Chapter 3 I hate everything.

Steven's POV

The sheets were cold on her side of the bed, even though she was still there pressed against my back, her breathing slow and satisfied. She must have gotten up at some point and slipped back in without waking me.

I did not open my eyes. I did not need to. I could feel the warmth of her pressed against my back, her breathing slow and satisfied, and I lay there in the quiet of my room with the curtains still drawn against whatever time of day it was and felt absolutely nothing.

The door opened with a bang that rattled the frame.

I still did not move.

"Steven!"

Magna's voice cut through the room flat and sharp. I heard her footsteps stop, then the unmistakable sound of her taking in the situation.

"We need to go to school."

The girl behind me stirred.

"Steven!" Magna called again, louder.

"I heard you the first time," I said without moving.

"Then get up."

I pulled the sheet higher. "I am skipping."

"You have been skipping the entire week."

"And yet somehow the world has not ended." I turned onto my back and finally opened my eyes. Magna was standing at the foot of the bed in her uniform, arms crossed, looking at me the way she always looked at me when she was deciding which argument to lead with. Behind her the curtains let in a thin line of grey morning light. "Nothing fun is happening in school. I have pack problems to deal with. I am busy."

She looked at the girl in my bed. Then back at me.

"Busy," she repeated. "You are busy. Like sleeping with a woman right now, in bed, that kind of busy."

The girl sat up fully then, blinking sleep from her eyes, sheet pooling at her waist. She looked at Magna. Magna looked back at her with the patience of someone who had seen this too many times to be surprised by it anymore.

I turned to the girl. "You can go."

She smiled at me, slow and unbothered, slid out of the bed and picked her dress off the floor without hurrying. She found her heels by the door, looked back at me over her shoulder and blew a kiss before she walked out in nothing but her lingerie, the door clicking shut behind her.

Magna watched her leave. Then she turned back to me.

How long, Steven?" The question hung heavy in the air. "How long will you use Amy to cool your rage? You've been in a frantic heat since your father died, and it's spiraling out of control."

I looked up from the pillow. "Who is Amy?"

Magna pressed her palm flat against her forehead and held it there. "The girl who just walked out. Amy Varro. You have slept with her twice and you do not even know her name!"

"She came on her own," I said. "I cannot deny free food. And she is not the only one cooling me off. I doubt she could walk if she were."

"You’ve slept with this one more than once. She is going to think you love her. Poor child." She looked towards the door and sighed. "She is the Alpha King's daughter, Steven. Do you understand what I am saying to you? The Alpha King's daughter. That is going to get you into trouble. And on top of that she is some sassy Class A brat who is going to make it her whole personality that you looked at her twice."

I frowned slightly. "I thought the Alpha King only had a son."

"They are twins!" Magna nearly screamed.

I looked back at my phone. "Whatever. I am not gay so I cannot date anyone from Class X. It is not my fault the whole class is full of men." I glanced up at her. "Unless you are volunteering."

She made a sound in her throat. "Pfft. Us." She shook her head. "We would destroy each other and not in a fun way. That is never happening in this lifetime or the next."

"Okay," I said and put my phone down and closed my eyes again.

Silence.

Then, "Do I look like your nanny to you?"

I said nothing.

"Steven. Do I look like your nanny? Why am I always the only one here fixing your mess every single time? You have missed school the entire week. The entire week."

"School is not that important when you already have money."

The silence that followed that was a different kind of silence. I recognised it. It was the silence before the storm.

"I damn well do not care about that," she said, and her voice had dropped to something quieter and more dangerous than the shouting. "Your father told me to be here for you. That is what I am doing. That is the only reason I keep showing up to this. But you are out here behaving like a four year old boy and I am supposed to just stand here and watch."

I opened my eyes.

She was looking at me and for just a second underneath all the frustration there was something else. Something she did not say.

"You are the only living being that gets to talk to me like that," I said. "And that is for a reason."

She held my gaze for a moment. Then she looked away first.

"Get up," she said quietly.

I reached for the sheet and pulled it over my head.

"STEVEN." The sheet was ripped off the bed in one motion. "FUCK OFF THE BED RIGHT NOW."

I sat up.

"WHY DID THE GODS HATE ME SO MUCH," she said, pressing both hands flat against her face, "TO GIVE ME SOMEONE LIKE YOU AS AN ALPHA. WHY? WHAT DID I DO?"

I stood. The floor was cold under my feet. I hated mornings. I hated this house without my father in it. I hated the way the quiet sat in every room now like something that had moved in and intended to stay.

"I hate you," I told her, walking to the bathroom. "I hate school. I hate living. I hate everything."

"Wonderful," she said behind me. "Get dressed."

I shut the bathroom door.

Jivu's POV

The whole class erupted in cheering. "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

"What did you just say?!"

"Does your ears have problems, mon chérie? You keep asking me to repeat what I have already said," he replied nonchalantly.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah, no thanks. I am not dealing with all of this—" I motioned around the class at the students standing, the ones sitting and watching, the one still sleeping who clearly could not care less, "—this bullshit."

I finished the sentence. He raised a brow.

"Okay, fine. You might as well walk out of the class," he said calmly and walked to his seat at the front, crossing one leg over the other.

"Where is the class monitor?" I asked the room, to no one in particular. I had genuinely thought the gentleman was the better one in this place and he was still twisted.