by Mae Doyle
Of course, who was sitting there but Teague? He’d saved me a seat, which the teacher thought was lovely, but I knew was only so he could keep an eye on me. The note that he’d passed me when I first sat down was burning a hole in my pocket.
Loved spending time with you at lunch.
Innocent, right? But not really.
Jade falls into line next to me and hands me a stick of gum. Angrily, I take it and pop it into my mouth. I don’t want her to think that I’m mad at her, I just…I don’t fit in.
“The first day always sucks. I’ve been there. In fact, I was new a year ago, so I know what you’re going through.” She smiles at me and I force one back, even though the last thing I want to do right now is pretend to make friends.
I highly doubt that she knows exactly what I’m going through, since I don’t see Teague staring at her between classes like he wants to chase her down and kill her, but I don’t mention it. She’s trying to be my friend and I really should try harder.
It’s one of the things that I promised my mom I would do before she got checked in for care and I left. “Don’t be so stubborn. Let people help you, okay,” she’d begged, and I’d relented.
Fine, Mom, but just for you.
“Listen, I’m sorry, I just don’t really fit in and I think I did something to piss Teague off.” Jade turns to me and stops walking right as I see Teague come around the corner with his buddies at his elbows. There’s more I want to say to her, but it’s hard to focus when he’s coming down the hall.
He never seems to go anywhere without them. Catching my eye, he raises his hand in a half wave and then stops, staring at me from about 20 feet away.
Good God. I swear, the mold was broken when they made Teague. He’s got the body of a model with a face that would make any girl wet. The way he broods and frowns makes my stomach do backflips, and I’d be lying if I said that didn’t enjoy the attention that he gave me today.
Maybe without him forcing me to touch his cock, though. Although…I’ve never touched anything that big before. How the hell does he even get it in a girl? My cheeks flush as I think about what he would look like naked.
Ugh. I turn my body so that I don’t have to look at him but can still talk to Jade. Even when he’s not in my line of vision, I swear that I can feel him. His eyes bore into the back of my head and I have to focus hard to pay attention to my friend.
“Teague’s a jerk. I’m sorry, I know that you have to live with him for a while, but you just need to watch out. I don’t like the guy. Never have, never will.” She’s watching him over my shoulder and frowning, giving me a moment to look at her. Jade’s just as pretty as the popular girls here at school, so it’s kinda a wonder that she’s being this nice to me.
“What did he do to you?” I have a feeling that there’s something more that Jade’s not telling me, but she bites her lower lip and looks down at my question. “I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but if he’s dangerous then I’d like to know.”
At that she looks back up at me, but I notice that she glances over my shoulder to look at him before she answers. “No, it’s not that he’s dangerous,” she answers carefully. “But he used to run around with this real jerk, Clay. I just think that you need to be careful, because Teague’s angling to fill the gap left behind when he graduated.”
I shrug. She had mentioned this before and it sounds like no big deal to me. Some power-hungry teenager has his hormones all twisted up and thinks that he rules the school. “So, he’s no different than any other high school jerk?”
Everyone at school seems to remember Clay. I’d heard quite a few students talking about him and relieving the good old days, but Teague hasn’t mentioned him to me. If they were such good friends, it seems weird that he wouldn’t ever bring him up.
“Oh, he’s a little different,” she says, slowly. “Anyway, I really have to go, I’m sorry. Do you want me to take you shopping sometime so that you don’t look so…” She waves her hand at me.
“Homeless?” I offer, trying to make her smile. She does, but it’s a thin smile. Wary. I don’t like how she keeps looking over my shoulder.
“Just messy, I guess. Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, Nora. Be safe.” She gives me a half-smile and backs up for a bit before turning and walking off as quickly as she can on her high heels. Before she’s even disappeared into the crowd around us, I feel a hand on my shoulder.
I don’t even need to turn around to know who it is. “Hi, Teague,” I say, my stomach dropping at his touch. At the same time, though, something flares in me. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how his hand felt on my thigh at lunch today and about how it felt when he made me touch him.
My stomach clenches tight as I think about his hand on my leg, sliding up slowly. It’s not that I’m a virgin by choice, but every time that I’ve thought it was the right guy, well, I was wrong.
But Teague? I know that he is definitely the wrong guy. There’s no question in my mind that he wants something from me and that I don’t want to give it to him. Just looking at him, though? He looks perfect. Too bad I know that there’s something evil under his gorgeous smile. Something lurks in his body and, while I was thrilled before about the fact that I’m sleeping down the hall from him, I’m no longer happy about that.
I wish that I could go back to yesterday and ignore how hot he is in all of his pictures. I managed to build him up to being a great guy that I would want to know, when really he’s terrible. He scares me, but he excites me, and that’s possibly even worse.
“Ice princess. You thaw out any today after lunch or are you still feeling a little frozen? I can warm you up and make you feel something for once, you know.” He steps around me, allowing his eyes skate over my body, resting on my chest, and the tip of his tongue flicks out to lick his bottom lip.
He reminds me of a snake that I saw one time at the zoo. Unlike all of the other animals, it had just been brought in and caged, and it stared down people looking in its tank, tasting the air with its tongue. It would have attacked and bitten if it had the choice.
Teague’s the exact same way. When I take a step back from him, he counters, dancing closer to me and reaching out to take my arm. The memory of how tightly he held my wrist at lunch flashes through my brain and I want to pull away, but I’m too afraid to piss him off.
Nobody here is going to be on my side.
“Like you helped me feel something at lunch, Teague? Because whatever it was that I felt, it really wasn’t that impressive.” I lie to piss him off, and it works, but possibly too well. My breath catches in my throat as he leans in close enough for me to smell the light sweat he worked up at gym.
“We can see if you think it’s not impressive when I’m up to my balls in that sweet virgin pussy of yours, Nora. You gonna give it up without a fight or am I going to have to take it from you?”
Panic swells in my chest and I take a step back, needing to put some distance between the two of us, but Teague doesn’t let go of my arm. “Let go of me, Teague,” I tell him, trying to put some warning in my voice. It’s like trying to warn a lion that he should be afraid of an antelope.
In response, he throws back his head and laughs. “Or what, Nora? What exactly are you going to do to me if I don’t let you go? You going to ask your little friend Jade for help?”
“Why do you two hate each other so much?” I’m only delaying our conversation, but I can’t help myself. Jade made it clear to me today between classes that she hates Teague, and I’m beginning to see that the feeling between the two of them is mutual.
“Jade? I don’t hate your little friend, ice princess. I just think that she’s too stuck up for her own good. She acts like she has a golden plated pussy, and the time that I found out…well, I was disappointed to learn that it’s just a plain one.”
He must see the surprise on my face because he laughs and then continues. “She didn’t tell you that we dated? Oh, Nora, that must come as quite a surprise to you, huh? Yep
, I dated Jade. She was almost as frigid as you are, but I managed to warm her up. Do you want to know how?”
“No.” This time, when I pull away from him, I manage to yank my arm free. Teague doesn’t make a move to grab me but instead laughs.
“Well, I’m sure that she’ll tell you all about it if you want, Nora. Now why don’t we go home? I told coach that I was going to skip practice so that I could make sure you get home and settled okay.”
“Don’t miss practice because of me. I’m totally fine by myself.” Even though I want to reach out and punch him, I manage to twist my face into a smile. The last thing I need is for Teague to realize how much I really hate him.
If I could just get into the crowd of students then I may be able to slip away and find Jade and convince her to take me home, but before I can move, Teague laughs again, the sound pinning me to the spot.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Mom’s going to be home late from a charity dinner and I wouldn’t want you to get bored in the house by yourself. So I thought that I’d take you home and then show you one of my favorite things to do. What do you say?”
Any other time I would have wanted Teague to take me home. I would have loved to spend some alone time with a guy who looked like him, but now I force myself to look him in the eyes, and there I see the evil that I know is lurking just below his surface.
“Sounds great.” I swallow hard, forcing myself to focus. “What’s your favorite thing to do?”
It better not be sex. The thought of losing my virginity to him turns my stomach while at the same time causing a low throbbing between my legs. How the hell am I so attracted to him while at the same time terrified of him?
“Well, I’m sure that you noticed all of the woods around the house?” Teague loops his arm around my waist, pulling me to him and directing me to the parking lot. His huge truck is parked in the back and we have to wind our way through the mass of students to reach it.
“I did.” It would have been impossible to miss the woods behind his house. They’re dark and thick and the perfect place for nightmares to grow.
“We back up to a national forest, so even though we only own a dozen acres, we have access to hundreds more. There are some paths and camping sites, but none really close to our property. That means that when you get out into the woods, you’re all alone.”
I swallow hard. The thought of being alone with Teague in those woods is terrifying. Automatically, I put one foot in front of the other, walking with him, even though I should be turning and running away.
“So you go out there to commune with nature?”
He stops and turns to me, laughing. “You’re ridiculous, Nora. I don’t commune with nature. I hunt it. We’re going to go hunting.”
My heart flips and drops into my stomach as we keep walking. Teague reaches my door first and holds it open for me, waiting while I buckle in before shutting my door and walking around to his side.
I watch him as he walks. Each step he takes is careful and calculated, and he looks around him constantly, scanning what everyone else is doing. He doesn’t miss anything. He’s the perfect hunter, and I can easily imagine him stalking his wounded prey, sniffing the air for blood, listening for its screams.
My breath catches in my throat when he grabs his door handle and pulls it open. I forgot to ask him one important detail and now I don’t want to know the answer.
I forgot to ask him what he liked to hunt.
Teague
Nora doesn’t say a single word the entire ride home, but I don’t push her. If she wants to be a frozen bitch, that’s fine by me. Ever since the idea of taking her hunting crossed my mind, I can’t think of anything else.
Deer are fun to hunt, but there’s no real challenge. They are how I learned to track a wounded animal, since their blood splatter can be difficult to follow through the leaves at first. Squirrel are too easy. One good shot with any gun and they fall from the tree in a broken bundle of bones and fur.
There’s not supposed to be any hunting in the national park, but that’s never stopped me. Coyotes, bobcats, even a fucking eagle. They’re all mine, but there’s one thing that I’ve never hunted, even though I’ve wanted to.
Glancing over at Nora, I grin to myself. She’s perfect. She has enough fight in her to not make it too easy on me but she’s scared enough to try to run and hide. I don’t want to hunt prey that’s going to just stand there and take it while I come for them. Nobody wants to hunt something that’s only going to freeze in fear.
A little flight is good because it will keep me moving, help me with conditioning. There’s nothing more exhilarating than running after prey through the woods, no matter if they are wounded or not. A broken twig, a scuffle in the dirt, everything is a clue, and I’ve gotten to be a great tracker.
But Nora? She’s a fighter. We pull into my driveway and she’s out the door with her backpack, waiting on me on the porch before I have the engine turned off. I saunter up to her, dropping the keys deep into my pocket, then leaning on the front porch railing.
“Aren’t you going to let me in?” The silence between us was too much for her and she interrupts it, stamping her foot a little as she does.
She has on sneakers. Perfect. Her jeans will keep her from being too injured if she gets caught in briar patch. The thought of her running away from me, her hair whipping around her face, gives me chills.
“Come on, there’s something I want to show you first. Remember? Hunting?” She hesitates but then drops her backpack on the porch, following me down the stairs and around the side of the house. There’s an outbuilding out here that my dad built when I was younger and I unlock the padlock and lean in to grab a pair of walkie talkies.
Turning them on, I set them to the same channel and then toss one to Nora. “In case you get lost on your way home,” I tell her.
She eyeballs me and then carefully clips the walkie talkie to her jeans, jumping when she accidentally presses the talk button and it buzzes at her.
“Careful, now, I don’t know how charged the batteries are on these things.” I snap my walkie talk to my jeans and walk back to the woods, knowing full well that she’s going to follow me.
She does, running a little to catch up with me. “I thought that you said we were going hunting, Teague.”
The sound of my name in her mouth makes me trip a little and I jerk my head to the side to look at her, but she doesn’t notice. Her cheeks are pale but there are bright spots in their centers, reminding me of our time together at lunch.
My cock aches as I remember her hand on me.
“Well, I am.” We’ve reached the edge of the woods, and even though there’s still hours of daylight left, a cloud has settled over the woods themselves, making them look foggy and even darker than they normally are. There’s a cool breeze in the air and I pretend not to notice when Nora shivers and rubs her hands on her arms.
“Wait.” What I’ve said sinks in, and she turns to me. “What do you mean that you are? And what are we hunting, anyway? Do you have a knife or something?” She takes a step back from me, her eyes locked on my face.
“Do you not?” I turn to her, grinning. I can barely control how excited I am right now. I have Nora just where I want her and I’m about to turn myself into the person she should fear the most. Fuck being the prince of Kennedy Academy. I’m the hunter, and she’s my prey.
“I, um, no. Of course, I don’t.” She takes another uncertain step away from me, backing up from the woods. Immediately, I counter, coming closer to her and cutting off her route to the house.
She turns, one hand held out in front of her body like she could stop me from coming at her. Her eyes are bright and sharp with concentration. “What are you doing, Teague?”
“Just getting ready to hunt.” I lick my lips and take another step closer to her. She has no choice but to back up towards the woods if she doesn’t want me to be able to touch her, which she does.
Good girl.
“What are
you hunting, Teague?”
“Quit saying my name, Nora.” I know what she’s trying to do. Hell, we learned about this shit in psychology. She’s trying to build a connection with me, but that’s not going to happen. My heart is pounding in my chest, even though we haven’t hardly moved from our spots.
All of the muscles in my legs are twitching. Ready to run. Ready to hunt.
“Then quit looking at me like that.” She takes another step back, then another, as I close the gap. The grass under her feet has given way to moss at the edge of the forest. I watch as first one of her feet sinks into it, then another. She glances down and then looks quickly back up at me, not wanting to take her eyes off of me.
I can’t tear my eyes from her.
Hunting a wild animal is different. All they know is fear. Something is coming for them, and they know that they have to run and hide, but they don’t know what’s at stake. Not really.
Nora knows, though. She can see the truth in me – that she’s completely and utterly fucked.
“Run, Nora.” I whisper the words, wanting to see her struggle to make them out. The wind has picked up some and she leans forward, staring at my lips.
Suddenly, her eyes grow wide.
She realized what I’m saying.
“No,” she says, but even as she does, she takes another step back, tripping on a downed branch as she does. I watch as she scrambles back to her feet, dusting her hands off on her jeans. “No, Teague, don’t do this.”
“Run, Nora.” I’m not whispering any longer.
“Please, Teague,” she begs, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. She’s so pale that I can see the hollows under her eyes.
“I’m not going to tell you again.” I haven’t moved from my spot in the grass, but Nora finally realizes that I’m serious. Her eyes rake over my body and she glances towards the house, probably wondering if she can make it. “You have five minutes. I’d move, if I were you.”