A delayed response still counted as a response, Darcy figured. So, she bolted.

Her backpack was slapping her back with every step as she ran to the the line of buses outside of the school. She hoped that with her pack’s bus usually sitting around the middle, she could lose him in the crowd. Just as she was comforting herself with this thought, he drew up next to her at a gentle jog. Darcy was already panting, but she flailed her arms to try and force her body to go even a little faster.

He kept pace, with relaxed and even breaths that made her look even more of a maniac in contrast.

She reached her pack bus and slammed her hands into the metal either side of the door like she was signalling a stop of the clock. She didn’t want to know what her time was for that three-hundred metre dash, though. It would no doubt make her feel even worse. Luca was at her back, she could feel the lightest brush of his breath on the back of her head. He said nothing.

Darcy hesitated at the bottom of the steps leading onto the bus. With a slow, creaky turn of her head, she peeked over her shoulder to gauge what Luca was up to. What evil he was planning. He was still directly behind her, close enough to touch her with his chest, if only he took a deep breath. He was watching her, amber eyes locked on like missiles.

She lifted one foot, wide-legged like a clown showing off their giant shoes, and placed it hesitantly on the first step. Luca did not move a muscle until the driver barked at her to make a decision: on or off the bus. Darcy jolted, Luca growled, and she shot to the top of the stairs. Luca didn’t stop her. She gave the driver an apologetic smile and hurried down the aisle to pick a seat. She found a set of two unoccupied and slid in next to the window. Luca was stood at the side of the bus, he was still watching her.

She did her best not to look directly at him while she waited for the bus to depart. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see his form still there, but it wasn’t until the engine revved and they pulled out of the school car park that she glanced at him properly again. His amber eyes had not left her, they locked onto her own. As he continued to stand stock-still and staring, a shiver ran over Darcy’s skin. His stance reminded her of Michael Myers.

She sat in silence the whole ride home, plodded to her home once they reached their pack lands, and stomped up to her bedroom without greeting her father who was working at his laptop in the kitchen. She threw herself onto her bed, backpack still on, and screamed into her pillow.

MYSTIKA had told him. That crazy fortune teller had ruined her life with one piece of card. In less than two months it would be Luca’s eighteenth birthday, but by then she would have enough exams finished that she could call in sick for the last few weeks of the year without her grades plummeting. Then school would be over, and she could easily avoid him for the rest of her life. But now her master plan had been ruined by some woman in a sparkly robe.

She rubbed her nose into the pillow and grumbled to herself. She couldn’t go back to school. She couldn’t face him. But she would need to come down with something pretty horrendous to warrant four months off sick. And she was proud of her good grades, even if she knew she wouldn’t get to use them once she left school and got put to work in her pack. Omegas did not get to work outside the pack lands, they were almost always PAs to the alpha and their direct family. That role differed form pack to pack though, some saw their omega as a secretary or a business assistant, others as someone to do their laundry and make them coffee.

Darcy had hoped to find her mate in her own pack, because their alpha family had always treated her kindly. Then when she had experienced her fateful, world-crushing eye-contact with Luca on her birthday, at the very least she had consoled herself that she could stay in her pack forever because there was no way they would be mating or marking.

But what would happen next was a mystery to her. Luca had not reacted even slightly like she’d expected. He hadn’t yelled at her, he hadn’t laughed at her, he hadn’t shoved her or hit her or kicked her. Perhaps he was in shock. Perhaps he didn’t believe it.

Darcy jumped up. That was all she had to do: pretend it wasn’t true.

She let her backpack slide off onto the carpet and began to pace around it as she built her courage up. She could pretend to know nothing. She hadn’t been that bad in the drama classes in primary school, she could pull off blank and brainless. Playing dumb couldn’t be that hard. She only had to do it until her final exams.

She stopped still, squeezing her fingers into her palms. A tiny bit of hope and confidence trickled through her. The plan was simple and there was almost nothing that could go wrong. She could deny it until she was blue in the face and he couldn’t prove anything because he hadn’t turned eighteen. All he had was the mad ramblings of a psychic woman on a bit of paper. That wasn’t real proof, and he wouldn’t know for certain until he reached his birthday. By which point, Darcy would have scarpered from school and would be complaining of severe migraines on the daily.

A few deep breaths and she was ready to enjoy her evening.

It was impossible to drive the sight of Luca from her mind, his blank face glued to her as the bus pulled away, but she managed to get through dinner and some homework without too much trouble.

The next day, Luca was at her side from the moment she arrived on the premises. Silent. Stolid. Stalking her from class to class.