Ch 6: Don't You Trust Me, Babe?

Elisa’s POV:

His fingers dug into my shoulders, and his grip was tight enough to leave a bruise. His eyes were completely bloodshot and looked unhinged to me. 

But up close, his touch almost made my skin crawl. However, the irony of this situation was quite sickening. 

In my past life, I would have sold my soul to hear him claim me this desperately. Even if it was just for once. 

Now? The sheer thought of uttering that I belonged to this bastard almost made me want to throw up. 

But I couldn't let my mask slip before them. It was not the time yet.

I almost forced my expression to soften, and gazed tenderly at him, while trying to act like the perfect damsel he always wanted. 

"Ethan, you're hurting me," I whispered, with my voice dripping low. “Calm down, please. Your hand needs attention first…then we will talk.” 

But before he could answer, a sharp gasp cut through the tension. 

"Elisa, how could you do this to him?!" 

Maria stepped forward, her face perfectly masked with tearful concern towards Ethan. "Look how much he hurt his hand because of your reckless stunts with that lycan prick! 

“I don’t understand…what’s wrong with you? Ethan is our future Alpha…how could you blatantly humiliate him before the crowd?” 

I didn't yell at her words, nor did I even raise my voice. Instead, I slowly turned my head, gawking at Maria with a dead-eyed stare that made her breath hitch.

"Maria, you have no right to interrupt." 

For the first time, I showed her rightful place, with my voice terrifyingly calm, which almost tensed the air between us. 

"Give us some privacy. This is between Ethan and me."

Maria froze, completely stunned by my answer which vanished the fake concern from her expression. 

No one, especially not a "wolfless runt" like me had ever spoken to her like that before, let alone in front of Ethan.

But recovering from the shock soon, Maria tactfully pulled off another fake stunt and looked at Ethan, expecting him to snap at me on her behalf. 

She whimpered, stepping closer to him, "Ethan, I don’t understand why Elisa is acting unlike herself! Look how she's talking to me..."

But tonight, I had placed my cards accurately. 

Ethan didn't even glance at her as his mind must’ve been entirely spiralling from playing the scenes of my passionate kiss with his biggest rival, Kael, in his head. 

In fact, he was too unhinged to play the role of a protective partner for his fated mate tonight. 

"Didn’t you hear her out?”

Ethan suddenly roared, the intensity of his voice almost shook the walls. He didn't even bother to look at Maria once, while his gaze was still locked onto mine. "Get out, Maria, for damn sake!"

This time, Maria’s jaw literally dropped in shock and disbelief. The humiliation hit her face, tainting her skin into a wave of crimson. 

Furious, insulted, and completely stripped of the authority she must’ve imagined above Ethan, she grabbed her purse, stormed out of the dorm, slamming the heavy door so hard the glass frames on the windows rattled.

One down. Another one to go.

With Maria gone, I took a deep breath and gently reached for his bloody hand. The touch was repulsive, but I forced my fingers to be steady.

"Sit down, Ethan," I murmured, using the exact soft tone whenever I nursed him all these years. 

He let out a shaky breath, but from my touch, the rage flaring within him instantly deflated a little. 

He sat onto the edge of his bed when I grabbed the first-aid kit and sat on the chair across from him, while pulling the sharp shards of whiskey glass from his palm.

"You know it very well that those lycans were just trying to get under your skin to distract you from the tournament, Ethan." I lied smoothly, with a gentle smile of deception while wiping away his blood. 

"And…Kael Blackthorn did that to provoke you. If you had shifted and thrown your fists, you would’ve broken the most important rule of the academy. And it was given that the Pack Council would also disqualify the Ice Moon team. 

“That’s why…I had no other choice but to play along. Trust me, I did it to protect the team’s reputation."

"You kissed him," Ethan choked out those words in a raspy murmur, while his eyes seemed desperate for reassurance. 

"He kissed me," I corrected gently, looking up to give him the reassuring, fake smile that he wanted. 

"And honestly, the kiss meant nothing to me. I just did what I had to do as the Blood Fang cheerleader captain because I want to keep an eye on them for you, Ethan.”

“You…really mean it?” 

“Of course! Don’t you trust me, babe?” 

Every word out of my mouth sounded so smooth that Ethan could barely suspect the poison wrapped in them. 

While I gazed lovingly into those eyes, I kept reminding myself of the agonizing suffocation I had felt during the last moments that led to my death. 

And to get the brutal revenge I wanted, I couldn't let him slip from my grip yet. I needed to get him utterly obsessed with me. 

I needed to make him so dependent on my presence that when I finally ripped the rug from under his feet, the fall would kill him.

When I began wrapping the white bandage tightly around his palm, the silence between us grew a bit uncomfortable for me. 

As I tucked the edge of the bandage in, I felt his gaze shift a little. Ethan was staring intensely at my lips…the very lips which Kael had claimed with a raw dominance just 30 minutes ago. 

I could see a hint of dark, territorial jealousy flare in his narrowed eyes. 

He suddenly reached out with his uninjured hand, cupping the back of my neck and pulling me forward. I could feel his hot breath fanning against my face.

"Stay the night with me, Elisa," he murmured, his voice laced with a desperate hunger as he leaned closer, tilting his head to initiate a kiss.

But then, a violent jolt of disgust flared like an inferno in my chest. 

No. I couldn't do it.

I slammed my hands against his chest and shoved him away a bit forcibly, and Ethan stumbled back slightly. And for the first time, getting rejected by me like this had him startled for a few seconds. 

Then, his eyes narrowed at me. "What is it? Why are you pulling away from me?"

My heart hammered against my ribs while I desperately came up with an excuse to cover for my action. 

I forced my hands to tremble, putting on a nervous, flustered act.

"I... I can't stay tonight, Ethan," I stammered, looking down at my shoes. "I... I got my period today. And…right now, I am having really bad cramps so…I am completely exhausted.”

The excuse was simple, relatable, and effective enough to make any guy instantly back off. 

Ethan blinked, the tension draining from his shoulders as he sighed, rubbing his face. "Fine. Go. But we're talking about this tomorrow."

"Okay," I whispered.

I turned around and practically ran out of his dorm. By the time I reached my room and shut the door by locking it behind me, my chest was heaving. 

I leaned against the wood while my mind was completely a spiraling mess. 

My lower lips still felt numb, tingling with the sensation of Kael’s kiss that almost made me think of that emerald-eyed man again. 

And it frustrated me how much that lycan's touch had thrown me off balance.

I walked over to my study table to grab my face wash, wanting nothing more than to take a quick shower and head back to sleep. 

But my feet halted the moment I reached my desk. 

Sitting right there, under the desk lamp, was my inhaler. That same…blue-capped inhaler which I was begging for till my death. 

And the sight of it hit me like a physical blow, making my chest form a twisted knot deep inside. The tactful mask I had worn all night had suddenly shattered. 

And all at once, the dam broke.

I collapsed to my knees on the floor, grabbing the inhaler and clenching it tightly against my chest. The crushing weight of everything that had happened to me hit me all at once.

Now, I was playing a game with monsters by getting entangled with Kael Blackthorn, the heir of that lycan species who killed my father, but the emotional toll felt heavy enough to crush my ribs. 

I cried until my throat ached, letting the grief of a past life bleed out into the quiet room.

But then, the tears stopped. Even the trembling in my hands had also ceased. 

I wiped my face with the back of my hand and looked at myself in the mirror with my eyes almost cold and hollow. 

The weak Elisa had already died. 

Now, I stood up, walking over to the mirror above my sink, and stared at my tear-stained reflection. 

They say the best way to destroy an enemy isn't to kill them, but to make them fall so deeply in love with you that they hand you the weapon themselves. 

I’ll give Ethan the perfect, devoted girl he thought he could trample upon… Just when he thinks he has won... I am going to burn his entire world. 

And this time, I won't stop until he begs me for the air to breathe.