Chapter 71 Hide and Seek
ADRIANA
As much as it hurt me to do. I stayed away like Elijah had asked me to. Well, commanded me to.
I barely came out of my room for fear of seeing him. The embarrassment that would wash over me would be too much to handle and I didn’t want to experience it.
Leo found his way to me though, and it broke me to have to send him away, saying I was sick and didn’t want him to catch whatever I had.
It was the worst thing, lying to a child who most definitely knew I was lying to him. The look in his eyes told me he saw right through it.
He didn’t even wait for me to come to him anymore. He made his way to my room every single morning and was always the one to wake me up with his gentle touches.
The smile on his face always fell as soon as I told him he should be in bed and not here. If Elijah came and found him here, I would be in serious trouble.
This time around, he didn’t leave peacefully as usual. He took a few steps back and looked at me closely, studying my face.
“Don’t you want to be my friend anymore?” he signed slowly.
“That’s not it at all. It’s just too early for you to be out of bed and your father might not like it if he sees you here at this time.”
He ran out of the room without looking back and I knew he was upset with me.
But it wasn’t my fault. I was only following the instructions of the one who brought me here. If Elijah didn’t like it, he would chase me out and no one would say a thing about it.
In fact, I think they would even be happy about it since they didn’t want me here in the first place, so I had to be very careful about everything I did.
Time for practice came and I made my way downstairs, my muscles stiff from lack of use. I felt like an old hinge that needed oiling. I desperately needed exercise that would loosen me up.
I was already at the entrance when I remembered that Elijah was now always present at our training sessions, watching over everything.
I just hoped he wasn’t here today.
My presence was noticed as I looked up to see that everyone had stopped training and their eyes were fixed on me.
I’m sure they had heard about what happened and that’s why they were staring at me like that, judging me.
My eyes caught movement by the side and I looked at Hazel who seemed to be trying to get my attention urgently.
She pointed to something behind me and I turned around to see Elijah standing right behind me, close enough to touch.
My eyes widened as my heart flew to my mouth. It took me a moment to recover before I moved out of the way quickly.
“I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were standing there.”
He didn’t say anything, just like that night, and he walked past me into the gym without acknowledging me.
“Good morning, Alpha,” everyone chorused in unison.
Or did he know that Leo was sneaking out to see me in the mornings? Was that why he looked so angry?
He quickly gave me a glance before turning around to start addressing the crowd gathered before him.
“We’ll be trying a few new techniques today. Be reminded that you are not going up against normal wolves. These are beings with magical powers who can wipe out an entire pack within seconds as you have all witnessed.”
Practice continued for an hour more and then it was time for our first break at seven am. I picked up my bottle and took a long sip of water until it finished, so I made my way outside to refill before the next session started.
I didn’t see Betty there and I wondered where she could be. She wasn’t the one who served me food last night either.
I refilled my bottle and bumped into someone on my way out. My fear was that it was going to be Elijah, but it wasn’t. It was the last person I wanted to see.
“Oops, it seems like I bumped into some trash today. I might as well go take a bath now.”
I sighed heavily, not exactly in the mood to deal with her nonsense today.
“Hannah, even if you took a thousand baths, you still wouldn’t be able to wash away the ugliness from your face.”
She turned red immediately. It was so easy to get to her.
“You bi—”
I held my hand up to stop her.
“You might want to stop right there. I fear that if you get any angrier, you’ll be so full of garbage that you’ll explode. Oh, my bad. I forgot that everything that comes out of your mouth is garbage anyway, so I don’t think it’ll make any difference. You’re still full of it.”
I added a small smile at the end and started to walk away when I felt her hand wrap around my ponytail and drag me back toward her forcefully.
“How dare you walk away from me?! Do you know how much damage you’ve caused?!”
My mouth was still open in shock at what she had just done.
“Have you lost it? Why would you do something like that?”
She rolled her eyes dramatically.
“Do you think I took such a huge risk for you to prance yourself around here like you own the place?!”
“What madness is this? What the hell are you talking about?!”
Elijah passed just then and he looked at both of us, his eyes darting to her and then me and back to her before finally resting on me.
My heart sank as I noticed that the way he looked at me hadn’t changed at all.
He still had that scornful look in his eyes.
Was he ever going to forgive me?
“You messed up badly, Adriana. Why didn’t you protect my nephew? You put him in so much danger.”
I knew she was lying through her teeth because she didn’t care about Leo at all. She was only talking because she saw Elijah nearby.
“Listen here, you bitch! This is what happens when you mess with me. Next time, if you mess with me, I’ll make sure they end your worthless life. Whore.”