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“What thehell, Abernathy!” Adrian moved between us, arms spread and figure menacing. “Don’t be a cockblocker.”
“It’s funny you think you’ll have one left to block after I’m done with you.” I tore my attention from my original target, who was slowly regaining his bearings, and focused on the curly-haired annoyance. Adrian, in response, puffed up his chest.
I wanted to laugh at him. I could beat him easily. “Come on, Collins, are you going to be stupid? And what aboutyou,Wallace?” My gaze briefly turned to Drew’s, the only one who’d remained silent thus far, as he stepped forward. “Do you want to hurt this morning too?” I asked him.
The red-headed wolf swallowed once, eyes lowering, as he retreated slightly.
No, Drew wouldn’t do anything right now. He still owed me a debt.
It wasn’t enough for him to stay away from Bianca though. But I couldn’t blame him; it wasn’t like he could control his idiot friends.
“Finn?” Bianca moved behind me, and she softly tugged on my sleeve. “What’s going on?”
The fury had left her voice, replaced now with a shaky uncertainty that I knew could easily lead to something far more dangerous. My pulse picked up and my anger flared—I’d rather her be pissed than the alternative.
Seeing her fear caused my stomach to hurt and my chest to feel tight, and I wanted nothing more than to destroy anything and everything that ever made her feel this way.
“Nothing.” My voice came out more sharply than expected, but it was the closest I could manage to calm.
“Oh, come on! Youcannotbe this stupid, Dunce.” Cory was back on his feet, looking at Bianca, as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He stepped past Adrian, overtaking him as the lead, and the other wolf stepped away, rejoining Drew behind him. The wannabe Alpha stood confidently in front of us, even though he was still somewhat dazed by my attack.
I smirked as, when his hand lowered back to his side, I noticed the small smear of blood staining the cuff of his white shirt.
Good.
“S-stupid?” Bianca blinked at him, her demeanor falling further. “What do you mean? I-I don’t—”
“I told you to stop answering to that!” I interrupted her, my vision flaring red. How could she keep doing this? It only encouraged his bad behavior. Besides, Bianca was far from stupid.
Sometimes lacking common sense, and having a skewed set of values that I couldn’t even come close to understanding? Sure.
But she was not stupid.
“Buttout, Abernathy.” Cory wouldn’t back off, and my pulse raced. I hadn’t even broken a sweat, so maybe this time I could get a workout in. Adrenaline was rushing through me, and I needed something to keep me sane until P.E. this afternoon.
I needed this fight. “Why don’t you—”
The five-minute warning sounded, and the few curious onlookers that had been following our conversation disappeared. Normally we never did draw much of a crowd, since a confrontation between us was almost a daily thing.
People only cared if there was action—or the chance that they might be able to get in on the fight. And generally speaking, these moments didn’t last very long at all. Watching Cory be thrown across the room was hardly entertainment.
“Later,” Cory mouthed, backing away; Adrian and Drew shadowed his movements. There was a hardness to his appearance that hadn’t been there before, and an alarm rang in the back of my mind.
Something was different. Cory had always been a bully, especially toward Bianca, but he’d been ramping it up lately.
And, he’d never been stupid enough to try for round two so quickly.
But it didn’t matter, I wanted him to focus on me. In fact, I wanted to be sure that he glared at me all day.
Just so long as he left Bianca alone.
Cory Moore and his idiot posse didn’t scare me, but they could hurt her.
“Let’s go.” I grabbed my bag and slammed my locker closed, not even looking at Bianca. Cory was gone, but of course he’d shut the classroom door behind him in a passive aggressive effort to have us marked late.
Not that it mattered, we still had time, so why he was being dramatic, I didn’t understand.
He reallywasbeing stupider than usual.
