Hollow Academy - PART I & II - (Book 2 in the Original ROYAL HOWLERS Duology) ✔

☽ T H I R T Y - S E V E N: Provoked

WARNING: Chapter contains sexual abuse/assualt and abuse overall.

☽

The steam from the coffee had long disappeared, indicating it lost its heat. Luke-warm coffee was far from her mind, however. Instead, she was staring off in front of her, her brows pinched together with her fingers wrapped around the belly of her favorite mug.

A sigh escaped through Olivia's nose, her bright blues looking at nothing in particular. For the past few days, she'd been kind of... out of it, to put it lightly.

Olivia's lips pursed into a tight line, lowering her gaze to her coffee. She stared at it, knowing it wouldn't sate her now. So she took it over to the sink, pouring out the mug's contents and washed it in the water basin. 

As she was drying the mug, she heard Bryan enter the kitchen. Her body stiffened as his heavy footsteps wandered the kitchen. He didn't greet her and she didn't greet him.

This was happening for a little over a week now since Olivia's defiance against donating her blood. It put Bryan in an even more foul mood when she returned yesterday from the market where she'd gone to purchase some beads for jewelry she made for herself.

But today the tension in the air felt much worse.

Bryan had been in the bedroom, awoken from the door closing. It wasn't slammed but with his new werewolf hearing, hearing a pin drop could still wake him from deep sleep.

He'd frowned, glancing at the time to see it was well past eight o'clock at night. Bryan remembered Olivia leaving to the market around three. 

Bryan rolled out of bed, grunting as he reached blindly for a t-shirt and shrugged it on. He made his way out of the room and to the kitchen where the light was on. 

He could see Olivia pouring some juice into a glass and crossed his arms. He leaned against the wall, raising a brow.

"You were out late."

"Jesus!" 

Olivia shut her eyes, letting out a short breath then slammed her cup and the juice down. She turned, frowning, "Dammit, Bry! You scared the shit out of me!"

She raked her fingers through her hair, shaking her head and went back to finish pouring juice.

Bryan narrowed his eyes, his statement gone unanswered.

"Where've you been?" Bryan carefully watched Olivia's shoulders tense. His eyes narrowed more when she replied calmly that she was at the market.

"For five hours?"

Olivia winced, not thinking her reply through. She sighed, closing the juice bottle and went back to place it in the mini fridge. 

"Yeah," she replied nonchalantly. "I got caught up talking to someone I met at the bead station." Well, it wasn't a complete lie.

Bryan watched Olivia glance at him, heading back for her cup and drank from it. She stayed on that side of the kitchen, her back against the counter. 

Taking a deep breath, Bryan frowned, asking again where she'd been. The she-wolf frowned again, pulling the cup down from her mouth.