CHAPTER THREE: SINS OF OUR PAST

ANNA'S POV

"What are you doing?" Jessica tries to drag me backwards.

"I... Jace."

"Nobody walks up to the Cruel prince, unless you want to end up as dinner."

I push her hands away from me and walk to the corner of the building where they are. Jessica does a prayer sign for me as if I'm stepping into my death trap, maybe I am, considering the way I ended things the last time we were together.

As I round the corner, I had not expected to find him smoking, let alone in the company of people, a boy and the two girls from earlier on.

His nape length silver hair is now longer, and shaved at the corner sides, while the center is braided and falls back at his shoulders. He has a new accessory, stud on his earlobes made from fangs, and a tattoo of a hideous wolf on his left neck. I never knew Jace fancied these stuffs. His frame is more muscular than I remembered. He has an almost full moonmark on his right wrist, a sign of the great achievements he has accomplished.

He is wearing a war attire, a sleek, black leather jacket with silver fangs; which I believe are from demons he has slayed, rests along the shoulders and an embroidered wolf on the back. Beneath the jacket, is a form-fitting white shirt with a pair of dark, fitted pants with reinforced knee padding. On his feet, are high-end combat boots with a polished, metallic finishing.

As if sensing my stare, he looks up to me. I gulp and hold his gaze waiting for a flicker of recognition in those grey stormy eyes that once held so much light... nothing. I move closer to hug him but the other boy with him blocks me. I look up to find onyx eyes. Dash, Jace's cousin and best friend, who although his father was, and still is an alpha, was raised in Jace's home. He looks different too, nose ring, black mohawk and matching neck tattoo with Jace. "Dash, it's me Anna we used to play together when we were younger."

"Pathetic loser, does this look like preschool to you?" The two girls that I tuned out finally comes back to mind as they laugh.

"Jace answer me. I know you can hear me. It's Anna, your best friend."

One of the girls laugh. "Cruel, she's going to cry. Please answer your best friend."

Dash laughs and blows on his joint, he was always a douchebag since when we were little but now he is an absolute dick!

Jace doesn't attend to any of pleas, he just sits there and continue staring into space while he smokes his joint. He never smoked.

"Stop eye fucking him!" The taller girl with blue eyes which I believe is the Dark queen yells at me. "Don't you get it, he doesn't want to talk to you. He don't fuck dirty pigs. You are not in his league if there's anything he will give to you, is to break you."

Soon, his three friends start chanting break her! Break her! Jace sluggishly stands to his feet and moves towards me, his eyes so deadly I want to step back when he gets too close to me but, no I won't give he that satisfaction to see me break. He towers over me, hot rage emanating from his body and literally burning me whole. I can see chest hair through the undone button of his shirt, his lei of countless sharp fangs hangs over his shoulder, and his cologne is intoxicating.

This man is living sin...a breathing temptation. He blows his smoke into my nose, I cough and choke trying to duck my head to the side but his hands grab my throat roughly, choking the air from my throat. "I gave you a fucking headstart, cursed omega." His heavy boots stamps on my feet and I'm wearing only a sandals I whine but he keeps his boot on my feet, grinding and breaking my toes.

"Is this how far your tiny legs can take you? back to my fucking pack!" He squeezes my neck. "I'm going to fucking ruin you this time, I swear to the moon goddess. I've changed thanks to you. Now, I will get my revenge from you." He lets go of my neck and pushes me back so I fall on my ass. "That's where you belong with those rag clothes on the floor like my maid."

Well, that wasn't the reunion I was hoping for.

"You just met Jace CruelHart nicknamed Cruel and Dash Rutherford nicknamed Ruthless." Jessica rushes to my side and whisper for me to ignore them. She helps me to my feet and we enter the hall and find a comfortable... manageable spot to stand and listen to the welcome back to school speech.

"You look like a disgusting pig. You wanted to hug me?" A voice says to me in my mind. I look around but no one seems to be looking in my direction or paying me any attention. The voice sounds familiar yet too strange. "Little mate, I gave you a headstart, I warned you that if you were going to run, I should not catch you. You better leave."

"Jace?"

"It's not Jace. It's Cruel or Cruel prince."

"I'm sorry." I look at him and our eyes lock on each other. "Besides if you were listening to anything the principal has been saying we can't leave until after the academic session is over and the facility releases us." I look to Jessica who seems too lost in the principal's welcome address.

"You trying to teach me how the school works, you pathetic omega who wouldn't make it two days before becoming food to the wild beasts."

"I'm not. I'm just stating the obvious that I'm not leaving."

"On a second thought you're right, you won't go because I won't let you. You are the only thing standing between me and peacefully wearing the crown as Alpha of the entire Westward pack, my father's murderer. I'm going to punish you for everything you did to me. I never forgot. I will take everything from you the same way you did to me."

He starts crossing the room to where I'm standing with Jessica, our eyes still glued to one another. He stops and run his hands over the top of his hair. "You murdered my father, my mother died days later because of a broken heart forcing me to step into shoes so big for me. But since you don't have any parents, I wonder what I will take..." A wicked smile crosses his extremely handsome features because he turns around and return to stand beside Dash and the two girls.

"I will take the lives of your friends, so make sure you don't keep any because their blood will be on your hands. I will take your sanity, I will hurt you and then kill you... But there's no joy in a quick death. It's the process of peeling skin away from bones and slowing watching your victim give up life. I will take my time with you little mate, after all we have a whole year until this shitty academy releases us. And the very last thing I will take is what makes you so innocent."

"What's that?" I try to look anywhere but the back of his head, because I can still make out how sinfully hot he is even from the back of his head.

"Your virginity. I will make you scream so hard while I'm splitting you in half from behind and feeding you your own eyeballs. Then I will take your rotten corpse back to my pack and give my old man the eternal rest he deserves."

"Jace I didn't do it." I try to say but he stops listening.

Why can't I start a mindlink?

The principal voice jolts me back to present. "All students will go back to your dorms and relax. Tomorrow classes will start. Everyone will study the following for the first five weeks of study: physical control and fighting skills, elemental control, shifting, telepathy, and magical ability. After then each of you will be subdivided into your specialized abilities for the next seven months. It may be enhanced senses, it may be elemental control, fire, water, earth or air, again you may not be able to control all elements or more than one as the case may be, for magical abilities, it will include divination with the moon goodness, reading minds even without a mindlink."

Students cheer in excitement. I wonder if the principal can do that? Are they rules? Can a mind reader just read everyone minds no matter where they are like I can hear people's conversation from a far distance?

"Or reading truth into the future." some students hiss at the last powers.

I guess they don't want to know about their future but I'm curious.

Please let that ability be mine. Maybe I will be able to know my curse and possibly break it?

At this point I'm not even scared of the curse any more since it has refused to manifest.

"There is so much to learn here, each professor and tutor will guide you properly. After that it will be the final examination that will determine whether or not you are qualified to become great Alphas, Betas and Lunas. Or remain a weak omega." The principal looks directly at me and the whole hall bursts into laughter.

"The final test will be a fierce tournament of ten rounds, you either die or graduate."