Bullied By My Alpha Stepbrother novel Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Hardin's POV

"You're shooting daggers from your eyes, bro. Did something happen?" Alex's voice dragged me away from my thoughts and when I finally looked away from the table that I had been staring at, I saw that his brows were raised in question as he gestured towards the direction that I had been looking at.

It was of course, none other than Jasmine's table where she was sitting with her friend and Lorenzo, her knight in shining armour.

I had called and spoken to him yesterday to discuss the attempted kidnapping and to gauge if I had been wrong to not suspect him for having a hand in the attempt and so far, other than him vowing to remain by her side and protect her, a promise that would have put me at ease if he was talking about any other person but Jasmine, he seemed to be in the clear which brought me back to square one.

Who could have wanted to kidnap Jasmine and why?

Of course this morning before I had left for school, my father had summoned me to his office, of course already hearing all about the attempt from Jasmine at dinner that I had not bothered to attend because I was not ready to deal with the stern look on his face, a harsh reprimand for almost losing his precious step daughter, especially after he had put me on guard duty for her since the very first time that she had narrowly escaped a couple of arrows hitting her square in the chest and head.

He had demanded that I followed Jasmine to where she would he training today and assist her in learning self defense in place of her instructor today and even though, I didn't particularly have a problem with that order, considering that I was also scared shitless of what would happen to her if her attackers tried again and she was all by herself, I hated that she was still allowed to do things as mundane as attending bullshit classes when we didn't even know who the killer was and where he could be.

Grudgingly, I had accepted the order even though I knew that with or without it, I was going to force Jasmine to learn how to protect herself. She seemed to forget that she was a werewolf even though she had not shifted, so it was easy for her to feel incapable of doing anything since technically, she was not yet a complete werewolf because she had not been able to shift into one.

I hated this uncertainty.

I hated that instead of giving my time to actually making Jasmine's life bad enough that she and her mother would leave, I was watching her like a hawk, trying to keep her alive. What was worse was that I wanted to watch her. I could spend hours watching Jasmine Scott.

Wearing a black long sleeved title necked top, her hair in a high ponytail and baggy navy jeans that hid those dangerous curves for days, she smiled at something her friend said, who looked like she was oblivious of the attack.

Looking away from Lorenzo, our eyes met and she froze, her lips slightly parting as if she needed to breathe more through her mouth. It made me curious about what she thought about whenever she looked at me and if she could read the look in my eyes whenever she did.

It made me wonder why I wanted her to look at me the way she looked at Lorenzo. Like I was a saviour.

**********

By the time class ended, Jasmine came out of her last class for the day to find me leaning against her locker in the hallway and she could not hide her displeasure.

I, on the other hand, smirked because I loved to see her squirm because of me.

"What do you want, Hardin?" She whispered as she closed the distance between us and gestured for me to move away from her locker, opening it to shove her books inside.

"To drive you home, of course. I'm taking my guard duties very serious this time." I drawled and she frowned, looking up at me.

"You don't have to pretend to care about what happens to me when we are not at home in front of our parents. There is no need to score cheap points at school. I'll hitch a ride with Nadia. Or Lorenzo."

My face hardened immediately and I slammed her locker door shut, making her gasp before I stared down.

There was no way in hell that I would let her get on a ride with Lorenzo anymore. She would have to shoot me for that to happen.

I hated the jealousy that gripped my chest but she didn't need to know that I was jealous. All she needed to do was leave the school with me whether she liked it or not.