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 Luna in the crowd. Just as she was comforting herself with this thought, she drew up next to Darcy 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.

Luna kept pace, with relaxed and even breaths that made Darcy 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. Luna was at her back, she could feel the lightest brush of the beta’s breath on the back of her head. She 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 Luna was up to. What evil she was planning. She was still directly behind her, close enough to touch her, with her boobs at the top of Darcy’s shoulders, if only she took a deep breath. She was watching her, amber eyes locked on Darcy like missiles.

Darcy lifted one foot, wide-legged like a clown showing off their giant shoes, and placed it hesitantly on the first step. Luna did not move a muscle until the driver barked at Darcy to make a decision: on or off the bus. Darcy jolted, Luna growled, and she shot to the top of the stairs. Luna 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. Luna was stood at the side of the bus, she was still watching her.

Darcy did her best not to look directly at her while she waited for the bus to depart. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Luna's form still there, but it wasn’t until the engine revved and they pulled out of the school car park that she glanced at her properly again. Luna's amber eyes had not left her, they locked onto her own. As she continued to stand stock-still and staring, a shiver ran over Darcy’s skin. Luna's 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. Darcy threw herself onto her bed, backpack still on, and screamed into her pillow.

MYSTIKA had told her. That crazy fortune teller had ruined Darcy’s life with one piece of card. In less than two months it would be Luna’s eighteenth birthday, but by then Darcy 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 her bully 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 Luna. 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 from 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 Luna 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. Luna had not reacted even slightly like she’d expected. She hadn’t yelled at her, she hadn’t laughed at her, she hadn’t shoved her or hit her or kicked her. Perhaps she was in shock. Perhaps she 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 Luna couldn’t prove anything because she hadn’t turned eighteen. All she had was the mad ramblings of a psychic woman on a bit of paper. That wasn’t real proof, and she wouldn’t know for certain until she reached her 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 Luna from her mind, her blank face glued to Darcy’s as the bus pulled away, but she managed to get through dinner and some homework without too much trouble.

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