Mark of the Moon

Chapter 29 - Such a Tease

Chapter 29: Such a Tease:

  Time could not go any slower as I watched the ticking clock of the last hour in fifth hour. Five minutes until I would be let go, and I knew as soon as I would be my feet would automatically race to Rayne’s truck, my mind yelling no, but my whole body screaming an overpowering yes.

  A low growl demanded to rip from my throat but I pretended to go into a coughing fit, which despite the main reason for my aggravation in the first place, managed to get me out of class that last few minutes that remained before my school day was over. Already having dealt with the wrath of Quinn from disappearing like that with a strange guy during lunch, when I had returned from my talk with Rayne, I had managed to slant the truth saying there was someone that I knew that wasn’t feeling well. Technically it hadn’t been a lie, if it was true about this ‘mates’ thing, then Tristan would be feeling every ounce of sickness that I would with this separation we had put ourselves into. It just made me feel worse when Quinn accepted the semi-lie and nodded at me not being able to walk home with her like we had planned, despite the cold. We hadn’t been as distant in the past week of Winter break, but now that I was being pulled back into the pack, I could almost see her ties with me severing one by one. It stung, and pulled at my heart strings. My oldest and greatest friend was sifting through my fingers because of a stupid secret.

  And making another vow to stay close would just hurt all the more when I would have to break it, because that would happen. I was living a different life now.

  Breaking out into the open, I struggled to walk normally as I searched for Rayne’s truck, not wanting to seem so out of place in the near empty parking lot, the only inhabitants were the parked vehicles. Just the mere thought of seeing Tristan again had my heart and mind fluttering madly, just like seeing a famous person for the first time, or that crush you’ve had forever coming up to talk to you. Except it was more than just nervousness—I didn’t have much of that—but more so a raw need that I needed to be by his side and all the uneasiness would vanish. What I wouldn’t give to just make this all go away.

  Scouring the lot, my eyes didn’t catch on the long familiar truck with its owner that should have been casually leaning on the side of. Rayne had promised he would be back in time to pick me up, but the errands he was running were requiring him to be very sneaky about coming over to me. Assuming that since these were an undercover conversations with him, Tristan had no idea that I was coming, which I still wasn’t sure if that was good or not. No hum came from the distance that I had grown accustomed to.

  Maybe he had just forgotten all of this, and went back to the pack to try and reconcile things differently? For some reason, despite the fact that I was half loathing this operation I couldn’t help feeling deflated. I had been much more excited to see Tristan than I had allowed myself to realize. Or that could just be the ‘mate hormones’ talking.

  I slumped down onto the sidewalk, determined to wait this out, Rayne had me all worked up over this, and I wasn’t giving up just yet. Landing in a dry patch, I leaned against the school’s brick walls, the scratchy surface catching on my hair. Lately I had been wearing it down more and more, but the elastic band remained around my wrist, ready to bind it back up again at any given moment. Which is just what I did, suddenly sick of the feel of my hair tickling the base of my neck, and keeping the heat in. I couldn’t take off the coat, but I could most definitely put my hair into a high bun. Just as it snapped into place the screeching of tires snapped my eyes up.

  A sleek black car slid into the parking lot, dark tinted windows that were barely see through and a shine that shone brightly against the snow and sunlight that filtered through the clouds. It was wet with perspiration beaded on its surface, the window wipers flashing across once fleetingly before snapping back into place. It made its way around the lot, before stopping right in front of me; the purr of the engine was almost silent in the tussling wind that blew the snow across the cement. A blonde head popped out of the driver’s seat, his head looked recently tussled like he had gotten into a fight recently, but Rayne didn’t say much beside smile when he turned towards me. “You getting in?” he asked lightly, his tone relieved of a lot of stress from earlier today.