Man Gone Rogue

Chapter 8

Jade's hands were most definitely shaking as her eyes fell on the table of rogues, plus Elora. Sage and the human were laughing at something funny Dakota had presumably said. Carson's eyes were darting suspiciously around the room, and Jade choked on her saliva as his gaze fell on her. She had never seen so much hate in anyone's stare before. It felt like the wolf was trying to kill her with his swirling eyes.

Despite the anxiety that had Jade's feet practically rooted to the floor, she knew that she needed to move. She started with one step, and then another followed. She continued in that time pattern for a while, and before she allowed herself any time to breathe, she was standing right in front of the table. Carson's eyes were even more terrifying up close. They were drilling holes in her face. It felt like her lips were glued shut and her limbs were made of lead.

"H-hey, guys..." Jade clenched her hands into fists to stop them from shaking so much. Her nerves seemed to be dead set on making her entire body vibrate.

"Jay!" Elora greeted happily, not picking up on the looks from her friends. Sage seemed to have found the table intensely interesting as soon as Jade walked up, and Dakota's arms were wrapped protectively around her with an unreadable expression. Carson, well... Let's just say Jade was avoiding looking at him.

"Elora, hi." Jade forced a small smile. "I just need to, um... have a word. With Carson." The rogue alpha's shoulders tensed as his lips pressed into a straight line.

"Why?" He spit back at her, gritting out the word like it was taking all of his effort to not claw out Jade's eyes right there and then. Elora gasped, pouting at him.

"Carson, play nice! Jade hasn't done anything, you grumpy old man." Jade sighed to herself. If only Elora knew. Carson on the other hand loudly huffed, before pushing back his chair.

"You better make this quick and it better be fucking worth it!" Jade nodded once, stiffly, and quickly hurried away. She expected that Carson would be following her, and she only stopped once they were in a dull corner, far from the cafeteria. Before Jade could open her mouth, Carson was bearing his teeth at her, which wouldn't have been nearly as scary if they weren't sharpening into the werewolf teeth that could easily tear flesh.

"I think you should give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip out your throat." His voice was strangely calm and emotionless. It was strange after hearing the booming anger from his wolf the previous day.
"I just wanted to warn you! Arlis's pack has been getting attacked, and now he's being clingy and wants to walk me home. I thought you'd want to know that it means he'll smell you in his land." Jade backed a few steps away as Carson snarled at her, swearing loudly. His eyes blazed brightly, Jade's breath catching in her throat as he advanced toward her. His paces forward were met by her shaky steps back, and before long her back quickly hit a wall. She cried out slightly as the wolf pinned her by her shoulders. The following sensation was like pin pricks across her arms. Carson's nails must have started sharpening into claws.

"You're lucky we're in a human school, or I would kill you!" His voice wasn't much more than a whisper so as to not draw anyone's attention, but the growl in his voice was fierce. Jade could feel his breath fanning across her face from his close proximity. She tilted her chin up as high as she could, closing her eyes to avoid looking at him.

"You better hope that idiotic alpha wannabe sticks around, because as soon as his back is turned, I'm tearing out your jugular and leaving him with your mangled, disgusting, halfbreed body!" Despite Jade's intense fear, her fight or flight reflex chose that moment to kick in. Jade had never been one to choose flight. Her fear was morphing into anger in an almost desperate attempt to hide her weakness. Jade growled back at the packless wolf, however it sounded quite weak compared to the almost roar that came from him.