by Regan Ure
I yawned when my snooze time ran out and my alarm began to buzz again. I sat up and rubbed my face. I’d set my alarm for earlier than normal so I would have the extra time to get my schedule and find my locker.
I kept promising myself once school was finished, I’d make sure I never had to wake up early again.
Unlike most girls my age, I wasn’t interested in fashion and what the latest trend was. I dressed in what I liked irrespective of whether it was considered fashionable or not.
I pulled on a pair of black hipster jeans and a button-up dark blue shirt, then I finished off my outfit with a pair of black, flat, strappy sandals. The only makeup I wore was some lip-gloss. These days I never bothered with jackets or a jersey because I never got cold anymore.
When my senses had grown stronger, my internal body heat had increased as well.
Gary had suggested I get some tests run to discover why I’d suddenly developed changes when I’d turned sixteen, but I’d refused. Physically, I felt fine. I didn’t see any reason to get tests done, and I’d learned to live with the new changes in my body.
The smell of fresh coffee caught me as I descended the stairs and I followed it into the kitchen. Most mornings I couldn’t function until I had my first cup of coffee.
“You’re up,” I heard Gary say as I entered the room.
“Yeah, I’m up,” I muttered as I went straight for the coffee. I poured some of it into a cup and took a sip.
“Mmm,” I murmured as I took another sip and felt the caffeine begin to take effect in my body. Gary just shook his head at me and laughed. He knew better than to try and interact with me before I finished my first cup.
“Are you taking your new car or do you want the driver to take you to school?” Gary asked, sitting at the kitchen table as I finished my coffee.
“I’m taking my new baby,” I answered.
“I’ve installed a tracker on the car,” he notified me. I nodded my head. It was something I was used to and it was his way of keeping me safe. If I let him put a tracker on the vehicle I was using, then he wouldn’t have to send a bodyguard with me. There was no way I was going to school with a massive bodyguard following me around. If Gary could, he’d keep me locked up at home. I wasn’t going to live my life in fear of what could happen, though.
My parents’ deaths had been tragic, but there was no proof that their murderers were out to get me, too.
I was running late so I skipped breakfast and I grabbed a protein bar, which I shoved into my school bag.
I bent down and gave Gary a quick kiss on his cheek.
“I’ll see you later,” I said as I dashed out of the kitchen.
My new baby was parked in the driveway, ready for me, when I opened the front door. Gary knew me too well, so he’d made sure she was parked outside for me.
I got into the car and programmed the address of the school into the car’s GPS. I hummed along to the song on the radio as I started the drive to my new school for the next year.
The parking lot of the school was starting to fill up when I pulled in. I found a parking space in the front row of the parking lot. I grabbed my schoolbag and got out of the car.
As I walked away, I pressed a button on the remote of the car and I heard the door click closed. There weren’t many students at school yet but I did get a couple of curious looks as I made my way to the entrance.
The school wasn’t exactly as big as the schools I’d been used to. It was a fair size, but I wasn’t in the city anymore and the thick forest that surrounded the school reminded me of that.
The single-story brick building with large windows had a sign above the entrance that read “Parkland High School”. A large double entrance to the school was preceded with a small set of stairs that led straight to parking.
Once I entered the school, I passed a couple of students. A smell hit me and I faltered for a minute, trying to figure out what the smell was. It smelled like fresh rain.
Two students standing close by turned to look at me with curiosity as I pushed myself past the smell to the reception room. Behind the counter in reception sat an old, plump lady with a pair of glasses on the edge of her nose.
“Hi,” I greeted her.
“Hello,” she greeted me back with a warm smile. “How can I help you?”
“I’m a new student and I’ve come to collect my schedule and locker number,” I answered.
“What’s your name, dear?” she asked as she began to sift through some of the papers on her desk.
“Scarlett Hayes.”
“Here you go,” she said as she handed me my schedule. On the top of the sheet was my locker number and she also handed me a map of the school.
“Thank you,” I said with a friendly smile as I walked out of reception and began the hunt for my locker.
I rotated the map around a couple of times, trying to figure out which direction I was headed in. Someone had told me once that women were supposed to be good at reading maps, but I wasn’t convinced that was true.
After twenty minutes, I was still walking up and down the hallways trying to find my stupid locker. That distinctive smell that had hit me when I first entered the school seemed to be all over this place. I couldn’t explain why. Fresh rain intermingled with the distinctive smell of a forest.
The strange smells kept hitting my nostrils randomly as I walked around, trying to find my locker.
“Do you need some help?” I heard a voice ask, taking me by surprise.
“You scared me,” I said as I tried to catch my breath. My heart hammered in my chest.
“Sorry,” the stranger said, standing in front of me and watching me with amusement. He was a good-looking guy.
He was a little taller than me. His light brown hair was long enough to fall across his green eyes as he studied me with a smile.
Yeah, scratch that. The confidence this guy oozed kicked him up a level to gorgeous. His confidence also screamed player, which was the type I avoided at all costs. Players were normally male whores who thought they were God’s gift to women.
The distinct smell of a forest hit me again as he stepped closer to me and took the map from my hands.
“What are you looking for?” he asked as he studied the map and his eyes flickered back to me.
“My locker,” I mumbled. I wasn’t used to asking for help; in fact, I hated it. I normally persevered until I figured it out on my own.
“I’ll show you where it is,” he offered as he folded the map and handed it back to me.
“Sure,” I forced myself to say. I’d wasted enough time looking for my stupid locker and, as much as I hated help, I didn’t want to spend the next twenty minutes still searching for it.
“I’m Blake,” the stranger offered as he headed down the hallway and I followed behind him. A couple of the students turned to stare at the two of us as we walked past.
“Scarlett,” I muttered.
“So where did you move from?” he said, trying to start up a conversation, but I wasn’t interested in small talk.
“None of your business,” I shot back. I wasn’t one to open up to strangers.
“Aren’t you just a nice warm teddy bear,” he teased with a devilish smile and I just glared at him.
“Here’s your locker,” he said as he pointed to it. It was a dull gray color and had seen better days.
“Thanks,” I muttered as I stepped around him to my locker and opened it.
“You’re welcome, Scarlett. See you around,” he said as he began to walk away from me and hitched his schoolbag over his shoulder.
“Not if I can help it,” I muttered under my breath as I shoved a couple of my schoolbooks into my locker.
“I heard you,” Blake chuckled, almost halfway down the hallway already. Geez, he had good hearing. It was nearly as good as mine.
I didn’t have a lot of experience with guys. My straight black hair reached my shoulders and my eyes were a silver-gray color that darkened when I was angry. With a
ll the working out I did, I was slender, and I wasn’t really tall or short.
I’d had plenty of guys try asking me out, but my life had been too busy with training and taking over my responsibilities of my inheritance to do the usual teenage dating thing.
I wanted to have the type of love my parents had shared. I remembered the way my parents used to look at each other. One day I wanted to find someone to look at me that way.
In the meantime, I was going to finish school and then decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
I closed my locker and opened my schedule to see what and where my first class was.
As I tried to hunt down my first class for the day, I noticed the unusual looks I was getting from the other students as I walked down the hallway.
Being the new girl, I expected some curious looks, but the students who glanced in my direction looked at me with a watchfulness I’d never encountered before.
It was almost like they were wary of me. I shook my head. Perhaps I was imagining it. It didn’t make sense—why would they be wary of me?
I ignored their watchful gazes and held my head high. I walked confidently into my first class of the day, taking a seat nearest to the window.
Students began filtering into the class as I flipped through my textbook. When my eyes drifted to the doorway of the classroom, I saw two male students watching me closely just a couple of feet from the door.
I didn’t know what it was about this school, but most of the guys were gorgeous and well-built. Maybe there was something in the water.
The one with short blond hair crossed his arms over his chest as he watched me with open hostility. I was not one to be intimidated, so I glared back at him.
My response must have been unexpected because instantly the hostility vanished and he smiled at me. The guy next to him with the dark auburn hair let his eyes glance between the two of us before his eyes settled back on me. There wasn’t any animosity in his eyes; he acted more curious than anything else.
My attention was pulled away from them when the teacher walked into the classroom and began the lesson. Thankfully the teacher wasn’t interested in making me stand up and make a little speech about myself to the class. I was relieved.
I ignored the eyes that I could feel watching me and paid attention to the teacher. I was here to learn and pass my senior year. I wasn’t here to worry about why most of the school population was watching me like I was going to try and attack them at any moment.
In my next class, Blake walked in to the room and when he spotted me he smiled and shook his head.
I narrowed my eyes at him as he walked over to the empty desk beside me and dropped down into the seat.
Was there no escaping this guy? He seemed to be everywhere and it was starting to annoy me.
“Miss me?” he asked with a smirk.
“I can’t miss you if you won’t go away,” I retorted and he laughed.
“Cade is going to love you,” he murmured to himself with a grin and I rolled my eyes at him. I had no idea who he was talking about and I didn’t care.
“What pack did you belong to?” he asked under his breath.
Pack?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, slowly but surely losing my patience with him.
He studied me for a moment, looking a little shocked as he leaned forward in his seat.
“You really have no idea, do you?” he asked softly.
“Did you forget to take your medication today?” I asked, studying him with faked concern and he laughed.
“I can’t wait for Cade to meet you,” he murmured to himself, clearly enjoying his private joke. He made absolutely no sense to me.
I made a point of turning slightly away from him, signaling to him I was done with the conversation.
For the rest of the lesson, Blake watched me quietly but didn’t talk to me again. Even after the lesson ended and I stuffed my books into my bag and walked out of the class, he remained seated, watching me with a grin.
I had to force myself to leave before I turned around and wiped that grin from his face with my fist. He was so annoying and the majority of what he’d said didn’t make a lot of sense.
At my locker, I leaned my head against the cool surface and took a deep breath to get my temper under control.
Between the strange looks, weird smells and Blake’s odd conversation, I was so confused. There wasn’t much that was making sense at the moment.
I took another deep breath before I straightened up as I felt my anger begin to subside. I opened my locker and took a book out before I closed it with a bang.
After another pep talk with myself, I made my way to my next class. I could do this.
By lunchtime I still had no answers to all the strange things I was noticing. I got myself some lunch and made my way to an open table in the middle of the cafeteria.
The strange smells that I’d smelled from the time I’d walked through the school entrance this morning hit me full force as I sat down at the table.
The distinct forest, woodsy smell came from the group that Blake sat with and the fresh-rain smell came from another group sitting on the other side of me. How was that possible that all the people in the specific group all smelled the same?
That was odd.
As my eyes connected with Blake, he smiled and waved at me. I ignored him and began to eat my sandwich.
I wondered how long it would take to get a restraining order against Blake? All it would take would be a phone call to one of my lawyers. I was really tempted.
“Can I join you?” a soft-spoken voice asked. I looked up to see a pretty girl with long blond hair that nearly reached her waist and wide, expressive blue eyes flashing me a friendly smile. She was dressed in a denim miniskirt and a white button-up shirt.
“Sure,” I said and she sat down opposite me, sliding her tray onto the table.
“My name’s Keri,” she told me before beginning to eat.
“I’m Scarlett,” I replied, and then took a sip of my diet soda.
Surprisingly, I liked Keri. There was something about her that just clicked with me.
“It sucks being the new girl, doesn’t it?” she said as she opened her soda.
“Yeah, it does.”
“I was in your shoes not so long ago,” she told me. “I started a couple of months before last year ended.”
We had something in common to bond over and I liked her even more.
“This school is a little strange. Most of the students seem to be divided up into two groups. Blake Stevens is head of the one group and Cade Presley seems to be in charge of the other group,” she said as she inclined her head to the two different groups on either side of us. “They don’t really mix and they’re not really friendly to students outside their groups.”
She’d just summed up the strange things I’d noticed so far.
“I met Blake,” I revealed, to which she raised her eyebrows at me.
“He spoke to you?” she asked, sounding surprised.
“Yes, he showed me where my locker was this morning,” I answered with a shrug. I didn’t know what the big deal was.
“Wow, he never speaks to anyone outside of his group.”
“You’re not missing anything. He’s just annoying and he really didn’t make much sense.” I was still toying with the idea of getting a restraining order.
By the end of lunch, I decided I liked Keri. She was very direct and straight to the point—no beating around the bush. It was like whatever popped up in her mind came straight out her mouth. Most people would be offended by it, but I thought it was charming.
CHAPTER THREE
Scarlett
The rest of my first day at school went by quickly. Most of the students still watched me warily and every time I saw Blake he would grin and shake his head at me. He was really annoying me.
By the time the end-of-school bell rang, I was ready to leave. I’d had enough and if I sa
w Blake once more I wouldn’t be responsible for my actions.
I made a quick stop at my locker before walking back out into the parking lot.
When I saw my new car parked in the parking lot, I felt a calmness settle in me at the thought of driving my baby home. I really needed it after the day I’d had.
I adjusted the strap of my school bag over my shoulder as my eyes met a set of stunning blue eyes. For a moment I stopped and took in the sight in front of me.
If Blake was a gorgeous, confident male whore, then this guy was sinfully stunning and the king of all male whores. He oozed sex appeal and an air of confidence that commanded attention. Immediately, I knew he was the leader of the other group, Cade Presley. I felt an air of authority around him and the only other person I felt that around was Blake.
I recognized him as the driver of the red Porsche I’d raced and I felt a smug smile tug at my lips as I held his gaze.
His hair was black like mine, although his was short on the sides and had a longer section on top that fell across his forehead. When his deep piercing turquoise eyes settled on me, I felt my body shiver at the intensity of it. Butterflies began to flutter in my stomach as I held his gaze.
I didn’t have to know him to be able to tell that he was dangerous and ruthless. It was something I could sense.
Even dressed in a plain white shirt and faded jeans, he was gorgeous and looked ready for a photo shoot. It should be against the law for someone to be that good-looking; he was lethal.
I reminded myself that hot guys normally knew it and carried around an ego to match. He might look good on the outside, but I’d bet money he was not so good on the inside.
He was leaning against the side of his red Porsche.
I wouldn’t let him intimidate me so I held my head high as I confidently walked toward my car. There were a couple of girls surrounding him, vying for his attention, but his eyes were fixed on me.
I watched as his eyes widened in surprise when I opened the door to the Maserati. The girls who were trying to engage him in conversation realized that his attention wasn’t on them anymore and when they noticed that he was staring at me, they crossed their arms over their chests and glared at me.
