Chapter 24
Jasmine's POV
"Is there a reason why you're staring at Hardin with daggers in your eyes?" Nadia asked me at lunch and even though I shrugged, I hoped that he would look at me and see just how much I was angry at all of the events of the past week.
After the incident in the closet where Hardin had showed me just how he would handle me standing up to him and calling him out on all of his bullshit behaviour to my mother, I had thought that it was the worst thing that could happen.
And that was until Russo travelled a week ago for a Summit in another town.
It should not have been a problem that Russo was leaving for a week.
But the problem was that he was not taking my mother with him, which should have also not been a big deal except the fact that thanks to Hardin, his aunt Lisa who had absolutely no respect for my mother had seen it as an ample opportunity to treat my mother like she was the dirt beneath her feet.
First, it had been subtle, like stylishly calling her a tramp and complaining about her food and then it had moved to her telling the servants to only answer to her since she was the sister of Hardin's mother and she claimed that my mother had no right to be the lady of the house.
The worst part?
My mother had warned me to not retaliate, to not say anything and even though a part of me had somehow expected Hardin to call his aunt to order, I didn't know that he would do absolutely nothing.
Most times, he was there to witness how my mother was embarrassed by his aunt and other times he would walk away.
He had not approached me since the closet incident and I wanted him to know that if he did, it would mean war because this time I was not going to just let him treat me like that without putting up a fight.
Thankfully, Russo had come back last night, as opposed to when he had told us he was coming back and the harassment had ended but I knew that it was not over.
Nadia winced beside me and when I looked at her with my brows raised, she waved me off even though her face was suddenly turned down in a frown.
She held her head with her hands and when I raised my eyebrows in question again, she shook her head and feigned a smile.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked her and she bit her lip, looking like she was not sure whether to tell me or not.
"Tell me." I urged her and she sighed.
"It's the full moon tonight, Jazz. You know how it gets for us."
By us, she meant everyone else that was an actual werewolf. Every goddamn werewolf but me who could only unleash my claws to prove that I was actually supposed to be a werewolf.
Now I understood why she was hesitant to speak about it. She always had a hard time talking about things like this with me because she thought that I would feel bad and even though she was right, that I would feel bad did not mean that it felt good to know that my friend could not confide in me about something that was part and a parcel of her.
I knew what happened to werewolves on the full moon even though I could not turn into one from living with my mother who was an actual werewolf.
Emotions were heightened to a very late degree, they were unable to control their need to shift and by the time the moon was high in the sky, all the wolves would give in to their animal part of them and shift into werewolves.
"See why I didn't want to tell you? You have that sad look on your face again."
I opened my mouth to lie to her, to deny that she was just seeing things when there was a sudden crash that had our eyes turning to where the scene of the crash had happened.
It was Hardin.
He had flung Alex, one of the twins against the wall and a crowd was starting to form around the scene.
"You're going to beat the shit out of me because I asked you to chill out, aren't you?" Alex said with a smirk and Hardin growled, just as Sandro reached for him to hold him.
"You need to relax. You know why this is happening."
"He's going to expose all of us very soon if he isn't careful." Nadia whispered beside me and I nodded.
Hardin on a normal day had enough temperament of about ten people. Add that to the fact that the Alpha wolves were the most affected on a full moon and I knew that his anger was quadrupled.
From the way he looked at Alex, he was capable of bashing his head into the wall.
"Whoa, where are you going?" Nadia asked when I took a step forward. In response, I pointed towards where the fight was happening.
"I'm not going to let him lose his mind here. If he does, we all get to be punished for it. And I won't allow that."
Quickly sending a text to his father and hoping that he could send someone over as soon as possible, I decided to carry out my suicidal plan.
Luckily, I knew someone that annoyed Hardin for the simple crime of just existing.
Me.
"Hey, Hardin, over here." I yelled from where I stood and when Hardin turned around, he was confused for a moment before he frowned.
"I bet you cannot run as fast as you claim to on the lacrosse field with those cloudy eyes of yours. Chase me, you asswipe."
Turning around, I ran out of the cafeteria, knowing that he would follow.
Heading straight out of school into the woods, I gasped for breath, hating that instead of supernatural strength and speed, I was about as weak as a human with wolf nails as accessory.
I didn't make it very far, before he hit me with force, sending me sprawling to the floor and grabbed me by the throat as he pinned me against a tree.
"You're just asking for it, aren't you, Jasmine?" He growled and his eyes glowed while I whimpered, shaking terribly as I wondered what he was going to do.
Because this time, I didn't know if he was going to choose to sexually assault me or just rip out my throat.
His claws scraped my neck and I gasped.
"You need to fight it, Hardin. It's the full moon. It's heightening all of your senses. You know that. Find an anchor. Find something to hold on to so that you can stay in control."
He laughed darkly and his hands tightened on my neck
"And who gave you all of that information? Last I checked you were still horribly human and posing around to be one of us. Or have her eyes started to glow yet? Have you felt your bones cracking as the beast inside you is released. Have you ever run in the wild in your fur? Have you ever shifted? Do you even know what shifting is?"
His hands squeezed my neck tighter and I gasped, losing my breath but I didn't give up.
"You said if you could get rid of me now, you would. So why are you hesitating? Why are you just spending time yapping and talking without any actual real change? Not interested in showing off as a big bad Alpha wolf?" I forced out, my vision already having black spots from the lack of oxygen.
He growled in my face and I whimpered.
"If you think that I've not killed you because I care, you're even more clueless than I thought. I'm not killing you because you're making it too easy for me."
He opened his mouth to say more but all of a sudden, he was flung away from my body. I dropped to the floor, gasping for breath while my eyes widened to see Russo grabbing his son by the shirt and roaring in his face.
I watched as Hardin's eyes stopped glowing and when Russo rushed to where I was, he shook his head in horror.
"Your neck, it's bleeding and there's going to be a bruise."
"I'm okay. I promise." I whispered but he was not looking at me anymore.
Walking to his son, he pulled him up to his feet and pointed at me.
"So what were you planning to do? Kill your own sister?"
"She's not my sister" Hardin whispered and Russo laughed.
"And you are not my son. At least not the son that I want you to be. Of all the kids in there, you are the one that is supposed to have the most control. You have learned about this several times. I have tried to teach you to control your anger, not give in to it. You would have hurt your friends in the cafeteria and then who else? What about the humans in this school that know nothing about us?"
Walking towards me, Russo helped me up and looked at Hardin.
"You think you can be Alpha after me when you cannot even control yourself on a full moon? Think again, Hardin. Think again."
As Russo helped me out of the woods, I turned back to see if Hardin was coming with us but he was gone.
Vanished.
"Where did he go?" I whispered and Russo shrugged.
"To lick his wounds. But I really hope that my words help him wake up."
Nodding, I replied, "I really hope so too."