122 School Is Not A Good Place

Willa's POV

It took us a couple of hours to finish the three tattoos.

I was dying to go and check on Al, but Kirsch wouldn't let me leave, not even on the little breaks granny took.

"The design is really pretty! I have only seen a few Runes myself, but of course, never one with real magic in it." Kirsch said as he took my hand to observe the Death spell. It took all my energy to not roll my eyes at his shoddy excuse to occupy us.

Either he was afraid I was going to rape Al while granny was right downstairs, or he was really nervous about being with granny alone.

Neither of those scenarios was NOT lame!

"Where have you seen Runes before?" I challenged him, hoping he would let me go as soon as I could expose his lie.

"In the museums." He grinned at me with an innocent smile.

"It would be a mess if the world knew about magic." I squinted my eyes at him, upset that I couldn't really prove he was lying.

"Runes are already believed to be ancient magic language, though I doubt if people really believe magic exists. I didn't until I saw." Kirsch said with a serious tone, "I can show you."

"Show me what?" I blinked in confusion, watching Kirsch pull out his phone and type with crazy speed.

"You take a smartphone with you?!" I exclaimed in shock. As werewolves, we often shift without the time to take off our cloth and pack our stuff with us. We never really take anything we can't lose on us, especially cell phones.

"I rarely need to shift. Besides, I have to deal with the Treaty all the time, who I can't mindlink. Don't you feel like a cellphone is just a bad version of our mindlink?" Kirsch shrugged with a ramble as he fixed his eyes on his phone.

That was one of the silver linings of being the Alpha. He was often followed and protected by his betas, like how Natasha and James followed him when we first met. But now he couldn't let any beta follow him when Al was around.

"See? This is Runes, am I right?" Kirsch tilted his phone in my direction. On his screen was a monument with a dull engraving carved on the surface. Under the picture it said--

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It really WAS Runes, an ugly designed one though.

"It really is. How did you know?!" I rose my eyebrow.

"I'm something of a scholar myself." Kirsch curved his lips, "I knew all about curses, Runes, werewolf history. Impressed?"

"Yeah. Impressed that I never knew you are a dork." I wrinkled my nose, not wanting to give him the pleasure that he was right. Kirsch burst into laughter but granny shot me a glare--

I was supposed to be very polite to the Alpha.

"He knows I'm deaf to his Alpha Aura now!" I complained as I went and snuggled into granny's knee, giving her my other wrist, "He's the only Alpha I could talk to in a normal way."

"Normal does not mean disrespectful." Granny rolled her eyes.

"It's okay, I don't mind Willa being herself around here. This is her house as well." Kirsch waved his hand and put away his phone. Though I knew he said the perfect line that granny wanted to hear, I also knew he meant it.

He had zero ability to lie.

I felt like he was treating me as his Luna even though Al was no longer his Alpha, and I also had no intention to be a "Luna". Being a luna sounded just as boring as being an Alpha.

"All done." Granny patted me on my head after I got four rings on my limbs again before she put away the tattoo pen.

"If you teach me how to make a tattoo, I would be able to do it myself next time." I nodded at the tattoo pen.

"You need my blood in the ink to make the Runes work." Granny just waved her hand, "Get some dinner, hmm?"

"Wait, aren't you gonna stay for dinner? Al's cooking is to die for!" I rose an eyebrow in shock. I had always wanted granny to try Al's cooking. It was almost eight now and neither of us had dinner. Why would she even refuse?

What was also shocking was that Kirsch didn't make a fuss about not having his meal ready for him on time today.

"It's late. Maybe next time." Granny shook her head with a smile. Though the Alphas and granny had been polite to each other, there had been a weird gap between them. I didn't know how to make the three people I cared about the most to be close to each other, and it stung a bit.

I thought Al and granny were getting along well during the journey, but now it was obvious that granny wasn't trying to make friends.

"Are you hungry? I'll go check on Al before we come down for dinner, okay?" I turned to Kirsch after we said goodbye to granny.

"...Okay," Kirsch said reluctantly.

"You don't want to eat with us?" I blinked in shock. What got into him today?

"I do." Kirsch said quickly, "What do you want to eat? I'll go get dinner."

"You are choosing a restaurant over Al's cooking?!" I let out a surprised laugh, "Kirsch--"

"No! Of course not!" Kirsch denied in panic, "I...I'll wait here."

He sat down by the dinner table and gave me a nervous smile.

I rolled my eyes before I dashed upstairs, deciding to check on what was wrong with Kirsch after I check on Al. Kirsch had been weird ever since granny came. Maybe he was just nervous about keeping a secret.

"Al, are you feeling better?" I asked in a small voice after I opened my bedroom door because the light was off. Was he sleeping?

No one was in the room or any other room on the whole second floor. I dashed downstairs after I even checked the pool before I understood Kirsch's nervousness--

He KNEW Al left!

"Where is Al?!" I ran toward the dinner table, panting, eyes locked on Kirsch, feeling like the anger was burning a hole through me. He looked up at me in silence with desperation.

Al was normal this morning when I left, and only after a few hours, he left without a word?!

Nothing good could happen when I go to school!

[Author's Note: Sorry guys for the slow update this past week, hence this free chapter as an apology. If I say it's about my workload it's just an excuse. I have been struggling a bit on the next part these past few days, but I'll try to update more! More bed fun coming up (dancing with the shackles of Willa being underage is killing me!) Enjoy!]