B0079G5GMK EBOK (4 page)

Clarissa sniffed in despair and Joshua pulled her to his arms. They stood at th
e stairs in front of the school for
a moment that seemed to last forever. When the bell rang, Clarissa realized where she was. She wiped her wet face, embarrassed, and pushed herself away from Joshua.

This was so wrong. Joshua was always there when she needed, and she had no right to cuddle him and let him believe there was something between them. Joshua was unbelievable. Any girl would've wanted him. He was a dream, but Clarissa couldn't help but compare Joshua to Adam. Why did she have to be so stupid? She
was dreaming
about Adam when she had so many perfect guys to choose from. All she had to do was pick one, but she couldn't do it. Why? What was wrong with her? Why she couldn't be like Marie, who
loved Tiamhaidh with all she had
? Marie was sick and might die sooner than anyone believed, but still she knew what she wanted. And why couldn't she. Tiamhaidh was so hot.

Oh, my God! Why am I thinking like this? She thought. She had Joshua right here and still she felt nothing. Well, almost nothing. She didn't feel the same kind of fire and heat she had with Adam and she definitely didn't feel her heart sparkling or her belly tightening when Joshua was near her. Her stupid soul seemed to only notice Adam. What an imbecile she was! Every cell in her body cried for Adam and still here she was, crying in another man's arms for Adam. Why even bother? She sniffed. She should just rush after Adam and offer herself to him. Why fight, when in the end Adam would win? Clarissa screamed in her mind.

Joshua worriedly observed her face, and Clarissa felt how hot her face was. She wiped the last tear with her sleeve
and smiled tamely at Joshua.

“I am so sorry
. I don't know what happened,” s
he mumbled, ashamed.

“Well, feel free to use my arms anytime you need,” Joshua grinned.

Clarissa blushed and ran inside. At least she had succeeded in protecting her mi
nd. B
arely, but still. If Joshua had known what was in her mind, he would've pushed her away with disgust instead of looking at her so irresistibly and smiling.

Clarissa wiped her face. Anyone could tell she had
been crying
. She didn't want anyone to see her eyes ablaze from crying, not now, when she had just claimed she couldn't care less about Adam. If she could be quick enough, she could sneak into the girl's toilet and wash her face before her class started.

She went to the toilet and let the cold water run through her fingers until i
t felt so freezing that she
could
just
barely stand it. She pressed her icy fingers to her face and sighed heavily. The girl in the mirror couldn't be her. Ther
e was no way she could go to
class looking like this.

Clarissa heard someone open the door and she hurried to cover her face with her wet hands again. The steps came closer. She held her breath. Please, let it be anyone except someone I know, she prayed, and if it's someone I know, let it be one of my friends.

The footsteps stopped right next to her and she wished that whoever it was would just go away. Seconds seemed to be minutes. Oh please, go now, she hoped. She could barely breathe anymore.

Her
wish didn't come true. She felt
someone touch her hair, gently, and then caressing her neck and face. She couldn't move or peek to see who this person was, who was petting her. She was mesmerized.

“Did I make you cry?” a rough male voice asked.

Clarissa lifted her face quickly, only to meet Adam's scary black eyes through the mirror.

“This is a girl
’
s toilet!” she screamed.

“As if that would stop me,” Adam grunted.

He ran his fingers freely along her face now, and she couldn't do anything but stand paralyzed and enjoy
his touch. Adam's gaze darkened
more than usual and he growled frustrated
ly
. He moved his fingers to her neck and searched her silky skin from her neck to her breast, but just before he actually touched her
breast, Clarissa got her brain back and
pushed his hands away from her body.

“Stop!” Clarissa shouted, embarrassed. “Stop it right now!”

“You seemed to enjoy it a chroi,”
said Adam, grinning
with pleasure.

“Not so! I don't wanna see even a glimpse of you anymore!” Clarissa claimed, blushing like an apple.

“Fine with me. If that's what you want, I won't bother you anymore. Unfortunately I can't just disappear, so you have to stand my presence at school for awhile,” Adam shrugged neglectfully.

“Seriously? You will promise that you'll leave me alone?” Clarissa asked confusedly and somehow felt betrayed.

Shouldn't Adam be fighting for her? Didn't he want her? Was she not good enough for this sinfully handsome dark devil or was this some kind of a game he was playing?

“Sure. It's easy, you know. I just discovered today that you're not the only fish in the sea and I'm
sure I will enjoy my time at high school,” he
said and smiled boldly.

Clarissa pushed him aside, hard. “You make me sick! Can I at least now get some privacy in the girl's toilet or have you secretly changed your sex as well?”

“You can bet your beautiful butt, I have not. The toilet is all yours. I'll just go and let your teacher know how helpfully you introduced your school to me and then I'm gone,” Adam looked at her, amused.

He
bent over her quickly and let his lips wipe hers lightly. It wasn't even a kiss and yet it made her shiver. Adam knitted his brows and kissed her harshly this time. It was over as soon as it began, but Clarissa needed to lean against the wall. Otherwise she would've sunk helplessly to the floor. Her legs were ruthless and her head was dizzy. If this is what a quick kiss with Adam did to her, she sure should stay as far away from him as she could.

“Why even bother to deny it?” Adam snapped, frustrated. “You must've felt it too.”

“Don't,” he
said, when Clar
issa opened her mouth to argue. “
You're mine already.”

“Urgh!” Clarissa grunted and pushed him further if that was possible.

Adam lifted his hands and shrugged nonchalantly. “Whatever, princess.”

Adam pushed the toilet door open and disappeared. Clarissa sighed and didn't resist as her feet collapsed.

She had no idea what Adam had in his mind, but one thing was sure. Adam would never give up a fight this easily. Whatever he was up to, Clarissa could be sure that he wanted her. She had felt something. Something that she didn't recognize, but it screamed in her mind. She was his. When Adam's lips touched hers, every cell in her had woken up and everything in her seemed to reach towards him. Her body as well as her mind wanted to jo
in him forever. She had no idea
what
had
just happened, but she knew she had to tell her pack everything that had happened. Including how helpless she had been against Adam and how she did nothing while he touched her body like a lover. Her pack needed to hear all the embarrassing details.

Clarissa survived the rest of the day somehow, though it seemed to be longest school day ever. When the bell rang and announced the day was over, she ran out.
She had to stop o
utsi
de of the school
though, because all the males from her pack were standing there waiting for her.

“Joshua,” Clarissa exclaimed.

“Sorry. It just slipped. I was too tense, so they just picked it from my mind.”

For a moment she wondered what he had picked from her mind, but as everyone seemed to worry about her, she doubted Joshua could've figured out how she really felt for Adam
. “So, what shall we do then?” s
he asked, directing her words at each of them.

“Now we will do what you were supposed to do at once when you met Adam,” Darel said and looked at her intensely with his dazzling blue eyes.

“And that is?” Clarissa asked miserably.

“We gather as a pack and discuss this together.”

“Why? There is no danger anymore! Adam promised to leave me alone!” Clarissa answered back.

No one bothered to answer her. Alexei took her hand tightly an
d almost dragged her straight i
nto a row of silver sports car
s
.
Clarissa shuffled on
to
the backseat of Joshua's
car and Joshua and Jonas went in the
front. This time, however,
it was
Jonas
who
drove as Joshua was way too worried about Clarissa. He wanted to observe her all the time.
She had managed to build a very thick wall around her mind so that Joshua had no chance to peek at what was really going on. Even if she shared what had happened with the pack, she thought she had the right to keep her feelings to herself. She wouldn't dare confess to anybody how Adam made her feel.
Nobody spoke a word. Cl
arissa stared out of the window feverishly
and twisted her hands.  Jonas concentrated on driving as fast as possible.

Sofia

When the cars curved into our yard, I was already standing outside with David waiting for them. No one spoke a word. Joshua half dragged Clarissa inside and when she was sitting
safely on the couch with Ciall
, Joshua gave us a short version of what had happened. Actually, we all knew already, but as a compliment to David, he repeated it all again.

“Unbelievable!” David shouted and punched
the wall with his fist
. “How could this have happened? Isn't there supposed to be at least some kind of a rule that prevents Adam from doing whatever he wants to?

“Unfortunately no,” I said quietly. “No one could have even dreamed that he would do something like that.”

“Why not? Why was he the only one who cooked this up?” David asked, haunted.

“That's exactly what he asked
me today,” Clarissa said quietly.

“What are we going to do now?” David wondered and answered before anyone else could. “I think we have no choice but to infiltrate the school. That's the only way we can be sure of Clarissa's safety.”

“No. I know what I'm going to do,” said Derry, a red-haired shape shifter from Scotland. “I'm done with this mess and I'm going back to Edinburgh. I know I don't have a chance of getting Clarissa, so why waste any more time around here. Some of you still live in your own dreamlands, but the truth is, we're not a pack. We're here to compete for the same doe and I know when I've lost the game. I'll go. I'm sorry, but it's just the way things are.”

Fabio and Marcel glanced at each other. They knew that they too didn't have a chance of winning this game. However, they felt strongly bonded to our pack and they thought it would be a shameful thing to do, to leave us now, when we needed all the help we could get. Otherwise, we wouldn't stand a chance against Adam. Derry was convinced, though, that at least
a
few of them would join him, but as no one moved or spoke, he stood up calmly.

“I'm sorry, Sofia,” he
said and hugged me tightly.

“Mar sin leat Brathair.”

“Mar sin leat, Sofia, mo caraid.”

Derry glanced at the others quickly and then he was gone.

“And so there were only nine left,” Marie mumbled from Tiamhaidh's arms.

“Marie,” I said and looked at her firmly.

For a moment that felt like
an
eternity, we just stared at each other. Derry's decision had been like a thunderbolt, but the truth was, he was right. We were not a pack. At least not a unanimous pack. The young males were here only to get Clarissa and at some point she had to decide. Then our pack would break down. Most of them felt they belonged strongly to my pack though, and they wouldn't think for one second of leaving us alone with Adam. As long as Clarissa hadn't made her decision, each one of them had a chance and she was worth fighting for.

Finally Blake broke the silence.
“I'll sign up for school today.”

“Ditto,” the other males answered as a choir.

“No. Just me. I mean, look at yourselves. You fit into high school as badly as Adam, but I actually look like a high school kid,” Blake straightened his glasses and smiled innocently. “I'll join another class, so Adam won't think of me as a threat. I can still sign up for the same courses as Clarissa, at least some of them, and I can stay close enough to her,” Blake continued boyishly.

“It could work,”
said David
pensively.

“Wait a minute!” Darel interrupted. “I think you forget, brathair, that it's not just to make sure Clarissa is safe but to have her to yourself. Give us one reason why we should agree with you being with her every day for several hours, without any of us? There's no good reason why we couldn't sign up, too. If Adam can do it, so can we.”