Ruthless Love (Ash and Innocence 1)

I picked it up and turned it over. It looked brand new, and like the exact same model Cassian broke.

My eyes immediately fixed on the gate that led to Tristan’s house. I smiled to myself, biting my lip. If this was his idea of an apology, well… It was a decent start.

I found my mind wandering to Tristan and the camera while I got breakfast ready for my mom. I was still thinking about it when I went outside to water my sad little garden.

“If a wolf bit your leg off, but said sorry and sounded like it really meant it, would you forgive it?” I asked the little budding weeds.

As usual, they gave no response. But that was okay, my botany teacher said there really were scientific studies proving that it helped to talk to plants. That meant I could have one-sided conversations without being crazy, as long as I was in the little garden, at least.

“I think maybe you’d still be mad at the wolf, but you might be a little less mad,” I said a few seconds later. I didn’t have my handy broomstick slash whatever I taped to the end of it with me, so I used my shoe to break apart a small weed that was trying to grow near the edge of the dirt. “And maybe you’d see if the wolf would admit it gave you the camera, just because the idea of seeing it squirm sounds fun.”

I grinned.

I suffered through the first half of school that day feeling a little happier and more optimistic than usual. We were assigned an essay in English class that was due in a few weeks, and we learned how to do text effects in the video editing software in videography class.

It wasn’t until lunch that I had a chance to talk to Tristan. He was sitting with Gage, Logan, and Cassian. I couldn’t quite understand how the four of them stayed so seemingly tight knit at school, especially Tristan and Cassian. It felt like every time I saw them they were at each other’s throats. But then I thought about my conversation with the plants back home. Maybe Tristan really was like a wolf—they all were, in their own ways. A pack of wolves could still stick together, even if the alphas were constantly challenging one another for leadership. This pack was just a group of four alphas, all content to perpetually fight for power with one another.

Stupid, I thought.

I considered waiting for them to split up but decided it would be even more fun to watch Tristan squirm in front of the Four Riders of the Asspocolypse. No, I noted. That might be my worst attempt at giving them a proper name to date. I’d keep working on it.

“Hey.” I brought my chair up to the edge of the table where they were sitting. “I wanted to thank you.”

Tristan stared back at me. A chip was between his fingertips. He looked like he wanted to strangle me. “Yeah,” he said after a brief pause, laughing softly like he didn’t know what I was talking about.

I held back a grin. The guys were all staring at him with curiosity plain on their faces. Except Cassian—he looked more like a wolf waiting for his rival to show his jugular.

“For the c—” I started, but Tristan stood and put his big hand over my mouth before I could finish.

Without taking his hand away, he rolled me away from the guys until we were outside in the courtyard and alone. “What the fuck are you doing?”

I fished the camera out of my backpack. “This was you, right?”

He took it from my hand and put it back in my bag. “I wouldn’t flash that around. It’s stolen.”

“What?” I asked.

“Yeah. They have extras in the IT department. I took the serial number off the one Cassian broke, though. They won’t know this is the stolen one. Hell, with how disorganized they are, they’ll probably never figure it out. At least, unless they think to look in the camera’s digital settings.”

“Why did you say that like it was a threat?” I asked slowly.

“Because if you get any stupid ideas, it won’t hurt to have a little leverage over you.”

I shook my head, pressing my lips tightly together. “You know, I honestly thought you did something nice for once. But somehow, you managed to even make this feel shitty.”

He shrugged. “If you don’t finish your video, my spot on the team is on the line. That makes your problems my problems. Although I guess there’s one problem I can’t help you with.”

“What?” I asked. “Cassian?”

“Me.”* * *I headed out to the practice field after school. Whether Tristan wanted to be an ass or not, I still had to finish my project. That meant filming him throwing a football around at some point. But I had to stay late for a chemistry lab, so by the time I got to the field, the players were already trickling out of the locker room. I waited, hoping to catch Tristan and convince him to at least do the interview portion of the video.