Chapter 7

ALICIA POV

Hearing those words from Claudia and her peers, I felt a bit pressured and even so angry that I wanted to.

“Arnold, just attack them at that moment.”

But I held myself. I held to my feet not wanting to move further. I just stood there listening to them as they laughed about what they did to me. I can't even imagine how rude and wicked they could be. They actually saw me as a pawn. For them to get back at Alexander and the rest, I would not let that happen. I have to also get closer to the boys. That way I would easily be able to get through to them and be able to protect them. Because this way Claudia is ready to go as far as she can just to get them wrapped around her hands, and I would not let that happen.

I quickly walked away from them, not even waiting to listen to any of their words. Just as I got outside, I bumped into Arnold as he had already packed my bag. I looked at him in surprise as he smiled cheesily at me.

“I have been searching everywhere for you. School is over for God's sake, get into the car. Let's get home,” he said as I laughed, trying to collect my bag from him. But he stepped back.

“I won't be giving it to you. You are sick, okay? And besides, you need all the care you can get, and we are your mates ready to protect you.”

I kept silent instantly. Just then, Alexander and Adriann also came out from a corner as, of course, just as I imagined, girls were all around us. They wanted to hear. Of course, they wanted to hear more gossip, know how I was doing, know if I died from the poisoning. Wicked set of people. Just my second day in school, and they are actually trying to kill me. I felt so amazed because I just did not understand why they would see me as somebody to kill, mostly for Claudia.

I walked ahead of them as I still felt their presence behind me. Of course, they were trying to prove their point of protecting me, and I just had to stay silent. After all, this was more like a blessing to me. I had someone to protect me compared to before, so I could not even complain even if I wanted to.

I soon got in front of the car as Adrian rushed to open the door for me, and of course, he had a smirk on his face. I looked at all of them; they seemed to be smiling for some weird reason, which means something is involved.

“Why are you guys just smiling like something is happening?” I questioned before entering the passenger seat as Arnold groaned in annoyance.

“Come on, must you always ask questions about everything? Just get in. Okay? We want to take you out for a little treat. You know that you had food poisoning, so we have to give you something more healthy to eat, that's all.”

“You don't always have to be so insecure and always questioning us like we want to do something bad to you. We won't dare to do something that would affect you. We just want to take good care of you, and we know that always telling you would make you opposed to it,” Adrian said as I smiled.

Just then, I caught a glimpse of Alexander. He seemed a bit angry, like he was keeping something to himself but not ready to talk about it. I entered the passenger seat, and luckily for me, Alexander also entered the passenger seat. As Arnold started the engine and Adriann sat in the front seats, I buckled my seatbelt and still looked at Alex as he seemed to be a bit lost in thoughts.

I placed my hand gently on his lap, and it brought him back to reality.

“I'm fine,” he muttered, not even waiting for me to say a word as I laughed.

“I am not even asking if you're alright, okay? You are just silent, and that's not something you always do. Did you see something, or were you expecting something and you never got it?” I said to him as he gave me a faint smile before looking outside through the window, clearly trying to avoid me.

I had not done anything wrong up to now. The only thing I did was push him away, and I had my reasons for doing that. I wouldn't want to be caught with Alex doing anything after I had said it out that they were my stepbrothers.

“What do people even think of me?”

And it was clear that Alex saw me as someone more than just his mate. He wanted to take me for himself and not even share me with his brothers, which was something I would say is very greedy. Even though I had no plans of being with any of them, I still would not let them fight over me. That would be insanely bad, and it would even make everybody in school hate me more than before.

I placed my hand again on his lap, and he still did not flinch or even look at me for a second. We soon got to a very fancy restaurant, and just as expected, Adrian rushed out of the driver's seat just to open the door for me. I looked at them, unable to hold in my smile as I had it plastered on my face widely, and of course, they escorted me.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on me, or should I say fixed on them because they looked like they were made out of a perfect image. Nothing about them looked flawed or looked bad. They were all so flawless. And I was just there, their stepsister. So small and so average. So definitely, all eyes were fixed on them.

As we got into the restaurant, the waiter rushed towards us and took our orders. Of course, I ordered something simple because I was still scared from the food poisoning. Even though I knew nobody here would want to poison me. Just then, someone we were not expecting walked towards our table.