Salvatore Boarding School Gym

Rafael's Diary Entry

"I only beat Jed to become the Alpha so that Landon could stay," I responded. " He is my pack, and since he's leaving, so am I. I'm sorry for kissing Josie and taking advan..."

"You didn't take advantage of me," Lizzie cut me off, visibly irritated, although she rolled her eyes. "Girls are sexual beings too, you know? We like sex as much as boys do and we use it to relieve stress too. There's a whole science behind it.

"But here's the thing, I wouldn't mind if you took advantage of me, but when it comes to Josie, I do mind, especially when you use me to get back at her."

"I didn't use you to get back at her," I denied the accusation. "You're both actually the initiators of the kisses I've shared with you."

That seemed to surprise Lizzie, but not enough to stop her from reaching for her clothes and I followed suit.

"When did you two kiss?" She asked, sitting down after she was fully dressed while I put on my shirt.

"Does it matter?" I inquired, joining her on the mat after wearing my shirt. "It happened but it's very unlikely that it'll happen again."

"Of course, it matters!" Replied Lizzie, like it truly mattered. "Josie never initiates anything, so if she kissed you first, she really likes you. Oh my god! I - I thought Pen-Evil was talking about herself, but she was talking about you."

I assumed Pen-Evil was Josie's ex girlfriend Penelope Park, but I was totally confused about what Lizzie was talking about, hence I asked:

"What are you talking about?"

"Why did you kiss Josie back?" Lizzie asked, instead.

"I - er," I-I wasn't sure. "It would have been awkward if I didn't and it was the only way she could siphon my - uh - werewolf magic? And get us untangled from the giant spider web at the Old Mill."

"What were you doing out there?" She followed up with suspicion in her eyes.

"Jed didn't like that I refused to join the pack," I explained, reminded that I owed him a beating. Two beatings, actually. "So he figured a beating would convince me and ganged up on me with some of his mindless followers. Josie came to my rescue, I left for the Old Mill to blow off some steam and she followed me.

"I don't know how she did it, but she somehow calmed me down, and then we saw the giant spider web, investigated and ended up stuck in it. She needed to power up; we were entangled, along with our hands, so we had to improvise."

"By kissing?" Lizzie questioned.

I stood up to pace.

"Look, it happened and now we're here," I said, getting a little irritated. "What did Penelope say?"

"It doesn't matter what the Evil Witch said," she replied, eyes cast down on. I noticed an undertone of sadness in her voice and body language, along with anger. "You're going to be Josie's date tomorrow."

"Excuse me?" I stopped pacing to look at her, thinking that I must have been hearing things.

"You're going to take Josie to my - our - birthday party tomorrow as her date instead of me," Lizzie stated loud and clear as she stood up, no hint of sadness in her voice, and she stood taller than she has since I walked into the gym. Something seemed to have shifted with my question. "And you're going to make it the best night of her life."

"Why would I do that after she voted for Landon to be sent away?" I questioned.

If anything, I had reason to make tomorrow the worst night of Josie's life.

"You said that I didn't break our deal and that you will keep your word," Lizzie reminded me, but our deal didn't have anything to do with Josie. "I want Josie to take my place, for personal reasons."

"Yeah, I'm not going to do that," was my answer.

"You have to!" She said with heavy emphasis, approaching me probably in an attempt to intimidate me.

"I don't have to," I responded, unintimidated and unimpressed. "Our deal was very clear and I'm keeping my part without you keeping yours for obvious reasons, and Josie..."

"Josie likes you, OK?!" She cut me off. "She doesn't go around kissing everyone she meets. She's choosy and she chose to siphon from you with a kiss because she likes you and she wanted to kiss you, she didn't have to kiss you.

"I don't know why she didn't tell me that she likes you, but she likes you and I'm not going to prove She-who-shall-not-be-named right by ignoring Josie's feelings for you. Be Josie's date and make tomorrow the best day of her life and I'll give you anything you want."

That surprised me and it made me wonder what Penelope said to Lizzie, but not enough to distract me from the 'I'll give you anything you want' part.

"Can you get Landon to say?" I inquired because that was what I wanted and I doubted she could give it to me.

"I - uh," was Lizzie's answer and it was all I needed to start heading for the door.

"That's what I thought," I said over my shoulder, only to be turned around by the shoulder by her.

"I can't get Landon to stay," she confirmed, and continued with a little desperation in her voice. "But I - I - I can get you something that can help you protect him."

That gained my attention and drew out a question from me.

"What?"

"A Moonlight Ring," she replied, and then explained when she saw that she had my full attention. "Hope's grandmother Esther had the French Quarter Coven, a coven from New Orleans, mass produce Moonlight Rings, rings that are enchanted to grant werewolves full access to their wolf form abilities in their human form.

"We had a witch student with ties to the coven a while back and he accidentally sent me a photo of the Moonlight Ring spell and he bought my silence with a Moonlight Ring."

I gave her a look at the last part. How could the witch student give Lizzie even more ammunition to blackmail him as a form of silencing her? That seemed counterproductive.

"Apparently, Moonlight Rings are in high demand but people who know how to create them aren't willing and they aren't that many," Lizzie explained. "By giving me one, he ensured that I wouldn't say anything to avoid the attention it would bring to the school and my family. It's the same reason I'm telling you. I know that you won't say anything because if you do, you'll put Landon's life in danger."

That made sense. Kind of.

"I'll give you that Ring and you'll pardon my sister for voting against Landon staying here and you'll be the greatest date in the world and make tomorrow the best day of her life in exchange," she returned to the potential deal. "Oh, and you'll never ever tell her, or anybody, including Landon, about us and this deal. Deal?"

Could I fulfill the terms of the proposed deal to the best of my abilities? I wasn't sure. Especially the part about forgiving Josie and pretending everything was alright between us.

But for the power to protect myself and Landon, I would do anything. Agree to be Lizzie's date, become the Alpha of the monopolized school pack and do my very best to fulfill the new deal Lizzie proposed even though I could hear Cassie's voice telling me to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. But -

"We already had a deal and you couldn't deliver your part," I reminded Lizzie. "I was willing to follow through with my part even though you couldn't. This gives me the leverage to have you deliver your end of the deal right now and wait for me to deliver mine tomorrow."

Lizzie seemed a bit offended.

"What? You don't trust me?" She asked.

"Do you know what separates werewolves from humans, vampires and even witches the most?" I inquired rhetorically. "Loyalty. When the full moon is up and our most basic instincts are in charge, we never attack our own, we never attack other werewolves, even those that haven't activated their werewolf gene, that's how loyal we are.

"We have a strong sense of loyalty and honor, and that loyalty and honor are probably why Jed wasn't overthrown sooner. The pact every werewolf in the pack made when they joined was held up when Jed ordered my beating even after they welcomed me with warm arms when I got here. He was the only one who took pleasure in the beating, but the others, not so much.

"I am like the others, I don't need the full moon to bring out my basic instincts and loyalty and honor, I stand by my word and you know that I'm telling the truth. If something happens and I can't deliver my part of the deal, I'll return the Ring to you before I leave, but can you honestly say that you would deliver if something happens on your end, like you losing the Ring, but I do my part?"

"Fine," was Lizzie's one word acknowledgement. "I'll get the Ring."

"I have a few more conditions," I added, to her visible annoyance. "I can't be seen wearing the Ring, that would bring up attention and questions we both don't want, so you'll have to make it invisible or something. I also want you to make it so that no one can take it off me without my permission. Oh, and I don't want you to track me with it after I leave, so..."

"Got it," she interrupted. "Anything else, Your Alpha Highness?"

I suppressed a chuckle as I imagined Jed demanding to be addressed as 'Your Alpha Highness'.

"Yes," I responded. "But I'll hold off on them for now. Go get the Ring, I'll clean up in here, but open up the windows before you leave. They're..."

Lizzie cut me off once again, but with her lips this time, catching me off guard again.

"Just one last kiss," she whispered against my lips, nipping on them, reminding me of what we did on the mat. "I need some magic to do all the spells you want and the building doesn't have enough."

I was pretty sure that she siphoned my werewolf magic during the unexpected sex, but I learned a long time ago that if you wanted something, you sometimes had to compromise, so I pulled her closer and took the lead.

For someone who was a force to be reckoned with, I found out while we 'de-stressed' that Elizabeth "Lizzie" Saltzman was confident and forward but very much submissive when it came to the sexual part of her life. Well, she did try to be dominant at first and we had a hot power struggle until she gave in and wow did she light up.

Unfortunately - I meant - fortunately, we didn't have time to return to the mat, but the softness of her good kisser lips lingered when we separated just as the kiss was about to evolve into undressing again.

She cast a spell while we were catching our breaths before she stepped out of my embrace.

"I hid out scents, but there's nothing I can do about that," explained a breathless Lizzie, her eyes flickering to the bulge in my pants.

The ghost of a smirk just barely held back contradicted her words.

LX

Landon and Rafael's Room

Returning to the room feeling pretty good and invincible after taking a shower after Lizzie delivered on her end of our deal and even gave me two extra items, my good mood evaporated and left me feeling betrayed and very much angry and abandoned when I didn't find Landon or his belongings anywhere in the room, apart from the envelope addressed to me in his writing.

After everything I did, Landon decided to leave me behind and even had Hope magically hide him so that he wouldn't be found by magical means. My brother was all one, and so was I.