And Then There Were Four (Lilith Carrie)

soft brown waves of her hair to the dark charcoal colored gray of her eyes. She was beautiful, even

though she didn’t think she was.

Melissa wasn’t just beautiful. She was extremely intelligent and though her flat chest, stick figured body

gave her a lack of confidence she shouldn’t have, I couldn’t help but admire how increasingly lucky I

was to have her by my side.

She had stuck by me through everything, and I was grate ful. However, even though she was only my

friend, every now and again, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to taste those plump pink

lips of hers and have her as more than just my friend.

“Are you listening to me?” she whispered, pulling me out of the daze I was in. I hadn’t been listening. I

had been think ing of the many things we could do together and in doing so, completely embarrassed

myself.

The heat of my embarrassment was upon my cheeks as I pushed a smile on my face and shrugged my

shoulders. “Sor ry, I was just thinking about something. What did you say?”

Rolling her eyes, she smiled. “I was asking you if what they said about you and Lucas was true.”

Lucas. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself, thinking about what they said. Yes, it was true. I had been

seen going into the woods with him, but as far as having sex with him, absolutely not. He had bet me I

couldn’t beat him in a race with my wolf, and of course, I proved him wrong.

After beating his ass in the race, I left him in the dust to wander his way back to the encampment,

where I turned around and took his clothes. That way, he would only be able to maneuver back through

the party either naked or in his shifted form.

Lucas was incredibly sexy and yeah, sometimes I felt the urge to want to do more with him, but that

definitely wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. I wasn’t a virgin, but I also wasn’t looking. Unless you

count on being interested in my best friend.

I had too much to focus to worry about stuff like that.

“No, Melissa, don’t you think I would have told you had I hooked up with Lucas? You know how I feel

about that stuff.

I’m focusing on what’s to come. I mean, we have a future we’re going to be entertaining once we get

out of this place. I’m not looking to make a mistake.”

The sound of Miss Abel clearing her voice loudly caught my attention, and glancing towards her, I

noticed everybody in the class had turned and looked at me. “I’m sorry, ladies. Am I interrupting an

important conversation? Because I could have sworn I was teaching you about the final exams, you

had this Friday. I’d prefer not to see you again after this year.”

Ouch, that was unnecessary. “My apologies, Miss Abel. I can assure you that Melissa and I will pass

your exam because

we don’t really want to see you anymore, either.” My class mates turned into a fit of snickering, causing

Miss Abel’s face to go red.

“Then you won’t mind spending the rest of your afternoon

in detention.”

“Unfortunately, as lovely as that sounds, Miss Abel, my fa ther James already has plans for me after

school and, there fore, I won’t be able to attend,” I replied, trying to make it seem like there was no way

she could keep me, but instead the

fucking woman went to the phone, picked it up and undoubt edly called my father.

After a few moments, she hung up the phone with a smile on her face, as the hatred of her poured into

my heart. “Good news. Your father told me to tell you he’ll pick up the medica tion for you so that you

can stay here until four o’clock, when detention is over.”

“Shit,” I muttered, with irritation. She had couldn’t be fuck ing serious.

As I turned my gaze back to Melissa, she quickly shut her mouth, shaking her head. There was no way

in hell she was going to spend detention with me, even if she was my best friend. She had shit to do,

and I knew it.

By the time class was done and I finally made my way from the hell of Miss Abel, I left class with

Melissa at my side in search of a vending machine. I was stressed, and a cold soda was just the

amount of caffeine I needed to get through my next class.

“I can’t believe that you got detention. Do you just enjoy pissing her off?” Melissa asked while digging

through her purse to pull out a piece of gum.

“She’s a cow,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “I could breathe the wrong way, and she would try to turn it into

a reason to call my parents and put me into detention.”

next few days.

school.”

As our banter continued back and forth, I didn’t hear the approaching footsteps and laughter of Ashley,

and her posse of irritating ass-kissers, but when I turned around, she stood there expectantly as if she

had something to say.

“Can I help you?” I said flatly as I opened my soda and pro ceeded to drink from it. I only had ten

minutes until my next class, and the last thing I wanted to do was entertain her.

With long blonde hair and makeup plastered onto her face, she was the spitting image of Barbie, simply

missing her Malibu beach doll house. She may have been dating my broth er and had been for years,

but I knew that was only because she suckered him in.

The girl was a nobody, and then over the summer in sev enth grade, she blossomed or did something

because she came back to school in eighth grade with boobs, a tiny waist, and all sorts of other

enhancements.

Then her attention was on my brother.

She stared at me for a moment, crossing her arms over her shoulders as she looked at her perfectly

manicured nails. “I just wanted to remind you not to be an embarrassment this weekend. It may be your

birthday too, but it’s about Lux and I. We will be announced as the New Luna and Alpha of the pack.”

Laughter erupted from my throat as I looked over at Melissa, who was laughing her ass off, too. I had

to give it to Ashley, she was pretty damn confident and yet didn’t realize how ridiculous she sounded.

“You do realize that’s not how that works, right? Lux has to go into training for a year without you

because you’re not al lowed to go and even if he didn’t have to do that, my parents aren’t stepping

down anytime soon. He could be in his thirties before he actually becomes the Alpha and I don’t even

know why you think you’re going to be Luna. You’re not even his mate.”

“You don’t know that!” she snapped, stomping her foot on the ground. “I am his!”

Her frustration was entertaining, and as I looked at her friends, I could see how confused they were

over what I said. “Y’all didn’t actually believe she was going to be Luna, did you? My brother can barely

stand to be around her anymore.”

I couldn’t quite understand why she was delusional enough to think she was going to be the woman he

spent his life with.

My brother and I fought like cats and dogs, but I knew my brother well enough to know he would never

spend his life with a woman like Ashley. He wanted someone who would support and challenge him at

times. Not some idiot who thought herselt a pampered princess.

Gasping with a faint heart expression, she stared at me with wide eyes. “How dare you speak to me

like that? You have no right. My position with Lux gives me authority over you-”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” I sighed with a smile as I cut her off mid-speech. “You have no

authority over me, and you need to learn that very quickly. If you can’t see how unin terested my

brother has been in you lately, that’s your prob lem. I don’t blame him for sleeping with you. Why go

search ing for something when you can easily pick up the phone and have it delivered…”

A look of utter shock and disbelief crossed her face as | pushed past her with Melissa. She was as

speechless as the girls with her, but as I continued walking, she let out a scream of anger. “You will

regret this!”

I didn’t bother to turn around and look at her. Instead, I waved my hand in the air before giving her the

middle finger as I kept walking away. “Whatever you have to tell yourself to make yourself feel better,

Ashley. Keep up the good work. Maybe being easy will pay off for you someday.”

Melissa grabbed my arm, laughing as we continued walk ing down the hall, leaving Ashley behind us to

stew over my words of wisdom. I didn’t care if she cried and complained to anyone or even plotted

against me.

170 She wasn’t my problem, and if she pissed me off enough, she would simply meet a side of me that

would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.