Hold Me Closer, Hate Me Harder: He Loves My Mate

Chapter Three

“Nell!” I groaned and picked my head up off the pool of drool on my pillow. My eyes cracked open to a dark room, the only light coming from the closed curtain that blocked the sun from coming in. Snores came from Brienne’s bed and I glanced over at her. Her long, blondish brown hair hung off the bed as she slept. A fist pounded on the door. Brienne turned in her sleep, groaning at the loud noise. I yawned and sat up, throwing my feet off the bed. Someone next to me caused me jump. I quickly moved the blanket to reveal a half naked Jude. I suddenly felt awake and alert.

“Oh my…” I whispered, biting my knuckles. I tip toed to Brienne’s bed and tapped her. “Bri! Wake up!” A hairy arm flew over her and I let out a loud groan. “Damn it Bri! Really?” I walked over to the door and slowly cracked it open to see who was pounding on the door. “Hello?” There stood my handsome best friend from high school, David.

“Hey Nells!” His sweet human smile always gave me a warm feeling and even in the predicament I was in, I was extremely happy.

“David! Hang on!” I closed the door and went over to Brienne. This time I wasn’t so quiet. “Bri! Get your ass up!” I yelled. I had woken up everyone in the room.

“What the hell?” Mark said sleepily. Before I could snap at him to get up a pair of arms were around my waist and warm, deep breaths hit the back of my neck. His soft lips touched the back of my neck and he sat his chin on my shoulder.

“Morning, babe,” Jude whispered into my ear. I can’t believe I let myself sleep with him last night after he knew I had a mate.

“Jude,” I said, pulling from his grip. “You need to go. I missed class.” I walked over to my side of the bed and slipped on some shorts. I didn’t bother to change my shirt, which I still wore the tank top from yesterday. I slipped my feet in my slippers and ran to the bathroom to brush the knots out of my hair. All eyes were on me when I came back into the room, Bri leaning up on her elbow with Mark behind her.

“What’s going on?” Bri asked.

“David is here. I’ll catch you guys later,” I said rushing to the door. With my hand on the handle I turned back to Jude. “Be gone when I get back.” I didn’t wait for his reply as I slipped out the door and turned to David, throwing my arms around his neck.

“Hey, Nellie!” He laughed. “How are you?”

“Just fine.” In truth, I wasn’t so fine. I had slept with Jude, who wasn’t my mate. Although David had no idea I was a wolf, I wanted to tell him. But I didn’t. “What are you doing here?” I let go of him and started walking down the hall with his hand in mine.

“My mom and dad have business in town. Thought I’d stop by and say hi.”

“Awe, well I’m glad you did!” He laughed then looked down at me.

“Didn’t feel like getting dressed? Don’t you have class?” He asked.

“Yeah but I’m two hours late.” He took his hand from mine to brush back his hair. He was more muscular than I remembered. “You look different.” He glanced down at me.

“Look who’s talking, where’d the boobs come from?” He joked. I laughed and looked down at my chest. I guess they were bigger than in high school. But in High School I didn’t know much about my history so I never formed until after graduation. After that, my body changed from the plump little high schooler to the sexy college wolf I was today. “So, you want to go out tonight?” We stopped to share a look. I missed those big blue eyes of his.

“Of course!” I said, punching him in the arm. “As long as there’s no alcohol.” He raised his eyebrows.

“I didn’t know you even drank.” I bit my bottom lip and looked at the floor.

“I don’t…that’s why I said it.” He chuckled and tapped my arm.

“So, I’ll pick you up at eight tonight? Here?” I nodded, smiling up at him. I reached up to hug him but someone pushed between us, knocking me against the wall.

“Not until she comes to class,” Dom said angrily. I hadn’t realized what classroom we stopped in front of and of course it had to be homeroom. I guess I was so use to walking this way that I didn’t realize where I had pulled him to.

“David,” I said, brushing myself off and glaring up at Dom, angrily. “This is my homeroom teacher and family friend, Mr. Keith.” Dom stared at David with jealousy written all over him. “Sorry, Mr. Keith, but I woke up late. I don’t think I’ll be coming to class today.” He snapped his head to me.

“Yes you are.” This demand made me angry. I wanted to smack him in the middle of the hall.

“Who do you think you are-“

“It’s okay,” David laughed. “You get to work. I’ll see you later tonight.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead then gave Dom a smile. “See ya later, man. Better keep her under control. She wasn’t the good girl in high school.” He gave me a wink and walked back down the way we had come. I waved at his back, smiling sweetly. Dom cleared his voice, snapping me from my day dream.

“What the hell are you doing?” His arms were folded in front of his chest.

“Nothing, hanging with an old friend. Can’t I even do that?” I snapped. A girl from class slowly walked up to the doorway and leaned against it.

“Mr. Keith? We are in the middle of your lesson,” She said quietly. I leaned over to see the whole class staring at us. Did he really leave his class to yell at me for being with David? I narrowed my eyes at him and groaned.

“You are a piece of work, asshole!” I stormed away from him and headed back to my dorm to get dressed.

“Do pages 105 and 106. I’ll be right back,” He told the girl. I heard his footsteps as he ran after me. I wanted to pick up speed, run as fast as my wolf instincts could take me but there were humans in the hallway; human boys that were gawking at me in my little night shorts and tank top. Dom’s hand was around my wrist and he pulled me to a stop, making me turn and face him. “What are you doing?”

“Wow, she’s hot!” One of the boys said. Dom growled under his breath and shook his head. Even though the boys were across the hall and whispering, we had both heard him and I could tell Dom hated it.

“I’m going to get dressed so I can go to your stupid class!” His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared like he smelled something.

“Are you okay? There’s something different about you. What happened last night?” I ripped my arm from his and crossed them in front of me. I glanced at the guys watching us.

“Are they a couple or something?” One of them asked the other. I sighed.

“Okay, Mr. Keith. Take me to the head’s office,” I said loud enough for them to hear. Dom looked confused at first then followed my glance to the boys, who took off once he caught their eye. I turned and walked away before he turned back to me. All because I loved him and he was my mate, didn’t mean I had to listen to him when he bossed me around.

I stopped in front of my dorm without opening the door because I had no idea if Jude had left. Of course, Dom was on my heels. It seemed to startle him when I stopped and shot him daggers. “Why are you following me? Don’t you think it’s going to look weird with a teacher in my room?” He shrugged and smiled at me. I shuddered at him. “God, you’re like a stalker. Please go away so I can get dressed.”

“I’m not going in. I’ll wait here and make sure you get to class.” I frowned at him. Rolling my eyes I cracked the door open and slid inside so he wouldn’t see in. The room was a mess. It looked as if someone had partied last night and thrown everything around. Oh, yeah…we did party. But I don’t remember coming back to the dorm until I fell asleep with…oh!! I stepped over the overturned chair when Brienne comes walking from the bathroom with a tooth brush in her mouth. “Nun might uh?” She mumbled. I raised my eyebrows at her. She took the tooth brush out of her mouth and spit on the floor. “I said, fun night huh?”

“Do you always spit on the floor? What the hell happened last night?” I bent over and picked a pair of blue silky boxers off of my lap top.

“Oh those are Mark’s.” She ran over to me, placing her tooth brush back in her mouth, and snatched the underwear from my hand. Shivers ran down my back. “He lost them sometime during the night. I’ll have to give them back.”

“What happened to this room?” I asked angrily. She sat on her messy bed and flashed a smile at me.

“You don’t remember? Girl you went crazy.”

“What!?”

“You and Jude. You told him about you and your mate and things kind of took off from there. We came back here, had a brutal pillow fight, and did the dirty. I tell you if we didn’t heal fast we’d look as if someone beat us half to death. Those boys are wicked!” She fell backwards on her bed and sighed. I groaned and smacked my head.

“You let me have s*x with him?” I had forgotten Dom was just outside the door. Before I could correct the situation, he busted through the door. The half naked Brienne jumped to her feet, letting out a deafening scream and turned to run into the bathroom screaming;

“There’s a teacher in the dorm!” I kept my eyes on her as she slammed the door and continued to scream in the bathroom. I didn’t dare catch Dom’s eye because I knew he had heard the whole conversation.

“Nell!” My body shook and guilt rushed over me. Why did she let me sleep with him!?