Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 59 - Brave or Stupid

Last chapter before we start skipping time, lads. Thank you all for being so patient with the slower updates, it shouldn't be too much longer now. This would have been up yesterday if I hadn't been too busy watching the rugby (Wales - England and we won!!!!).

Vaughan had gone dangerously still.

Scott should have snitched on me, hurt me, not Jess, who'd done nothing to him. Well, nothing except tell him the truth. He'd found my weakness - that was clear enough. He knew that any wounds inflicted to Jess would sting twice over. He got to punish her for rejecting him and he got to make me regret being born.

"Bullshit," Jess spat. "He's off his bloody rocker - can't you tell?"

The Alpha looked at her slowly, his dark eyes cold and unforgiving. He didn't believe her. Not even a little.

Alex caught Vaughan's arm. "He's lying. Jess was with me and Evie the whole time."

Idiot. Brave, loyal idiot. If they found a shred of proof to the contrary, they would know he'd lied, and he'd fall with her. And yet Vaughan seemed to believe him. The iciness thawed a fraction, he gave Alex a slight nod, and he turned his gaze back onto Scott.

"It's a bold claim," Vaughan told the man. "And I've got two pack members saying otherwise..."

Scott inclined his head. He was still wearing that awful smile. "Oh, but I can prove it. She left the bloody towels in her laundry basket."

And suddenly I was moving. I didn't wait to hear Vaughan's answer, didn't stop to think about what I was doing. I just went. The near stairs were too obvious, so I strode down the corridor, heading for the next set along. It took me a fair while to realise that Evie was following me.

"Get out while you still can, dumbass," she told me. "Let us worry about Jess."

"Like hell," I snapped. "Are you going to help me or slow me down?"

We'd reached the stairs, and I took them two at a time. Running would have attracted too much attention, but I was walking as fast as humanly possible and somehow Evie and her tiny little legs were managing to keep up.

"Help, I guess," Evie sighed. "Next left."

She guided me through the mess of corridors until we reached a turning that I recognised as the entrance to Jessie's corridor. I stopped abruptly and looked back at Evie.

"Wait here," I told her, and she opened her mouth to object. "I mean it. If you're caught with me, you're dead."

Plus she'd leave a scent trail behind. Evie muttered a word that no civilised flockie female should know, but she did press her back against the wall and stay put. So I went down the final corridor alone. All the doors were made of identical white-washed wood, but only one of them smelt like Jess, and that was the one I put my shoulder against. She hadn't been able to lock it because we'd left through the window, not the door, so it swung open easily.

The clutter in her room took me by surprise, somehow, and I nearly tripped over a stack of books as I came in. It took three strides to reach the bathroom. It was exactly as we had left it in our hurry - messy and stinking of cleaning fluid, but there was a definite tang of blood in the air now. Stale as it was, it was unmistakable.

I found the bloodied towels screwed up in the laundry basket, and there were also wads of kitchen roll in the bins, and I rolled all of it into a bundle. There were still a few streaks of dried blood in the grout where I had been sat, and it took another few precious seconds to scrub it clean.

I kept dipping in and out of Jessie's mind to check how close they were. Vaughan had got off to a slow start - they were still on the stairs. I had time to check the window ledge, too, and sure enough there was blood crusted to the edge. I chipped it away with my fingernails.