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Through the daze I was feeling due to the anger fogging my mind, I vaguely heard my mom ask Jonathan who he was. He seemed proud, smug even, to tell her he was the alpha-ultra of the US.
You’d never guess what my dad did next; he asked him to stay.
Now, I’ll have to face him all through dinner? No way in hell am I going to let him get his way, I thought, my rebellious side taking over me. I certainly didn’t like being pressured into doing something.
“I’m sure he has other things to do.” I answered my dad sweetly, cutting right through his reply while sending him a pointed look.
“Nothing that can’t wait,” was his sugar-coated reply. He even had the nerve to grin at me, his eyes twinkling in amusement in an almost unnerving manner.
My glare intensified, but not wanting to make a scene in front of my parents, I forced a smile on my face. My parents exited the living-room by mutual agreement – no matter how silent it was, they probably just had to look into each other’s’ eyes, and probably sensed the palpable tension in the room.
“Why did they ever let you enter?” I bit out, the accusation clear in my voice as soon as I considered it safe to turn off the fake sweet mode.
“I told them I brought your assignments.” He shrugged nonchalantly while keeping a steady stare on me. His self-confidence would never cease to unnerve me – especially at moments like this when all I wanted to do was strangle him to death.
“You’re such a liar,” I had actually managed to keep myself from yelling at him. Not that I feared Mister I’m-a-powerful-alpha-ultra, but I did fear my parents’ reaction to the oh-so-special bond I shared with my supposed-to-be mate.
“But I did bring them.” He countered, giving me a sweet lopsided smile that was supposed to make girls weak in the knees.
Well, it doesn’t work on me, I internally snapped, my inner voice dripping with sarcasm, even though I did feel some unfamiliar emotion in the pit of my stomach. It’s just my frayed nerves’ doing, I tried to convince myself, thinking that one hell of a night awaited us.
Chapter 10
Game On
We sat in silence for many minutes before Celia attempted to break it off. “So... do you guys have classes together?” She asked in a soft voice.
I scoffed and averted my face some more, so that he was nowhere in my sight of vision.
“We have all our classes together.” He answered her, taking a light tone, and I could almost picture the smirk on his face.
“Wow, what a coincidence! That’s so cool,” I swiftly turned around and glared her way, she then hurried to add – sheepishly, I might add, “I guess.”
“It wasn’t a coincidence,” I couldn’t help but sneer “He transferred to all of my classes.”
“Jerk,” I added under my breath.
“I heard that,” he observed in a strangely calm voice.
I cocked my eyebrow and taunted him in a haughty tone that strangely enough – despite it not being a habit of mine – didn’t take all that much effort to come up with, “Does it look like I care?”
His lips quirked ever so slightly, and he soon averted his gaze and started taking deep breaths... surprise, surprise! Please note the sarcasm, will you?
Why, aren’t you a short-tempered little mutt? I wanted to say. I grinned, inwardly envisaging the possibility. Damn, he would be so mad. But even I knew when to stop – we wouldn’t want him to shift right in the middle of the living room. Mom would throw a fit, and dad would probably give me a speech on how to be a good hostess and whatnot.
Do I look like I need that? A bitter voice – that I almost didn’t recognize as my own inner one – all but snapped.
Nope, definitely not!
Celia and I started chatting, and even though she was continuously trying to bring him to partake, I would each time give one of my smartass remarks and he would just refrain from saying anything.
He was oh-so-obviously trying to keep his cool, it was almost funny. I didn’t go as far as to disrespect the almighty big alpha-ultra, but I wouldn’t say my comments were inoffensive either.
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Trying to be useful, I helped mom by setting the table. I was trying to get away from his narrowed stare that wouldn’t leave me for a second. Hell, I even went to the trouble of serving everyone at the table, which was not something one could see every day.
Anything to get away from him, I inwardly sighed.
Just when I sat on my chair which was conveniently just across his, my dad clapped his hands cheerily and said in one of those irritatingly light tones, “Let’s honor this dish, shall we?”
“Yeah, let’s start.” Jeremy and Jake, both of my brothers, instantly agreed.
Yeah, let’s start, I thought with a grin, the words taking a different meaning where I was concerned.
His very first mouthful earned him a coughing fit. I kept a very straight face and even mustered the control to say in a seemingly genuine – though actually fake – concerned voice, “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” he croaked, throwing me a pointed look.
Ok, I’ll have to admit that the little stunt was pretty childish... but hey, some pepper won’t do him any bad! I inwardly argued with the mature side of me that found it puerile.
He grabbed his glass and it soon fell into pieces, slightly cutting his skin.
“Easy down there, boy,” I joked, and even winked for good measure.
My family gasped in stupefaction, whereas I felt like grinning, but couldn’t otherwise I’d be so busted.
He threw me an annoyed look. I could only guess he
