“Oh, my goddess, don’t be silly.” She looks at him then follows his gaze to me, “oh, hey Kate.” She whines my way. Bile rises in my throat, watching her filthy hands all over him.
“Nikki,” I look down, so he doesn’t see my lip quivering.
“Don’t you have someone else you need to be bothering right now, Nikki?” Ian pushes away from her again.
“Funny…” she snaps, “I wasn’t bothering you when I was going down on you yesterday.” She crosses her arms and curls her lips in disgust at him.
“Excuse me,” I feel like I’m about to puke, so I quickly turn to walk away when Ian grabs my arm.
“Where are you going?” He asks, pulling me into him.
“I just remembered that I have a paper due Monday that I haven’t started yet. I need to go home and work on it.” Looking at the ground, because I can feel the tears threatening to form and I don’t want Ian to see me upset.
“I’ll take you home.” Ian leans down and whispers in my ear.
“No… I’ll just take my dad’s golfcart. Stay. Have fun.” I pull my arm from his grip and walk away.
**March 2004**
“How’s Ian doing these days?” Nikki giggles and looks at the two she-wolves she’s with. She’s still the horrible evil person she was before.
“How’s your mate… Bruce, is it?” I push my shoulders back and cross my arms.
“Dante… we’re so happy and in love. Not that you’d know what that was like since you rejected your mate.” She laughs.
“Because you were so innocent in it all, right?” I cock my head to the side.
“Excuse me?” She scoffs, “can you believe she is blaming me?” She puts her hand on her chest and says, turning to her friends.
“Hmmm, I wonder what Dante thinks about being mated to the pack’s doorknob?” I snarl out. In the past, I would run away from a confrontation with her; I’m not running anymore.Bring it, bitch.
“What?” She scoffs and crosses her arms.
“The pack doorknob… you know, cause everyone has had their turn.” I laugh. Nikki’s face turns red from anger, her fists are balled up at her side.
“Enough,” Rebeka steps in between the two of us. “Nikki, Kate is your future Beta Female and, just like me, you’ll show her respect. Please don’t make me get Zane and Ian involved… I’m sure they will just escalate it to Alpha Nathaniel.” Rebeka’s voice is low, soft, yet firm. She’s going to make a great Luna.
“Fine.” Nikki and her friends turn on their heels and walk away.
“You ok, Kate?” Rebeka looks at me.
“I’m fabulous.” I pretend not to be phased by Nikki, but I am. The sight of her brings back so many horrible memories. This is the bitch that I caught Ian with at the palace when I realized my chest pains were because of his infidelity. She seemed to enjoy causing me pain and has been the subject of so many nightmares. Funny how she is playing innocent in front of her friends. Seeing and hearing her awful voice, doubts about Ian being a changed man flood my mind.
“You stood up to her like a champ. I’ve never cared for her. She’s kind of bullied me since I moved here.” Sonia smiles and rubs my arm.
“Let’s wrap this up and head home. It’s margarita time.” Rebeka laughs.
After coming back from running the last wedding errand, I go home, hoping to catch my mom there. There’s no sign of her anywhere. I sniff around, and her scent is so faint, it’s like she hasn’t been here in days. I decide to take a shower and change into my pj’s, hoping that mom will come back by the time I’m done.
After my shower, I come back downstairs and still no mom. This is just weird.
‘Mom?’I call out through our mindlink.
‘Yes, sugar?’She mindlinks back.
‘Where are you?’I mindlink back.
‘Pulling away from the main gate. Going to the city with Luna and Beta for dinner. Everything ok?’Mom has worry in her voice.