Caia twisted her lips in thought and looked down at her hands. They clutched the straps of her backpack so tightly they were white. She liked Lucien. A lot. And she was of course attracted to him. But in love with him? Did she really know him well enough for it to be that? Did she even want it to be that?
“No.”
“No?”
The sound of laughter from inside drifted towards her ears. She could hear a teacher telling a student not to write on the desk; a class giggling at one of the few funny teachers they had in there; a girl stuttering over a class presentation. It was all so normal, so human. But she wasn’t human. She wasn’t even sure she was a normal lykan. The only examples of reality she had in her life were the bonds of friendship she had with ones such as the girl by her side. And goddess forgive her, but, all she wanted right now was for Jaeden to go away. To leave her alone so she could go back to ignoring the fact that something was happening to her - good or bad, she didn’t know. And to top it off, her crush on a lykan she could never have had gone from hot to sizzling in a matter of twenty four hours. She sighed, and glanced back out the window at that cat. If what was inside her was dangerous she would take herself far away from these people she had begun to love. She smiled humorlessly as she thought of the day she had told Sebastian that China was always an option if the worst came to the worst. She had always wanted to see The Great Wall.
“Caia?” Jaeden begged.
She looked back at her friend and placed a reassuring hand over hers. “I’m not meant for him, Jaeden.”
“Maybe that’s not your decision.”
Caia sighed. She really couldn’t take a speech about the gods and fate just now. “I better get going.”
“Caia …”
She shook her head and got out of the car. “We’ll talk later.”
Alexa was smiling like the cat that ate the canary. Caia’s back immediately went up as she slid into her seat beside her in English. She didn’t even want to know what was going on with her.
When fifteen minutes had gone by, and Alexa hadn’t said anything, Caia relaxed minimally, trying to concentrate on the passages the teacher had asked them to read. As per usual the class was rowdy and obnoxious, and the poor teacher was having trouble controlling them.
“So, you missed all the excitement on Saturday night,” Alexa purred and Caia groaned.
“Really,” she murmured back, uninterested.
“Mm,” Alexa continued smugness in her voice that alerted Caia. Her skin began to prickle unexpectedly, the hair on the nape of her neck standing up. What the Hades? She turned to look at the girl. “Yeah. While you were gone, the gods knows where, I helped Lucien mop up. He was very grateful.” She sighed breathily. “And then we got to talking. Really talking, you know.”
Caia shifted uncomfortably, and her stomach began to roil with anticipation.
Alexa giggled softly and ducked her head closer to Caia’s as if they had been best friends all their lives. Her eyes were sparkling. “And I dunno, maybe we had too much to drink… before I knew it we were in his bedroom.”
It was like someone had literally slapped her across the face. Her eyes narrowed on the girl. Alexa didn’t mean what Caia thought she meant, did she? Lucien wouldn’t kiss one girl, and then...
A white heat prickled across her skin, boiling her blood as it passed inch by inch from her feet up through her legs. It was a familiar heat she had felt only once before.
“And there I am, waking up next to his gorgeous body. I think the pack will be celebrating another mating soon, and when we do,” she smiled and touched her flat belly, “This will be a whole lot rounder.”
At those last words, without warning and with no way to control it even though she knew what would happen, the white heat blasted out from her body like a force and sent a horrified Alexa flying across the other side of the room. The sound of her peers gasping and chairs scraping back was lost on her. She stared at Alexa in horror, her hands trembling, the blood pounding in her ears.
And then the worst happened.
A familiar wincing pain radiated from her left hand. She glanced down and saw her fair pelt pushing through the soft flesh there. She slapped her other hand over it so they couldn’t see. No! Oh goddess. She couldn’t breathe.
“What on earth?” she heard the teacher cry as Alexa stumbled to her feet.
She heard the 'oh my God's' of everyone, even some snickering, but they were all staring at her like she’d gone mad.
“Caia Ribeiro, what has gotten into you?!” The teacher was shrieking.
“I have to go,” she mumbled, ignoring Alexa’s snarl of her name as she fled past her classmates and out of the door. Her eyes never left her hand as more and more of her pelt started pushing through. She swallowed a groan at the feel of her muscles burning, readying themselves for the change.
“Watch yourself, young lady.” She looked up as someone steadied her, and realized that there was a small crowd in the hallway. “The water.” The janitor pointed to the floor a few feet from her. “The pipes in this place have all gone crazy... water getting everywhere...”
Caia didn’t stop to hear him finish. The water was her fault again, but with the change coming fast that was the last thing on her mind. Her pelt was pushing through her legs now, her feet shifting in her shoes. Holy Artemis, she wasn’t going to make it out of here.
“Caia!”