Chapter 10
Jade Rivers
Days had passed and I still wasn’t getting any better. The only thing that made me feel remotely fine was meat. But the only problem with that was every single smell set me off. I had walked into the grocery store and had to run right out. The trash can at the front of the store was now full of my vomit. I didn’t know what the smell was that had turned my stomach so badly, but it was overwhelming. Like baby powder.
So when I attempted my second trip, I had made sure to wrap a scarf around the bottom half of my face. Maybe it would keep people away so I wouldn’t get them sick too. It barely masked the smell of the people milling in and out of the building, but it allowed me to get to the meat department without throwing up again.
The first scent of meat was scary. I had almost torn the fabric from my face and shoved the hamburger meat down my throat right there. Raw. By the grace of all things holy, I got through checkout and back home without any more strange incidents. Was this what mad cow was like? Was I dying? How on earth was I feeling this way? Was it the drugs Rafe had injected me with? Even though it had been days since?
I slammed the meat into a pot on the stove and stared at my phone. Oh, how I wished I had his number. All I wanted to do was give him a piece of my mind and possibly punch him in the face. No, I definitely was going to punch him in the face. All I had to do was go to another party. All I wanted to know was why and what he had injected into me? That was it and then maybe I could punch him in the throat.
But could I actually do that now? Did I have the guts to subject myself to a party again? The thought of a party no longer ignited my soul. The thought of a party didn’t seem so fun anymore. Whatever high I got from going out was gone now. Rafe had ruined that. Rafe had ruined me. But I wasn’t going to let him get away with it. He had taken my fun and now I was going to take his. I just needed to figure out what it was. Drugging girls? I would show him how fun it wasn’t to be the victim. I wasn’t going to let him do this to someone else.
For the first time in days, I felt something like hope. Revenge would do that to you. I smiled as I stirred the browning meat, then I realized there was hardly any pink left and I ripped the pot from the stove. Something was definitely wrong with me.
Raw meat should have horrified me. It would have any other day before. But… the smell was entirely too heavenly.
The only problem was stepping a foot outside of my house and expecting to not get sick. Every single smell set me on edge. So much so that I doubted my period that I had a few weeks before. Every symptom I looked up led me right to pregnancy, but there was no way that was plausible.
School was no longer an option and I was thanking my lucky stars that Tracey was still trying to be my friend. She made sure to email me each of my assignments and if she didn’t have a class with me, she found a friend that did. Even though I was still somewhat frustrated with her, I couldn’t help but feel grateful even if it was probably her fault that I was sick in the first place.
I really couldn’t win. This was all a disaster. My phone vibrated and I expected to see a text but instead, it was a phone call from my mom.
“Hello?”
“Hey, honey! How are you feeling?” Her voice blasted through the speakers. I winced and dropped my phone in surprise. The volume on my phone wasn’t even turned up all the way and the speaker option wasn’t turned on either.
This time I didn’t press the phone to my ear and held it a healthy distance from my face. “I’m getting better.”
I eyed the bowl of half-raw meat. Could I even say I was getting better? Something was wrong with my brain.
“Your voice doesn’t sound like it, are you sure you don’t want us to come back sooner?” My dad was saying something in the background but I couldn’t make it out. The speaker sounded like it was in a tunnel now. I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to focus on anything else besides the piercing sound coming from my phone.
“What’s wrong with my voice?” I asked then added quickly. “I don’t want either of you to get sick too. This is miserable.”
“You sound,” she paused. “I don’t know, growly? But besides that, you need someone to take care of you!”
I couldn’t risk them coming home and seeing me eat raw meat. So I lied. “No, that’s okay, Tracey is taking care of me.”
“Oh, that’s weird, we haven’t seen her on the cameras.” Leave it to my parents to catch me in a lie.
“Well, she’s getting my assignments for me and she’s coming over tomorrow to help me with some stuff.” I sighed. I would have to invite Tracey over. What could go wrong?
Chapter 11
Rafe Crimson
I stared at Tracey from across the dinner table. “What do you mean she invited you over?”
She rolled her caramel-colored eyes. “You heard me. She forgave me.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and pushed my food away from me. “Not when she realizes what youare.”
She smirked. “You think she will want to have anything to do with you when she finds out whoweare?”
“Things will be different then.”
Tracey gave me and everyone else a fake smile. We didn’t normally have formal dinners with the entire pack, but tonight was the night before the full moon. It was a celebration of sorts. It gave us a chance to be a pack while human before we ran the next night. The next night that Tracey wouldn’t be running with the rest of the pack. Which was dangerous but she was needed elsewhere. There wasn’t much I could argue with that. I could give the order for her to stay back but it wouldn’t do anything but hurt Jade. That was the last thing I wanted to do. But I had to keep my distance.
