The Chronicles of Alpha Academy (bxb)

14: Pass or Fail?

Chapter Fourteen: Pass or Fail?

Kieran

I pushed him backwards to sit down on the bench in the far corner, where the fence was the only thing separating this space from the woods. The garden was littered with them, places to relax, the garden being both utilitarian food and herb production but also a quiet contemplative spot. Not all of the places to sit were as nice as this carved stone bench, some just a few logs or a large rock or an old stump.

James sat down, looking up at me expectantly, and then with lidded eyes as I sank down onto his lap, adjusting the way he sat to give me more room. His hands immediately up my back, holding me close, my hands running over his chest and then loose around behind his neck. It was cold outside, but I felt warm, as we sat for a moment, looking at each other. Unable to look away.

"Kiss me," I said looking down at him, feeling his hands press under my vest in the back and under my shirt to touch my skin for the first time.

"I've been waiting to kiss you for four days Kieran," he growled, tipping his face up, as I was the one to lean down and kiss him gently against the corner of his lips, nuzzling back by his ear, taking the soft lobe into my mouth and biting down gently with my teeth, my breath in his ear.

It seemed like it was always like this around James. I wanted him, physically felt myself connected to him like a magnet.

I had kissed three boys. James. Kai and Dylan.

With my roommate and his boyfriend, it was like a tsunami of feelings, heated and hot, sweet and steamy.

With James. With James I was afraid. Because it was somehow more than that. I was afraid. Goosebumps rippled up and down my arms as we breathed in each other's mouths. It was more. There was something more.

I think.

As we kissed, under the crescent moon, in the dark, in the garden, with the sound of crickets and frogs the only background music, the smell of lavender and rosemary and green growing things thick in the air, the taste of him in my mouth, the feeling of his fingers pressing hard into the soft line of muscles on my back, my hands cupping his jaw and in his thick coarse brown hair, my mind repeated a question again and again and again.

Is it him? Is it him? Is it him?

=

James

I stumbled back to school, leaving Kieran alone in the garden, not sure how I did it, how I left him there, when all I wanted was to be stitched to him forever. I could still feel his lips on mine. I could still feel his weight in my lap. Still hear his quiet words in my ear as he said my name in the few moments when our mouths parted.

Was he my mate?

Because my dad told me once, what it felt like when he first met my mom. How he knew instantly that they were meant for each other, before she even went into heat. His family moved to Chicago when he was fifteen, having separated amicably from their former pack in Springfield. He told me how he saw her on the steps of school, not knowing she was the daughter of the alpha, just a young girl with long brown hair reading a book and casually sipping from her water bottle. I remember how my dad looked, as he told me the story, how he was lost in the memory of that moment, when he fell in love with the woman he'd mate and spend the rest of his life with.

Was that what was happening to me and Kieran?

Maybe. Maybe it was.

But I didn't want it. Mostly. Mina and I had a solid future together, planned for, that was my dream. That was my goal. That was my wish.