Fueling the fire

Chapter 3

Athena POV

After everyone has returned to their seats in the cafeteria, still laughing, I make my way back towards the hallway where the restrooms are.

“Well, the fat f**k can easily miss a lunch or 50” I hear Jake bellowing out in laughter. I clench my jaw and grit my teeth, doing everything I can to prevent myself from letting Ares free.

F*ckkkk me, I can’t wait to get out of here one day.

‘Or rip their throats out, eat them, maim them, burn them, drown them. All those options would be good for me’. Damn.

Deep in thoughts and not paying attention to my surroundings, I bump into something. Hard. To my surprise however, the object I bumped into speaks up.

“Ouch! Watch where y… Oh my god, Athena!”. The voice rings in my ears like a melody, a soothing balm to my soul. I would recognize that voice anywhere, belonging to my best friend Millie. What I don’t understand however, is what she is doing here, in blood moon? In my school. All packs have their own schools, so Millie doesn’t attend mine. Before I can ask however, she seems to notice my appearance and smell.

“Goddess, what happened to you?!” she gasps, to which I just sigh in return.

“Surprisingly, nothing new” I offer a small smile, shrugging my shoulders. Oops. I let that slip without thinking about it. “More importantly: why are you here?!”.

“What do you mean nothing new?”. Her brows furrow and I can tell she is getting upset, with the way her jaw ticks ever so slightly. When I don’t respond, she sighs and pulls my hand to drag me to the nearest restroom. “Let’s get you cleaned up first!”.

“Yeahhh, the restroom isn’t going to cut it. I need to grab clean clothes and head to the showers in the gym” I respond. Having experienced this treatment before, I know anything beside a shower and clean clothes won’t do.

As we reach my locker and I open it to take clean clothes out, Millie starts to explain she transferred to our pack for the year as a sort of exchange student. Although I am thrilled to see her, I am already dreading the inevitable outcome. She needs to stay away from me if she wants to have anything resembling a life here.

Sighing, I drop the message.

“Millie, you need to stay away from me”. I can’t see her facial expression considering she is behind my locker, but I can hear her temper shining through in her tone of voice. Millie is mostly a gentle giant, or at least to me, but she can have quite the temper as well.

“Why the hell would I do that?”. She replies aggravated.

“I… You…”. I try to formulate a sentence, but nothing comes out. Next I hear is a whistle coming from behind my locker, just as I am retrieving the last of my stuff.

“Damn, who are you?”.

“I don’t believe we have met”.

I shut my locker, but groan upon hearing the s**t stains voices. Luckily, however, their attention is not on me, but on Millie. Millie smiles, oblivious to the fact that she is smiling at the twin devils themselves. Them trying to hit on her was to be expected though. Millie is beautiful. A part of me had just delusionally hoped I was able to keep my best friend a little longer.

I try to sneak off silently, but Millie’s eyes land on me just as I am about to break away. s**t stain #1’s eyes follow her gaze, and his eyes harden immediately as they land on me. The contrast in his expression when he looks at Millie versus when he looks at me is like day and night.

“What are you still doing here, fat-ass? Get the f**k out of here”. He sneers at me, and I continue walking away without another word.

This is the moment I have always dreaded. Millie is going to realize what a loser I am, and dump me like a ton of bricks. Just like everyone here has. I have always known it was inevitable at some point. But I still feel a pang of hurt, even though I tried to shield my heart and tell myself not to get attached anymore.

Stupid. I am so stupid.

After a few seconds I hear them call out. “Hey! Where are you going?”.

I’m confused, but I don’t look back. Curiosity is killing me when I hear several bystanders gasp though. Fast footsteps approach me, and I speed up my pace too, rounding the corner towards the showers. Before I reach them, I am shoved against the wall, facing an angry Millie.

I am telling you, this lady can be scary if she wants to be. Even though we are even in normal combat, something about the intensity in her eyes makes me shrink.

“What the hell was that?”. She raises her voice at me, and I flinch a little at her harsh tone.

“What do you mean?”. I ask, utterly confused. “Look, Millie, you’ll come to see I am not someone you want to be friends with. Especially not here. Just g…”.

She interrupts me swiftly. And quite rudely, might I add. I might be the pack’s laughing stock, but I have manners. Geez.

“Did you hit your head or something? Why the hell didn’t you defend yourself?”.

I look at her dumbfounded with my brows furrowed. Did she not hear me or something? Ironically, her expression looks equally dumbfounded as mine must look to her. Only a lot angrier.

“Why would I have hit my head?”.

“Jesus, Athena!”. She throws her hands up in the air in frustration, pacing back and forth. “I have seen you fight, Athena. And I know you are even holding back with me. You could easily wipe the floor with them”.

Well, I could, but I can’t exactly say that. She doesn’t know I have my wolf already. And besides that, I can’t tell her about them blackmailing me. She would surely try to fix things, and get my family hurt unintentionally.

“No I couldn’t, Millie, they are the Alpha’s sons”.

She scoffs at me. “They don’t even have their wolves yet, Athena!”.

I feel a pang of nervousness rise, what does she mean by that?

“Neither do…”. I was about to lie through my teeth, but she interrupts me yet again.

“Bull f*cking s**t Athena! I have seen your eyes flash!”. She exclaims angrily, before adding in a hushed tone. “Red, might I add….”.

I gulp nervously, before panic starts to set in. “Millie, please, you can’t tell anyone!”. I plead with her, clutching my hands together in a praying motion.

She grumbles, before responding. “I haven’t, now, have I?”. She taps her foot impatiently, while I am pondering on her words briefly.

“Well, no.. Not yet at least”. I mumble under my breath, barely loud enough for her to hear.

“I don’t get it though, Athena. Help me understand. You have an extraordinary gift and you are an amazing fighter, why let them bully you like that?”.

“Well I can’t fight the entire pack now, can I?”. I snap at her, immediately regretting it when I see her facial expression is full of sympathy. “And besides, do you know what they would do to a female attacking the golden Alpha boys? In a misogynistic shithole like this one?”. She remains silent, studying my face.

“So, well, unless you want to lather up my body in soap, I am going to hit the shower now. Alone”.