Chapter Twelve

“A lright, class is over. Pack up.” The instructor yells, and I realise I completely forgot we were in class.

“What’s next?” I ask as we make our way toward the changing rooms.

“Dinner,” Loki grins with an excited skip in his step.

With a start, I realise that I’m feeling hungry, which is a strange new development that I haven’t actually felt properly for years; thanks to the regular bouts of starvation that my father put me through, my body got so used to being permanently starved that I just didn’t feel hunger like ordinary people would. I think that because I’ve been eating regularly during my stay here so far, it’s starting to bring my body's natural instincts back online.

Which is great, except it means it’s going to be so much harder and more painful to get my body used to not eating again when my father inevitably summons me back to the estate.

“We’ll wait for you out here, Farren.” Loki smiles gently, and I nod, splitting off from them to go into the female changing room.

“I’ll meet you guys in the dining hall; I’ve got to do something first.” I hear Storm say to the guys.

I can’t help but look over my shoulder at them and see Storm with a purely devilish smirk on his face. It almost knocks the breath out of me. His face completely changes from cold and stoic to distractingly handsome.

“Don’t, Storm,” Rival warns seriously, and Storm’s expression turns into his usual glare.

I know I’m not going to want to deal with whatever comes out of his mouth next, so I carry on through the door to the changing room, my mind switching back to food. Fortunately, for me at least, there are very few female students in our combat class, and the few that are in our class are as content to ignore me as I am them, which means I don’t have to try and make small talk or offend them when I simply ignore their attempts at conversation.

By the time I get back out into the hallway, the guys are all there waiting, minus Storm, but none of them look too happy. Whatever Storm is off doing, they clearly don’t approve of; however, I’m not curious enough to ask.

“Let’s go eat. I’m fucking starving.” Loki wines, grabbing my hand and threading his fingers through mine as he starts to pull me along.

My eyes dart from his hand wrapped around mine and back up to the side of his face repeatedly until the corner of his lips tilt up slightly, and I can tell that he’s aware of my confusion. Instead of saying anything though, he just starts to rub his thumb over the back of my hand gently, the gesture is soothing, and I find myself liking it.

The hallways are packed with students and teachers all rushing to the dining hall to get their food, and I don’t miss the eyes that land on us, giving us a wide berth. Well, I say us, but really it's them. If I were walking through this hallway by myself, I’d very quickly be swamped and most likely knocked over. There’s an air about the guys though, even when they’re relaxed like they are now, that people just instinctively avoid.

It's not until we’re in the dining hall seated and waiting for the food to arrive that Storm finally waltzes into the room. I want to say that I wasn’t acutely aware that he wasn’t here, but that would be an outright lie, and the more often I looked towards the door to see if he’d arrived, the deeper the concern etched into the other's faces. I’m probably making it obvious that I have some kind of feelings for him, which makes absolutely no fucking sense because he's an absolute arsehole who clearly views me as lower than shit on his bloody boot. I, however, never claimed that it made sense for me to feel something for him. In fact, I’m not even entirely sure what I feel for him. I do know that I have feelings edging towards like for the others and absolutely lust.

I’d challenge anyone not to have lusty thoughts about these fuckers though they’re all power and deliciousness.

Despite myself, I start to smile slightly at Storm until my eyes move away from his face to land on the women he has under each arm, both tall, slim, blond and the complete opposite of me.

Not that it should matter.

A spear of white-hot jealousy rages through me and leaves a sick, bubbling mess in my stomach in its wake. Before Storm can catch me looking at him and decipher the look on my face, I turn back to the table, keeping my eyes down. I’m not willing to look at any of the others in case they can see the irrational jealousy and hurt that I'm currently fighting to push down.

I have no idea why I feel like this. I have no claim over him. He’s never even hinted that he likes me in any way. I shouldn’t be feeling like this, feeling like I’m watching someone who really means something to me, someone who I’ve known for years, not just a few days, go out of their way to hurt me. It feels like a betrayal, and it makes no fucking sense.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Kill growls, his voice low and his horns sparking blue.

“I’ll join you,” Loki adds.

I realise that in my focus on pushing away what I’m feeling, I completely forgot to close down the lines that are connecting me to Killian and Loki, which means they can feel everything I’m feeling and now, on top of all that, I’m fucking mortified too.

There’s no fucking way that I’m looking up from this table now. It’s okay; it’s a lovely table; now even my thoughts are hysterical, awesome.

“I’ve been working on some new ways to use my air magic, and I could use a test subject.” Rival adds to their conversation, his voice Void of any hesitation.

“I could try out that new use for water on him,” Mayhem responds gleefully.

“I’ll eat him.” Reaper's voice rumbles darkly, and at that my eyes snap up to stare at him to clarify that he’s being deadly serious and then quickly dart back down to my new bestie, the table.

What the fuck kind of supernatural is he that he can so casually mention just eating someone and be fucking serious about it!

One of the others snorts at Reaper's contribution, but none of them tries to dissuade him, and the hurt is soothed slightly. It's kind of nice that they all want to protect my feelings. Embarrassing that they can see it’s affected me so much though.

The murderous conversation gets interrupted as the plates of food arrive and are put down in front of us. I immediately pick up my fork and start eating despite the fact that I’m now no longer hungry. I will never waste food. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Storm take his regular seat next to Loki, and one of the women pulls up a chair next to him while the other just plops her ample arse in his lap.

Yey, they’re eating with us, so lovely to have company.

I resolutely focus on eating my food, or at least I try to, but the noises and giggles coming from Storm’s end of the table are distracting, to say the least. I can feel his eyes on me occasionally, almost like he’s waiting to see how I’d react, and I get the sinking feeling that maybe he’s noticed that I’ve started to feel something for him and has decided to show me in no uncertain terms that he’s not interested in me. The louder they get, the more the others try to engage me in conversation, and I start to get annoyed with myself that I’m practically hiding because he’s fucking hurt my feelings, feelings that I shouldn’t have. Yeah, fuck no to that!

So the next time one of the guys tries to engage me, I lift my head with a convincing smile and reply like nothing’s wrong because it shouldn’t be. Maybe I’m just hungry; yeah, I bet that’s where all these emotions have come from; it’s hunger.

If I had any doubt that Storm was trying to get some sort of reaction out of me, it’s immediately blown out of the water when he interrupts my conversation with Loki.

“Are you okay, Princess?” he sneers before tightening his arms around the woman sitting on his lap and giving me a vicious smile. “You look like something is bothering you.”

The others tense, and I swear I hear one of them growl, but I beam back at Storm, “Aww, Stormy, that’s so fucking cute that you care so much that you noticed. I think I was just hungry though. We spent a long afternoon getting all hot and sweaty. I really worked up an appetite.” My overly sweet voice ends with a sharp grin as his face turns from smug to calculating within seconds. I swear I see a flash of disappointment darken his eyes before he hides it again.

Loki lets out a bark of laughter at my words and what I’m clearly implying, and Reaper coughs to cover his own laugh while Rival and Mayhem just watch on, amused.

“You were with her this afternoon?” the woman on his lap asks, a disgusted curl to her lip as she looks me over.

“She’s ugly,” the other one adds in, and I roll my eyes at her unoriginal insult as I continue shovelling food into my mouth. I’m ready to get out of here now.

I watch in fascination as Storm’s eyes darken with shadows, and they start to form around his wrists.

Smirking, I say, “Don’t worry, it wasn’t just him. I got hot and sweaty with all of my team.” I take my time to look over Storm, making my perusal evident before I add, “I’m sure he’s got some stamina left for you two.”

Mayhem chokes on a bit of food as Loki turns his wide eyes to me, and Kill leans back in his chair, smiling smugly.

“I’m more than happy to get all hot and sweaty with you again, Darlin’,” Kill offers and receives a dark look from his brother.

“I certainly wouldn’t turn down a second round,” Loki adds, playing along.

Rival shrugs nonchalantly, “I could work out some more tension.”

Reaper surprises me further as he meets my eyes and winks before saying loudly, “Same, and I can either fight or fuck, so getting hot and sweaty works for me.”

I practically choke on my own spit, and the inferno he’s created in my underwear from the image his words created practically incinerates my underwear. Well, fuck me, yes, please. Wait, actually, no, I’m not going to take that back. There’s no fucking denying I’d love to ride the mysterious supernatural.

Storm’s eyes practically bulge out of his head, as an orange spark lights his horns, “What the fuc . . .”

“So she’s a slut too. It makes sense. I mean no one would do her unless she was easy anyway.” The women giggle together, and the teasing air that was surrounding the rest of us sours.

I sigh heavily and shove the last bite of food on my plate into my mouth, “And that’s when I take my leave. Fuck you both.”

I grin as I get up and walk away, hearing the tell-tale scrape of chairs as someone else gets up as well.

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Loki says as he reaches my side, anger simmering in his eyes.

“Yeah, you can’t leave without grabbing something from the dessert table.” Rival grins as he grabs my arm and gently steers me towards the table in question.

I glance around at all of them surrounding me and then back at the table where Storm’s eyes are glued to us despite the wandering hands of the two women who are trying to entertain him.

My heart warms. I grin and thread my arm through Rival’s. “No, how could I forget dessert?”

“Don’t listen to them. Even if we had been doing what you were implying, it’s none of their fucking business, and poly relationships are or at least were the norm for supernaturals until recently.” Reaper tries to reassure me sweetly.

“Thank you, I know all that, and it didn’t really bother me. I don’t really care what either of them thinks about me.” I reply honestly. I don’t, I do care about what Storm thinks of me though, and I hate it, which is why I add, “can we take the desserts up to the room, though? I don’t fancy sitting back down and being insulted.”

Loki wraps his arm around my shoulders, and his lips brush the top of my head, sending butterflies soaring through my stomach, “Of course, we can even put a movie on.”

“Thanks,” I reply simply, their kindness and consideration is still a shock to me. “Could we watch Notting Hill from the Earth Realm? I love that one and how they use some of our sayings.”

I’m suddenly pulled into a very enthusiastic hug courtesy of Loki, “Yes! That’s one of my favourites, and the fuckers don’t let me watch it very often!”

Mayhem rolls his eyes with a smirk, “You watched it on repeat for a week. We had to limit you.”

Loki’s grin widens, but he stays silent, a happy bounce in his step as he moves over to the dessert table, apparently in a rush now that the film has been chosen. His whole demeanour makes a soft smile tug at the corner of my lips.

“I’ll be back in a minute; grab a dessert for me, Darling?” Killian asks me, and I nod.

He turns on his heel and a fierce look descending across his face as he starts to make his way back to Storm and the women. A quick glance at the others reveals the grim satisfaction contorting them.

“Do I want to know?” I ask, turning to the table and loading up a tray with everything that looks good. Over the past few days, I have learned that I have a major sweet tooth. Besides, in the movies, when people get sad, they eat desserts and comfort food, so I assume it’ll make me feel better.

“He’s just going to have a word, nothing to worry about,” Loki answers with his usual light-heartedness. “Come on, let’s take this up to the room and watch our favourite film.”

As I turn to follow the others, my eyes land on the long table at the front of the hall where the teachers usually eat, and something about it strikes me as odd. I pause in my steps and frown as I realise what strikes me as strange.

“Guys,” I call out, making them all pause and turn back to me. “The Headmaster and half of the teachers are missing, and look at the expressions of those who are here.”

Instead of questioning what I’m talking about, they all turn in the direction of the teacher's dining table and observe them.

“None of them has touched their food,” Mayhem points out with a frown.

“And they all look on edge. They’ve got the sound-dampening spell around them to stop our noise from bothering them and their conversations being heard like normal. However, they’re still bending their heads together and darting their eyes around like they’re worried about being overheard,” Rival adds, looking over them with a critical and curious eye.

“Do you think it has got something to do with whatever Zev had to see the Headmaster about?” Reaper asks.

“Without a doubt,” Killian replies, joining the conversation and obviously hearing enough that he knows what we’re talking about.

“I have a feeling that shits about to hit the fan,” Loki mutters, and we all hum in agreement.

Killian takes the tray of desserts off of me and holds it with one hand as he reaches out with his other hand and threads his fingers through mine. He gently pulls me away from the dining hall, the others following as he leads me back up to the room.

As soon as we push through the door, Loki makes a mad dash for his room, and I look at the others curiously.

“Where’s he off to in such a hurry? I thought he wanted to watch the film?”

“He’s going to put pyjamas on. You can’t watch a film and eat your weight in desserts in normal clothes.” Rival grins, starting towards his own room.

I realise that they’re all going to get changed, and I feel the familiar rise of anxiety. I pull my hand from Killian’s and start twirling one of my rings in a nervous gesture.

“Are you all going to put pyjamas on?” I ask. My voice is more timid than I like.

Rival pauses in his doorway and turns around, frowning when he catches whatever look is currently on my face, “We normally do, but we don’t have to if it makes you uncomfortable. That’s the last thing we’d want to do.”

My anxiety recedes a small amount at his gentle tone and the easy acceptance to make me feel better.

I can do this. I can tell them what’s really wrong. Despite not knowing them for very long, I trust them, surprisingly. I feel the nudge of Poca’s head against my stomach; he always appears when my anxiety starts to rise. I reach out my hand and run it through the reassuring warmth of his fur.

“It’s not that, not at all. It’s just, I don’t have pyjamas. My father considered them a luxury I didn’t need when I could just sleep in my clothes.” I shrug.

The anger that pulses through the room is not what I was expecting, and I’m immensely grateful when Loki bounds out of his room, interrupting the silence as he stops in front of me and gives me something else to focus on.

He thrusts a bundle of fabric out towards me, and I grasp it quickly to avoid it all falling on the floor, “Here, I thought you could wear something of mine.”

He knew, and he tried to fix it. My heart melts into a gooey puddle as I stare up at him.