Forbidden

Chapter 25

25

Mathew stood above us, with a psychotic looking smirk on his face.

“You see Misha, this was exactly what we talked about at the party on Saturday,” Mathew said, as Liam released me and I sprung up off the forest floor, brushing myself off and refusing to look at either of them.

"You guys talked?" Liam asked sourly.

Mathew's smirk got even wider.

I was really messy looking by now and it didn’t make much sense to go back to school. I contemplated Shifting. But Mathew and Liam were so much stronger and faster than me; it didn’t make much sense at all. Was it because they were Shadows? Or was it because they had an advantage over me because I was female?

“Go away Mathew.” Liam said darkly, standing in front of me.

What the hell was wrong with him?

“Why?” Mathew asked with real curiosity shining behind his voice. “You see, this was just the thing I was telling dad, but because you were born first, he listens to you.”

Mathew sounded way more than sour. That was just acid.

“It’s not my fault.” Liam frowned at his brother.

I looked between the two of them; Liam was more attractive to me, what with his floppy dark brown hair and his hard silver eyes. But Mathew was just a little bit more rugged, his features more sharp. He had stronger and broader shoulders, but I knew which one could take the other in a fight.

“What are you guys doing out here anyway?” Mathew asked. “Consorting?”

“No.” Liam said in a hard voice. “Dealing with … issues,”

I gave the back of his head a hard look. Was he half retarded?

“Nothing too drastic my brother,”

"Are you sure?" Mathew asked rather condescendingly. "You know how much Shadow wolves despise the Leaf; they're self-righteous idiots with no respect for other people's cultures. And here you are, out here suspiciously with her."

Liam's facial structure seemed to harden at Mathew's words.

"Or maybe is it because you like her?" Mathew asked. "Because that would be so wrong of you; you could lose your title for that."

"That's stupid Mathew. She's a Leaf. I'm a Shadow, we can never be together." That struck a nerve deep down within my soul and I struggled to come to terms with it without giving myself away. "But if we're going to continue living like this, creating ties with the Alpha won't hurt anyone. Right?"

I heard the hopeful tinge in Liam's voice and prayed very hard that Mathew hadn't heard that too.

Mathew looked between me and Liam. Once, twice and back again, his dented brow deepening.

And that was when I ran.

Shifting into a wolf mid stride I frowned inside when my clothes ripped into shreds of their original selves. Those jeans were starting to become my favorite. I was bounding into the forest without a look back at them in seconds.

I ran for a while, I didn’t know how long, just putting one paw in front of the other as I ran, trying to get onto Leaf land and as far away from Mathew and Liam as was possible at the moment. My breathing was labored and my heart was beating a million miles a minute, but I kept running, I just needed...

I needed to get away.

My paws tread over fallen, moldy leaves that made a carpet on the forest floor, kicking up debris behind me. I was panting hard as I ran, but I didn't slow down. Oh no, I couldn't slow down. That would be a very bad decision on my part. Trees and land passed by me to no abandon and I jumped between the trees and bushes until the forest began to thin out. I quickly realized I was near the mountain road. The road Tegan drove down every morning to drive us to school.