Forbidden

Chapter 24

24

Tegan stood in front of her locker, screwing her bright pink hair into a messy knot atop her head.

She was wearing one of the many faded band tees she seemed to have in abundance, with a pair of floral shorts—that looked suspiciously like a pair I used to have—ripped purple leggings and her worn in combat boots.

“Up or down,” she murmured with a scowl as I neared her.

“Doesn’t really matter to me,” I shrugged. “Are you okay? I was worried!”

“I’m better than okay,” she grinned, clipping the knot atop her head with no heed of my comment. She reached into her locker and pulled out a tube of strawberry lip gloss, scrutinizing the label on the front. “I’m amazing. Hayden is so sweet. He helped me Shift—” she paused when her head turned around to face me, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Whoa sexy! What’s up with the change of scenery?”

I laughed. “Mom got to me.”

At least that was halfway true.

After the way I’d looked on Saturday, my mother was thoroughly convinced that I could dress like I girl if I wanted to and had gone through my closet with me present this morning.

But the truth was, I’d only allowed her to do so—with some limitations of course—because of what Liam had said on Saturday night. The mere fact that he thought I was sexy combined with the fact that he was a Shadow wolf was more than a compliment. For me, a Leaf wolf, it was a phenomenon. Because he didn’t say it like Mathew would’ve said it, or any other Shadow wolf for that matter. He meant his words as a compliment, not a seedy wolf call.

My outfit was only a little simple. I was wearing a loose shirt, in a dull gray hue, which bore only a little bit of my shoulders and collarbone with a pair of jeans that might’ve suffocated the life out of me, had they not been infused with spandex. To conclude the outfit, I had not abandoned my trusty knit cap (I think my mom had developed a newfound respect for the worn in, black crotchet work) a bit of lip gloss, plastic bracelets and a low heeled pair of boots.

“Dang! You sure you didn’t wear that for Randel?” Tegan asked suggestively, applying a coat of the lip gloss to her lips. “That’s hot.”

“Actually, no, I didn’t wear this for Randel.” I admitted, pulling my Chemistry notebook out of my bag. Did we even have home-work this weekend? “I broke up with Randel.”

I was amazed that I didn’t feel a smidgen of guilt or remorse about my words.

None. Nada. Nicht. Zilch. Zero.

It was almost as if I’d said the sun was shining or that I was an Alpha. It just held that underlying “duh” factor to it that I couldn’t shake.

And boy, did it feel good.

Apparently, Tegan didn’t see my new single-hood the same way as I did.

“WHAT?!” she exclaimed louder than a foghorn. I was sure the students outside of the school had heard her. Hell, the deer in the mountains had her! “You did WHAT?!”

“Shh!” I hissed at her, slapping my hand down over her mouth. “Not everyone and Russia needs to know, Tegan!”

“Mmph!” Tegan cried, but her voice was muffled by my hand. Her eyebrows mashed down into a heated glare and her eyes burned with fury. “Mmph, mmph, MMPH!”

By now, everyone in the hall had stopped to stare at us and I was quickly becoming more and more uncomfortable under their stares, not to mention wholly embarrassed.