CHAPTER 294: DID YOU EAT VAL OUT?

****************

Chapter 294

~Valerie’s POV~

I groaned a little loudly. "I swear, if either of you opens your mouth, I will hex your lockers shut with your heads inside."

Emerald stiffened beside me, clearly taking my threat half-seriously, but Isla, on the other hand, just grinned like the wicked little minx she was.

Her eyes sparkled with unspoken mischief, and her grip on my arm tightened, a signal that she was not done with me yet.

She was devious, and the heat crawling up my neck already gave me away.

"You’re not running," she whispered under her breath just as I tried to move away.

"I’m not running," I muttered back. "I’m surviving."

But then...

"Valerie," a familiar voice called behind me.

Shit.

I stiffened again.

Xade had walked up closer to us.

I turned slowly—too slowly—and there he was, looking way too smug for someone who supposedly had no idea what I was going through.

He approached us with that lazy confidence that made my knees threaten mutiny. His blue eyes flicked from Isla to Emerald before settling on me.

"Hey," he greeted casually.

"Hey," I echoed, a little too tight-lipped.

"Just about to leave?" he asked, eyes trailing down briefly like he was undressing me with just his thoughts.

"I... yeah. I need to... go somewhere."

"Where?"

Now that was a question I didn’t have an answer for. "Somewhere..." I repeated, already turning to flee.

But Isla, chaos incarnate, held my hand back and turned with a wide smile. "Xade," she said sweetly. Too sweetly.

He raised a brow, amused. "Yes?"

"Did you by any chance have an early breakfast this morning?"

I froze. My blood turned to ice. Where was she going with this??

I spun back to her, glaring daggers. "Isla."

But she wasn’t done. "I mean..." She grinned. "Did you eat Val out? You know, go down on her."

I choked on my saliva.

Literally.

My body jerked in surprise, and a strangled cough escaped my throat as I looked at her, mortified. "ISLA!"

Emerald gasped beside me, her jaw dropping and then slowly turning into a cackle as she covered her mouth.

Xade just... smiled. That dangerous, heart-thudding kind of smile that didn’t confirm anything, but made you feel like he knew everything.

"I didn’t know..." he began slowly, his eyes locked on me, "...she dreams of me intimately like this."

I covered my face with both hands.

He took a step closer. Then another. Until I could smell the faint hint of pine and dark amber that clung to his skin.

Leaning in so that only I could hear, his lips brushed the shell of my ear as he whispered,

"I’m jealous."

I froze. Breath caught.

"So jealous of your midnight lover," he continued, voice low, silken, dangerous. "I wish I were the one, Val. I really do. Because I’d enjoy eating you out till you cum endlessly on my tongue and writhe underneath me."

My thighs pressed together involuntarily.

"But I wouldn’t stop there," he murmured, his lips grazing just below my ear now. "Because what you do to me... requires more. Much more. Punishment. Pleasurable punishment. The kind where you’re screaming, moaning, begging—for more, not mercy."

My nails dug into my palms as my heart practically exploded inside my chest.

"I’d do that in a heartbeat," he whispered. "If I could."

He pulled back, smiling like nothing had just happened. Like he hadn’t just whispered filth into my ear in broad daylight.

I was still rooted in place when Isla leaned over with a smirk. "So..." she whispered loudly. "Is it still a maybe?"

Emerald was already giggling uncontrollably.

"I hate you both," I muttered, fanning myself.

Xade winked at me, then turned and sauntered off down the hall like he didn’t just shatter my ability to function.

And I... I had no clue if I should be scared of the dream I had or scared that maybe, just maybe... It wasn’t a dream after all.

I managed to escape those two and just shut myself in the library a bit before coming outside later and heading for my locker to pick some of my textbooks.

A tap on my shoulder made me turn—and groan inwardly.

Dristan.

"You okay?" he asked, calmly, but those sharp eyes scanned me with alarming precision. "You look like you didn’t sleep a wink after our conversation at night."

"Glad we can still call what happened a conversation."

"It was what it was. So could you sleep or..."

I forced a smile. "Maybe I didn’t."

He narrowed his eyes. "Rough night?"

I nodded slowly as my heart picked up speed.

If Dristan found out what had happened to me. Be it a dream or not, who knows what else would happen.

"Just the usual heat stuff," I mumbled.

He didn’t seem convinced, but thankfully, he didn’t press. Instead, he leaned closer until his lips nearly grazed my ear. "You smell... different."

I stiffened.

He pulled back, watching me with suspicion that made my skin crawl.

I could sense the hesitation. He was trying his best not to do something and I was guessing last night effect hadn’t worn off either.

"Anyway. See you at training. I’m sure you saw we moved it to evenings during the last period to avoid the strain on students. Principal Whitmore and I had an early morning discussion on it."

"Yeah, I got the notification."

I nodded as my mind processed the reason why he had left on time for school.

"Okay, bye."

And then he was gone. I exhaled slowly, not sure if he hadn’t smelt my arousal instead.

I turned around, and took a quickly glance at Dristan’s retreating figure when I locked eyes with Xade instead.

He winked at me from across the hall.

I cursed silently.

Today was going to be anything but normal.

Successfully, I escaped some of the tension surrounding that day and the heat Astra tried so much to suppress until the close of school after our training session.

Ding.

I took out my phone from my trousers pocket and clicked on it when I got a message from Kai asking me to meet him up in their classroom before I left for school.

I didn’t think much about it until I arrived and as soon as I entered, I smelt trouble.

All the unique scents of my mates assaulted my nost

rils, kicking my heat into over drive and the mate bond’s pull worsened.