Page 21 of Feral
“You don’t belong here,” he said firmly.
No cruel insults the girls at school had thrown at her had ever cut her so deeply. He even had Emily beat with a mere four words.
It wasn’t that she had expected anything else. There was no reason for someone like him to treat her kindly. His respect and attention had been a surprise from the very beginning. It was the fact that she’d actually grown to believe he really did see something in her that no one else had. Something she was incapable of seeing in herself.
Now that hope was dashed apart in her chest, and all she wanted to do was follow his command and get as far from the Felidae House as possible.
Before she could respond, Bishop approached them. “Is everything alright?” he asked, his gaze locked on Sterling.
If Ella had thought the teacher’s demeanor icy before, it turned to a deep freeze when the two toms locked stares, neither one blinking. Ella watched them for what felt like an eternity as they both refused to back down in whatever bizarre contest they’d taken up.
“Everything is fine,” Sterling said, his tone polite but dripping with disdain. Even that was beginning to fade as the mask of civility they both wore began to crumble. Ella could feel the tense energy between them, two men powerful in their own right and equally ardent in a rivalry Ella hadn’t even realized existed until that moment.
And here she’d thought Bishop and Axel hated each other.
What on earth had happened between them?
“Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you two from enjoying your evening,” Sterling finally said, casting Ella another somber glance.
“How kind of you,” Bishop said, his hand resting protectively--or perhaps possessively--on Ella’s waist. She found it hard to tell the difference where toms were concerned.
As soon as they were alone, she asked, “What was that about?”
“It’s nothing,” Bishop muttered, throwing back the rest of his drink. She’d never seen him take more than a sip at a time. “Just some bad blood between the families.”
Ella wanted to ask him more, but she could tell he didn’t want to get into it and she was too upset in her own right to bother. What she’d hoped would be a magical evening had turned to ruin in the span of a few seconds.
Humiliation was one thing. She’d been looked down on all her life, and if there was anyone who knew she didn’t belong in a place like this, it was her.
No, the pit that had formed in her stomach, twisting and aching like it was going to rend her in two wasn’t embarrassment. It ran so much deeper than that.
“I’m sorry, but I think I should go,” she said, realizing she was only going to make a fool of herself if she stuck around.
Bishop frowned in concern. “But we just got here.”
“I know. I’m so sorry,” she said hoarsely, feeling her throat tighten the more she tried to keep the tears in her eyes from falling. “I’m just not feeling very well all of a sudden.”
“Of course,” Bishop said, his voice gentle with understanding. “I’ll go pull the car up. Some fresh air might do you good.”
“Thanks,” Ella said, following him out to the patio. As she stared up at the night sky waiting for him to return, she found the moon was nowhere in sight. Maybe Sterling wasn’t the only one who thought she didn’t belong there.
Chapter 11
Axel
Axel had spent most of the night in the woods, trying to run off his aggression and then merely trying to exhaust himself when that failed. He woke under the glare of sunlight and staggered back to where he’d left his clothes before going back to the dorm.
He planned on getting a couple hours’ sleep in an actual bed before class, but when he heard Ella’s name being whispered in the halway, he was wide awake.
“--dropped her off last night at nine,” a girl was saying to her friends. “I knew Bishop would get tired of her, but that was fast.”
Her friends snickered until they caught sight of Axel and went dead silent. They scattered before he could question them, but it didn’t matter. Part of the reason he’d stayed out so late was not wanting to think about the fact that Bishop was probably in Ella’s room. If she’d come back alone, maybe their night hadn’t gone the way they’d expected after all.
He bypassed the guys’ dorm and headed down the hall to take a shortcut to the stairs that led to the women’s dorms when another tom blocked his path. He was ready to blow through him until he realized it was a teacher.
Mr. Bryant.
“And where might you be off to in such a hurry, Mr. Hill?” the teacher asked in a tone that suggested he already knew.
