By the time school’s over, his backpack hangs heavy from his shoulder, full of assignments and books about the alpha wars. His brothers have another two classes before they’re out, so Kade circles the classroom buildings, then the science lab ones, to the playground in the back.
This play area is half as big as the one by the canteen. Where the popular eighth-graders hang out at the wood-and-metal playground, surrounded by younger kids and clique-wannabes, Kade prefers the quiet of this one, where the outcasts hide away among plastic slides and monkey bars, kicking at the sand.
He finds Felix at the corner of the playground, sitting by himself amidst a cluster of dunes. Twenty yards off, Felix stands out: thin and pale, with a mop of wispy blond hair. He hunches over, fingers in the sand, building the next dune.
I found some cool stuff in the science lab today, Kade wants to tell him. Wanna sneak in? Jones is hiding some plants in a cupboard. There’s even a lamp in there!
Before he thinks further, a handful of boys steps out from behind the slides, their eyes fixed on Felix. Ben sneers, cracking his fists, and next to him, Alex and Tom laugh their high-pitched giggles.
“Go!” Ben shouts, punching the air. Kade’s stomach drops. He’s seen them lurking in the other playground, shoving around smaller kids, knocking out teeth and leaving bloody noses. Why the hell are they picking on Felix?
Kade shucks his bag, sprinting over the grass. He’s ten yards away, and they’re surrounding Felix. He runs right into an invisible cloud of faint lavender, like he’s just stepped into a garden, but there’s no time to think.
He plows through a gap in their ranks, among a flurry of fists and kicking feet, and someone cuffs him in the ear.
“Fucking get away,” he bellows, swinging his fists. He punches someone in the stomach, and someone else grabs his hair, kicking him behind his knee.
Kade stumbles, breathing in a lungful of lavender. He throws himself over Felix, and the lavender scent coats his mouth when he gasps. Someone punches his head, a flurry of too many fists. Kade surges up with a roar.
Behind, Felix cowers, whining softly. Heat bubbles up in Kade’s chest like an overflowing pot. Kade snarls, ramming his forehead into someone’s face, clawing at someone else’s eyes, and Ben scowls at him.
“What’re you doin’ ‘ere,” he squawks, and Kade slams his fist into his nose. It crunches against his knuckles.
He’s seen things on TV, practiced these moves in his bedroom. It hurts more than he expects, his fists throbbing, and someone kicks him in the back. Kade stumbles onto Felix, swearing. Then he grabs a handful of sand, flings it in the bullies’ faces, and while they’re distracted, he punches them in the nuts.
The boys howl, hands on their groins as they stumble away. Kade watches them leave, Felix safe behind him, and adrenaline pumps heady in his veins.
“Sorry,” Felix mumbles.
Kade turns, breathing hard, his fists covered in blood. “Why’re you saying sorry?”
Felix shrugs, ducking his head. Dirty footprints cover his shirt, his arms, and his hair’s all mussed, sand strewn over him.
On the other side of the playground, kids stare warily at them. The other students play soccer further away on the field. It looks safe right now. No more bullies. So Kade crouches next to Felix, swallowing. “They fucking attacked you.”
Felix curls his fingers into his arms, shaking. “I thought they might someday. It... it was just a surprise.”
“Fuck them,” Kade says. The lavender scent is still strong in his nose, and he sits down slowly next to Felix, examining the torn skin on his knuckles. “I’ll beat them again. Bastards.”
“You didn’t have to,” Felix says. He looks at Kade’s bloody hands, wincing. “I’m sorry you got hurt.”
“It’s fine,” Kade says. He wipes them off on his clothes, looking at the small cuts on his knuckles. “They hurt you.”
“I’m okay,” Felix says. He peels back his sleeves, then his shirt hem, looking down at the pink splotches on his stomach.
Kade reaches out, poking a pink patch gingerly. Felix grimaces. But his skin feels warm against Kade’s fingers, and he smells even more like lavender up close. “What’s with your smell? Broke a shampoo bottle?”
Felix shrugs. “I don’t know. It just happened during break. Then everyone started looking at me like I was sick. Mrs. Mulberry said I’m blooming early, and I have to tell my father. He’s not coming to pick me up until five.”
“Huh.” Kade scowls at the shed the bullies disappeared behind. His mom smells like lilacs. His father smells like birchwood, and Kade doesn’t have a smell, himself.
He thinks about the bullies, and his mom saying He left it as a promise. He watches Felix rub his thumb over his stomach. Then he thinks about the bullies again, coming to attack Felix.
“They’ve been attacking the people who smell like flowers,” Felix says quietly. “I’ve been watching.”
It hadn’t even occurred to Kade to notice them. “They can’t do that.”
Felix shrugs. “I guess I’ll have to get used to it. It’s... it’s not so bad.”
Felix is his friend. They’ve been talking since last year, ever since they met in art class. How can Felix just resign himself to getting beaten up? How can Kade even let that happen, when Felix is the one he sneaks out of school with, chasing after ice cream vans?
“I can mark you,” Kade says slowly. “Will that help?”
Felix’s eyes widen, green as leaves. “Doesn’t that only happen between bonded pairs?”
“Will they leave you alone if you’re bonded?”
“I don’t know.”
They look at the shed again, and Kade thinks about his mother’s scar.
“I’ll protect you no matter what,” he says. The moment he says it, he knows it’s something he’ll live by. He likes Felix. And so he’ll defend Felix, no matter how difficult
