Defect.

“What the—”

I grabbed Robin’s hand and tugged her out of his arms. Zak turned to snarl at me but Alpha Henny cut him off, “Zachary!”

Zak snapped his head towards Alpha Henny, “My name is not Zachary. You bloody well know that!”

Shooting a quick and silent message at me Alpha Henny said, “That’s not what your mother told me.”

I got the message—get out of here. He was going to distract Zak while me and Robin made a quick getaway. I slowly began pulling her away when Zak yelled at Alpha Henny, “ Do not bring my Mum into this!”

We were almost out of the kitchen when Robin suddenly decided to speak up, “Oh, I get it now!”

We all turned to stare at her. Brady with an orange slice half sticking out of his mouth. Nick from the back door; Alpha Henny with his mouth open, in the middle of a comeback; and Zak looked, well, he looked in love—just like any other male wolf who has found his mate.

“Mate. As in British terms right?”

Zak only blinked at her.

“You’re British, right? ‘Cause their accent is so sexy.”

Zak immediately began nodding with a giant grin on his face. Hell, I’d be that happy if my mate called me sexy too. Robin cracked a big genuine smile.

“Then, of course I’ll be your mate.” She let go of my hand and put hers up, “Come here ya’ sexy Brit.”

I wish you could’ve seen it. Zak practically flew into her arms. And it wasn’t a light hug either, he hugged her with his dear life—one big hand on her lower back and the other on the back of her shoulder. His face was buried deep into her hair.

When they finally pulled away, Zak’s face looked like he had just won the lottery.

Damn straight he has.

**

“Robin.” I called for the third time. She only kept sitting next to me on the couch, grinning at her phone like a mad woman. I snapped my fingers in front of her face, above her phone, in an attempt to get her attention—no such luck.

I was at her house, hunched over her little coffee table trying to do my homework. We were supposed to be spending quality time together; I wanted to roll my eyes—so much for quality time.

Her fingers were flying over the QWERTY pad.

She has been like this ever since she and Zak swapped numbers. When I’m with him he’s texting her. When I’m with her she’s texting him. I’m stuck in the middle!

“ROBIN!” I shouted.

She jumped from fright, “Jeezus, scare the shit out of me why don’t ya.”

“I was asking if you got my Math notes from the teacher.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She rummaged through her backpack before pulling out crumpled sheets of loose-leaf paper.

“Thanks.” I say, and I began using them to solve the problem I was on. Robin went right back to texting Zak.

Robins job was to go around all of my classes gathering all the notes, assignments, and homework that I was missing. The pack Doctor called the school telling them that I wasn’t allowed to return for another week and a half, possibly two. It depends on how I was healing.

I had been deemed healthy enough to return to school four days after the Andersons’ had returned. Now, it’s been a little over a week and I’m practically fully healed but I still haven’t returned. Alpha Henny hasn’t allowed me back into school however. He’s been training me.

Only for safety precautions, like if Andromeda attacks me again. Or Kelsey.

Alpha Henny couldn’t even have her punished because he has no solid evidence that it was her. Technically, it wasn’t her—it was Gabriel Brale. But she had told him to do it, but we have no way of proving that.

You see? We can’t approach the Alpha of the Pavone pack with that.

I took a miniscule break to sharpen my pencil before getting back to work.

I could feel all the sore muscles training has left me. Alpha Henny has been drilling me pretty hard, and not just him. Nick has been too. They take turns coaching me, sometimes—though rarely—Zak trains me.

And he’s the toughest.

He pushes me hard because his mate needs a strong friend to protect her when he’s not there.

It’s the longest I ever seen him go without texting. I suspect that every time he trains me, its only because Robins at Archery practice. Sometimes Brady trains with me. He doesn’t coach me, or push me to my breaking point.

He simply runs next to me (though he’s much faster) and encourages me to keep going. Ever since the wolfs-bane bracelet incident, he’s been loyally at my side. Overall, he’s just been plain awesome.

I hadn’t realized I had stopped working and had placed my head in my hands until Robin placed her hand on my lower back. “You okay, kid?”

I took a deep breath, “nothing, just stressing.”

Her hand rubbed big comforting circles on my back, “ I know you go back on Wednesday, but there’s nothing for you to stress over. I mea-”

I sat up, “I’m returning on Wednesday?”

“Yeah, Zak told me.”

“I am not going back to that hell.” I scoffed. Alpha Henny hadn’t even told me anything about it.

“You have to. You gotta finish the final for Art and there’s word goin’ round that we’re getting a new project for English.”

“Oh… didn’t Zak tell you? I’m going to be a high school dropout.”

“Ha. Over my dead white ass,” I began laughing and Robin went back to texting. “C’mon.” she patted my homework, “back to work.”

I nodded and tried to refocus.

After a few more minutes of doing math problems, or at least getting them wrong. Robin finally stopped texting Zak and turned on the television. Some show about teen mothers was on.

“You know what?” Robin called form beside me.

“I should let you copy my homework?”

“No—Yes, but we should go get a tattoo together.”

I stopped writing. I knew what tattoo she wanted to get. We had talked about it a few years ago.

Robin had a special relationship with her crazy neighbor, from her old neighborhood. She was a little old lady who liked to break off mid sentence and start speaking in Italian. And when she did, she would always say the same thing, “Fight for love.” Her name was Sarai

She was really close to Robin, until she passed away nearly five years ago, around the same time that her family began crumbling. Not too long after her death, Robin moved into this neighborhood and started attending the local school. That’s when she met me.

Robin never returned, not even to visit Sarai’s grave. One of her snobby granddaughters now owns her home, and all her belongings.

Countless times, has she told me that I remind her of that crazy old grandma.

“Sarai’s old saying?” I asked turning to look at her.

“Yeah, that should by my first and only.” After a moments thought she added, “well maybe not only.”

I smiled, “Sure… good luck telling Zak.”

“Please. He won’t give two fucks.”

I laughed inwardly, Zak is going to have a few heart attacks once he hears what she’s planning to do. I remembered about all the suicides and pushups he made me do yesterday.

“Actually, Robin, don’t tell him show him.”

She laughed wickedly, “great idea.”

What Zak deserves for pushing me past my limit when we train. No wait, the guys will flip when they hear what we are planning to do.

I shook my head and went back to work. We’ll cross that bridge once we come to it.

I finished my work, let Robin copy and helped her older sister make dinner before she drove me home. She was skeptical about leaving me in a big house full of men she didn’t know, but when I promised to see them both tomorrow they finally agreed to let me go.

*

Robins POV

My alarm clock started to do its annoying job. I groaned and slammed my hand down onto it, it stopped making noise immediately.

Fuck mornings.

Cursing at my alarm clock I got out of bed and went to take a shower. The hot water nearly singed my ass off. It looked cold outside so I slipped on some dark skinny jeans, my combat boots, and a light brown v-neck

While applying eyeliner, I checked my phone to see if Venus had called—she didn’t. I forgot that she had lost her phone. Or maybe someone hid it from her.

Ii shook that bad thought form my head. Neither the Colts’ nor the Andersons would to that to her… right?

While Venus may be gullible and somewhat innocent, she isn’t stupid.

Neither does she give out her trust to those who don’t deserve it.

I gently walked into my mom’s room. She was asleep somewhere underneath the avalanche of blankets—found her head. I kissed her bare forehead and told her to feel better; she mumbled something along the lines of a goodbye. I eyed the pills on her bedside table but I didn’t do anything about it as I tiptoed out of her room.

I’ve tried so many countless times before; trying one more time won’t make a difference. It just won’t.

It’ll only serve to put me in a worse mood than I already am.

I grabbed my leather jacket off the from the back of the couch, “Bye, Mayra! I’m off to hell.” I shouted at my older sister who was in the kitchen. She was supposed to be getting ready for class, and then work today.

She popped her head out, “Have fun!” she shouted back tossing a sandwich wrapped in plastic at me. I opened it and took a bite as I walked out the door to my car.

I own a shitty little Honda car. It’s this really ugly green color—the color of a June beetle. Sure, it may be ugly as fuck, but it gets me places. It’s my baby.

I sat in my car and blew hot air into my hands while I waited for its old ass to warm up. When it was time, I sped away—or tried to—to school. I was going to be there late.

I arrived and parked in my usual spot. Don’t get me wrong there isn’t assigned parking or some shit; I just always park there. Well, almost always. I started to make my way into the schools main building. I was walking up the stairs when I overhead a jocks comment.

“That gay kid Criss is gonna get it!”

He had whisper-yelled it at his friend as they ran towards the back of the building. What the hell? That’s usually the place where stoners hang out, or when a bully wants to kick the living shit out of someone. Criss. What the hell?

I began sprinting towards the back of the building. I ran past the jock who can’t whisper for shit and I saw the small circle of encouraging onlookers surrounding the tree. It wasn’t a big group, they were being somewhat discreet about this. I shoved my way into the circle. There was little Criss.

Getting the shit kicked out of him.

He was on the grassy dirt, but when he would push himself back up, this guy would shove him right back down with the end of his shoe. Another guy got down close to his head, grabbed a hand full of hair and yanked it up as he muttered something into his ear. Then he let go. Criss’ head slammed right back down onto the floor.

I swear to God I could feel the pain that he showed in his eyes.
I could fucking feel it.

Sure, I just met him, but the kids wormed his way into my heart.

Besides, any friend of Venus is a friend of mine. And that’s not a big number.

The guy lowered his head down to Criss’ head again. He was going to tell Criss some more hurtful things again—to bad my backpack crashing into his face interrupted him. There was a wave of ‘oohs’ as the guy straightened up and gave me the look of death.

“You better back the fuck up, and get the hell away from him!” I shouted at him.

Who did he think he was? Pushing around a tiny ass kid. Fuck, I didn’t even know who he is.

Criss stumbled, but he stood up, and ran into my arms. He barely made it. He was dirty and his legs were wobbly and his face tears stricken. I nearly choked him to death with the bear hug I gave him.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Robin fucking Rhodes, the chick that’s going to kick your fucking lame ass. Who the fuck are you?”

“Robin. Think through this.” I turned my head and saw that it was Danny speaking to me. Ah, so the baseball team has just arrived. Danny was a friend of mine, who’s also in the baseball team and by his getup I can safely say that he just got back from some early morning practice. He sits next to me in English and is witness to Ms. Charms cruelty.

He was a good friend.

“No.” a new voice came into the mix, “ let her do whatever she wants.”

It’s that stupid—how would Venus say it? Horrid—voice that could even make babies cry.

Kelsey.

“Bitch, you’re involved in this too?” I scoffed as I pushed Criss behind me. If Kelsey flung herself at me I didn’t want him to get in the way—or if I fucking yanked Kelsey’s hair off her huge ass head, I didn’t want him to fall down.

“Robin, don’t do this.” I could feel Danny grab onto my hand. When the hell did he get here?

“Not now.” I muttered and yanked my hand free.

“I would listen to him. You can’t afford another strike.” She said in a sing-song voice.

I clenched my fist.

“Ha- got you there Rhodes.” She smirked, “ besides, this wasn’t my idea.”

Yeah. I’ve had enough.

Oh, she’s getting something alright.

I turned to Danny, “Give me your bat.”

He looked confused at me, “What? No.”

“Give me your damn bat.” I said through gritted teeth.

“No, Robin. I won’t”

I turned to the guy next him, his teammate, “Hand it over.” I said motioning with my hand. He didn’t move, but he didn’t say no so I tugged it out of his hands, ”thanks.” I muttered turning back to Kelsey and the asshole of a bully.

“Robin, what are you do-” the screams from the people around me drowned out his voice—I was raising the bat, preparing to swing.