Fifty Shades of Grey Can't Hold a Candle to This Book novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Under the Bleachers

Without her coffee, the hallway steps aside for her, and Cade corners her and the alpha announces a banquet.

I did not sleep that night.

I lay on my back and listened to the cabin.

I could hear the mice in the wall and my mother breathing.

I could hear an owl half a mile off.

I had never heard any of it before.

"You're loud," I told my wolf.

"You're slow," she said. "We've been asleep for years."

She had a dry, bossy voice, and I decided I liked her.

At five o'clock my mother poured my coffee and slid the mug across the table.

"Thermos today," I said. "I'll drink it on the bus."

"You'll drink it here."

"I'm going to be late again, Mom."

She pressed her lips together and filled the thermos.

I screwed the lid on and watched her face.

She was watching me back, and she looked tired in a way I had never noticed.

On the bus I poured the whole thing out the window.

The first thing I noticed at school was the quiet.

People always went silent when I walked in, but this was a different silence.

Two juniors pressed against the lockers to let me pass.

A boy from the wrestling team lowered his eyes without being asked.

I could hear their hearts speed up as I went by.

"What did you do to them?" I whispered.

"Nothing," my wolf said, pleased. "We just woke up."

Melody was at my locker again, but she stopped three steps away.

Her wrist was wrapped in a bandage.

Her friends stood behind her now, not beside her.

"You think you're something now," she said. "Because you grabbed me in front of everybody."

"I think you should leave me alone."

"Or what?"

I did not know. I looked at her, and she was the first to look away.

She walked off fast with her friends hurrying after her.

I got through English, and then a history quiz I could actually follow. My head was clear for the first time in my life.

Gym was the last period of the day.

I was putting the equipment cart away behind the bleachers.

A hand closed around my arm and pulled me into the shade.

It was Cade.

He let go as soon as I turned and stepped back.

"Stay still," he said. "I need two minutes."

"You had your two minutes yesterday. You used them on the whole school."

His mouth tightened. "I know what I said."

"Good. Then you know it was a lie, and you said it anyway."

He shoved a hand through his hair. Under the beard, a muscle jumped in his jaw.

"My father chose my mate when I was twelve," he said. "Melody Kensley. The beta's daughter. He signed it in front of the pack."

"That's not an answer."

"It's the only one I have."

"Then you should have told me quietly." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "You didn't have to do it where she could hit me."

His eyes dropped to my cheek. There was no mark left on it, but he looked at the place for a long time.

"I told her to stop," he said.

"After."

"I know."

Neither of us said anything.

He was standing too close.

I could smell cinnamon and pine on his skin, strong enough to taste.

My wolf pushed hard against my ribs.

"You smell different today," he said roughly. "Stronger. What did you do?"

"I woke up."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you can go back to your girlfriend now."

I tried to walk around him, and he put his arm across the gap, not touching me, only blocking.

"Don't go near the pack house this week," he said. "Don't go to my father's table. Stay out of his sight."

"My mother runs his kitchen. I work there every morning."

"Then work in the back."

"Why?"

He did not answer. A muscle moved in his jaw again.

"Cade." I said his name for the first time, and I saw him flinch at it. "Why?"

Before he could say anything, a whistle blew across the field, and he stepped back and was gone around the bleachers.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and then it buzzed again. Every phone in the gym was buzzing.

The pack's group message had come from the alpha himself.

Melody found me at the doors and held her screen up to my face.

She was smiling for the first time all day.

"Read it," she said. "Read it out loud."

I read it.

The pack's graduation banquet was moved up to the Saturday after graduation. Every graduate would be honored. And the alpha would name his son's future Luna in front of the whole pack that night.

"All omegas serve," Melody said. "Your mom already said yes for you."

She tapped the last line with her bandaged hand.

Orla Harrow will pour at the head table.

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