2

HOPE’s POV

Blake Parker, the future alpha of Crescent Manes looms at the door. His tall physique blocks the entire door and though his face is cast in shadows, I can tell that he is not pleased.

My breath hitches and instinctively, I shout out, “Help me!”

Blake ignores me, choosing instead to focus his attention on both Chad and Mike. The hands that bind me quickly leave my side. Frantically, I pull up my pants and search for my blouse. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but my hands are shaking and without my glasses, I can’t seem to find my blouse at all.

Ashamed, I cover my chest with my hands, silently thanking the Moon Goddess that my bra is still intact.

“What is the meaning of this?” Blake’s voice thunders across the room and both Chad and Mike fall to their knees.

“Blake! We were just fooling around, man!” Mike rubs his palms together in succession. Even in the dark, I feel fear emanating from him.

“We mean no harm…” Chad squeaks, “We were just playing around with the Omega is all.”

Blake does not answer them. Instead, he takes one step into the store room and Mike starts to pee in his pants. Like literally. And with a flick of his finger, Blake turns on the sole lamp in the store room.

That is when I see his face.

For an instant, I see something glimmer in his steel grey eyes. Is it anger? Is it rage? Or is it worry? I do not know. I am beyond caring. All I know is that I am saved.

Blake’s thick dark brows furrow as he frowns and he curls a finger at me, “You, out.”

I am unable to move. I am frozen in both fear and shock.

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” he hisses through gritted teeth.

From the corner of the room, Mike begins to whimper and Chad tries to sneak out but in a move too fast for the human eye to see, Blake lashes out his foot and lifts the broken broom. Up it flies and Blake catches it mid-air before stabbing the broken end of the stick straight into Chad’s thigh.

“ARGHHHHHHHHHH!” Chad lets out a scream of pain and Mike…Mike faints on the spot, his face falls straight into the puddle of his own pee.

“Out. Now,” Blake orders me. My eyes fall on Chad’s bloodied thigh. This time, I move and without another word from him, I scramble out of this goddess-forsaken room.

The moment my foot touches the now empty hall, the door to the storeroom shuts with a BANG!

Holy moly.

The bang echoes through the hall and from within the storeroom, and then I hear a tiny click. The door is locked from the inside and all too soon, I hear shouts of pain, screams of agony and a panicked howling.

I tremble. Please don’t tell me Blake killed those two. They were jerks, yes, but I don’t want to be the cause of any bloodshed anywhere. I have seen too many deaths already, I don’t want anyone else’s blood on my hands.

I rush back to the door and pound furiously at it. “Open the door!”

No answer, only shrieks and screams. I hear the crashing of tools and furniture too.

I fist my fingers frantically at the door and try to open it but it is locked from the inside. “STOP THIS! PLEASE, OPEN THE --“

The door swings open and I lose my footing, trip and I probably would have fallen to the ground if not for the fact that Blake is standing in the doorway.

OOF! MY face slams into his chest.

“Owww…” I rub my nose.

He throws a fabric in my face and pushes me out of the way. Quickly, my hand goes to pull the fabric that covers my eyes and ohh…it’s my blouse. With trembling fingers, I dress myself, fumbling with the buttons only to realize that the blouse is torn beyond repair. And as I cover myself up, a bruised and bloodied Chad crawls out of the store room, followed by a crying Mike.

My breath hitches when I see them and for a moment, I freeze. Are they going to hurt me again? My heart starts to pound and my lips start to quiver. Memory of how they had dragged me into the store room earlier comes back to haunt me and my breathing becomes laboured. It becomes difficult to breathe, it becomes difficult to think. I am having a panic attack.

“Please…” a choked whisper escapes my lips but to my surprise, both Mike and Chad kow-tow to me and start to beg for forgiveness, “We’re sorry, Hope. It won’t happen again, we swear!”

I blink…many times. What?

And that is when I realize that Blake is standing behind me, with tanned arms folded across his massive chest. He scowls at them but speaks to me, “Let’s go.”

I swallow a lump in my throat and nod. “Y-yes, Blake.”

And with that, he turns around and storms out of the hallway. I follow suit, stumbling along the way, using the walls for support. My legs are jelly-o and I cannot seem to walk properly. But I dare not tell Blake that. To go against his order would be death, that much I know for here, at Crescent Moon High, his word is law.

We reach the now-empty parking lot where a lone black-coloured Bugatti Chiron is parked. Blake opens the door to the driver’s seat and hops in without even so much as giving me a glance. The engine soon comes to life and roars as I stand at the sideline, twisting my fingers into knots.

I lost my glasses and some of my books back in the store room, and without my glasses, everything is a blur to me. Yes, I may be an Omega, but I am a near-sighted Omega without a wolf. Come to think of it, I am the only near-sighted Omega without a wolf. And that is why I am constantly being picked upon. I am but a scrouge and weakling in everyone’s eyes. Blake’s included.

“What are you doing standing there?”

Huh? I snap my head and narrow my eyes at the blurry but chiselled face that stares at me through the scrolled-down window of the Bugatti.

“You asked me to come with you.”

He lets out a bitter chuckle. “I said ‘let’s go’. I never asked you to follow me like some parasite. Make sure you reach home before six.”

He tosses out a shiny brown leather jacket at me and this time, I manage to catch it. Barely though.

“Wha-?” I stare at the jacket in my hands, it is warm and soft, unlike the cold I feel inside.

“Put it on. I don’t want my parents to see you coming home looking like some pauper.”

And with that, the window rolls back up and the car speeds away, leaving only a trail of dust in its wake and I am left standing alone in the middle of the parking lot, still shivering from the events that had unfolded earlier.