Unforgiven (Wanderers #3) (49 page)

Her smile widened as she pushed back the slip of
paper. “There’s no mistake. This is where you are supposed to
be.”

“Then why is everyone here a witch except me?”

“I requested that you be in this class. Your level of
expertise is greater than the rest of your kind and with all the
powers you possess I feel you will excel better in this class.”

“Oh,” I said, returning to my seat. I looked around
the class worried Ms. Kraft was wrong. These students definitely
appeared to be more skilled than I was and the only two people I
knew were already partnered together.

I sighed and rested my head on my hand and waited for
class to begin. I guess I was luckier than I thought, because just
before Ms. Kraft started class, Sienna came dashing through the
door out of breath. I waved to her and she smiled, running over to
sink down in the seat next to me. “Woo, that was close,” she said,
panting. “I had to high tail it here from the other side of the
quad.”

“What were you doing across campus?” I asked.

“I promised Ms. Kraft I would pick up a few herbs for
her while I was home.”

I was glad to have Sienna as a partner, but I still
felt like an outcast being the only vampire in a class full of
witches.

I only had one class with Roman this year and none
with Riley. Since we weren’t new anymore, we got moved to regular
powers classes and with our special training sessions I no longer
had to take self-defense. This left me with a full hour to do
whatever – I wasn’t complaining.

At lunch, Dixon, Cassidy, and Josie were scoping out
all the new guys while Riley and Sienna chatted about their summer.
Cameron and Dean kept throwing each other guilty looks and Austin
sat there like he was ready to explode. Mackenzie had already
recruited some new members for her coven so Sienna was out and we
had to move to a new plan. Dean said he would help to get
information out of her but I told him that was so not necessary.
His way of extracting info was not something I wanted to know
about.

I sat around and watched everyone, intrigued at all
the different stories, reactions, and expressions on everyone’s
faces. Roman had let me know ahead of time he wasn’t going to make
it to lunch. He got stuck helping one of the new kids. Something
about an explosion in the chemistry class, not sure, but he
promised he would see me at dinner and training.

I noticed Jason had walked in to the cafeteria and
once again I found myself staring at him. He gave me the look of
death and I went back to my spaghetti. “Ella, it’s only the first
day and you’re already making enemies,” Dixon said.

I didn’t even hear him. “Hello…Ella?” He threw a roll
at me.

“Hey,” I whined. “You know you could take someone’s
eye out with one of things,” I said, pegging one back, totally
missing. My aim was a little off and I ended up hitting some
innocent bystander in the head.

Dixon and everyone started laughing as I tried to
hide under the table. My face turned bright red as the poor soul
turned to face the Neanderthal who pelted him in the head with a
roll. Before he turned all the way around, someone called his name,
and he turned his attention to his friend. I only caught the side
of his face. His profile was that of an older man, but young in the
way he carried himself. His sandy brown hair fell over his eye, but
was clean cut around the neck and ears. He was tall and built so my
guess was he was a wolf or vamp. I learned that all wolves and male
vamps were naturally tall. There wasn’t one that I knew that was
less than six foot.

Happy to have escaped total embarrassment, I glared
at Dixon, and he just laughed. “Ooh, who is that?” Dixon asked,
checking out one of the new kids.

I looked up to see that it was Trevor he was scoping
out. “Oh, that’s Trevor. I can introduce you if you want?”

“No, that’s okay,” he said, blushing and looking down
at his plate.

“When the hell have you ever been shy?” Cassidy said.
“Besides, what makes you think he even plays for your team? That
boy is too damn fine to be gay.” Cassidy licked her lips and pushed
out her chest.

“And that there should tell you he’s gay,” Josie
said.

“You especially should know better than anyone that
all the cute ones are gay,” Dixon said to Cassidy in a contemptuous
tone. Cassidy glowered back at him and through a little prying into
Cassidy’s head I found out that apparently Cassidy’s gaydar was not
so good and she had a habit of going after boys who liked other
boys. While I was in her head, I decided to dig a little deeper and
see if I could find some other things out when she turned on
me.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, looking at me
ready to strike.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” I said in a rush.

“Yes you were. I could feel the invasion.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said,
looking away.

“Don’t do it again,” she scolded. I risked a peek and
got an awkward smile from Josie. I just shook my head as they went
back to their discussion. I decided not to finish my lunch and made
up some excuse about having to meet with one of my teachers before
my next class. No one questioned it. I didn’t like the fact that
Cassidy could tell I was trying to get into her head. She wasn’t
the first person either. I was so lost in my thoughts I didn’t even
realize I walked right past Roman.

He stopped me and I flinched from the shock, pulling
away. He frowned. “Hey, sorry, you shocked me.”

“I thought you liked that?” he smiled, placing his
hands on my hips and pulling me closer.

“I do,” I said, placing my hands on his chest. “I
just wasn’t expecting it.”

He brushed the hair away from my face. “You okay? You
looked kind of out of it. You didn’t even respond when I called
your name.”

“Yeah, just have my head in the clouds,” I
smiled.

“I was just about to grab some lunch.”

“Oh um, I’m not very hungry.”

He raised his brows at me. “Now I know something is
wrong.”

“I promise I’m good. Go eat. I’ll meet up with you
later.” I kissed him quick. He pulled me back in letting me know
the quick kiss wasn’t enough. I let my lips linger a little longer,
feeling better than I did a few minutes ago. I smiled, for real
this time. He threw me a sexy half smile and patted me on the
behind before he turned around and headed into the cafeteria.

I decided to take a walk and ended up at the tree I
healed earlier this year. I sat down in front of it, closed my eyes
and tried to clear my mind. Twenty minutes later I felt refreshed.
Although I think Roman’s kiss had more to do with that then the
meditation.

For once I was actually looking forward to training.
Thankfully Gabe only had us do three laps around the track to warm
up. Zane joined us for the after school trainings so he could work
with Gabe. I kept stride with Roman while Dean, of course, slacked
pathetically behind. Gabe threatened to make him run every morning
if he didn’t pick up the pace. That definitely put a fire under his
ass. You would think after spending the summer running he would be
better at this, but no, not Dean.

By the time we were done with Training I had worked
up a sweat and an appetite. I told Roman I would meet him for
dinner when I was done with my shower and he insisted on waiting in
my room until I was done. I also reminded him I no longer had my
room to myself, knowing full well what he was thinking. He gave a
frustrated sigh and told me he would meet me outside my door in
twenty minutes.

Cassidy seemed to be in better spirits at dinner and
all issues from earlier gone. That was probably because she was
currently surrounded by males with Josie at her side. Why I wasn’t
exactly happy about them hanging together, I wasn’t worried.
Cassidy was a bitch, but she was basically harmless.

I grabbed Roman’s arm as we walked to our table. He
offered to get me food, but I told him he wouldn’t get enough. He
just rolled his eyes at me. “You know I really do love the fact
that my girlfriend has a hearty appetite,” he teased.

“You might change your mind in a few years when this
butt starts to get bigger.”

He leaned back to look. “Nah, bigger is better,” he
smiled. I pushed him playfully and he threw his arm over my
shoulder laughing.

When we reached the table I noticed Cassidy and her
new friends had joined us. One of the boys looked over at me. I
felt violated under his stare. I stayed close to Roman hoping he
would take the hint and not bother me. Justin and Riley joined us
shortly. Justin apparently knew the boy who was staring at me and
invited him to a party he was throwing this weekend. The guy took
his eyes off of me long enough to tell Justin he’d be there. Roman
noticed the shift in my mood asked if I was okay. I nodded not
taking my eyes off of the new guy. He took note of my distraction
and turned to the new guy, eyes glaring.

Noticing the tension he introduced himself. “Hi, I’m
Brennen,” he said, extending a hand to Roman. He shook it without
taking his eyes off of him. I put my hand on Roman’s knee to calm
him down.

Brennen turned to me. “Ella,” I said, shaking his
hand.

“I know, you’re the girl who threw the roll at me,”
he said.

I could feel my face turning bright red. No wonder he
was staring at me. I was such an ass. “Yeah, sorry about that. I
guess I need to work on my aim.”

He smiled back making his yellow eyes twinkle in the
light. “Maybe I can help you with that. I used to be an all-star
back at my high school in Georgia.”

Ah, Georgia, that would explain the southern accent.
“Well this isn’t high school and you’re not in Kansas,” Roman
scowled.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes,” he
said in his southern drawl.

“You didn’t,” I said, narrowing my eyes at Roman.
“You’ll have to excuse him, he failed his mannerisms course.” I
wasn’t in the mood for a jealousy act.

Roman took one look at me and then stood up. He
walked away without another word. As much as I didn’t want to, I
got up and went after him. He was acting like a butthead and I
wasn’t in the mood to deal with his temper tantrum. I caught up to
him outside. “Roman!” I called and he stopped. I pulled on his arm
and made him face me. “Was that really necessary?”

“Defending you?” he snapped.

“One, I can handle my own and two, that wasn’t
defending me that was being an ass.”

“What do you expect when my girlfriend can’t stop
staring at some Kansas reject?”

“Georgia, he’s from Georgia,” I corrected, not making
the situation any better. “Look, I was only staring because he was
staring at me and I thought maybe I could get in his head and
figure out what his deal was.”

“He’s a wolf, you can’t.”

“I know. I figured that much out, and you heard what
he said. He was staring because I accidently pelted him in the head
with a roll at lunch. In case you missed the whole point of the
conversation.” I pinched the bridge of my nose feeling a headache
come on. I didn’t want to start an argument over something stupid,
especially when things were going so well. “Roman, you can’t freak
out anytime some guy looks at me or says something you might not
like.”

“I know,” he said through gritted teeth. “It’s just
hard.”

“Do you not trust me?”

He hesitated before he answered and I took that as a
no. I walked away. “Ella wait,” Roman called, running after me.
“I’m sorry, I just…it’s hard for me not to get jealous when some
guy is ogling you.” I rolled my eyes. “But I promise I will make a
valiant effort to not be such an ass and to not let my
dickheadedness take over.”

“Dickheadedness? Is that even a word?”

He smiled, giving me a kiss. I let go of my anger and
walked back into the cafeteria with him. We sat down at the table
and when he saw Brennen he nodded at him. I would have rather had
him apologize. Reading my expression, he leaned over and said,
“Baby steps.” I just shook my head and went back to my dinner.

After dinner, Roman and I went back to my room to
watch a movie, and before I realized it, we had fallen asleep.

When I woke up in the morning, Roman was still lying
next to me. I sat up and looked over at Josie sound asleep in her
bed. I looked at my alarm clock. I had about another hour before I
had to get up. I lied back down and snuggled closer to Roman. He
stirred slightly, wrapping his arms around me and tightening his
grip. I smiled as he warmed my body with his heat. I nestled my
head on his shoulder and fell back asleep almost instantly.

My eyes opened before my alarm went off. I reached
over to turn it off before I woke everyone up when I discovered
Josie was already awake. She was on the phone pacing back and
forth. Not wanting to wake Roman who was sleeping peacefully, I
carefully slipped out of bed, and walked over to Josie to see what
the problem was. “Hey, what’s going on?” I whispered.

“Oh Dylan’s in one of her tirades and –”

“Shh,” I said, pointing back at Roman.

Josie rolled her eyes at me. “I need to go take care
of this. I’ll see you later,” she said, disappearing.

When I turned around Roman was awake. “Hey,” I said,
crawling back into bed with him. “Sorry if we woke you.”

“I don’t mind,” he said, brushing the hair off my
face and kissing me. “So how much time do we have?” He continued to
kiss me, his lips traveling down my neck, collarbone, and then
across my chest.

“Don’t mind me,” Josie said, covering her eyes and
bumping into the dresser in the process. “Ouch!”

Roman groaned and pulled the covers back getting out
of bed. “Josie you can uncover your eyes,” I said.

“Sorry,” she giggled. “Crisis averted.”