The Thief and the Alpha (Book One of the Warrior Series) ✔️

- Chapter 3 -

The trio returned by lunch, looking slightly worse for wear. Alex favoured his left leg more than he had earlier this morning, and winced slightly when trying to open the door with his right arm. Jaxon was wearing a longer shirt than he was this morning as well. However, I still noticed the slight bulge on his left forearm, indicating possible bandages. The third of the trio whose name was still unknown to me also had a small bandage that they had tried to cover up on his leg.

It was clear that they had been in a fight. The fact that they tried to hide all of the evidence only made me more suspicious. Maybe they were in a gang? It would make sense; Alex and the third always seemed to look towards Jaxon for approval, and even in the trio alone, you could tell that there was a sort of hierarchy system in place. I also remembered how Jaxon had retaliated almost by instinct in the hallway earlier that day, almost as though he was used to fighting.

I let my thoughts drift as I ate the sandwich I had bought from the corner store earlier. I always bought my food from the same place since they gave me a discount, knowing about what had happened to my parents and the rough situation that I was left in. I never ate in the cafeteria, either; I always sat on the roof, feeling safer and more at home than in the hellhole where your every move was judged.

Being on the roof technically wasn't allowed, but it's not like anybody would find out, anyways. If they did, I would threaten them; even though I wasn't much of a fighter, everybody at school thought I was, which worked to my advantage. Thieving required more finesse than brute strength. I could definitely defend myself if need be, but I usually liked to avoid physical confrontation as often as possible.

The bell rang, causing me to sigh. More classes.

As I strolled into my Physics 12 class, I took note of the unnamed Asian of the trio talking with some of the Jocks. He seemed to be making good conversation with them, loud, boisterous laughs coming from their table every few seconds.

I moved to the back of the class again, sitting in my usual spot. As the teacher rushed in, I kept an eye on the third member of the trio from the corner of my eye.

I payed close attention as the teacher called out attendance. "James?"

When the boy raised his hand, I smiled a bit internally; I could finally stop calling him the "third member of the trio" in my head. I noticed how he too tried to glance at me discreetly when my name was called, trying to play it off as looking around the class. His eyes stayed on me for a bit too long to be coincidental, though.

Our teacher, Ms. Daqaar, was extremely knowledgeable. However, she had a bit of a problem with getting off track and starting to ramble about some completely unrelated theory that she had heard about in university. It was nice that she was passionate about science, though.

Throughout the class, Ms. Daqaar went over expectations and the course outline, as expected considering that it was the first day. I tapped my foot impatiently, thinking about how I was going to manage the money that I had stolen the day before to buy food for the next school week, necessary school supplies and a sewing kit to patch up some of my old clothing.

I usually do pick pocketing runs on the weekend during the school year, and on weeks that I'm particularly unlucky I fall back on the small bit of savings that I always keep leftover from summer runs. It's not an ideal situation, but every once in a while, I pickpocket a high roller that keeps loads of cash in his wallet and I'm set for a while. Then again, I get dry days more often than not. Damn you cancellable credit cards, replacing the good old thief friendly bills.

When the bell finally rang, I had a game plan. We hadn't been assigned any homework since it was only the first day, so I decided that I would do a small run later to give myself some more cushion cash.

Unfortunately, on the way out from school, I was caught by the trio. They were all standing and talking by what was presumably their car: a sleek, black Mercedes.

So they were rich kids who tried to act like bad boys; this further supported my theory of them being in a gang.

"Hey Reynolds, wait up!"

I kept walking, hoping that they would give up. Unfortunately, as expected, they didn't.

Jaxon ran up beside me, keeping up with my brisk walk. "Do you not have a ride?"

"Of course I do. My horse-drawn carriage is waiting right around the corner."

"Oh come on, Reynolds. Let us give you a ride."

I gave him an exasperated look.

"Are you going to continue to shove your unsolicited offers down my throat or are you going to leave me alone?"

By now, the rest of the trio had pulled up, and were keeping pace with me as well. I had to commend them for their athleticism; I walked pretty fast.

I huffed, stopping abruptly. "Why won't you leave me alone? If you continue to bother me outside of school like this, I could charge you for harassment." I made sure to deliberately use the word home.

Jaxon rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. I don't think that this could be called harassment."

"Oh really? I do believe that harassment includes repeatedly communicating with me, either directly or indirectly, and besetting or watching the dwelling-house, or place where I, or anyone known to me, resides, works, carries on a business or happens to be. And before you tell me that that's bullshit, look it up. I've just quoted that from the prohibited conduct section of a criminal harassment legal document."

Jaxon looked slightly taken aback, but tried to hide it. "How do you know that?"

Because I've done in depth research of what's legal and illegal, I thought to myself. Such is the nature of being an educated thief.

"Let's just say I'm educated." I said instead. "Unlike some people here."

"Oh please. You'd be ridiculed if you ever tried to file those charges though. We go to school with you."

"Try me." I rolled my eyes, but knew that he was right; I wouldn't file harassment charges on them, but not just because of fear of being ridiculed; I also don't ever want to deal with cops again.

Suddenly, there was a distant look in Jaxon's eyes. Both Alex and James had the same glassy-eyed gaze briefly as well, making me squint in suspicion. They shared a heavy look before turning back to me.

"We'll talk about this later, but right now we have... family business that we forgot about."

He ran his thumb over his index finger again, making me know for sure that he was hiding something, as if the delayed response wasn't obvious enough.

I continued walking, pretending not to notice the slight twitching in Alex's fingers that indicated that they had to rush to something urgent and most likely gang related.

"Yeah, sure. Do what you want and leave me alone."

The lack of sarcastic remarks in return made it even more evident that they were hiding something big. I had to watch out for these boys; secrets are dangerous.

I should know; after all, I have a fair share of them myself.