CHAPTER 161: 161-AWKWARD TALK WITH ONE OF THEM

Clementine:

It was so weird that none of us could even catch up. We just sat silently in our beds while they went one by one to the restroom. Once all of them were back, their hair wet, Haiden spoke first.

"We shouldn’t feel this way. I mean, it’s pretty normal. Men have had too many mates over the years. So why are you upset?"

He didn’t say it directly, but he was trying to ease my mind about getting intimate with all of them in the North.

"Haiden is right, it wasn’t a bad thing. Just because the ringleaders labeled it didn’t make it wrong." Troy tried to comfort me too, making me feel at ease.

"But why the heck was Ian involved?" Suddenly, Yorick shifted the attention to Ian, and I shot my head up.

Ian, who usually looked confident, suddenly looked away. His hands clenched the edge of the bed, a visible frown on his forehead.

"Yeah, the lust works when there’s already some spark. So how did he end up getting involved?" Troy reminded us of the gnomes’ rules.

"If that’s the case, then why were you involved?" Haiden asked, pointing at Troy, who squirmed in his seat.

"Well, you already know," Troy said, taking a deep breath. "I used to have a crush on Clementine. I mean, I still do."

He said it outright, and everyone grunted. Ian didn’t move at all.

"Wait, wait, wait. Why are you asking me this?" I hissed. "Does that mean she had urges for me?" Troy brought it up, and all eyes landed on me again. I sighed and shrugged.

"No, I don’t have feelings for any of you," I said, knowing what was coming next. When I turned to Ian, his face was turned to the side, but he was side-eyeing me. Why had I let him touch me? I didn’t even know I had such weird desires.

Silence struck for a moment.

"It’s getting too weird. Instead of looking for answers, how about we agree never to speak of it again?" Thankfully, Troy noticed I would’ve died if they kept questioning me.

"Of course you’d wonder. You’re just happy you got to be intimate with her, even when you and Ian have no right to. She’s not your mate, she’s our mate," Yorick said, causing me to cover my face with my hands.

"Look at what you’re doing. Is this what a mate does?" Troy added, using it against them.

"Let’s not talk about it," Haiden said, on board with the idea. I didn’t want to either, even though the same question lingered in my mind, why did Ian get involved?

I remembered when I first saw him, I thought he was handsome. But he always said I wasn’t up to his mark, expectations, or type. So why did he get involved?

"Don’t worry, Clementine, I got you," Troy whispered from his bed, which made Yorick and Haiden look at each other before turning back to Troy, frowning with their eyebrows pressed together.

"Hey, hey, don’t act like you care for her more than we do," Yorick snapped. And then the cycle started again, until I just lay down in bed and turned my face to the other side, grunting angrily.

"Look what you guys did now," Yorick muttered, letting the two grunt at him.

I hated how things had turned out. This was why I didn’t want to start anything with them. They were all alphas, and alphas don’t want to lose sight of their mates. That much I knew, because even I felt the same. But since there were still so many questions about why Ian wanted to get intimate with me, I figured it was better not to be bothered by what happened in the North. So I fell asleep.

I heard them argue about random things, basic things like who was drinking from whose bottle. I guess it was their way of letting the anger out without saying what was really bothering them. After a while, they went silent, and I could tell they had fallen asleep, thankfully. We didn’t wake up for dinner either.

I did wake up at some time at the loud banging against the windows, and I figured it was the storm.

But then, around 11 p.m., when the storm got worse, I woke up. I jolted awake, opened my eyes, and looked outside the window. It was just the trees and heavy wind making those scary noises.

Slowly, I turned to look at all my squadmates. They were asleep except for Ian. He almost made me gasp in shock and fear. He was sitting up in his bed, staring at me.

"You scared me," I whispered as low as I could. I didn’t want the others to wake up, because the minute they did, they would start arguing like spoiled kids.

"I need to speak with you," Ian murmured. With that, he slid off his bed and walked out of the room. Before leaving, he casually grabbed his sweater from the hanger and tossed it over to me.

I didn’t know why he did that. I had my own sweaters and jackets now. But since he gave it, I stupidly put it on. It was so oversized on me. He was tall and broad, and I looked like an ant in elephant’s clothes.

I walked out of the room, fumbling with the sweater, pushing the sleeves up again and again. I didn’t even realize he was still there. I thought he would be waiting at our usual spot. I only noticed him when he suddenly grabbed my hand and started rolling the sleeves up for me.

The sleeves puffed up so much that it was hard to move my arms. Once he rolled them enough to leave only my hands visible, he pulled back and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Are we going to our spot?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Okay," I muttered, awkwardly looking around instead of into his eyes. I could tell he was bothered, but that didn’t stop him from staring straight at me.

"I broke things off with my girlfriend," he began. I gulped, remembering that incident in the North where the Medusa pretended to be his girlfriend, and he called her his ex.