Page 100 of Plug and Drain

It was as if a chasm had opened up between them, one that she had no idea how to bridge.

He did not look well. The ghostly pallor was unsettling, and his movements felt too careful as he shut the jewellery case and stowed it in his coat. Something desperate flashed in the depths of his sad eyes.

“And I cannot tempt you?”

“You’ve already offered me everything I thought I wanted,” Susie said grimly. “And I’m fully aware that there’s nothing stopping you from forcing me to be your pet and doing whatever it is you want to me.” They both winced at her words, but she ploughed on. “But if you’re truly giving me a choice…”

“I am,” Arken confirmed.

“Then I’m afraid I cannot accept you.”

As she was speaking, the door to the corridor creaked open.

“Err…not good timing?” Harry asked, leaning against the frame.

Sarah was right at his elbow, and more members of their pack were visible beyond the doorway.

Susie was suddenly conscious of how close she and Arken were standing. Close enough to hold hands. Close enough to lean in and kiss.

I cannot accept you.

She took a quick step back, grimacing. It was clear the entire pack had heard what she’d said to Arken.

“May I go?” she asked him.

Arken cast a haunted expression over her. “I won’t stop you.”

Susie had not expected him to look so sad. She felt the urge to stay. To console him. To talk to him until he looked a little less unhappy.

She thought better of it. She hurried down the aisle of desks and exited the classroom, pausing once in the doorway to look back at Arken.

He hadn’t moved an inch, and his back was to her as he stood staring at the spot where she’d been mere seconds ago.

Susie felt torn by a feeling she could not explain. It was pulling her back, luring her to go to Arken and …

And do what?

Talk to him? Accept his proposal?

Or simply be near him?

And why did she have the urge to hug him when he wanted to reduce her to be his play thing?

She hurried away with her pack, too afraid to know the answers.

“What was all that about?” Harry asked as he limped beside her. He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Because it looked to me as if you just rejected the Headmaster of Volmasque Academy.”

“He asked me to be his pet,” Susie said in a low voice, even though she knew the rest of the pack following them could hear.

“And you said no?” Sarah asked, half a step behind them.

“And I said no.”

Harry let out a low whistle. “No shit? Well, let’s just hope Arken’s the forgiving kind.”

Susie’s thoughts immediately went to the steel pike erected outside the school entrance. The one he’d apparently once impaled a teacher on. How would Arken react? He’d been shocked in the moment, but she had no doubt there would be consequences for her.

What she hadn’t considered was the fact that he could make life very difficult for her pack.