Chapter 28

“What do you all think you’re doing?” I shrieked.

I was too nervous about the current situation, and the deadly glares Layton and Zev were shooting at Liam.

“Why was Liam in your house at five in the morning? What were you two doing?” Zev asked in a demanding tone, narrowing his eyes at me.

I finally caught on to what he and Layton assumed. They were both idiots. Layton’s behavior shouldn’t have surprised me. He got mad for the most insignificant things. From Zev though, I wasn’t expecting a scene.

“Cassidy is my mate. This is none of your business!” Layton snapped at Zev, frowning at him.

“Why were you with Liam?” Layton growled at me.

“You were picking on me last night. I wanted company,” I calmly replied.

Layton’s expression slightly softened, but I didn’t entirely fall for it. When I turned to face Zev, he looked hurt, maybe even mad.

“Why would you call Liam and not me?” Zev asked me.

I wasn’t expecting him to get mad over that. I hadn’t called him partly because Layton had been mad over my friendship with Zev, but mainly because I didn’t want to disturb him and Hanna.

I didn’t want to intervene in their time by bringing my problems with Layton, which I usually had a dime a dozen of.

“I had a reason,” I told Zev, staring straight into his eyes, willing him to trust me.

“You know, you could’ve called me too,” Tyler spoke out.

I chuckled, remembering how the previous night I had come to the conclusion of calling Liam.

“I could’ve, but I was being selfish and I wanted someone who would be on my side. Completely on my side,” I said, offering him a smile.

I turned to face Liam, since I felt the waters had calmed down. I knew Layton hadn’t said more because things between us were still shaky.

“What are you doing here anyways?” I asked him.

“I came to visit. I called the school and they told me the lunch hours,” Liam shrugged, looking unaffected by the previous confrontation.

I pulled out my phone and noticed it was almost ten minutes into lunch.

“Uh… can I talk to you?” I asked, turning to face Layton.

He seemed surprised by my question. He probably didn’t expect me to be talking to him so freely after what happened between us the previous night.

“Yeah, of course,” he replied when he recovered.

“I’ll be right back, don’t leave,” I said, looking between Zev and Liam. They both nodded at me.

I walked with Layton a few feet away down the hall. He was walking slowly, so I grabbed his hand and hurried him up. Once I thought we were far enough, I turned to face him.

“I want to go with Zev, Liam, and the guys to the diner without you causing a scene or opposing to the idea,” I told Layton in a pleading voice.

In all honesty, I sounded like a five year old asking her parent for permission, but I didn’t care. If I tried to leave school without at least telling Layton, he wouldn’t let me go. Then I would have Zev, Liam, and Layton starting a fight over something so small.

It wasn’t worth it, and we all needed some stability.

“Yes,” Layton simply answered.

“Look, I… wait, did you just say yes?” I asked, completely surprised.

“I did, but,” Layton said, pausing for a moment.

“I knew it. That’s where you’re going to screw me over, aren’t you?”

“We need to talk. You go and have lunch with them, but I’m driving you home after school.”

“I brought my car.”

“That’s fine. Nick will take my car home and I’ll drive yours,” Layton said.

I smiled at his solution.

“Deal!” I excitedly said, jumping up and wrapping my arms around him.

He stood frozen and I felt his muscles tense. I didn’t really mind. I quickly kissed his cheek, grinning widely up at him. Layton was giving me one of his genuine smiles.

“You know, you really suck. But this is really cool!” I said, before starting to run back to where the guys were at.

“Are we ready to go?” I asked Zev as he stood around talking with Micah.

“I thought you were eating here?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Change of plans. Now let’s go. I don’t want to be too late to History,” I said, looping my arm with Zev and the other with Micah.

Layton walked back and all the guys froze, probably expecting him to pick a fight.

“I’ll see you later,” Layton told me, nodding once.

“Mm-hmm,” I replied, already turning to leave.

“Let’s go,” Layton told his group of guys. I heard them walking the other way, toward the cafeteria.

“Is it safe to assume he let you come with us because he’s trying to kiss your ass?” Liam asked, as we walked toward the parking lot.

We were a small crowd. It really was sad to see how easy it was to leave school grounds.

“He wants to talk, so I promised we’d do that after school,” I replied, shrugging.

“So, what happened yesterday after we left?” Zev asked.

We had taken a booth at the back of the diner. One of us didn’t fit, and as usual, the guys picked on Leo to pull up a chair. The guys waited until the waitress brought our food before they asked about Layton and me.

“We had an argument,” I started to say, and stayed quiet for a while.

They settled down and listened to my story. I wasn’t really sure what I should share, and I knew Layton would get mad if I said too much.

“What’s new? You two are always fighting,” Micah commented, as he took a bite from his burger.

“That,” Nate said, pointing at Micah, “is true.”

“Yeah, but this is the first time I realized we keep an ongoing fight. Layton and me are always fighting, arguing, or getting mad at each other.”

“So…” Micah asked, outstretching the word.

“I have no idea. I guess I’m confused,” I answered.

“What did you two do anyways? I mean, it obviously took up all night,” Zev asked, looking between Liam and me. He was trying to sound casual, but I noticed the edge in his voice.

“We didn’t really do much,” Liam replied. He had been stuffing his face, not really minding our conversation before.

“At what time did you get to her house?” Zev questioned.

“I don’t know. Like around nine or ten,” Liam replied, stealing curly fries from my plate.

I slapped his hand away and he only grinned at me, giving me a perfect view of his chewed food. It was disgusting, and I couldn’t help but laugh. The guys were all eating, while Zev looked between Liam and me suspiciously.

“If you left her house at five in the morning, that is a lot of time to not be doing much,” Zev said, putting air quotes on the word ‘much’.

I rolled my eyes, and decided that with him, I’d also have to go into detail. Either way, I was expecting Layton to question me about the same thing once we talked after school.

“He got to my house. We talked for about an hour or two. Then we went for a run. I won because we all know I’m awesome, and obviously faster than a Werewolf. Then we hung out next to this really cool stream where Liam drank water that may or may not have been contaminated by countless things. After that, we talked some more about plenty of crap. Then we invented a game called ‘are you stronger than a Legen’. It turns out, Wolves are very whiny creatures,” I talked really fast, before Liam interrupted.

“It was something like that, except I won every time and proved that Werewolves are the superior race,” he said, straightening up his posture and trying to look tough.

“Right….” I said, mockingly. “After that, we went to the diner that’s about three miles down my house. We had breakfast and then he walked me home,” I finished saying, taking a breath of air, since I had been talking too fast.

“Sounds like fun,” Zev said, giving me a forced smile. I stared at him, and couldn’t help but laugh. His behavior was so unlike him.

After the interrogation was over, the guys started messing around. It started with picking on Leo, but ended with a customer complaining about how loud we were. The waitress asked us to leave, but I could tell she didn’t want to.

Before leaving, Zev passed by the guy’s table who had complained and stared at him for a full minute. The guy looked about to pee in his pants, but he remained still.

Zev walked me to History, which was the only class I didn’t have with any of the guys.

“So, you had fun with Liam last night?” Zev asked me, as we walked through the empty corridors.

We were half way through class. I had been tardy to most of my classes that day. It was easy to catch up with the work I missed Thursday and Friday from the week before, but it was still a pain to do it.

“It was good. I needed a break,” I replied. We were a few feet away from my class.

“Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve been there as soon as you called,” Zev said, in a reproaching tone.

“Naww… Zev, you’re getting all jealous. You know you’re my number one,” I said, pinching his cheeks playfully and grinning at him.

Zev gave me a smile in return, which showed me I was somewhat off the hook.

“Fine, I forgive you, even though you didn’t really apologize,” Zev grumbled.

Right after saying that, the serious expression returned to his features.

“Next time that something like this happens between Layton and you— call me first,” Zev said, in what sounded like an order.

A first, I thought he was joking. When he didn’t laugh or crack a smile, I just nodded my head.

“I will,” I agreed.

“You promise?”

“I’ll do better than that. I’ll pinky promise,” I said, laughing and holding up my pinky.

“Cassidy, I’m serious,” Zev told me, remaining still.

“I am too. I pinky promise to call you if I ever need anything, even if it’s just to annoy you,” I said, grabbing his hand and forcing his pinky out.

When I said that, he smiled and on his own tangled his pinky with mine.

I laughed, thinking of what others would think if they passed by and saw Zev pinky swearing with me.

The Wolves were aware that he was a future Alpha, but the humans would see a tough muscular guy, who sometimes caused trouble, being soft.

It amused me.

I ended up skipping History all together. By the time Zev was done being all mushy, there were only ten minutes for the bell. Going in late would annoy the teacher. Walking into class ten minutes before it ended was plain rude.

Zev and I spent the ten minutes left in the empty History class.

When the bell rang, I walked out and noticed Layton was waiting for me outside of my History class. I would’ve been there had I not skipped the period. The thought of letting him wait for me crossed my mind, but after hanging out with Zev I was in a better mood.

“That’s my cue,” I said, pointing at Layton. Zev nodded his head and leaned in to hug me. I chuckled, thinking of his odd behavior all day.

“I’ll see you in P.E.,” Zev said, before walking away.

“Laters,” I waved and headed toward Layton.

“I didn’t see you walk out,” Layton said. He looked into my History classroom, like if doing that would explain why I came from down the hall.

“I skipped class,” I replied, and started walking away.

“Why?” Layton asked, cocking an eye brow.

“We came back late from lunch,” I said, smiling up at him. He was looking at me weirdly.

“Did you have a good time at lunch?” He asked, moving me out of the way. A guy was running by us and he was about to crash with me.  

“Thanks for that, and yup, it was fun,” I replied.

Layton nodded his head and stayed silent until we reached my class. We were standing by the door, when I noticed Layton sniffing the air. I laughed at how funny he looked.

“You smell like Zeverus,” he stated, frowning.

“He hugged me before I walked up to you,” I replied, calmly. Layton didn’t look happy and he was clenching his jaw.

“Right, well, I better get to class,” he said.

Layton grabbed me and wrapped his arms around my waist. His hold on me was really tight, and at a certain point I tried to get my hands in between us, trying to catch a breath.

Tyler passed by to go in class and he pointed at Layton, giving me a questioning look. I just shook my head, not knowing how to explain Layton attached to me. It felt good to be hugging him, even though he only did it because Zev had done it before.

Everyone that passed by us stared. Layton didn’t even notice them because his head was nestled in my neck, and he was inhaling my scent. His hands kept running over my body, and I practically felt him leaving his scent all over me.  

“Okay, I should go inside,” I said, when he still wasn’t letting go.

He nodded his head, but didn’t pull away from me. When his hand ran over my lower back, a giggle escaped my lips because he’d tickled me.

“Layton,” I laughed, giving him a small push.

Layton finally pulled away, and he was grinning down at me.

“Just making sure everyone knows you belong with me,” was his reply.

He pecked my lips, leaving me stunned in place.

I walked into class feeling slightly dazed. Layton really knew how to get to me, in the most physical way.  Tyler was sitting at our lab table. When he noticed me walk in, he smiled at me.

“Does that mean we don’t have to worry about Layton lashing out at the pack anymore?” Tyler asked me after I took a seat in the stool.

“He lashes out at the pack?”

“He usually does when things are bad between you two. Don’t get me wrong, he’s always been serious and a tough leader. But when he’s mad for something that you did, or he thinks you did, no one want’s to be around him,” Tyler admitted.

Class went by smoothly, like it usually did when I was with Tyler. In no time, the bell rang for us to go to our next class. I still felt really tired from only getting two hours of sleep. All I wanted was for the day to finally be over.

Tyler was walking on my left and Layton walked on my right. I was making conversation with Tyler about an upcoming lab we had to do in class. Layton was at my side, and he had a strong grip on my hand.

Any time a guy would even pass his eyes over me, Layton would growl at them threateningly. It was funny to watch, although I did feel bad for the guys that scurried away from us.  

“Well, I’m going to change,” I said to the pair as we reached the locker rooms.

Tyler waved at me before leaving, but Layton stayed behind.

“You’re sitting with him during gym, aren’t you?” Layton asked me.

“We’re talking after school. I think I deserve some time with my friends. Besides, I haven’t really hung out with Zev much,” I told him.

I still surprised myself with how much approval I asked from Layton. Even as I considered breaking things between us, I was still asking him permission to be with my friends.

“I’ll be watching you two during class,” Layton said, looking at me intently.

“Aren’t you always?” I commented, before walking into the locker room.

When I walked into gym, the coach was playing basketball with the team. I figured we would have a free period, but at least I’d get a grade for changing. Layton and the guys were in their usual spot at one side of the gym. Zev was in the opposite side, all the way at the top.

He waved as soon as he saw me and I made my way up the bleachers.

“Looks like another free period,” I told Zev as I took a seat next to him.

“Don’t we always have free period in this class?” Zev asked, chuckling.

“At least I’m going to pass. You and that lot over there,” I said pointing at Layton, Tyler, Nick, and Jared, “are going to fail at the rate you’re going.”

“Why would that be?”

“Uh, how about because I haven’t seen any of you change since I transferred to this school,” I replied, raising my eyebrows, knowing I was right.

“What’s your point?” Zev asked me, pretending to be confused.

“You guys don’t change, don’t do the work outs. All of you are going to fail,” I said, looking at him disapprovingly.

“Who’s going to fail us?”

“Umm… Try that guy over there,” I replied, pointing at Coach Walker.

Zev slowly shook his head from side to side, now giving me a disappointed look.           

“My young Cassidy, you have much to learn,” Zev said in a mocking tone.

“What do I have to learn?” I asked, crossing my arms and staring at him.

“We own that guy,” Zev replied, shrugging.

“Sure you do…”

“I don’t remember the last time I failed a class. It might have something to do with my amazing genes of being naturally intelligent, or possibly because I’m a Werewolf,” Zev answered, saying the last part fast.

“No way, you get a break because you’re a Wolf?”

“Possibly,” he replied coolly.

“That’s now fair.”

“How so?” Zev asked.

“You are a Werewolf. You are naturally faster than a human, heck you guys are even faster and stronger than me. Wouldn’t that mean gym class would be easier for you all?” I complained.

“It would surprise you how competitive Wolves are.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“If Wolves participate during P.E., they will want to get competitive with the humans. Guess who will win in that match?” Zev asked, with a grin on his face.

“That’s a lame excuse. It shouldn’t count. Jared and the other guys are in the soccer team. So what, they can play soccer but they can’t do a few work out’s in P.E. or at least change?” I asked him, once again sounding annoyed. I didn’t really know why I was bothered by it.

“Ah, come on, you don’t want us to catch a break?” Zev asked me, tickling my side. I giggled, and tried to slap his hand away.

“That is a bad way to get me to stop being mad,” I smiled.

“I agree,” Layton said, standing in front of us.

“Whoa, you got over here fast,” I told Layton.

I hadn’t even realized he was heading our way. He was standing in front of Zev and me, with his arms crossed and a threatening look on his face.

“I think seeing my girlfriend flirting with another guy calls me to move fast,” Layton said.

I rolled my eyes, not really caring much for his jealousy. 

“Dude, you are so delusional,” I told him, chuckling lightly. Zev was nodding his head in agreement and we both high fived each other.

“Did you just call me dude?” Layton asked, sounding angry.

I looked at him, wanting to laugh even harder, but held it in. Zev was chuckling, and he was tapping my waist with his elbow to get my attention. I ignored him and turned to look up at Layton.

“Uh… So what’s up?” I asked Layton while he sat next to me.

He was staring at me, but he wasn’t saying anything. Since he didn’t want to talk and he still seemed pissed off, I turned back to Zev. We continued talking for the rest of the period. Layton didn’t say a word, but he did sit right next to me. His arm was possessively wrapped around my waist, and he kept sinking his fingers into my skin.

“I’ll call you later,” Zev told after the bell rang.

“Cool,” I replied.

“I’m going to change,” I told Layton, getting up and walking down the bleachers.

I was still in my gym clothes and I had to pick up my stuff from the locker room. Layton nodded his head and walked down with me.

When I came out of the locker room, Layton was leaning on the opposite wall with his arms crossed.

“I’m ready,” I said.

As we walked toward the parking lot, I could only think of one thing. The talk between Layton and me would either be a final talk or it would finally set things straight between us.