Fallen Crest Alternative Version

Mason held my gaze steady. He was always steady, too steady. I wanted to rattle him, but he folded his arms and sighed. “You threw her against a wall. She was pissed.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t throw her against a wall. She came at me and I pushed her back. It wasn’t how it seemed.” My chest kept heaving up and down. I clenched and unclenched my fists. I felt like a caged animal.

Mason murmured, “You need to calm down.”

I closed my eyes and forced myself to let out a deep breath. I did. I knew I did, but my mom—everything hit me and I sank down onto my couch. I caught my head in my hands. “Oh my god. I can’t believe I went after Kate.”

He snorted. “Don’t worry about it. She respects that stuff. Trust me.”

I still groaned. I didn’t respect that, no matter how thrilling it felt at times. I crumpled to the couch and raked my hands through my hair. “What is going on with me? I feel like I’m crazy and it hasn’t even been a day.”

Mason chuckled and sat beside me. He lifted me so I was turned towards him and straddled his waist. I let out a deep breath and rested my forehead against his. As his hands slid up my legs, he murmured, “It’s your mom. Makes sense. I’d go crazy too.”

A hard laugh ripped from me. “You’d handle her differently than me. You’d tell her to screw off or something.”

“Yeah, but it’d be hard.”

My eyes caught his and I read the sincerity behind his words. I pulled back an inch. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I love my mom and dad, but I can’t let them control my life. If they did, I’d be damned. My folks aren’t the most healthy, you know.”

Another shuddering breath left me. Oh, I knew. I knew too much. Then I closed my eyes as an image of David flashed in my mind. He had seemed so lost when we stood in the house, when he admitted that he hadn’t touched his living room in five and a half months.

It’d been almost six months. They had separated six months ago.

Pain flared inside of me and I choked back a lump. “Does it always happen this fast?”

“Does what?”

“Change.” The word tasted so odd on my tongue. “It wasn’t that long ago when we moved in and now the divorce is almost done, my mom’s planning her new wedding.” David has a girlfriend. He hadn’t changed anything in the house. What did that mean?

Then Logan poked his head around the door. He relaxed as he saw us and swung through the door with a cocky grin on his face. “I wasn’t sure if you two would be knocking boots.”

“We don’t always do that.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, right. Sorry, Sam. I know you want to think you’re not in the relationship just for the sex, but you are. It’s downhill once you stop bumping uglies.”

Mason’s mouth curved into a smooth grin as he leaned back against the couch. His hands left my legs to spread out on the back of the couch. “What do you want?”

The teasing light switched. Logan grew serious and he perched on the arm of our couch. “The girls are gone. So’s everyone else.”

Mason tensed beneath me again. “How bad?”

“Bad.”

I glanced between the two. “You’re talking about how mad the girls are?”

They shared another look before Logan’s grin turned apologetic. “Yeah, sorry, Sam. They’re really pissed. They don’t care that you’re with us. When those girls get on a mission, they’re out of our control.”

Mason let loose a low chuckle. “Ah hell, she was ready to take them all on down there. Maybe it won’t be that bad.”

Logan’s eyes went wide and my heart sank. It would be that bad. Even Mason’s chuckle faded abruptly as he realized what he said.

I groaned and tipped my forehead into his chest. His arms came around me. “This is like my fight with the Elite all over again.”

“Those girls don’t kick ass.”

“Thanks, Logan, for pointing that out.” I glared at him.

He shrugged. “Why do you think we’re friends with them? They’re tough bitches. On that note, I’m gonna head over to Natalie’s. She was giving me the look tonight and from the show downstairs, my dick’s hard.”

I bit back another groan. Mason’s chest shook as he laughed.

When the door shut from Logan’s departure, I crawled off and went to my closet. Mason sighed from behind me. “You’re going running?”

I hadn’t realized that was my intention, but the running pants in my fingers dropped. There was a treadmill downstairs, but it felt wrong. I didn’t know why, but it was wrong to leave him at that moment. I turned around and choked out, “I was. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t.”

He rose and his grin turned seductive. Heat flooded between my legs and I went blind with my need. It was instant, it was addictive, and it scared me at times. Then he picked me up, carried me to the bed, and everything melted away. It seemed forever until he sank inside of me.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Mason stayed with me the rest of the night and drove me to school the next morning. Analise and James had spent the night in the city and I was relieved to find out they’d be there for the rest of the week. When I got to school, it took me until second period to learn from Emily that everyone was buzzing about the riot at the Fallen Crest High’s basketball game on Friday and the mob scene at the party on Saturday. When she asked how Mason and Logan were, I shrugged. They were always fine, but I knew she was hungry for more information. Everyone was. I caught the glances and the looks the rest of the week. It was different from when I had become part of the Elite. They had accepted that transition, but this time the attention made me uncomfortable.