CHAPTER 3-MATE

ETHEL

“No!”

The sound tore out of my throat before my eyes were even open. My chair crashed backward and I hit the floor.

I sat there on the floor of my lecture hall, breathing hard, gasping and looking at the curious faces of my coursemates.

Wait. Coursemates? Lecture hall? What… how?

“Miss Gulliver.”

Professor Hargrove was looking at me from the whiteboard with his marker in his hand.

“Is everything alright?”

I didn't know what to say. I rubbed my eyes and looked around, then pinched myself slightly.

“Miss Gulliver. I asked a question, is everything alright?”

“I…” I swallowed and stood up. Dusting my purple dress.

Purple?!

I only wore purple on Mondays and a few minutes ago was Thursday…

“Uh… yes, I'm… I'm… good.”

“Then why are you disrupting my class? Don't you know that economics is a very important subject and if you are to make it to your second year with a good GPA you ought to…”

I wasn't listening to him anymore because Tavian Graves was staring right at me three rows away by the window, where he always sat. His hand was under his shirt and his face had gone slightly pale.

This wasn't a dream.  

I turned to the professor. “I need to use the bathroom.”

“To abruptly exit my class you need a hall pass, Miss Gulliver. Do you have one?”

“Uh…” I hadn't been given my hall pass yet.

Before I could think of what to say next, Tavian was on his feet. He walked over to me and held my wrist, pulling me out the door.

“She'll use mine.”

We were out the door before Professor Hargrove could say anything else.

I nearly stumbled from trying to keep up with him.

“Hey. Tavian slow dow—”

“We need to talk.”

He looked sideways before opening the door of the empty classroom four doors away from our lecture hall. “Get in.” He closed the door behind us and took a deep inhale.

We both opened our mouths at exactly the same time.

“You were dead—”

“You were dead—”

We clamped our mouths shut at the same time.

“I thought it was a bad dream.” He murmured.

“Me too. Maybe… maybe it was.” There could be no other explanation right? It had to be a dream.

“I would've thought the same thing if this wasn't here.”

“What do you mean?”

He started to lift his shirt.

I spun around immediately. “Woah, woah, what are you doing?”

He spun me back around with a hand on my head.

“Stop flushing like a tomato and look.” He pointed to the scar on his chest. A long cut that had been freshly stitched right where Alicent had shoved her claw inside him. “See? It doesn't hurt, but it definitely stings.”

Just then I felt a sharp string of my own. I pulled my dress by the neck line and looked down, right between my breasts, through the transparent lace, I could see the exact same scar on my chest. My lips parted and my hands dropped.

“How can we even explain this?”

He pointed to the wall clock.

“Alicent and Declan murdered us towards sundown, but it's morning now.” It was 8am. He pointed to the digital calendar beside the wall. “And that says that today is the fourteenth of february.”

“Fourteenth of February? Way prep?” No. It couldn't be. Way prep was the first in-school practice tournament of the semester and we had already done it. Yesterday was the fourteenth of March.

“This can't be right.”

“I know. It's complicated, like… like we've somehow gone back a month in time.”

“What is this? The futuristic ages? There's no way we can die and come back a month… a month in time, that's crazy.”

He rolled his eyes. “If you have a better explanation I'd like to hear it.”

I didn't. That was what terrified me.

“My head hurts, I need an aspirin or something.” It might've been all this thinking or the fact that Alicent had smacked me in the head, but there was a migraine-like headache coming on.

“Wait.” His ear twitched. “Someone is coming. Two people I think…” His nostrils slightly flared and he pulled me behind a large desk.

“Why are we—”

“Because Declan is one of the people coming and he aided Alicent to murder us. Now, hush.”

Declan came inside the classroom with Maxwell, his “home boy/beta” beside him. He had a bag swung over his shoulder while Maxwell held his jacket open. He pulled a small pouch from inside his jacket and pressed it into Declan's hands.

"One syringe shot," Maxwell made a gesture with his fingers. "Ten to fifteen minutes before the game and you'll literally be able to beat superman."

Declan turned the pouch over in his hands.

"What if I do two shots?"

Maxwell frowned. "Then you'll overdose and become unstable, worse you could go into shock, worse you could die."

"We're not wimpy humans, Maxwell. We're freaking RedHaven wolves."

"Yes, and wolves still die of drug abuse."

My jaw literally dropped to the ground. I and Tavian looked at each other at the same time. Declan did drugs?

“I was just joking, Max. Relax, I'll keep to the dosage.” Declan ran a hand through his blonde hair. “I still can't thank you enough for getting it for me.”

Maxwell shrugged. “It's all cool man. Just be careful. This stuff is banned by the federation, it's illegal, if anyone finds out that I've been supplying you—”

“No one is finding out anything.” Declan clapped him on the shoulder. “We need to keep beating the Titans and I need to keep being the golden boy.” He pocketed the pouch. “This stays between us.”

Declan opened the door and they looked sideways before leaving and closing the door behind them. We waited for about four minutes before coming out from our hiring spot.

My mouth was filled with so many things to say.

He was playing dirty. Using illegal performance boosters during games? This would cause a massive scandal and destruction for him if… if we could prove it.

I turned back to Tavian with a flame for revenge so powerful I had only read about it in books.

“The goddess is trying to tell us something, Tavian. This is why we came back.”

But Tavian wasn't paying attention to me.

He was paying attention to my scent.

His eyes had illuminate and gone slightly wide, he was looking at me with an expression I couldn't classify, something between stunned and horrified.

His hand reached out and his fingers brushed the side of my neck, just below my jaw. A shiver moved down my spine before I could stop it.

“Mate.”