THE THREE MOONS PACK

4. A week is short. Or not

I hated the gym.

It was my least favourite class.

Sweating in old jogging pants, soaking in other people’s sweat… Running after a ball as hard as a concrete block… Mhmm.

Yes, I hated it. Sport and I had a mutual dislike.

Today was volleyball—thank God, not basketball—even if it meant choosing between two evils...

Although, I almost ran back into the locker room, claiming the sacrosanct painful menstruation. This is enough to make our lives miserable, however, it’s useful from time to time (other than for procreation in the very distant future).

Koran.

Sir Mountain of Muscles. He was bigger than everyone, arms folded on his chest, undoubtedly highlighted by an immaculate white tank top.

The sports teacher left him, and another student, nicknamed Pat, I think, to coach the teams.

So I found myself in a situation that I considered painful: being chosen by him and lowering the level of his team or in the opposing team to eventually become his target.

“The puppy!” he growled, igniting me with his chocolaty eyes.

I flinched as all the heads turned to me.

What was he doing picking me?

And it was humiliating to have a nickname like that. Despite the fear he inspired in me, I glared at him.

Suddenly, the atmosphere became very strange.

The students parted, leaving us face to face, in a silent duel.

Koran didn’t blink, on the contrary, he looked deeper into my eyes and I felt a mental pressure to bend my knees and bend my spine. As if he could put me to the ground by the sheer force of his eyes.

And I resisted. I sweated almost in drops, at the risk of resembling a soggy human mess.

Something even stranger happened.

The teenager’s upper lip curled into a funny smile and I almost thought I heard a kind of growl coming out of his chest. A dull sound, a thousand times more powerful than his eyes.

I gasped before I fell, squatting, keeping my eyes glued to his.

An invisible wave of burning air surrounded me, much like Erwan, on my first day. Yet in a different way.

Suddenly, he ran at me like a cannonball, and although I was brave, now I only aspired to one thing: to merge with the ground because he was so frighteningly angry.

Without Mr Peters, our teacher, intervening, Koran grabbed me by the collar before dragging me into the locker room.

At this point, he pushed me violently against the wall, then furiously punched it, a few wretched centimetres from my face.

The teenager with a much too adult physique breathed loudly, glowing eyes staring at my stupid person.

“You i***t!” he said in a heavy voice. “Can you imagine what you have just provoked?”

No, I had no idea, I just let myself be overwhelmed by a need for senseless rebellion.

“No... no,” I stammered, to confirm the rest of my thoughts.

“Do you know what you are forcing me to do?”

All I could do was shake my head, as a negative answer. I could barely swallow properly, so asking me to say one word, forget about it.

“i***t,” Koran murmured before placing his lips on mine.

In shock, I kept my eyes open.

But with my mouth closed.

What was this general delirium? Were they all repressed lechers?

Nor did he lower his eyelids out of pure provocation. Or an even less charitable feeling towards me.

What was going on in his mind? I was trying to decipher the unfathomable mirror that his eyes sent back to me.

My lack of cooperation wasn't appreciated.

Koran growled.

Once again, this sound forced me irrationally to give in. He felt it immediately and his hands grabbed my waist roughly to turn me around, face against the wall.

Then, he unceremoniously lifted my ponytail and lowered the collar of my T-shirt...

And bit me!

This crazy bastard had just sunk his teeth in my skin!

Not to mention the pain, my knees gave way in a second and the teenager let me fall without even stopping me.

Air hissed between his teeth.

“Let things be clear, I don’t love you. You forced me to reaffirm my dominant status. Go home. It’s normal for you to feel empty,” he added after a short pause.

Tears rolled down my cheeks without me noticing. Head down, I stared at the tiled floor without really seeing it.

I didn’t understand what had happened. However, a certainty was inscribed in my flesh: I had submitted to the authority of this human bulldozer.

I hated Koran from the depths of my being.

And I refused to admit that dark part of myself which had dared to appreciate this deplorable submission.

In my room, I pitifully tried to study for exams. Defeated, I angrily threw my pen on the desk.

The locker room scene went back and forth in my mind.

Koran had bitten me.

And this bite had flattened me like a sledgehammer. Reduced my ego to the state of a lifeless mollusc.

My reaction wasn’t normal.

Except if my behaviour fell under clinical insanity, that is. Given the local natives, we can understand it. But I pretended to believe myself, until today... no, until I arrived in this town, sane in body and spirit.

Furious ringing on the doorbell interrupted my thoughts.

The beating of my heart thundered. What if I didn’t answer?

In no way discouraged by my silence, my surprise guest was now attacking the bell. At this rate, he or she would pierce my eardrums with the shrill noise.

Although it pained me, I went down the stairs quickly and decided to open it.

Barely opened, instinctively, I slammed the door in my visitor’s face. Koran didn’t bother with politeness and reopened it forcefully, causing me to take several steps back.

He had changed his sports outfit for a black T-shirt and jeans.

This colour reinforced his terrifying appearance. And the unforgiving expression of his face didn't soften it.

“Above all, don’t hesitate to make yourself at home,” I said, cursing myself for being scared.

He glanced around.

“My father’s not here... and you’re lucky he’s away! Not sure he’d appreciate the fact that a lunatic like you is having fun biting his only daughter in the middle of gym class!”

His smile is cruel.

“I know he’s not here. I would have smelled him.”

What was he trying to make me believe? That he possessed the smell of a dog?

Koran sat carelessly on one of the leather armchairs in the living room and pointed to the one opposite with his chin. In the pure spirit of contradiction, I crossed my arms to show my intention to stand.

He responded with a wild smile.

“We need to talk. Leirigh will be back in a few days and I don’t want today’s incident to happen again in their presence. I’m the Alpha of Bhrean, and whether I like it or not, you’re one of us. To put it simply: you rebel or question my authority just once and...”

My hair bristled with fury.

He easily perceived my anger, his milk-chocolate look became as dark as the delicious eighty per cent squares of raw cocoa.

“Don’t provoke me, Elizabeth,” he said with the now-familiar growling voice.

I forbid myself to mentally appreciate my name in his mouth.

“Or what? I don’t want to be part of your... gang. Leave me alone and I’ll return the courtesy.”

His eyelids narrowed, then I saw a nerve twitching his jaw.

“If only that were possible... You're a Bhrean. The full moon is near so get used to the idea and submit. Otherwise, what will happen may not please you.”

An almost hysterical laugh came out of my mouth.

“Am I supposed to understand your gibberish, Koran?”

The teenager quivered as I pronounced his first name. Somehow it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one who was destabilized when one pronounced the name of the other.

Koran’s fingers planted themselves in the arms of the chair, whitening his knuckles.

Instinctively, I took a step back.

My escape attempt didn’t go unnoticed, and I sincerely thought I awoke a terrible thing in my surprise guest.

“Stop immediately,” he ordered me in a voice from beyond the grave.

Instead of obeying wisely, my legs trembled and with no regard for anybody else disobeyed him with a few extra steps.

“I said stop!” shouted Koran, suddenly furious.

It sounded like he was trying to control himself without completely succeeding.

“I can’t help it, you scare me,” I whispered, eyes wide.

His chest began to rise quickly.

“Stupid girl,” he murmured, more to himself than to me.

With slowness and flexibility, Koran got up from the chair. Despite the rather smooth movement, it was clear that excessively taking his time helped him, in a way, to calm down.

Without letting go of my eyes, he straightened up to his full height.

“Lie on the floor.”

“Sorry?!” I cried in a shrill voice.

“Just do it or the situation will become very complicated."

My mind was screaming at me to lock myself in my room, but there was a kind of instinct to give in to him.

“Why?” I asked weakly.

The carnivorous smile that I had seen on him at the gym made its appearance again.

“Because you’re not damn prey. Your ignorant attitude sends exactly the opposite signals. And take my word for it, we need to rectify the situation immediately. So you shut up, lie down and rest assured... I won’t hurt you.”

He was crazy.

Completely deranged.

I hear it’s best to play along with a lunatic, just to live to your next birthday.

I lay down on the living room floor, praying for my father’s quick return.

Koran came closer to me, taking his time. I could hear him breathing hard as if he were sniffing the air.

“Turn on your side, one leg bent on the floor, the other slightly raised.”

This position was simply amoral. Even immoral. I thanked the heavens for wearing jeans and not a skirt.

I barely held a cry of surprise when Koran dropped over me. Palms against the tiles, on each side of my face.

He plunged his nose into my neck, inhaling strongly before sinking his teeth in the soft flesh where my vein throbbed.

Less violently than at our last altercation, just a slight pressure. For the show, shall we say, and not with real violence?

A kind of inhuman rumble came out of his throat, but the sound emerged from a much deeper place.

I was motionless, eyes wide with fear, then a thing awoke in me.

To answer him and in a non-verbal way, or even without gestures.

Koran stiffened slightly, without removing his mouth or releasing me from his grip, on the contrary, I felt his canines sink a little more. Did he feel it too?

The horrible feeling of no longer being alone in my body grew and demanded this guy’s indulgence. I wanted to throw up. At least, my mind felt nauseous.

My body, it... was a real traitor. Passive, as if what was happening was normal.

I uttered a pathetic squeak without even recognizing my voice.

Only then did he free me from the grip of his teeth.

To do something even more unexpected: he gave me long licks on the marks left by his fangs. As if... if he wanted to be forgiven.

I didn’t want to be attracted to Koran. Just as I didn’t want my boiling hormones to appreciate Erwan’s attention. But I had to face reality: both troubled me. Differently, of course.

My wish to be insensitive to both couldn’t be granted for some mysterious reason.

After a last indecent rub and with a last lick, Koran rose from the floor and moved towards the exit.

While I sincerely believed that he would leave without a word, he stopped in the doorway, without turning around.

“For both of us, I hope you’ll not rebel against my authority. Don’t act like prey, puppy, or you’ll become one.”

With that, he slammed the door violently.

As for me, I cried with rage, swearing to never approach this bunch of despicable lunatics again.