B0079G5GMK EBOK (3 page)

Nudity was not a problem for shape shifters, as we all knew that our human bodies were just shells that we had created. If we wanted our bodies to be slimmer or more muscular or anything else, we could just shape them again, so I didn't mind Tiam or any other male from our pack being in the bathroom with me. This time, however, I was so exhausted that I wanted to steal a moment for myself before I had to tell the others what I had promised to Adam.

I let the cold water cleanse my body while it respond
ed to its touch by trembling with
pleasure. There was no doubt that the shower was on my number one list when it came to the conveniences of the modern day. I pressed my head against the wall and enjoyed the feeling of
the
water running down my back. I stood still and just took pleasure in it.

When the water
had
finished washing my sweaty body, I heard a light knocking on the door. For a moment I stood still and wished I could pretend I hadn't heard anything. I knew, however, that whoever was there would come i
n anyway
, so I turned the water off and looked at the shower elegiacally for a while before I answered.

“Come in!” I yelled and groped
for
the towel.

“Sofia,” Ciall said, hesitating.

“Come on in. I'll be ready in a moment,” I said and sighed. So much for my peaceful moment.

When I came out of
the bathroom, wrapped in my soft lounger
, I
found Ciall sitting on my bed and looking very uncomfortable.

“He's back for good, isn't he?” Ciall asked with pain on his face.

“Yes. He is back. But he must follow the same rules as the others and I think that will be e
xtremely hard for him. He knows
he's not welcome here, and the other males are weeks ahead of him in courting Clarissa. I'm not so sure that Clarissa will even choose him.”

Ciall looked at me grimly. “I am.”

“You can't worry about that in advance, so please, at least try to focus on protecting Clarissa for now,” I sat next to him and stroked his hair gently.

Ciall swiped my hand away, impatiently. “I can't. I'm sorry, but I just can't.”

“There is s
ome kind of weird power in Adam
that radiates from him, and there is no way that Clarissa can be immune to that. She has no chance. Even I find it difficult to resist his powers, though I'm a male. He's a born leader and Clarissa knows that,” Ciall grunted quietly.

“At least try, will you?” I asked and smiled.

Ciall didn't answer. He stared at the floor and wh
en I touched his thoughts, I became
worried.

“You know, you cannot attack Adam?”

“Why not?” He said in a murderous tone.

I looked at him with horror.

Ciall smiled lamely and touched my hand. “I know that, but I can't just sit and watch Adam destroy everything that she is.”

“Well, you have to. None of us knows that Adam will destroy Clarissa. Do you really think for a second that I would let him come near my child if I thought he would destroy her?” I stared at him angrily.

“Maybe he's even stronger than you are,” Ciall snapped, trying deliberately to hurt me.

“I can't believe my ears! You really think I have no powers against Adam? I wouldn't want him anywhere near Clarissa! Do you think that I don't feel his magnetic powers? That it's easy for me to be around him? That in my mind, I don't have to fight against his powers?” I snapped and stood up. “It's a storm inside my head, believe me!”

I looked
strictly in
to
his eyes and he tried to avoid mine. I couldn't let him.  Finally he looked straight at my burning eyes of anger.

“I, however, don't think we can just exile him. If you don't remember, that is exactly what we did, and yet he managed to escape and return here. Our best weapon against him is fairness. If we treat him fair and equal as the othe
rs, even the eldest can't claim
we didn't give him a chance to fight for Clarissa.”

“Still,” Ciall began.

“No, Ciall. I'm sorry, but this is how we have to deal with it,” I said, and everything in me told him I wouldn't accept any complaints from him.

Ciall was quiet. I knew he understood my decision. He just couldn't approve it. I also knew that after he thought about it, he would understand that this was the only decision I could've made.  The fear of losing Clarissa was all he could think of now and he couldn't think clearly, so I decided to distract his mind.

“By the way, do you know what Mathanan has on his mind? Tiamhaidh said something about a dinner?”

“He's just testing some new recipes. There the world has lost a magnificent cook,” Ciall mumbled and jumped off the bed, irritated.

Suddenly I was alone and I raked my hair, frustrated. There were a few needles from the woods in my hair and I looked at them with wonder. Even though this day had started miserably, for a l
ong time I had had a moment where
I could shift my shape and that made me feel wonderful. Even Ciall's tantrum couldn't spoil my day and I smiled wildly to myself. Could there be anything that felt better than shifting?

Dinner was great. David was in a good mood and he believed as well that fifteen strong shape shifter males were too much for Adam. Clarissa didn't know how to handle the news, but at least from n
ow on she could sleep at night
in peace. Joshua tried not to sulk, but I noticed how irritated he was. He had been the strongest candidate for Clarissa and Adam's return would rock the boat totally.

Joshua had taken Clarissa bowling today and the other males had joined them. Joshua believed that he was a sure winner, so he didn't mind the others going out with him and Clarissa. Igor and Alexei obviously had something on their minds. They looked too fishy, but I couldn't believe that they would dare to challenge Adam openly. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even sure the two of them together could win against Adam.

Darel and Jonas seemed
pleased. Adam was back for sure, but Joshua seemed so unsure of himself that they had better chances of fighting for Clarissa than ever. I just wished Clarissa would choose soon so we could finally get some peace and time with our family, without any outsiders around.

I closed my eyes for a while and let my senses feel the voices around me. David's shallow voice
was arguing
kindly with Mathanan. Marie's bright laughter surrounded Tiamhaidh, who
was trying
to remain calm while Marie teased him. I touched his mind
gently, but stopped it quickly
when I noticed his uneasy state stirred as much by Marie's whispering as her
swift fingers under the table.
Altogether I felt
what an accommodative atmosphere we had in our home, and I wished fervently that Adam would not spoil it. But I had this terrible feeling that a few days with Adam would change Clarissa's mind and how she felt for the other males. I knew I had to force Clarissa to practice how to protect her mind harder than ever; otherwise Adam would sweep her off her feet, sooner than she could realize it.

Clarissa

Adam leaned against the wall outside Clarissa's classroom. His dark gray beanie covered his black hair, sho
wing just the top of his hair. His d
ark gray skinny jeans were stuffed in
to his black converses and on top of his dark purple hoodie he had thrown on a
bla
ck
leather jacket. Though
he had done everything to mingle
amongst the high school youngsters, there was no way he could ever look like a regular boy.

The young, dangerously hot guy, drew without an effort all attention from the passing girls
. W
hen the bell rang and Clarissa stepped out to the hall, the first thing she saw was a bunch of drooling girls
, surrounding
Adam in the corner. Adam, however, didn't seem to care and didn't look bothered at all. Actually he even seemed to enjoy it. Clarissa's green eyes met Adam's black ones and she coughed. When nothing seemed to happen, she cleared her way to
wards
Adam and stopped quite close to h
im. A slow, sexy smile spread on
his face.

“What are you doing here?” Clarissa snapped.

“Just came to see the place,” Adam shrugged.

“What place? What do you mean? This is a high school. There are no places.”

“Whatever. By the way, I'll start tomorrow.”

“Start what?” Clarissa asked
,
feeling quite stupid.

“Class.” Adam grinned like a beast and grabbed her long t
resses with
his hand.

Clarissa stared at Adam in shock. This
could not be happening! No way
Adam could start here! This was her territory.

“Shut your mouth, sweetie. I wonder why no one else from your mutt pack figured this out before me.”

A dark and mysterious shadow flickered on Adam's face and Clarissa wanted to step back. Her legs, however, seemed glued to the ground and she just stood there like some stupid lamb about to be sacrificed when Adam b
rushed her temple, making her
tremble quietly. She was so scared and yet while she stared at him as if paralyzed, she felt something other than fear growing slowly inside of her.

“What could possibly be a better place to spend time w
ith you than your school?”
Adam mentioned eerily. “I've already signed up for all
your courses and you can be assured
that my school grades will be excellent. I've had plenty of time to study before you.”

“You wouldn't dare,”
Clarissa sighed and noticed the panic crawling in
to her voice.

“I would, believe me. Well, gotta go now. I'm meeting the principal in ten minutes and letting him fix the rest. Oh, say hi to Sofia,”
Adam released Clarissa casually
and headed to the teacher's room.

Clarissa stared at his receding back with a fury that burned her guts. Adam was like a pot of honey that pulled all the bees around it and he didn't even
care. Behind him walked a crowd of giggling girls
who hung on to his clothes and would've given him anything if he had noticed them. But he didn't.

“Impossible man!” Clarissa yelled and stamped her foot with anger.

“I wouldn't mind if a man like that were impossible as long as I could be alone with him for at least
two minutes,” Stella, her
best friend sighed. “In a very narrow closet, if possible.”

“Well that will happen,” Clarissa mumbled. “He will enter our class tomorrow.”

“Wow,” Stella sighed dreamily.

“Exactly. Wow,” Clarissa's other friends, Caitlin, Emilie and Brianna sighed in unison.

“Stop! Stop it right now. What is wrong with y
ou? He is just a boy,” Clarissa
exclaimed.

“Na-ah, he is totally not anything just and he is not a boy,”
said Brianna
, enchanted.

“Totally not! I mean really OH MY GOD!” Emilie weeped.

“I can't take this anymore! He is a boy! An arrogant, selfish B-O-Y,” Clarissa said desperately.

“He can be whatever he likes,”
said Brianna
and looked hungrily after Adam.

“You can't be serious! You're not saying that you want to join those drooling idiots, are you? What is wrong with you?”

Her friends didn't bother to answer. They just rolled their eyes and sighed exaggerated
ly
, charmed. Clarissa snarled angrily and walked away from them and Adam. She wanted to go as far as she could and she didn't even notice Joshua coming out until he joined her, concerned.

“What happened?”

Clarissa stared at him with eyes that saw nothing. Joshua touched her mind lightly and suddenly she started to sob. She knew she couldn't resist Adam forever. Adam was like a drug to her. Just being near him confused her mind. She wanted to give in to him. Press herself into his arms and feel his warm lips in hers. She wanted Adam so bad. But Adam would never settle for being only with her, and she could never stand to see Adam with someone else.

Adam loved danger and excitement and she could never satisfy him. She would always have to doubt him, always, so there was no way she could surrender to him. Not even if it killed her. Her only protection was to pretend that he was indifferent to her. She would never join his harem. Not even if Adam begged and crawled in front of her, and that would never happen. She would be single or choose somebody else, but in her heart she wanted nothing but Adam.

Adam intrigued her too, she couldn't deny that. Not anymore. She seemed to know where Adam was, always, and her heart screamed after him. How crazy was that? Adam was a huge, dark guy with a body like a dream and to be honest, i
f one said he was gorgeous, it would
not
be
true. He was more. Totally more! He was like a girl's worst nightmare and the dream that you didn't want to wake up from. Someone you wanted to touch and taste. A devil with wings. Oh, she was so stupid and in so
much
deeper
than
she had thought! What an annoying man!