Chapter 59 Chapter 59

Chapter 59 Chapter 59
Stephanie POV

Zaire completely blew me off earlier when that bitch was dancing with Hayden. I thought when we sent him to distract her it would help. But his eyes never leave her no matter where she is.
Even when Aliza stepped directly in front of Kieran and I tried talking to Zaire, he barely looked at me. His attention stayed over my shoulder the entire time, following Kaelani around the party like the rest of us weren't even there.
It’s so infuriating.
What the hell is so special about her?
She hasn't even been interested in them that long. Half the time she acts like she doesn't know what she wants, yet all three of them follow her around like she's the only girl they've ever seen.
I liked Zaire way before he came to the school. He flirted with me at his pack, even made out with me. I’ve seen him at social events, but when I seen he was coming to our school, I knew I finally had my chance.
We already had history. I wasn't some random girl trying to get his attention after he showed up. I knew him before Kaelani suddenly became the center of everybody's fucking world.
He fucking slept with me one time and brushed me off as if it meant nothing.
“Maybe it meant more to you than it did him,” Ruby, my wolf, says.
My jaw tightens.
“I don’t want to believe that.”
Because if I believe that, then I have to accept that all those little moments I kept replaying meant absolutely nothing to him. That I was just another girl he flirted with, kissed, slept with, and moved on from.
Then Kaelani comes along and suddenly he can't even look away from her.
No.
I'm not accepting that.
I notice that Zaire wears a bracelet on his wrist. It never comes off. It looks homemade, so it must be important to him.
I've seen it enough times to know it isn't something he switches out with his clothes either. No matter what he's wearing, that bracelet is always there.
If the witch needs something belonging to him, something important has to be better than some random shirt or towel.
I don’t even know why I’m doing this.
Lena said consequences.
What kind?
That's the part that keeps bothering me. She didn't say what would happen, only that once we did this, we couldn't go back.
“Then don't do it,” Ruby says.
I ignore her.
Across the yard, Kaelani walks toward the pool with Zaire, Kieran, and Liam not far behind her.
I watch him when they make their way to the pool, and he takes off the bracelet.
My heart beats a little faster.
There.
He sets it on top of his shirt before heading toward the water.
For a second, I don't move.
“Stephanie.”
“I know.”
“Then leave it.”
I look toward the pool. Zaire's attention is completely on Kaelani again. Everyone else's attention seems to be there too as more people start getting into the water.
Nobody is watching me.
While they’re all occupied with the pool, I sneak over and snatch it off his shirt.
The moment my hand comes in contact with the bracelet, a small shock runs through my hand.
I jerk my fingers back and nearly drop it.
What was that?
I stare down at the bracelet in my palm. Nothing about it looks different. It's still the same handmade bracelet I've seen around his wrist a hundred times.
“Something is wrong with it,” Ruby says immediately.
“It's a bracelet.”
“Then why did it shock us?”
I guess that was static from the bracelet.
Even as I tell myself that, something about the explanation doesn't sit right.
But I close my fingers around it anyway and slip it away before somebody notices me standing beside Zaire's things.
I walk back toward Aliza.
“Did you get something?” Aliza asks.
“Yeah, I got his bracelet.”
Her eyes immediately drop toward my closed hand.
She smiles. “Good. Now tomorrow after school, we go to the witch.”
There it is again.
For some reason, my stomach drops.
Yesterday, going to the witch sounded like a solution. Now that I'm actually holding something I stole from Zaire so a dark witch can use it in a spell, everything suddenly feels a lot more real.
“Give it back,” Ruby says.
I look toward the pool.
Zaire is there with Kaelani. Of course he is.
I know this is wrong, but I’m still going to do it.
I want him to look at me the way he looks at her.
“We will have that with our mate,” Ruby says.
“He’s not here. Zaire is, and I want him.”
Ruby goes quiet, and somehow her silence feels worse than when she was arguing with me.
I tighten my hand around the bracelet.
Tomorrow, he becomes mine.

Felix POV

I leave the pool party not too long after I talked to Kaelani.
I probably could've stayed. She invited me to hang out with them at Mitzy's, and for the first time it felt like I was actually making progress. But the longer I stayed, the more questions I knew I'd want to ask.
And Kaelani is already watching me.
I really only went to talk to her.
“You had more questions,” Luther says.
I shove my hands into my pockets as I walk.
He’s right, but I didn’t want her to be suspicious of me.
She already called me out for asking Caelum questions about her. If I started asking what kind of witch she is, where her magic comes from, or why symbols appear on her body, she'd know something was up.
“She’s nice,” he says.
“I know.”
That's actually making this harder.
Dad talks about getting close to her like she's some assignment, but she doesn't feel like one when I'm actually around her. She's funny, easy to talk to, and despite everything strange happening around her, she didn't have to tell me anything tonight.
But she did.
The moment I walk into the pack house, my father is waiting in the foyer.
I barely get through the door before his attention snaps toward me.
“Was she there?” he asks.
No hello. No asking how the party went. Straight to Kaelani.
“Yes, Dad, she was.”
“Okay, what did you find out?”
Luther shifts uneasily in the back of my mind.
“She confirmed that she was a witch.”
Dad's entire attention sharpens.
“Okay, what kind of witch? There are different ranks of witches. Different types of witches.”
I stare at him.
He doesn't sound surprised that she's a witch at all.
“I don’t know, Dad. She didn’t say.”
His jaw tightens slightly.
“Well, what else did you find out?”
I hesitate.
Kaelani trusted me enough to answer my question. For some reason, standing here repeating everything to my father suddenly feels wrong.
But he's my dad.
“When she was losing control of her magic, her entire body glows with symbols,” I say.
His eyes light up with excitement.
“You shouldn’t have told him that,” Luther says.
The thought hits me almost immediately too.
Why the hell does he look happy about that?
“Good. She’s powerful. Only high-level witches have symbols on their bodies.” He begins pacing slowly, like he's putting pieces together in his head. “It might be her,” he says more to himself than to me.
My stomach tightens.
Her?
So there is someone he's looking for.
He spins around.
“Okay, I need you to get close to her, earn her trust, and tell me everything. I need to know if it’s her.”
“Who, Dad?” I ask, my heart pounding in my chest.
His expression changes for just a second.
Enough for me to know I asked something he didn't want me asking.
He waves me off.
“That shouldn’t concern you. Just do as I say.” Then, like he didn't just make everything ten times more suspicious, he smiles. “Good job, son.”
He strolls off down the hall.
I don't move.
His footsteps fade, but I keep staring after him.
“I don’t like the way he reacted to that information,” Luther says.
“Me either.”
Especially the symbols.
Dad didn't ask what they looked like. He didn't ask whether I was sure they were magical. He immediately knew they meant she was powerful.
And then there was what he said.
It might be her.
Her who?
“But he’s our father. I can’t just disobey him,” I say, walking toward my room.
“That doesn't mean we have to tell him everything.”
My steps slow.
For once, I don't have an answer for Luther.
Something tells me whatever has my dad so interested in Kaelani, it can’t be good.
And now I'm stuck in the middle of it.