Clare

  I was in the middle of my Biology class absentmindedly watching our biology teacher rave on and on about genes and DNA, when a knock interrupted the class. To my surprise, when I turned to the door trying to identify who the intruder was and what they wanted, I was shocked to discover that Elijah was the one at the door. For a second, our gazes met and then he looked away, turning to my Biology teacher.

  He looked nothing like the boy I saw yesterday at the Lounge’s back alley. His hair still looked dark and slightly tousled, but the side parting was very neat, showing that the tousled waves framing his face and the strands falling over his forehead were intentionally cultivated to do so. His uniform was neat and pristine, well ironed from top to bottom, and his shiny expensive black leather shoes looked like he walked on air and not the dusty floors of Hawkins Private High. To add to his gentle and refined scholarly look, he was wearing his thin, round glasses that he sometimes wore and sometimes didn’t wear.

  “Mr. Batesman, can I please take Miss Parker out of your class for a few minutes? I need to talk to her about something important.” Elijah’s voice and his mannerism were filled with thoughtfulness and refinement that almost made me doubt that the man I’d seen last night was a dream.

  Mr. Batesman seemed to think the same as me as he gave one of his rare smiles to the perfect student, Elijah. “Of course, of course. Clare, please step out with the Student Council President. Um…take your bags too. The class will end soon.”

  What else could I do but obey?

  With a nod, I left my Biology class under the watchful eyes of my classmates and my Biology teacher.

  As soon as I closed the door behind me, Elijah lost the gentle look on his face as he stared at me with an unreadable expression. His look made me take a step away from him, and that seemed to make him even more unhappy as his lips pursed.

  Placing his hand in the air behind my lower back, he directed me wordlessly away from my Biology classroom and past the hallway of classrooms. Once we were out of the hallway of classrooms, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into a janitor’s closet.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I said as I looked around the dark closet, which was lit by the light coming from the space between the door and the ground.

  Elijah didn’t respond as he groped around behind me and then, with the sound of a switch being flipped, a small bulb on the closet’s ceiling came on.

  I was staring up at Elijah when the light came on, so I saw that his hazel eyes were several shades lighter than usual and rather than their usual brown shade, they looked more green.

  I took a step back because the way his eyes looked and the feeling of something more peering down at me was evidence that Elijah’s wolf-half was present in this tiny room with us. That was weird and scary. Elijah wasn’t an Alpha, but he was still a Beta, several ranks above a nobody Fae-Witch mixed werewolf like me whose shifts were still painful several shifts after my first shift because of how diluted the werewolf blood I’d gotten from my unknown father was.

  “W-what do y-you want?” I couldn’t help stammering, stepping away from Elijah.

  Unfortunately, with every step I took away from him, he followed me until my back was pressed to the wall and an inch of space could barely be found between our bodies.

  In the silence of the room, he lowered his head to the crook of my neck and inhaled several deep breaths of my scent.

  “W-what d-do you want to do?” I was shivering as I spoke.

  I was scared of him and the secret of him that I’d stumbled upon, which was the only reason I could think of for being locked in this janitor’s closet alone with him. I knew better than to try to run and escape him. I was more of a Fae-Witch than I’d ever been a werewolf, so I didn’t even have a quarter of the speed and strength of the werewolf strength of full-blood werewolves.

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  “I’m not going to hurt you.” He finally said with a sigh after several minutes of silence.

  His words reminded me about why I hadn’t been so scared to leave my Biology classroom with him. He’d asked for me in front of the whole classroom so I couldn’t go missing now or he’d be the one to blame.

  Courage regained. I pushed him away from me, only managing to push him a step back because I’d caught him unaware. “Stop…threatening me. I promise that I’m not going to tell anyone what I saw yesterday. Let’s just pretend I never saw anything, okay?”

  He looked down at me, holding my gaze for several seconds before saying, “I don’t believe you. Tell me what you want in exchange for keeping your mouth shut.”

  “Your secret is safe with me. I’ll never tell anyone. No one cares if you’re gay or not, so there’s no need to hide it, anyway. I heard the Alpha of the Hawkins pack is also really liberal, so there’s nothing to worry about, so why—“

  Before I could say anything more, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to mine.

  A gasp left my mouth at this sudden move and he took advantage of my parted lips to pull me into a kiss. It was light and airy at first, and then it became intense before it became punishing and controlling.

  When he broke the kiss, I was left wanting more, but when I stood on a tiptoe for more, he turned away, giving me his cheek.

  He smirked at my disappointed look. “I’m bisexual, not gay. Now, tell me your price for shutting up. What do you want? My body?”

  I stared at him disbelievingly because of the disdain and disregard in his eyes.

  He chuckled, “Too bad. I only sleep with people I’m attracted to and you’re just not my type. Too flat in all the right places and chunky in all the wrong places.”

  His words made tears well up in my eyes unbidden as he stepped on my insecurities and me along with it.

  “I don’t want your body. I never wanted your body. I just wanted you, but you’re not who I thought you were, so I don’t want you anymore.” I said through gritted teeth, looking up to meet his gaze.

  My words seemed to have no effect on him, but they seemed to at the same time as the playfulness in his gaze disappeared, replaced by an icy stare.

  “Then money?” The playfulness on his face seemed feigned as he asked this question, since it didn’t match the frost in his gaze.

  “I don’t want anything from you. J-just let me go. I’ll never tell anyone.” I cried.

  “Yes, that’s what you guys always say. Then you get spiteful and decide to ‘anonymously’ talk about it. Name your price or I’m not letting you out of this closet.”

  As if on cue, the buzzer indicating the end of the period went off.

  I didn’t want to miss my next class, so I said, “Then 200 bucks?”

  “What’s your Venmo?” He asked, pulling out his phone and pressing a few buttons without looking at me.

  “Clareparker550?” I said, unable to stop myself from staring at his face and the subtle bridge of his nose.

  Afraid of him catching me staring, I turned to stare at an old and dusty wireless vacuum cleaner.

  After what felt like minutes, he finally spoke. “Check your Venmo.”

  Numbly, I pulled my phone out of my backpack and checked my Venmo. “You sent 3000 dollars?!”

  “Yes, that should be enough to keep your mouth shut, right?” He asked.

  I shook my head rapidly. “No, no, no. This is too much. I can keep my mouth shut for nothing. I’ll send the money back to you.”

  He grabbed my hand and forced me to hold his gaze. “Keep it or I won’t be rest assured that you’ll keep your mouth shut and then this…us being locked in a janitor’s closet will keep happening whenever I start to feel insecure. You don’t want that, do you?”

  I truly didn’t want that, but before I could respond, he smirked. “Besides, I sent that much because I can hold on to the records for other purposes. If you dare to go back on your word, I will present this money as proof that you blackmailed me to my pack Alpha. You’ve heard that he’s pretty liberal, but have you heard that he doesn’t like greedy people? There’s no doubt that if he sees this payment, he’ll definitely kick you out of the pack.”

  His smirk looked so evil and full of ill intent that I was speechless as he smiled at me, shook his phone in the air meaningfully, and walked out of the janitor’s closet.

  Suddenly, I remembered what Sawyer had said to me about Elijah.

  “Be careful with Elijah. He seems easygoing and open, but his heart is hard as stone. If you fall in love with him, you do so at your own peril because, no matter how wonderful you are, he can’t see you at all.”

  “I only tried to alert you to the fact that it would probably take a divine intervention for Elijah to love anyone as he is right now. I was trying to protect you from heartbreak.”

  Sawyer had been right.

  The Elijah I just saw. The real Elijah was definitely incapable of loving me as he was. He was too cynical about love and the emotions that came with it.

  The worst part was that I was realizing now that the boy I had thought him to be was nothing like who he actually was.

  All of that was definitely a carefully crafted mask and demeanor he used to deceive everyone around him, and I’d fallen for it.

  I’d fallen so deeply that even now that his mask had been pulled away, something in my heart and soul still throbbed for him. But I knew better than to keep and fester feelings like this for someone whose abilities to mask himself reminded me so much of my slimy stepfather.

  So I was going to get rid of these feelings and I knew someone who could help me with that.