Chapter 7 : A Real Knockout

Ash's POV On second thought, perhaps it was a little foolish of me to think that I could outrun Hurt for the rest of my natural-born life. Foolish and fatal. "You still breathing on me, spud?" David picked me up by my collar, and my limbs fell limply to the side as the blurry image of him loomed in front of me. When had my glasses flown off? Oh, my head… What the hell was Hurt made out of—bricks? "Hey! Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!" The gorilla slapped at my cheeks trying to rouse a response from me and received spit-up blood for his trouble—right in the dead center of his dumb face. David dropped me with a disgusted huff, and my head bounced along the tile like a tennis ball. Fuck me, that was not going to be beneficial to my recovery. If I survived. "Fucking disgusting, freak!" I smiled, teeth stained pink with my blood, cackling like a complete asshole and loving it—until he kicked me in the ribs. Hard enough that I felt one give. If I screamed I didn't hear it; I think the pain stole my ability to form sounds. All I could do was wheeze, and bide my time. Hopefully, my trump card for occasions like this hadn't slipped out of my pocket when he punched me. Billie was crying. "Leave him alone, asshole!" Billie was perhaps the only person I knew who was smaller than me, even if her personality didn't make it seem so. It took two of David's henchmen to hold Ms. Lewis down, her legs kicking out in ways that the priestesses would call indecent. But Billie didn't give a damn—dark hair sprouting down her legs and arms, tail wagging as she fought against their natural Alpha might. "You want to fight someone, Hurt? Come fight me! I'll take you down easy!" "Wow, you need a girl to fight your battles, freak?" He hacked up a loogie that hit me wetly in the cheek, revenge for earlier. He was still human, not needing to shift to wipe the floor with the likes of me, poor little sickly Ashford Wells. I'd make him regret that decision. To underestimate me. "What was that, spud? You praying?" He kneeled closer, cupping his ear theatrically to hear me better. "Gunna cry?" "I said, 'surprise', asshole!" It was illegal to own Silverite jewelry, given its toxicity to werewolves. It wasn't as pure as silver, all cobbled together from similar grayish metals when the war made silver scarce, but it still had traces of the element. Just enough to pack a punch to bring a prick down a few pegs. Or to the floor, as David would have said. You know, if he wasn't writhing in agony. Being casteless did have some perks. "Fuck!" Blood was spurting from between his clutched hands like the water fountain out front. When David finally pried his hands open, I could see the squished remains of what used to be a very straight nose. "You little shit!" He shivered in the way people did when they were going to go into a full shift when they'd let the beast out from under their skins, but that innate magic the Goddess had allegedly graced us with fizzled out to nothing. No fur, no claws, no wolf's head, or the healing that came with it. Just David on all fours gasping through his mouth as blood pooled on the school tile. And good, it was just as well, the fucking gorilla deserved it. If I had been smart I would have crawled away, taken that moment to get as much distance between us as possible. Not sit there on my temporary pedestal, gloating over a meager victory. Because there was nothing more dangerous in this world than a cornered wolf. David surged forward with a howl, grabbing my ankle, and dragging me the couple of feet that separated us. I'd dropped the ring in shock, clawing at the tile with nails that couldn't find purchase, and losing ground quickly. I tried to get away, but when I lashed out, all I hit was a strong chest that might as well have been made out of steel for all the good my assaults did. "You fucking sun-kisser!" David grabbed me by the shoulders and I pulled at his dumb dumbo ears to try and escape. The brute slammed me into the floor with enough power to crack the tile against my back. My rib protested, vision darkening around the edges like fire eating at film celluloid. "You goddamn thin-blooded piece of shit! Do you think anyone gives a fuck about you, knotless?" Hands wrapped around my throat, grip sure as David squeezed the life of me, face warped to a savage mask under the crushing weight of his anger. His blood oozed from his nose and onto my face, sliding down my cheek as I struggled to get the bastard off me. "You think it's a coincidence that no teachers have come yet? No other students? You think some little Forsaken is worthy of being saved?" "David…" It hurt—above all the other awful things David Hurt had said over the years—that hurt me the most. Because he was right, he was absolutely right. Mrs. Greene and Mr. Belton were right there three doors down, a stone's throw away, and they weren't coming to break up the fight. I'm sure some students had seen David hit me and turned the other way. For years I'd been the scapegoat for everyone's bad karma since middle school, but to hear it out loud, their prejudice won over my safety… "David…" Billie was begging, my only friend in this whole school, sagging between two men. "David, don't—" I didn't pray anymore. I'd lost the ability to when a man in a uniform knocked on the door to tell Ma that Dad wasn't coming home. When middle school hit and everyone was going through the changes but me. When David threw me into my first locker, Jillian Moore looked me dead in the eye and turned her head as he beat me bloody between the fifth and sixth periods. I'd stopped praying a long time ago, and I'd forgotten what the words sounded like, but all I could think of was please, and hoped someone would answer. If not for me, then for Billie, because I didn't want her to become the next punching bag for these people. The Goddess, however, had jokes. "What the fuck is this?" Cinnamon and cigarettes. Alder and cardamom. Amber with salt musk. There was only one person who smelled like that. I felt myself blush. "You havin' a party and I ain't invited? I'm really hurt there Hurt, but I guess that's all in the namesake, huh?" And there he was, the black sheep of Sacred Heart and the self-proclaimed Prince of the Streets—Kenny O'Rourke. It was like the heavens had opened themselves, water poured down on us in heavy torrents as the sprinklers housed us down, the fire alarm yelling and flashing its warnings. Doors opened up, and air rushed back into my lungs as David slipped on his boy-next-door charm. Students squealed, grabbing trapper keepers and books to block the rain as teachers tried to corral students to the designated safety areas. If they noticed the blood or the way I was still on the floor, the teachers hadn't said anything and moved around us like a river around a stone. Kenny smiled in that crooked way of his, wetting his bottom lip before tucking it between blunt teeth to stop a laugh I could see bubbling in his eyes. His ever-present cigarette propped between his pointer and middle, thick smoke curling into the alarm. Shit! He'd been the one to set off the sprinklers, hosing down those goons. Which also meant, Kenny had been the one who'd just saved my ass from getting creamed. My savior. "Ash." Billie rushed to me, nearly slipping in the water, as David's goons turned tail and bolted. She hugged me, and I gasped, rib throbbing with the waning of adrenaline. "We have to get you to the nurse—" "Easy there, Lewis. I ain't done with him, yet. Hold off on the nurse deal for me. Just gotta talk to Hurt first, then I'll help you with Wells." "You'll help?" David's voice was clipped, defensive. Like he too didn't know how this talk was going to go. They didn't hold hands or get close to each other like other couples I'd seen, but, then again, given both their Alpha statuses… "O'Rourke—" Kenny yoked David up, lifting the other man off his tennis shoes, before slamming him into the lockers. I'd never seen O'Rourke shift in all the years I'd known of him. He'd always been this infallibly laid-back individual making snide remarks in the back of the class with his other rebels, even after the rest of the Dropouts had left. He was a wild black wolf with blue eyes that seemed to burn hot in the dark of his fur. "Don't you ever fuckin' do that again, you hear me?" Fangs ghosted over the front of David's neck, a warning and an insult from another Alpha male. "You come after anyone like that again and we got problems. You hear me, Hurt? Problems." "You don't get to tell me what to do!" If he could have shifted, David would have, but my ring still dampened his powers. "Just who do you think you are? You're a—" "You shut your fuckin' mouth!" Claws bit into David's prized letterman, blood-staining white sleeves. "Or do I need to get Daddy in on what happened here today? Tell him who fucked up your nose?" "You wouldn't dare!" David tried for hateful, but the hiss between his teeth was still edged in fear. "Then calm the fuck down." Kenny's wolf melted back to reveal the man underneath—pale beneath his olive complexion. A full shift before the full moon took a lot out of anyone, but he looked too ill for it to be that alone. His eyes were glassy, limbs shaking ever so slightly as he held David up. Was he sick or something? "Goddess you reek! Your fucking rut addled. Knot-brained. So why don't you do us all a favor and go beat off in the showers or somethin' like everyone else, pretty boy." "That an invitation, O'Rourke?" To anyone else the sneer would have been what David wanted it to be, an insult. A dig at a fellow Alpha. But all I could see was the way Kenny had cried out as David pumped him full. A heat in his green eyes that I would have missed if I hadn't known. It felt wrong to see it. "Didn't take you for a bitch…" Kenny looked away, eyes locking with mine, and for a moment, I saw the fear in his eyes, knowing what we both knew. He slugged David across the jaw and dropped him. "Only bitch I see is you, Hurt, for fightin' the fuckin' spud over there. Now get outta my sight if you know what's good for you. Daddy's just a phone call away." "You—" David raised a fist, ready to strike, but the blow never came. He screamed, punching the locker instead. "We'll pick this up later, O'Rourke! You can bet on it!" "Lookin' forward to it, Hurt." Kenny rifled through his pockets looking for another cigarette, back to being unimpressed by the world. "Ah, shit, really? All my smokes? This bites…" He tossed his pack of soaked Lucky's in a nearby trashcan and spun on his heels toward Billie and me. "You kids okay?" "Does it look like he's okay?" Billie gestured to me, and I colored. "He looks like a drowned rat!" "Billie!" Kenny coughed into his leather shoulder, a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Oh no… "Not helping!" "Heh, he kind of does." I glared at him, Billie snatching my glasses off so she could clean the blood and water off them. Kenny offered a hand, kneeling on one knee. The pomade was fresh out of his hair, leaving dark locks to curl around his face nicely. "Need a helping hand, Mr. Rat." "Ash." I clutched his hand and felt an odd connection spark between us. Judging by his face, I knew I wasn't the only one. "None of that rat shit." "Ash," Kenny repeated, pulling me up with ease. He steadied me when I wobbled, legs suddenly jello, enclosing me in his warmth. Second-period bell rang as my eyes drooped, exhaustion hitting me bone deep. "Cute." And then I fainted.