No Escape

Chapter Four

After missing almost two weeks of school, Lily returned. Her face was still swollen, her chest still hurt, and she had a limp because of the cut on her thigh. It was one of the most painful things she had ever experienced. But if she wanted to pass her classes so she could graduate on time with the rest of her class, she needed to go back. So, she limped through the halls of the school with her hood up—not wanting to risk anything, even though she had makeup on. She could feel people staring at her and heard them laughing and whispering. Clearly nothing had blown over from the cafeteria incident with Erin from before.

She was making her way to the library, like she did every normal morning when entering school. She had her head down as she walked inside and got a decent way inside before lifting her head to pay attention to where she was going. When she did, she noticed Jackson sitting with a couple of his friends at one of the tables; immediately Lily turned around. As she was doing so, Jackson's eyes found hers, but she quickly averted her gaze and began to make her way out of the library. She could still feel the pressure of his stare on her as she limped her way towards the exit. Before she could escape the walls of the library, Jackson appeared in front of her and just continued to stare at her. The way he was looking at her made her think that he wanted to make sure that she was real and truly there.

Jackson wasn't entirely sure what had happened to her. One day a couple weeks ago, he had woken up with a throbbing pain in his leg. When he examined it there had been nothing wrong with him, so he knew the pain he was feeling was his mate's pain. His heart broke when he thought about how much pain she must have been in for him to feel it as well. For a mate that, in almost every sense, was human, the pain had to be borderline unbearable for it to affect their other half. A few moments later, a searing pain went down his leg just about to his knee. He was furious that his mate was in pain and wondered what was going on.

He had half a mind to find her that night to find out. Then he remembered the look of fear and the way she had flinched away from him when he discovered the bruising on her face and fought his wolf and forced himself to stay put. He told himself that he would ask her about it at school the next day, but she didn't show up. Her absence continued until she wandered into the library and was barely balanced in front of him.

Lily limped her way towards the bookshelves as she had been beginning to get uncomfortable and the only exit was blocked. She felt Jackson's eyes on her the whole time, following her every move. As she was examining the bookshelf for a new book to checkout, she kept her weight on her uninjured leg not only to keep the stitches from ripping, but also because it was still causing her an immense amount of pain and putting any amount of pressure on it made the pain increase tenfold. Jackson made his way over to her. Lily was confused as to how she had known that because she hadn't been looking at him; for some reason when he was within a decent proximity to her, she could always sense him. It was weird to her.

As Jackson leaned against the shelves, Lily ignored him as best she could. However, Jackson didn't seem to get the hint. Just like every other time he spoke to her, Lily was in a state of shock for a moment, "hey Lily. Everything okay?"

She internally questioned why he would ask her that. Maybe it was because she had been out of school for a bit. It wasn't like he really cared about her though, so the thought hadn't made much sense to her. Lily nodded anyway and continued to pretend looking for books. She tried her hardest to keep her eyes away from the general area where he was standing. However, with Jackson near her, it was hard for her to focus on anything else but him.

Jackson didn't give up though, her would never give up when it came to his mate. "How did you hurt your leg?" He needed to know, for his mate's safety and his own sanity, who had hurt her. But he should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy. She had ignored him and refused to even spare him a glance. It not only frustrated him, but also scared him that she didn't want to even look in his direction. It scared him that she was getting hurt and he wasn't able to protect her because she had no idea that they belonged together. Jackson realized his mistake with his phrasing and tried again, "is that why you were out for so long?"