Blood Moon Falls (Book 1 in the Original SOCIETY Series) ✔

☙20❧

"So what you're saying is... That you ran off... With your sorta-kinda-would-be friends... Because their grandmother was sick?"

Hearing it repeated back to me, even my lie sounded like, well, a lie.

I nervously chewed my bottom lip as I stood beside my locker with Maddox who caught up to me after I passed him outside of the school. After I opened the metal door to my locker, Maddox appeared with a frown on his face. He asked about what happened to me the day before and about our date.

I winced thinking how I just blew him off without an explanation. Feeling bad doesn't even describe how I felt knowing that he has been so nice to me since we met.

My hand lifted to tuck my hair behind my ear and nodded to confirm that my lie was the truth. The look I received was cluing me in that he didn't believe me. And I didn't blame him. He'd be stupid to believe me. Kinda like Christa when she called me this morning when I woke up to find out why I had run off with the Six without a word. She ate that lie up real good.

Crossing his arms, Maddox raised a brow and shrugged, "If you didn't want to go out after all you could have just SAID something, Thea. You don't have to lie to me to get out of it."

I groaned, wrinkling my nose and scratched furiously at my head.

"It's not that I didn't want to go out with you. I'd been looking forward to it," his eyes lit up and grinned a little, "But Maddox... I have to be honest that I can't explain what happened yesterday. You're just going to have to trust me that it was personal and I had to take care of my situation."

Shrugging a shoulder, I sighed that my situation might not be completely over with, but that it was mine to take care of.

Maddox dropped his arms to his side, a look of concern on his face as he asked if there was anything that he could do. I shook my head, grinning that it was sweet of him to ask but that I couldn't go into detail about it.

"Sigh... Well... Then how about we have a do-over and we get that milkshake after school?"

I smiled, eagerly nodding as I told him that I looked forward to it.

"I'll just have to let my aunt know where I'll be going."

After yesterday, I had to promise my aunt like a trillion times, that I wouldn't forget to text her my whereabouts. She said she wouldn't ground me this once, but the next time there was no second chances. She told me this after the Six went home with a plate of cookies to share.

Maddox offered to carry my bag to our first class, but I told him that I was fine with carrying it. He shrugged that it didn't hurt to ask, then reached down to take hold of my hand. I felt myself stiffen with the motion, but if he noticed he didn't say. He instead intertwined his fingers with mine as he led the way down the hall.

When we approached our first period, just outside the door, I gulped loudly and wide eyed with Auric getting to the entrance too. His hardened gazed were on Maddox who I glanced to see that he shared the same look with Auric. The Alpha-to-be's eyes lowered to our twined hands for a almost half a minute before flicking them up to me.

I wasn't sure, though I hoped not, but I wondered if Maddox could hear the low growl that rumbled through Auric's chest. The tension was obvious, and I tried to diffuse it by tugging on Maddox's hand that was still clamping to mine.

When he looked at me, I suggested that we should get to our seats before the bell rang. He nodded, giving one last look to Auric before leading me into the classroom; i even glanced up at the werewolf narrowing his eyes at me. Once I was seated, I pried my fingers from Maddox's and pulled out my notebook and pen.