Chapter Seven

Damon POV 

"Why are you walking away? We should kill him for thinking he can touch Elle," Slade growls from my mind. If I let Slade have control out in the courtyard, the mutt would have been killed instantly. 

"You know I can't do that. Do you know who Theo's father is?" I ask the pissed-off wolf pacing in my mind, and I can feel his frustration at being trapped here while another man is around what he considers his. 

"I don't care if he is a saint. He needs to die for touching Elle," Slade fumes again, refusing to look at the bigger picture. 

"Theo's father is a council member; we have to be cautious about our interactions with him," I tell the furious wolf, who practically foams at the mouth. 

"So he has daddy protecting him?" asks Slade, who is finally starting to see the reason behind my calmness. 

"For now," is all I say back to Slade. He has his father's protection now, but I will find my way around it. I need to figure out how, but I will find a way. Slade seems satisfied with my answer to retreat until he hears the end of Matt and Andrew's conversation and becomes pissed all over again. 

"Alright, Andrew, your mom was right Elle has gotten hot while we were gone; she even got herself a little boyfriend." Like that day under the Willow tree many years ago, Slade had taken control of my body. My hand grabs Matt by the neck before slamming him into the lockers knocking the breath out of his lungs. 

"Do not call that mutt Elle's boyfriend, understood?" Slade snarls, my pitch-black eyes locked onto his grey ones filled with fear. My hands tighten around his throat, letting him breathe just enough to choke out the words "Yes, Alpha." Before I drop him to the ground and step away, not paying attention to the concerned looks on Andrew's face as I walk away from them. I need to find a quiet place to hide. A place to calm down before Slade breaks out and kills every unmated male in this building. I saw the way the other guys reacted toward Elle's new style. 

While I wanted to rip out their lustful eyes, I couldn't help but appreciate the beauty they were staring at. Elle is just as beautiful as I remember, with her eyes bewitching me repeatedly. The thought of another man possessing them drives Slade crazy with jealousy. 

"We could always mark her..." Slade offers, letting the idea sink in. After a few minutes of sitting in the janitor's closet, I pondered the ramifications of marking Elle. I decide that it is ethically wrong and not worth the complications. 

"We can't do that to her. She might not belong to us," my voice sounds defeated, replying to him. As much as I have tried to blame Slade for my obsession with Elle, it wasn't only him feeling that way. In reality, I was wrapped around her pinky since that first talk in my father's office. 

"No shit, sherlock," Slade growls in response, "we were both hers from that first meeting, like she is ours now. I am telling you, Elle is ours." His voice holds such a finality to it, as if he is so sure that she is our mate when she isn't even eighteen yet. 

"I am a hundred percent sure," Slade says in an attempt to argue his case for marking Elle without her knowledge. 

"NO, that's final," I yell at him, hoping it'll end this conversation and shut down any ideas he has about marking Elle.

"Stupid human," he mutters, slinking back to the far corners in my grumbling the whole way. With Slade hiding, I can finally thank the Goddess for some peace. 

*****************

I don't know how long I have been sitting in this closet, Andrew has tried reaching out to me through the mindlink, but I block him out. I don't want to deal with his silent judgment right now. Instead, I'd rather think of how much Elle has changed over the summer; there is something different about her. Almost carefree, like she was when she first moved to New Moon. Did I have something to do with her new looks and attitude? What happened while I was gone?

As if my thoughts called her to me, I could smell the cinnamon of her scent and the sound of her converse coming down the hall. I could recognize that sound anywhere. Before I know what I am doing, I throw the door to the janitor's closet open, pulling Elle inside the dark room with me. I slam her into the wall with one hand resting on her hip while the other keeps her caged between me and the wall. 

"What the hell?" Elle asked, her voice a little shaky from being startled. "Damon, what the fuck are you doing? Let me go!" 

"No," is all I say until I smell that mutt clinging to her skin, causing me to bristle. Slade isn't even bothered by Theo's smell on his precious Elle. He is panting like a puppy having her this close to us with my hand on her hip. "Why do I smell that fucking mutt on you?" 

"Seriously, Damon, what's the big deal?" she deflects my question by asking one of her own. 

"That's the second time you have called me, Damon. Don't let there be a third-time biscuit," I say to her as I get my face closer to hers, my eyes never leaving her. Her scent swirls around me, pushing me to kiss her lips bruisingly hard, but I don't.  

"I'll stop calling you Damon when you stop calling me a biscuit," she says, crossing her arms over her chest and plastering a bored look on her face. 

When I bring my lips to her ear, I can hear her heartbeat start speeding up and see how shallow her breaths are becoming. Slade is preening, knowing Elle is as affected by our presence as we are by her. "I'll never stop calling you biscuit." 

"Then it seems we are at an impasse. Can you let me go now?" she asks, looking at the exit of this confined closet. 

"No," is all I say, not feeling the need to explain myself further. I rarely need to explain myself to others. I am the next Alpha, after all. 

"What do you want?" She demands while tapping her foot, and her arms are still crossed. 

"Answer my question. Why do you smell like Theo?" 

"Maybe he and I made out in the broom closet down the hall," Elle says with a shrug and a smirk on her lips. Her response brings Slade to the front without warning as he grabs her chin to make her look him in the eye. 

"No more fucking with my patience, biscuit, and just tell me what I want to know," he growls at her, but she doesn't seem to fear Slade like the other wolves in the pack. For being an Omega, she sure hasn't been acting like one lately. 

"We have every class together, and we ate lunch together," she says matter-of-factly. So now she will be around this asshole all day, every day? There is no way in hell I would let that happen. 

"Then change your schedule. I don't want you around, Theo. We know nothing about him, and I don't trust him," I say with an edge to my voice, hoping my Alpha aura gets her to comply. 

"You no longer get to make those decisions for me, Damon," she says, putting her hands on my chest to distance us. The feeling of her hands on me is distracting; I barely listen to what she is saying. However, Slade does and isn't happy she won't do what I am telling her. 

"Elle, I will not tell you again. Drop your classes and take others," I say, grabbing her hands off my chest and holding them above her head and against the wall, my lips only an inch from hers. 

"I won't do that, Damon; I need those classes, or else I won't graduate at the end of the year. Getting out of here a whole year early is more precious to me than your Alpha ego." She says. As I press against her body, I am sure she can feel how hard I am, but I don't care. 

"What do you mean you're leaving early?" I ask; Slade and I are both anxious about her leaving the pack. 

"I just talked to the principal and guidance counselor. I have more than enough credits to graduate early. I have enough to graduate right now if I want. I have that many credits." she said with a shrug, seeming unbothered with the thought of leaving New Moon or me. 

"We'll see about that." is all I say to her. I storm out of the closet before I do something I regret; leaving her in the darkroom by herself.  

"Marking her doesn't seem so bad, now, does it?" Slade gloated before returning to the corner of my mind.  

It doesn't sound bad at all.