CHAPTER 32: 32-ACCUSED OF BEING A CHEATER

Clementine:

"So what? You two are now going to play lovers in front of him?" Yorick finally opened his mouth after doing everything in silence for the past hour.

Ever since I made that decision, I had noticed Yorick had been very grumpy. I guess he just didn’t want to lose to anyone, whether it was a fictional love or about bullying me.

"It’s just going to be an act," Troy hissed at him, finally getting annoyed.

"Are you sure it will be just an act, or is it like you two finally got a chance to act on your feelings, on your secret emotions?" Yorick smirked, shaking his head, while I frowned. I was ignoring him. For the past hour, he had been huffing and puffing a lot, and I had a feeling he was going to blurt something nasty out of his mouth any moment, and he finally did. As for the three of us, we were stripping long fibers from the inner bark of the trees, twisting them together until they started to look like a rope. It was rough and uneven, but it would do.

"What secret emotions? There have been none. Are you okay? What are you even on about?" But as expected, Troy was pretty much entertaining Yorick’s rude comments by continuing to argue back with him.

"No, come on, don’t say there were never any emotions. Remember back when she and I were dating? You would always show up to places, and then her mood would turn sour. I mean, and don’t even get me started on that night." Yorick made my heart skip a beat. I instantly looked over at Troy and then at Yorick.

"What night?" I asked, watching Troy shrug. But there was a nasty smile on Yorick’s face, as if he was trying to say he knew more than we thought he did.

"Will anybody tell me what night is being mentioned here?" I asked in frustration, but in response, they just shrugged and went back to their work.

We had prepared quite a lot of rope, and now we were sitting together to prepare the net snare trap. It was going to be hard because we were starting from a very close proximity. So as we sat in a circle, our knees almost brushing, I noticed Yorick starting to chuckle again, and I knew another hateful comment was on the way.

"So you never showed Troy your body or your hair?" he asked, and I almost lost my eyeballs as my eyes grew that wide.

"What?" I asked, while Troy clenched his fists.

"Yorick, that will be enough." That was the kind of warning an alpha would give to his worst enemy, so I could tell it was serious, but I had no idea what this scandal was or why I was being a part of it.

"I’m just curious, was it always completely dark when you two met?" Yorick continued to bewilder me.

I gave him a look and then tossed my head down, focusing on putting one rope over the other, preparing the trap. It was already pretty late, and once the sun went down, we would have to continue the next day. We were already on the fourth day in, so we had only a few days left before the train appeared. If we didn’t slay the monster and board the train, we would have to wait another full week. That would be a disaster. At that point, we might even come across other dangerous beings.

But of course, the alphas were too busy playing their games.

"Yorick, not one more word," Troy warned him.

"And then what? Why don’t you want me to talk about it? Are you afraid of her? Or is it because you don’t want to play the fictional lovers in a bad mood?" Yorick teased him, making Troy grunt under his breath.

"You know what? You two can argue all you want. I’m going to finish another trap alone." I got up, brushing the dry leaves from my pants and walking away from them. We had to prepare quite a few traps, so we could place them all around the area. I went ahead and set up quite far from them.

If only Haiden and Ian were helping us, we could’ve done it literally so easily. But we didn’t even know where they were at this point.

As I sat at a distance doing my work, I noticed the two of them still arguing. It was as if they were having a very heated conversation. But I focused on my work, and it was crazy because I had finished one trap before the two of them could.

Once it was done, I began to feel hungry. I got up and walked back to the apple tree. As soon as I stepped on the dry leaves, I heard a little yelp from behind the big tree.

It was crazy. I didn’t know there were others around with us. And then, before I could even take another step to look who it was, I heard a voice.

"It’s okay. There’s nobody there. It’s just us. It’s just the two of us."

I heard a very familiar voice, something I had heard recently, but I couldn’t place it.

"Are you sure, Suki? I don’t want to do this to Joshua. He’ll get extremely angry if he finds out," I heard the other voice say the names. That was all I needed to know.

My heart was pounding in my chest now.

"Come on, don’t be a fool. He’ll never find out if you don’t tell him. I won’t tell him either. Besides, if he did find out, you’re also a crusader. I’m pretty sure you can fight for me, wouldn’t you?"

There was a meticulously cunning tone Suki was using with this guy, whoever it was. I couldn’t recognize the voice.

"Are you sure? I mean, of course I’ll fight for you. But are you sure you’ll be able to choose me over him?"

My heart was now going crazy. I could hear it beating in my eardrums.

"Yeah, I will. I’ll definitely choose you," she said to him. And I could spot a liar from far away. She was fucking using this guy, whoever the fuck it was. And I knew if I moved even a little, they’d find out I was eavesdropping.

So I began to take steps backward, then rushed back to my group.

"Wait, what is it?" Troy instantly got up, thinking maybe I had spotted the faun again.

"Where is he?" Yorick joined him, all set to hold the trap like he’d throw it and catch him right then.

I guess when necessity calls, you do everything.

"No, it’s—" I was breathing hard, trying to calm myself down with a hand on my chest while pointing toward the direction of the apple tree. It was quite a walk, hence, the cheaters must’ve thought they were alone.

"What?" Troy asked, his eyes bulging out.

"That— Suki. I caught her cheating on Joshua."

The minute I said that, I watched the two of them narrow their eyes at me.

"What?" I groaned.

I admit it. I kind of like listening to gossip. Only because people always gossiped about me. So I’d hear about it. I wouldn’t usually pass it around, but I hated Suki, the way she fired that arrow at me. I was so happy to find out she wasn’t doing well in her life. Of course, cheating on your mate, who even does that?"

"I think you should focus on making traps," Troy suggested.

I frowned, placing my hands on my waist. "I’m just saying. It’s not like I’m going to announce it to Joshua. It’s just that it’s so pathetic," I said, dropping my hands beside my body and slouching over to walk back to the ropes and prepare the next net.

However, it was Yorick’s comment that stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Funny how you say it, because you’re exactly the type who would do that to her own lover."

I stopped and turned to him. "What did you say?" I asked.