Torn Mate by Belle Harper
Ada
I wasnervous when I got to school, like how was I supposed to act around all the shifters? Were they going to acknowledge me in the halls or were they going to continue to ignore me? Would they laugh when someone bullied me like they had all my life? Hell, was I going to be sitting at the Kiba boys’ table? Was that now off the table now Lexi wasn’t coming back? She didn’t have to come back, she was set to graduate. Galen compelled the office lady, Karen, to change her grades.
Maybe I should have gotten him to change mine. He might have. Ugh… who was I kidding? What would I do without school? I couldn’t just hang out with Lexi all day, she had four mates to split her time with as it was.
But I would have to see about what I needed to get into nursing, because the more I thought about it, the more that was something I wanted to do. I had wanted to help people by putting bad guys away. But helping those who the bad guys had hurt was more rewarding. I could see that now.
All my nerves left when I saw the big guy waiting at the front steps of school. Noah was waving at me with a huge smile on his face like he hadn’t seen me in forever. I let out a deep breath I was holding and relaxed as I smiled shyly and waved back. He made my insides go all gooey. His blond wavy hair was all done nicely, and he was wearing a dark tee and jean shorts. At least he had a top on. He wouldn’t affect me as much. I hoped.
“Hey, Ada. You weren’t here yesterday. I wanted to call but I didn’t have your number.” He put his arm around my shoulder and tugged me under his arm, tight against his body, in a hug. I would have protested, but the touch felt so nice. I felt like I had a big protector with Noah. I put my hand around his back, I didn’t want to let go. He smelled amazing and ugh… I wish he was my boyfriend. I wish I was walking in with Huxley and Noah together like how Kiara used to walk in with Dylan and Eli.
I had to stop wishing. These wishes couldn’t come true. He needed someone younger… better than me. He only wanted me because I knew about shifters. That had to be it, it made sense. He wouldn’t have to explain the whole turning into a wolf thing… or the “I have to bite you and turn you into a wolf, but chances are you might die” thing either.
I knew the risks, I knew what went on in their world. Had I decided that I wanted to be a wolf shifter? No. Was that going to stop me from having a relationship with one? No. I was more than open to both options with the right person… or persons. Lexi had four mates, I would love two. I think four might be too much for me to start with. I was thinking too big, I really needed only one. I had two who had really shown interest in wanting a relationship with me: Huxley and Noah. Saint… as much as I had this silly crush, he would only break my heart. I wasn’t stupid, I knew that. Just hard to get over it. I was still really attracted to him.
I let Noah lead me into school, everyone greeting him, like everyone. But what surprised me was everyone knew my name, and if they didn’t they still said hello to me. It made me feel like I was included in the pack. I was Pack Kiba.
A few guys walked past from Pack Kenneally. They didn’t say anything to Noah as they nodded to me in passing. I smiled and nodded back. I remembered one that was injured and I had taken care of him.
I felt seen… for the first time I wasn’t anxious walking into school. I wasn’t having hurtful things said about me, I didn’t have to hold my bag tight in fear someone would rip it off my shoulder and throw it. That had happened a few times… but today that wasn’t happening. Olivia even looked at me, but she didn’t say anything for the first time ever.
When I got to my locker, Noah offered to walk me to class.
“That’s okay, I can walk. And don’t you have to be in class too?” He shrugged and smiled.
“They don’t mind if I’m late.” I shook my head but couldn’t stop the smile on my face. I was sure the teachers would mind. He couldn’t start being late because of me. I shook his arm from my shoulder and placed my hand on his chest… on his pec. Oh boy… I shouldn’t have touched him there. I looked up to him, he was so tall. His eyes glowed for a moment and my insides almost melted. He gave me a smirk and I froze on my words… What was I going to say?
I really needed to end this flirting thing with him now and those big blue puppy dog eyes were not helping at all. He was just so… I wanted to kiss him. I did… Oh no. This was bad. I… um… “Go to class, I’ll see you at lunch?”
I was unsure. If I was going to be reacting like this around him, I wasn’t sure if it was safe for me to sit there. Was he going to be sitting at Kiba table? I had been hoping maybe Huxley wanted me to sit with him at the Rawlins’ table, but I hadn’t seen him yet and now I was more than worried what would happen. My chest started to tighten again as I watched Noah walking away from me. He turned and gave me a small wave before I was standing there at my locker trying to remember what class I had. Oh no, what if there was a fight over where I sat? I was jumping to conclusions now.
In biology River came in and sat right next to me, a big smile on his face. That had me confused at first. Did he want to talk to me about Huxley? Did he know about our kiss? He leaned over to me, close.
“How are you today, Ada? I was worried when you didn’t show up yesterday, so I made you some notes.”
I turned to him and he moved back to his books and pulled out some papers. With a big smile, he handed some handwritten notes to me and I was speechless. No one had ever done that for me… ever. I felt a little overwhelmed from today already but I sat straighter.
“Thank you, this will be a big help.” It would because I was going to have to ask the teacher what I missed, and now I didn’t. Someone took notes for me. He saw me missing and like a friend he took notes.
“Sure thing, Ada,” he replied with a wink. Oh, River was a flirt.
I wanted to ask how Huxley was, the whole almost dying from a panther bite thing was still on my mind, like, why didn’t he heal… But then I thought about the fact maybe he had survived a bear attack… the vampire the night before when Lexi healed him, and then on top of that, he was attacked again so close together. Either way, he needed to stay away from panther shifters. And probably bears.
“Hi,”I jumped at the sound from behind me while grabbing some more books from my locker. I whirled around, my hand on my chest, and saw the big brown eyes of Huxley. My heart started to race and I swear my insides just melted. Please ask me out, please ask me out,I chanted in my head. I would say yes, I wanted to date him… kiss him.
“Hi,” I replied. There was a weird silence between us… Shit, say something else, Ada. I was always good at inappropriate nervous talking… just don’t talk about snails fucking.
“I didn’t have your number to call you, I…” He rubbed the back of his head, the curls falling around his eyes, and I watched as he tucked one side—the non-scarred side—behind his ear as he looked at me through his dark lashes.
“Oh, here.” I pulled out my phone and clicked to add contacts. He took it from me, his fingers brushing over mine, and I swear I felt that touch everywhere. I watched his fingers as he typed in his number. He had long but elegant fingers. I liked them, hell, I didn’t think there was anything I didn’t like about Huxley.
“Thanks,” I said as I put it back in my pocket.
I had a boy’s number in my phone. Don’t freak out. The bell rang, he nodded and smiled before he put his hand in his sweatpants pocket and walked away. I stood there a few moments longer, admiring the sexy ass he had. When he turned and caught me staring, I quickly turned back to my open locker and made myself look busy.
But I only ended up knocking out some books onto the floor and looking like a fool. I looked up as I scrambled to pick them up and saw that he had left. Thank god. I quickly rushed to my next class, but I was late now… very late.
Lunch rolled around and I was ready to head into the cafeteria, but I was hesitating. I didn’t know if Huxley wanted me to come sit with him. Or, if I did, would Noah get upset? The stress was starting to eat up at me and I was thinking I should have just sat in my car and brought lunch today. I looked to the Rawlins’ table, Huxley had his back to me. He didn’t say anything in the hallway earlier so I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. But he gave me his number, that was a good sign, yes? I moved towards the Kiba boys’ table.
“Hey.” Noah smiled as he waved at me, his food all finished, but a wrap and bottle of water were placed where I normally sat… I had a place I normally sat. I smiled to myself, even without Lexi here this was my spot and it made me feel good to know that they still liked me. They wanted me to sit with them.
I had told him to stop buying me food, but it seemed that he hadn’t gotten the memo. But today I was thankful. I was late so I could see they had run out of anything decent anyway. I really needed to change my diet too… because eating the same thing every day was getting a little repetitive and boring. Maybe some pizza next time.
“Sorry, was late from class.” He just nodded and started to talk about Teen Wolf. I was surprised at that, he watched it? But it made it easy to have a conversation with him, even if I did keep looking over my shoulder to the Rawlins’ table, but they weren’t looking at me. Was that a bad thing? Did I do something wrong?
Crap, I needed to see Lexi after school. I needed to see her after everything. She had messaged me yesterday, but I told her I was busy. I just wasn’t ready to go back to the place all that… well, where it happened. I just didn’t want to tell her that.
Hell… I wanted to tell her about my first real kiss, but at the same time I was uneasy. Like, how do you say you were experiencing this amazing moment with this guy when all these evil supernatural people were trying to kill your best friend?
You couldn’t.