Chapter 247
247
247
Anyone foolish enough to provoke Carmen always ended up as her personal punching bag.
If Riley’s nature was pure and unyieldingly kind, Carmen was her perfect opposite-pure venom, honed cruelty wrapped in a deceptively human shell. She moved through the cafeteria with the lethal stride of a predator, her dominance so tangible that the three girls passing by her froze mid-step. They plastered on saccharine smiles, but Carmen didn’t so much as glance at them, gliding past without a flicker of acknowledgment.
Only after she disappeared through the doors did the trio release shaky breaths, exchanging wide-eyed glances. They knew the truth of her nature better than anyone. Once, she used to put on a sweet façade outside the dorms. Now, she didn’t bother hiding the wolf beneath the skin.
Those two idiots who had poked her today? They’d practically begged to be hunted.
A short while later, Carmen pushed open the door to the Principal’s office, not bothering to knock. She strolled inside with the insolence of an alpha walking into her own den, dropping into the couch like she owned it.
“I just beat up three girls in the cafeteria,” she said flatly, her gaze as cold as moonlit snow. “They might come whining to you soon. You know what to do.”
The Principal’s stomach knotted at the sight of her. Were it not for the noose she’d strung around his neck, he would have thrown her out long ago. But now, with his secrets-his sordid affairs with a student- curled in her claws, all he could do was bare his teeth in a weak smile.
“Don’t worry, Carmen. I know.”
“Good,” she smirked, sharp and humorless. “Then I’ll leave the clean-up to you.”
He kept that false smile plastered on his face until she was gone. Only then did his expression curdle into misery. Damn Kael Vale. If he’d known Carmen would become this much of a thorn, he never would have taken his bribe and schemed to expel her over ‘conduct violations.’ Kael had changed his mind at the last minute, and now here he was-collared by a wolf in human form.
Half an hour later, just as Carmen predicted, three battered girls came storming in to demand justice. The Principal took one look at their tear-streaked, noodle-smeared faces, and his simmering frustration boiled over. He slammed a palm onto his desk and unleashed a tirade so loud it shook the windows. The girls stood frozen, blinking through their tears, unable to fathom why the supposed victims were being flayed alive instead of comforted.
Carmen left campus with her temper still smoldering, every passerby looking like prey in her eyes. She was halfway to deciding where to cool her head when the roar of an engine split the air.
A sleek black motorcycle screeched to a stop in front of her, the scent of gasoline and adrenaline mingling with the driver’s wild, untamed alpha musk. The man dismounted with the easy arrogance of someone who’d never lost a fight, tugging off his helmet to reveal unruly hair and a smirk that carried the sting of
mischief.
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247
“Carmen,” Jace Hale greeted, voice pitched low like a wolf coaxing another into trouble.
Her gaze was cool, indifferent. “What do you want?”
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Jace had originally been sent by his father to bring Carmen to the Hale estate, but plans had shifted. A call from his friends had pulled him toward something more exciting-a street race, with the added bait that his ex, the oh-so-perfect Selene Ashford, would be there.
Selene Ashford. The female who had dared to dump him.
It wasn’t love that had driven him to drink after the breakup; it was pride. An alpha’s pride. And it burned. Now, he had a plan. If he brought Carmen-sharp, dangerous Carmen-it would sting Selene’s ego and salve his own.
“I’m headed to a race,” he said, leaning casually on the handlebars. “Come with me.”
“Not interested.”
She turned to leave, but his voice caught her. “What’ll it take to change your mind?”
Carmen paused mid-step, one brow lifting. “Money.”
That one million she’d been denied still left a sour taste. She needed new prey to bleed, and Jace was ripe for the taking.
“How much?” he asked, already grinning.
“How much are you willing to give?”
“That depends on your performance,” he replied smoothly. “Act as my girlfriend tonight, and I’ll give you ten grand. How’s that?”
Ten thousand in one night. Easy prey, easy kill.
Carmen’s lips curled-not in a smile, but in the kind of expression a wolf makes when it scents blood on the wind.
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