Marissa's POV
"Lucas!" I exclaimed, running behind him and into the school minutes after he had seen me walk out of the Alpha's car. "Hey, hey, I didn't think you'd be here today." I took a mortifying breath while catching up with him before he scurried away.
"Yeah? Surprise isn't it?" He had the judging look on his face and it was obvious.
"I don't know what you had seen but—please don't tell anyone. He just gave me a ride to school." I stated, lying for the second time today.
Lucas froze in the middle of the hallway and turned to me, "Really, Marissa?" When I didn't say anything, he continued, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
"Oh, thank you!" I gave him a nod of relief.
We began walking again. "Not my place to ask but what were you doing with the Alpha anyway? You know we aren't allowed to meet him in private unless—"
I cut him off before he continued, "I know, I know and we were just talking about something." I didn't want him to assume that I had been down there, in the dungeon. People usually suspected that whenever they saw a woman with the Alpha and I didn't want to become any of their suspicion's.
It was bad already that my Dad was the Beta and he'd shame me for the rest of my life if he knew.
"Seems like a lot of things have changed since I've left," He trailed off, turning right and entering an empty classroom.
I stopped by the door and looked at my sides. The halls were clear as the classes were going on and I was in no mood to attend any of them so I went inside the empty classroom with Lucas who knew.
My eyes flicked to him as he pulled out a couple books. "It's honestly nothing like that. I mean, all the girls do it, don't they?" We were talking about going into the dungeon and have the night with the Alpha.
"I didn't assume you'd be one of the girls, Marissa." His sharp gaze forced me to narrow my eyes in shame.
I took a breath and sat beside him, "It was just a night."
"You know how quickly rumors spread around here, right? The last woman that was called the Alpha's whore had to leave town—"
"It's not like that!" I exclaimed, my eyes widening. My thoughts spiraled to a year back when I was still in high-school. At that time, the Alpha had an admiration for a woman among the wolves and even though it didn't look like that, a lot of people called her his whore and after a couple months, when she felt it was too much, she left town and we never heard about it again.
People here were too judgmental—one of the reasons why the sessions in dungeon were always kept private and away from the public so they couldn't judge women who were in heat or wanted to be pleased without getting the mark.
The mark I had on my neck.
Fuck.
"I know, Marissa but you should be careful, especially in the public. I wouldn't want to see you hurt," He replied, care in his eyes.
I agreed with Lucas.
Switching up the topic, I asked, "Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember there was a time you were researching about mates and all that moon connection?" I raised my brow, hoping he'd remember. We were together then and that time, all this stuff seemed boring to me.
"Yeah. It was a while back. I stopped that research when I left from here."
I pressed my elbows against the desk and spun my gaze around the room. "Totally off topic but I was wondering if there was a way to get rid of a mark? Like, supposedly, you got marked by someone but you don't want to be with her so can you get rid of the mark?" I hoped the message I sent to him was very unclear and sounded dumb.
His face took a serious turn and he shook his head, "No, there is no way, a mark is special, like a marriage—"
"But, people get divorced!"
"We aren't people, we are werewolves and I doubt there is a loophole to this."
My skin shivered and my hair rose. I leaned back on the chair while nodding my head a couple of times. Holy fuck. There was no fucking way to get rid of a mark. A mark that was forced on me by a woman, a goddamn woman—all while I had learned that I was mated to the Alpha.
I wanted to smack myself for being careless and dumb. I lied to the Alpha so I could find a way to get rid of the mark and then go to him, unmarked and all fine. At that time, I was shaking with fear and now, I was more afraid than ever.
"What if it was forced—without consent?" I asked under my breath.
Lucas tensed up, "Is there something wrong, Marissa?"
"No, no, I'm just asking for a friend—"
"Who?"
"Hannah! She got marked by someone when she was sleeping and she wanted to know if there was a way to get rid of it." I felt no guilt about lying over and over again.
He shrugged, "There might be a way if that's the issue. How about I see you after school and I'll give you the research I had done and you can go through that, see if something is helpful?"
"Oh, that sounds great!" I slowly grabbed my bag off the table and stood up. "I'll see you after school then."
"Wait!" Lucas called for me just before I exited the classroom. "You know you can ask the Alpha, he might be helpful in this." He suggested.
I let out a shaky breath, "Yeah, maybe." I replied, my voice strained. He was the last person I wanted to ask about this.
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