CHAPTER 47: 47-MY MATE HATES ME

Clementine:

"What? Come on, defend your father," he said, as if he knew I would do that. I had no clue that my father’s cruelty had extended beyond his own family and pack members to other innocent people. But I wasn’t surprised that my father was such a disgusting prick. I guessed others didn’t know the hate I had for my father.

"I cannot defend that man," I said in a broken voice.

He almost leaned forward and raised his eyebrow, as if he hadn’t heard me clearly.

"Huh?" he asked.

I began to take slow steps, and once I was face to face with him, I uttered, "I’m so sorry he did that to you. But do you think I deserve the hate for it?"

I asked, my lips quivering.

"I hate everyone related to him. Clementine, every freaking person, every blood relationship with him is my enemy," he said, pointing at his chest and hissing. His eyes were red with tears.

"I understand your feelings, and I’m not going to ask you not to hate me, but to punish me for it. Haiden, I’m not on my father’s side. How do you think I ended up in jail here? I didn’t want to come. That man didn’t even care about me. He never did. My entire life—"

As I started to explain, he began to roll his eyes.

"Stop fucking yapping. It’s not about you. It’s about my family that he ruined."

He pointed at his chest and then back at my face, almost poking me in the forehead. I had to step back to avoid it.

"I just don’t want to see your fucking face again," he muttered as he turned around and started walking away. Then he stopped briefly and looked back at me.

"I will make your life a living hell. Because when I do that, I feel like I’m hurting that man. I feel like I’m hurting him directly."

He still didn’t understand that my father wouldn’t be bothered even if I were dead. But I guessed, since he couldn’t do anything to my father, he was taking his anger out on me.

As he walked away, I turned around and started walking back toward the academy with tears in my eyes.

"You wanted us to go and comfort him, huh? He’s fucking punishing us for someone else’s crime—for my father’s crime, the same man who punished me. Why is it that I used to get punished by him and now I’m being punished for his sins too?" I growled at Mint, briskly making my way back into the open corridor that was called The Passageway.

Then I tripped and fell, almost scraping my knees.

"Ah," I groaned.

"Hey, be careful."

A sudden, gentle voice from the side confused me. I hadn’t realized I had company. But who could be standing outside in our passage? This was our passage, the Black Squad’s.

I raised my head to get a good look at her features. That’s when I realized she was from the Red Squad, the girl I had always noticed, who I assumed was probably the leader. I had seen others look at her and point often.

I got up, fixed my clothes, and faced her.

"What are you doing in our area?" I asked, pointing at my dorm. She was literally standing near our dorm room.

"Oh, I was just taking a walk. I guess I had so much on my mind that I didn’t realize where I was headed," she replied. Her voice was surprisingly sweet. I had thought she would be rude, probably very spoiled, because she seemed boujee.

"What were you last thinking about that you didn’t realize you had crossed all the way to our squad?" I asked, looking around to see if her other squadmates were with her. The Red Squad’s passage was right behind ours, but the distance was significant. Even the passages were far apart. We could barely see each other. That’s how far it was and how many trees stood between us. The only time the distance between the passageways shortened was when they met at the main hall.

"It’s just that one of our squadmates was left behind. She’s pregnant, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about her," she uttered, touching her forehead, and I noticed her blonde hair with pink highlights. I remembered this was the girl who had looked at my plate the first time I ate in the main hall. She had seemed like she was judging me, but now that she was talking, I realized she was very sweet. The fact that she was worried about her squadmate made me understand we weren’t the only ones who cared for Sadie.

"Sadie?" I asked.

She nodded, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"You know her?" she asked.

"No, I knew of her."

I shut up after that because it felt like every time I spoke, I gave away secrets. Or at least that’s how the others made me feel. They could tell each other things freely, but I never knew what to keep to myself and what I could say out loud.

"Wasn’t she with the guy from your squad?" And that’s when I realized she already knew.

"What guy?" I asked, trying to play innocent so I wouldn’t later be blamed for spreading gossip.

"The guy with the really huge biceps. He’s pretty big, tall—the muscular alpha. I don’t really remember his name, but I heard he used to be an MMA fighter. Gray eyes, a tough look on his face." At this point, she was clearly talking about Haiden.

"Oh, he has a scar on his face." The minute she mentioned the scar, I had to say his name.

"Alpha Haiden Raze of Magical Fangs Pack?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Oh yes, that’s the name," she said, slapping her forehead.

"I had seen him walk after her when we got off the train, and I kind of put two and two together. At the time, I didn’t know much, but I had a feeling something was going on between them. Do you know anything about it?" she asked sweetly. But I had learned that this kind of sweetness was often just a way to get information out of someone.