The classroom was buzzing with students as they hung around each other’s lockers, they gist about God knows what in their rising voices. This could be nothing but youthful exuberance at its peak. Colors and styles of different clothes, mainly the trendy ones are all seen on their bodies, thus giving the classroom a colorful look. Trendy Gadgets, accessories, and jewelry mare their ears, and hands, it shows that they are indeed acting their age.

Suddenly a teacher appears. At this moment, he is invisible to everyone, well until he slams a book on the table and most of them jump.

“Listen up guys, the science fair will be coming up next weekend. You will be tasked to create something new, like an invention of your imagination.” Immediately the students start to grumble.

“Quiet everyone. Now is the time to be creative. You will be split into 5 groups. Listen attentively as the next name you will hear will be that of you and your group members.

For group 1, these are your names”

The teacher trails off, calling out a litany of names. Ava just stared on, body present absent-minded. She was in a world of her own until she heard the teacher call out her name.

“ Ava waters, Hallie Baldwin, Celia Duke, Alex Sawyer, Dexter Ruffle, Derick Alonzo, Logan woods and finally Damian Kruger”

At the mention of Damian, heads turned towards his direction, girls especially. They stared on with dreamy eyes. Ava tried to behave like she didn’t care but who was she kidding. She didn’t know why it irritated her when the girls were boring holes into Damian with their eyes. She also couldn’t believe that she was in the same group as this guy. She looked over her shoulders and stole a glance at him. Damn! He was hot. This could have been the first time she was noticing how visually attractive he was if she wasn’t stealing glancing at home the first and second time she saw him. She had to give it to God because he had done some real work of art where Damian was. In that short moment, she noticed that the color of his eyes was as dark as sin, and that was why his Stare was intense. There was something about his eyes that could make someone’s brain go on a walk. He wasn’t an Adonis per se but he could give an Adonis a run for his money. He had average arm muscles, combined with his height, his body physique said just one thing…. Masculinity. He had a too slender nose, that defined his facials and full plump lips that begged to be kissed. His looks were obvious even to the blind. You would have to be an incorrigible liar if you do not see how visually appealing he was. They walked with an air of pride and subtlety of humility. He was fine and he knew it.

Ava knew that it was time for her to stop ogling but her curiosity won that battle. She wondered what kind of person, Damian was. What if he was nice? As if on cue to answer her question, Damian raised his head and caught her staring. Busted!

He had a blatant smirk on his face. Ava turned immediately. Her cheeks were on fire. He wasn’t nice, she thought… he was unapologetically cocky. And that thought left a frown on Ava's face.

From a young age, Damian had learned to be independent. Even his aunt and uncle had his back, he always felt that he was alone. His early experience didn’t avail him the warmth of a mother nor the words from a father. 21 years ago, while Damian was just learning his first words, the life of his parents was snatched away from him right before his eyes. He lost his parents in a brutal fight with the flawless pack. History has it that the dauntless and the flawless pack were allies but suddenly they had bad blood between them. This was because a young dauntless was kidnapped and killed by a flawless. This caused a rift between the two packs and they went to war. Meanwhile, Damian’s father who was the alpha of the dauntless pack was attacked at home a day after the battle. He and his wife everyone pointed fingers at the flawless but then they denied it.

You know a lot changes in you when you see your loved ones get killed and worse off when you just couldn’t do anything asides from looking, screaming, and crying, and that was the same with Damian. So ever since then, Damian became Damian. Cold, brutal, and heartless. 3 years ago when it was time for his transitioning, he did it so well that he was made an alpha immediately. Damn! He ruled with such authority and prestige, that even his enemies copied and admired his style of leadership. Damian was calm and collected but you know what they always say, still waters run deep. He was born an Alpha.

For the greatest part of his life, all he ever wanted was to wipe out the entire flawless pack. His revenge has been cooking for years and it was almost done. He has been doing a thorough background check on the flawless, ever since he was old enough. He knew the elders in their pack by name and he could draw a map of their dwelling in his sleep. He knew their alphas, how strong they were, and the heir alphas. When he found that Marcel had a daughter, he fantasized about how killing the flawless will be a piece of cake. He studied Ava closely, he was like a shadow to her. He knew every freaking thing about Ava down to her favorite underwear. In his search into Ava’s life, he felt some sort of admiration for this young lady. She was like a mixture of fire and ice. She was kind, funny, fun to be with, selfless and above all she was brave. She had all the qualifications that in his mind she was already an Alpha. With or without ruling a pack. But there was a problem, he was meant to be hating her but here was admiring her. No wonder he rescued her when she went missing.

He tried to fight off the admiration he had for her. At last, he did. It turned into hate. He hated her so much but he didn’t know that hate was love turned inside out. On the first day, he transferred to Ava’s school, he just couldn’t believe that Ava would be so beautiful. Indeed she looked better upfront. When he noticed she was holding her breath in class, he smiled. He loved the emotion he elicited from her, raw undiluted fear. And as far as he was concerned he wasn’t going to make her feel anything but that.

Ava stepped into the sitting room and she almost tripped. Reginald, her group leader had decided that the 13 of them would meet in his house and discuss.

“Sorry! “ she yelled. She threw the word like it was a dirty cloth across the room. Then she continued with what she and the guy was doing.

On the floor was the school bag of a female student, who had just dropped it there to make out with her boyfriend. Ava was about to yell back to her and her boyfriend to go get a room when she was interrupted.

“Hey, Ava! What are you doing there “ Celia called out.

“ Yeah you standing like you are glued to that spot, come on the meeting is about to start, don’t mind those guys,” Hallie said.

“ Hey guys, it seems like we came a bit too early”. She said while making a face at Owen and Stephanie swapping saliva on the couch.

“Yeah we are early because we have Logan, Dexter, Alex, Derick, and Damian in our group” Celia squealed while fanning herself with her hands

“ You got that right C, Damian, and his hot friends plus Daisy and her 2 minions is a lot for a group”. Hallie chipped in.

“Guys come let’s deal with this shit Stephanie, Owen please get a room or you join in the meeting”

“Reginald but everyone is not here,” Celia said.

“ So who is not here?” he asked scanning the faces of his classmates.

“. Emm, Daisy, Penelope, Gracey, Alex, Logan, Derick, Dexter, and Dami–“ and the door opened.

“ Speak of the devils” Celia muttered.

They all walked in calmly until Daisy arrived with her friends. They talked to her on a non-stop radio. Whispering and giggling while staring at Damian and his friends. Alex was the first to speak.

“So what are we doing in this nerd’s house?” he said staring at Reginald as he would stare at a boring Newspaper. As he said that, Reginald went red in the face.

“ if you do not want to flunk some of your courses, you would rather be here,” Hallie said glaring at him.

Finally, the meeting started with Reginald after they might a few cuss words. It didn’t last long because Daman kept yawning and he finally left the house. His friends followed suit. Ava and her friends were about to leave when Dexter opened the door. He said he forgot his phone and went to pick in the chair that he sat, beside Ava. He got his phone and turned to leave and suddenly he bumped into Ava. He apologized, but Ava didn’t move. She perceived the scent of her perfume and froze. He waved his hands in front of her before she replied to him before he left. She pretended as if everything was okay but she knew she had perceived that scent before. She tried to remember where but it felt like her brain had gone in a recess leaving her behind. She said a hasty goodbye to her Friends and went room. Her friends kept asking her if everything was okay but she didn’t say. She drove like a maniac, it was a miracle she wasn’t pulled over by the police. When she got home, she ran to her room and started to go through her laundry basket. She emptied its content on the floor but she still couldn’t find what she was looking for. Then suddenly she remembered. She put her hands underneath her bed and saw them. She sniffed them immediately and it was the exact scent from earlier when she bumped into Dexter. There and then, she knew that Marcus had been lying all along.

His hands were warm.

She says this because he snakes one around her waist and uses the other to pin her hands above her head. She holds her breath and her heartbeat so fast that she thought he could hear. He stares intently at her and she fluttered her eyelashes. The way he looks at her rips apart her clothes. In his eyes, she is nobody but herself. He looks at her like he knows her more than she knows herself. She blushed bright red that she could be mistaken for a tomato that talks. Ducking her head to evade his stares doesn’t deter him because he uses the tip of his fingers and tilts her face up. Trying to remove his hands around her is as useless as telling a turtle to move faster because just then, he tightened his grip. It feels like his hands are meant to be there.

“Please,” she says. Her voice is husky and it comes out in a whisper that she doesn’t recognize it's hers. She knows what she’s begging for. Not that she hated it. Just that she wouldn’t be able to escape or resist this time around, because she knows she wants it too badly even.

“Ava.” He says.

His voice is low, sexy, and dead smoky. He stared deep into her eyes and at her lips. Lowering her gaze had her staring at pink plump lips that begged for hers. Flickering her eyes from his eyes to his lips gave her dizzy spells because his gaze was on her lips.