace and look back at Grace. Yes, I feel guilty doing this to her, she isn’t a bad person. But I did also understand where Jace was coming from, and he was somewhat right.
I would rather she hated me and backed off, so I could move on and try to be with Ashleigh. Trying to figure that shit out and not have any more issues with an already messy situation.
After contemplating the situation for about thirty seconds, I decided that my priority is my mate. I’m already in deep shit for what happened. I didn't want to make it worse, so I just turn and walk away, ignoring Grace’s hysterical sobs.
All throughout the day, Ashleigh avoided me. We didn't have another class together until Monday and I couldn't wait that long. I’m sick of her avoiding me. I saw her once or twice walking along the hall between my classes only for her to turn around and go the other way.
Jace is constantly pacing in my mind, every time he picked up her scent he would go berserk, pushing forward trying to get me to find her.
'We have to be smart about this, we can't just go up and claim her,' I told him for what seemed like the fifth time today.
'Yes, we can, she is your mate, my mate. I get to claim her.' he grumbles back, frustrated about the whole thing. I sigh again, it’s no use explaining the situation, he knew it. He's just being a stubborn ass.
'It could start a war no one wants Jace. I know you want her, but you need to calm down. You are scaring people.’ I try to reason with him 'We will see her at lunch, they will sit in their normal place. Just please calm down.'
'Fine, she had better be there, I just need to be in the same room as her.' he mumbles.
I sigh. Ever since our bond snapped into place being away from her weakened us, even without our marking. We can’t be away from her for too long, we need her.
The lesson before lunch was running long. My Maths teacher was an old bag, and she just took so long explaining everything and answering everyone's questions. So, of course, it ran ten minutes longer.
Jace was fuming by the end of the lesson. He just wanted to get to the cafeteria where he knew Ashleigh would (hopefully) be. Once the teacher called the class to an end, Jace tried to move forward again, frantically trying to get to the cafeteria.
'Dude please chill out, people are noticing'. I try to calm him down.
'Don't fucking tell me to chill, I will chill when we see our mate!' He growls.
It’s useless to try to settle him down until he sees Ashleigh is okay. He'd been pissed off all morning that she somehow managed to avoid us all day.
I arrive at the cafeteria and it was crazy busy as usual, with everyone was already lining up to get the food. This is going to take for ever. I groan to myself.
'Who cares! Find mate. NOW!' Jace growls demandingly.
'Well, is she here? Can you smell her?' I snap back.
He pushes forward, trying to seek her out. As her beautiful scent comes through, Jace immediately settles down.
'She's here.' he whispers.
I sigh, 'We need to play it cool, Jace. We need to figure this out without causing suspicion or issues.'
'I know, I just want to see her, to be close to her' he mumbles. I can feel his pain. He hates what I did to her. I hate it, too, but I can't take it back. I can only try to fix it, let her know that I'll try to be worthy of her … to be a good mate.
I look around slowly to find her and I see her with Oliver, her brother, two other females, and a few other pack members.
Fuck, she looks amazing in that dress, it fits her perfectly. The colour is amazing and complements her beautifully. And her hair … has she always had them in those gorgeous curls? Fuck, when have I ever noticed this type of stuff?
I must have been staring too long because she looks up from what she was doing and her eyes on land on mine widening, panicking. Shit, why is she panicked?
I give her a small smile, trying to reassure her I wouldn't do anything stupid here, I just wanted to see her.
'We need to talk to her', Jace says.
'She probably hates us,' I frowned back, 'How can we talk to her without anyone noticing?'
'Just anything to be close to her, I need to be close to her,' he pleaded.
'I'll try to figure it out, I just need to get some food and we'll mull over it, okay?' I try to bargain with him.
We line up for lunch and walk over to the rest of our pack in school. Grace was on the other side with some random people avoiding me also, giving me a few death glares here and there. Honestly, she had better watch herself and how she acts, I'm her damn Alpha.
I sit at the table next to Danni across Eric, Billy, and Annie. Eric and Billy are in the same year as me. Both their parents are warriors and they, too, enlisted to be warriors as well.
We chat amongst ourselves, making small talk about our weekend plans. Jace is getting restless, pacing again. I sigh and ask him, ' what's wrong?'
'She's gone' Jace said, frustrated.
'We can't be around her all the time.'
'Yes, we can, she is our Mate!' Jace insists.
'What do you want me to do?'
'Find her, make an excuse, anything!' he demanded.
I finished up my lunch quickly and told the guys I'm headed off to finish something before the next class. I walk down the hallways trying to find Ashleigh's scent again.
I know I've gone full on stalker mode. Don't blame me, this is all Jace. I'm just about to give up, thinking she must be on the other side of school or in a classroom. Jace suddenly picks up her scent and she comes quickly around the bend, slamming into me and falling backwards on the floor. All of her books fall and scatter on the ground around us. Sparks fly through me like fireworks with our contact.
"Offt, sorry," she mumbles, looking down, trying to gather her things quickly.
I frown, surely, she knows it's me, right? Jace is going crazy with the contact. I can feel him pushing forward again. 'Make sure she's all right dumbass!'
"Are you okay?" I ask. Bending down to help her I knew it was a loaded question, but I had to ask. My heart is pounding in my chest about to explode from just being so close to her. Shit, is this what it was like with the bond? I feel alive.
Besides the fact that Jace was pissed off at me and the situation, it still feels amazing that I could be near her. It takes all of my strength not to reach out and touch her face, to kiss her, to hold her and be close to her.
People around us stop and watch cautiously. I glare back, making them start walking past quickly with heads down. Good, no one needs to see this interaction between us.
"I'm fine," she whispers.
"Can we talk?" I ask.
Her eyes snap up to mine. "If you want to reject me, just do it here." she says demandingly.
I frown again. "Wait, what? No, can we just talk, please."
She nods and I look around. The hallway we are in is completely deserted.
I guess Jace pushed out more aura than I anticipated. I saw a small supply closet that was on the corner of the hallway, not too far away from where we were. It probably isn't the best place to have this conversation, but we need to have it, and this is the safest option. The bathrooms and classrooms are always occupied. At least there will be minimal interruptions, if any at all, in there.
"Over here," I mumble and reach out to help her up.
"Don't," she replies coldly and moves away. Shit, I wasn't getting out of anything that easily.
'No, we fucking aren't, you had better pray that she doesn't reject us,' Jace growled.
I looked around to make sure the coast is clear. Everyone is either already in class or quickly moving to be in class in the next 3 minutes. I guess neither of us are taking the next class.