Chapter 4: Betrayed, Yet Protective

Sireen’s POV

I want to kill her, or at least come close so no one ever challenges the fact that I deserve to be with Trevor, not even him. Especially not him. If he was on my side in all this none of this would have happened, I just need to convince him that we were worth fighting for.

“I acc-”

“Don’t do it! ” Camilla screams from somewhere in the crowd. She weaves through gawking students before finally reaching the center of the circle. “I know that you are hurt and you feel like you have something to prove but please Sireen, don’t do it.” Tears gather in her eyes as she watches me.

I turn from the crowd to face Camilla, lowering my voice so she can hear me. “I have to. He would accept me if he knows I deserve it.”

Camilla vigorously shakes her head. “He won’t. I know you care about him too much to see this but he won’t, and if Kristy manages to kill you I won’t be able to live with myself.”

“I. Won’t. Die.” I bite the words out. “Have some faith in me, Cami.”

“That’s not the point…” She wipes her eyes with the back of her hands “...just don’t do it.”

I turn my eyes away from Camilla and face Kristy, then I do it. “I accept.”

Because I won’t be able to live with myself if I don't at least try. Besides, rejecting Kristy’s challenge will just be a way to humiliate myself more. From the corner of my eye, I catch Trevor’s locked jaw as he watches, and I pray that he truly sees me.

Kristy was the first to move, her heels clinking as she sprang forward with her fist clenched, and I barely managed to stumble backward, just able to brace myself before her forceful punch struck. My mind raced as I tried to recall some defensive moves Kylie and I learned.

However, Kristy persists. She swipes once again, snagging my arm with her long fingers, sending a searing pain up my arm, and I stifle a groan.

“You had some mouth just earlier. Is it glued now?” Kristy sneers, and my eyes dart to my white shirt smeared with blood now as I circle Kristy with my arms out. Some applaud, some jeer, and Trevor watches, only shifting his weight to his left foot as he hangs his bag higher on his shoulders.

Right as I tune everything out, Kristy hisses and lashes at me like a predator, saying, "You're pathetic. It makes sense why we all despise you."

My chest tightens, but I am still doused in rage, so I meet her gaze, tasting blood on the inside of my cheeks. "Don't stop talking, Kristy. When this is over, we'll see who's left standing.

That must piss her off because her face contorted in rage, and she catches me unprepared, sending me to the ground by sweeping my feet. She’s on me in an instant, eyes red, nostrils flaring, and it must have been me slipping it of consciousness if I saw a wisp of smoke rising from her hair.

“I’ll fucking kill you, bitch,” she yells, holding me down by my neck with her left hand, choking me, and her fingers digging into my skin, then the right one rears backward as sharp claws extend from her fingers, about to rip my face in half. “I will personally escort you to the afterlife too!”

I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the pain to come, but it is someone’s dark guttural growl that rumbles across the space, spreading over my battered skin.

“Enough!”

Trevor.

Everybody freezes. The jeering crowd goes silent, and my heart stops.

Kristy doesn’t release me, turning back to Trevor. “Trevor, babe…”

“I said that’s enough. Show’s over. Get out,” he commands, and almost immediately, the crowd starts to disperse, but I’ve already lost myself. What’s the use?

Kristy hisses, and I feel all the pain when she throws me back on the ground.

‘I should have freaking listened to Cami. Again.’

It hurts.

Every bone in my body, and every cell inside me. My heart, it fucking breaks. I let myself heal slowly for a minute before I pick myself up to leave. I don’t reach the bathroom door when I am cornered by Trevor.

I look at him, cold and in pain, yet, all I want is for him to touch me and tell me he’s sorry. My dignity and self-respect get a weak upper hand, and I attempt to push past him, but he corners me against the wall, hands plastered on either side of my head.

I should feel nothing now. He watched me get embarrassed, but right now, his forearm in my face does unspeakable things to my body. My imagination kicks in, and I see those hands undoing me and going on to mold me back together.

“I didn’t want you to get hurt,” He says, reaching for my face but stopping midway, and I may have been mistaken because I didn’t just see his eyes…lose that ice…soften at me. Right?

Still, I don’t grace him with a response. I just keep staring into thin air.

He speaks again. “You have to stay out of trouble. Avoid Kristy.”

This time, I laugh, but the sound is bitter and sarcastic, it scares even me.

“You can care for me now, but not when she calls me a mutt in front of the class? A narrative YOU started?”

Trevor watches me with an unreadable expression in his dark amber eyes, and I move away from him, entering the bathroom, and slamming the door in his face.

Resting my head against the door, I let it all crash on me. The injuries bite at me, but my loss of dignity and that of my mate causes my throat to close up. Tears are about to spill when someone startles me.

“I’m assuming you got lost.”

I jerk my eyes open, and confusion sets in my mind.

What is a guy doing here?

“You’re in the men’s room,” the tall, lean, yet muscular man explains, and I freeze.

He’s definitely a college student, he looks like a senior, but I can’t find it in me to describe him as anything other than a man. He cocks a perfectly sculpted brow at me, smiling at my mishap, a dimple gracing his stubble-adorned cheek, and I admit, he’s haaat.

“Oh,” I breathe out, eyes darting left and right.

“But feel free to use it, you look like you need it,” he says softly, moving to the sink farthest from me, and I relax.

“How could you tell?”

He gestures to his face, and I put a hand on my cheek, wincing as I feel a forming bruise.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Silence fills the room, I shuffle my feet towards the first mirror and gasp. I did not expect my face to look this terrible.

“Yeah, it’s bad,” He says without smiling, even scowling at my wounds. “Why would anyone hurt a girl this beautiful?” He asks more to himself, and I almost laugh out loud.

“They hurt me because I’m ugly.”

His head slightly drops, but his hooded eyes meet mine and he seems to think before he speaks. “No. That's a lie. You are wildly beautiful,” he says, almost inaudibly.

Before I can process or respond to his words, this handsome devil grabs a bunch of tissues, advancing slowly. “Here, sit on the counter. I’ll lend you a hand.”

I climb onto the counter, noticing how different this is from the interactions I’ve had with almost everyone I’ve met this week. It’s…comforting, to say the least. “What is your name?” I ask quietly as he wets the tissue in concentration.

“You didn’t think to ask before accepting my help?” He smirks and dabs the gash on my left eyebrow while I stifle a wince. “I could have whisked you off into my harem and nobody would find you.”

I laugh slightly, feeling a little weight of the past few days fall from my shoulders “I doubt you actually have one of those.”

“Enzo Hernandez. And I don’t,” He says, looking into my eyes with a smile, his covered hand still cleaning my now healing face. I smile too—genuinely, for the first time in a while.

Just then, the door bursts open.

”Sireen, you entered the wrong…” It is Trevor’s voice, but it is cut off as soon as he sees me on the counter with a man in between my spread legs. His face automatically assumes the scary Alpha look that I know him to have, daggers setting in his eyes and shooting at me. “Who the fuck are you?” I guess that was for Enzo, not me.

Trevor doesn’t wait for a response before crossing the room and shoving Enzo away from me, his eyes wide with rage. Then he looks at me.

“Did he fucking touch you?”

From the corner of my eye, I see Enzo. He doesn’t speak, barely reacting to Trevor pushing him, but I see a smirk form on his lips as he advances as if to say… “Did you just shove me?”