Part 3

Kiran pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward our house, high up behind the forest, and glanced at me. “Your mother’s at home.”

“Great,” I said with fake enthusiasm and Kiran laughed at me. If she’d been at the school instead of Kiran, she would have made me apologize to Mr. Jones in front of the whole class.

Kiran drove up the dirt road and the house came into view. I looked at the strange Jeep parked in front of the garage and frowned. Kiran parked next to it and turned to look at me. I knew what was coming even though I wasn’t completely wrong.

“Do we have visitors?” I asked him.

“Happy belated birthday, Kai,” he said and sighed. “Although, after today I don’t know what your mother’s going to say.” 

Kiran took the keys from his jacket pocket and threw them over to me. “Really?” I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.

“Yeah, just as I hoped you could go a few days without making trouble,” he said and chuckled.

I spent a few minutes checking out my new Jeep and Kiran pointed out the features and going over the rules with me. I barely heard him because all I kept thinking about was that I finally had my own car. Life was sweet and then I remembered why I was home so early.

I followed Kiran inside the house and placed my keys in the bowl on the counter. My mother was sitting on the other side with her laptop and Kiran wrapped himself around her from behind and started kissing her neck as she swatted him away.

“That’s really inappropriate,” I said as I remained standing by the kitchen counter.

“Only because you’re not getting any,” Kiran said to me and Adara’s head snapped up.

“Kiran!” Her voice held shock and her eyes were wide.

His comment was really inappropriate given who my girlfriend was. Kari Thomas. Uncle James would skin me alive while Kiran watched and laughed if I touched before her resurrection. The worst part was, Adara wouldn’t even be able to heal me since I was a half-breed.

“What did you do now, Kai?” My mother asked me sternly.

Kiran chuckled as he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and walked down the hallway to his study, leaving me to face my mother alone. “He called old Jonesy an idiot by default.” Kiran opened his study door, laughed again and closed it.

Adara’s gaze burned into me and I looked away. “Why would you do something like that?”

“Okay, wait, it’s only half true, but only because he called me an idiot first,” I said, defending myself.

“And let me guess, your father found it hilarious,” she said and I smiled again.

She shook her head and I knew that he would also hear from her later on. My mother’s opinion weighted lot in how things worked in our house and in our lives, but every now and then Kiran would explode and then even she would keep quiet.

“You leave me no choice, Kai. You’re grounded,” she said and my shoulders slumped.

“Oh, come on, Mom,” I said, but she gave me that one look that made me shut up. Even Kiran shut up when she gave him that look, which didn’t happen often because he was the Alpha.

“No, Kai. It’s Wednesday and the second time you’ve been in trouble this week,” she said and looked at me with disappointment in her eyes.

“Lunch is going to burn in five…four…three…”

She looked at the timer that never went off and hurried over to the oven. I chuckled as I headed upstairs to my room and I heard her swear downstairs. The aroma of meat filled my nostrils as I placed my backpack on the floor by my desk and opened my laptop.

I settled behind my desk and read through the comments on my F******k post. I’d posted the video while I waited for my dad at school. ‘Best comeback ever’, ‘How long are you suspended for buddy?’, ‘Jonesy is still red in the face’.

I chuckled and closed the laptop. The video already had more than three hundred likes. My phone had been in my pocket and I had used a simple spell to start recording when Mr. Jones had walked toward my desk.

My phone pinged and I saw that my mother just commented on my video. The blood in my veins ran cold as I realized that I’d forgotten to block her from viewing that post. I clicked on the message and it took me back to my page.

‘Kai gets grounded. Epic fail!’ I closed my eyes briefly. That was low, even for her. Her comment got a lot of laughing emojis and I switched my phone off. Thanks a lot, Mom. I had no idea why she was so upset. Mr. Jones got what he deserved.

That night at dinner, Kiran only laughed when I told him about the post and Adara’s comment. She didn’t seem fazed at all. “You embarrassed me, Kai, so I embarrassed you.” That didn’t make me feel any better or help with the fact that she’d publicly embarrassed me.

“And yet you didn’t see that one coming,” Saga said and laughed at me.

“Geez, thanks for the support, Sis,” I said and Adara laughed. “How exactly did I embarrass you, Mom?”

“Every stunt you pull reflects on me and your father. It tells people we didn’t raise you to be responsible so punishing you is my way of making you take responsibility for your actions,” she said.

“I didn’t really think of it that way,” I said.

“Think about that the next time you think it’ll be so awesome to pull another prank,” Adara said and started clearing the table.

I did think about it that night as I lay in bed. I didn’t see why she was so upset. It was just a video and my pranks were harmless, nobody ever got hurt. She always overreacted when it came to me. I wished I could breeze through life like Saga did, she made life seem so easy.