Alphas of Raven: The Forbidden Triplets

Chapter 14

Aria's POV

"Drama with your ex, a fight with the mean girl of the school, and disciplinary action! And we are only on Day 1."

Max chuckled the minute we were out of earshot, inside the privacy of the locker room.

"Aren't you the trouble magnet?"

It was hard not to smile at Max's enthusiasm and her ability to make light of these intense situations.

Being called to the dean's office was not something anyone looked forward to, especially when it contained the words 'disciplinary action.'

Which, to be honest, I had no idea what it was because I certainly did not remember breaking any of Ravenwood's Code of Conduct. And was there any code of conduct at all?

I had been here for all but one day; for the goddess's sake, what could I have ever done?

But it was not just the disciplinary action that had me bothered; I was more concerned about meeting the dean, particularly after running into him yesterday.

Who was none other than York Raven, my weirdly sweet mate, the gentle giant?

I was certainly not looking forward to more mate drama; the one with Xaar was enough already.

"Speaking of that disciplinary action, I should freshen up quickly," I told Max as I started taking my shoes off. "I don't want to be late, and I definitely do not want to piss off anyone else today."

"Ouch! This sure is worse than it looked out there," Max commented as I unwrapped my wounded foot from under the shoe.

Max was right; it was a bloody mess. The cut was deep, and the blood had soaked through my sock, which was now sticking to the wound.

"Yeah, I fell on my way here." I lied outright.

"The injury did not have a chance to heal before she drilled her nails right into it."

"That b***h!" Max muttered under her breath.

"Good thing you beat her ass. She so deserved it. I mean, who even cheats in a sparring match? And bringing your wolf out is so not cool."

"Aah!" I winced in pain as Max helped remove the sock that was stuck to the wound.

"You know, if you were human, you would have got to get stitches for this. Lucky for you, we would be able to manage this with a simple dressing."

Max told me as she cleaned my wound, burning my skin in the process.

I kept quiet at that, not wanting to tell her that, in all likelihood, I would need those stitches and might have to stitch myself up later, or at least use Althaea to fasten my healing and glue the wound together.

The only people who knew about my slow healing were my parents, the pack doctor, and my parents and my dad's beta.

And while I liked Max, this was not the kind of secret you shared openly.

Because this was the kind of information that could get you killed. All someone had to do was injure me enough, and my slowly healing body would do the rest of the job for them.

Forget Max; in all my years with Sole, I had never told him the whole truth as well. All he knew was that I did not heal as fast as an alpha, and he was happy to brush the whole thing off as me being delicate.

"There is no dressing here."

Max was going through the first-aid box that was stored in the locker room.

Of course, there would not have been anything apart from a basic antiseptic; wolves almost never needed dressing.

"I will just go get some from the clinic," Max informed me as she sprinted out of the door, letting all the angry voices from Xaar, the jerk, find their way in.

"I need each one of you to run a hundred laps of this training ground without stopping." He barked at the rest of them, who were still outside on the training ground.

I did not exactly know what was going on, but I could hear voices and him yelling at people from the second we stepped inside the locker room. From what it sounded like, that jerk was mauling someone.

One thing was clear, he was not happy that I had won. Not that I wanted to care.

And come Bluemoon, I was going to reject the asshole. There was no way I was going to be pinning after the boy, or rather, the man in this case, who wanted nothing to do with me.

Shoving all the thoughts about that jerk aside, I slid out of my trainer bra and shorts, stepping into the warm cascading water in the shower cubicle.

The hot water felt soothing against my skin, washing away all the dried blood, along with some fresh blood, from my wounds and easing away the tension that had knotted its way through my muscles.

As far as I was concerned, there was nothing a hot shower could not fix, at least for a few moments anyway.

Feeling all refreshed after the shower, I wrapped the towel tightly around my body and stepped out to retrieve a fresh set of clothes.

I had just picked up a fresh pair of lingerie, my shorts, and a crop top when a warm and large set of hands yanked me from the locker, grabbing onto my bare shoulders.

The tingles and that mouthwatering scent of oak and smoke were a dead giveaway about the identity of the intruder.

Quickly turning me around, Xaar had me backed up against the glass of the shower cubicle. Pressing his body against mine, he held me in place with my feet dangling above the ground so that there was no weight being put on my injured foot.

The way our bodies were arched together, I could feel every muscle of his perfect body against mine—the curves of the hard muscles as they rose and fell.

I couldn't breathe; I couldn't move. For a few seconds, my mind was mush.

My stomach knotted at our proximity, playing into the mate bond.

Huh! So much for wanting to reject him.

"Rules are made for a reason."

I barely registered the words that left his mouth.

His face was so close to mine as he spoke that I could feel his breath fanning across my cheeks, leaving a burning trail on my skin, and making me wonder how it would feel to have his lips against my skin.

Oh no! Oh no! I was not going to think about that. Remember, he did not want me.

I repeated this in my head over and over again.

Determined not to be swayed by the mate bond that danced across every inch of skin in the form of those heavenly sparks, I tried my best to pull away from his iron-clad hold.

Sadly, the only thing my struggle achieved was pulling down the towel that was wrapped around my body.

I did not miss his eyes dipping to take in the view of my ample cleavage, which was now left exposed. His dark eyes danced with a multitude of emotions that I could not read.

Unable to hold his smoldering gaze, I turned my head away, only to witness our not-so-decent position in the side mirror.

There we were, all tangled up against each other, with nothing but a towel separating our bodies in the middle of the sea of steam from my hot shower; the whole scene screamed hot and wet shower s*x.

Just the thought of it had me hyperventilating. Every nerve in my body was on edge as my heart raced with anticipation of something that my mind knew was not going to happen.

I pressed my legs closer, hoping to contain the throbbing in my core, but there was no relief.

"You really can't help it, can you?"

The snark in his remark was enough to pull me out of the lusty fog, or so I thought.

"Well, I am not the only one here who can't help themselves, aren't I? And I certainly do not ambush people half my age, and that too in the girl's locker room."

I retorted back, referring to him checking out my cleavage.

He growled at my words, pushing me further against the wall, and wrapped his hand around my throat.

Unfortunately, it just had the opposite effect on me. Instead of feeling threatened or angry, I was feeling all hot and bothered. The feeling in my stomach intensified as blood rushed to my core. My chest rose and fell as I swallowed deeply.

"Don't think I don't know what you did out there. I am not going to fall for any of your games." There was nothing gentle about his tone.

He continued with his bitter monologue while his body kept mine in place.

"You could have flagged that Paris was cheating, but then how would you have been the center of attention?"

What the hell was he talking about? 'Centre of attention'?

Confusion washed over me as I struggled to make sense of his accusation, but there was nothing to it.

Goddess! This man was delusional.

"Don't you love being the martyr?" He mocked me again.

That was it. I had just about had enough of this dimwitted man.

"Shouldn't you be asking your girlfriend to follow the rules?"

I shot back at him, having heard enough of his bullshit. His little girlfriend was the one who cheated, and here he was accusing me of playing games.

"And you are right; I could have called her out, but then I was not sure if you were a cheater like your little girlfriend."

I could see the anger boiling within him, but I wasn't about to back down.

"Who is to say you would not have bent the rules for her? And besides, I can fight my own battles; I don't need your rules to carry me through."

He growled again at that as his hand moved from my throat to my face, holding my chin roughly in place. It was so annoying how my body was hyper-aware of how his calloused tips felt against my skin.

"There is only one thing that I intend to bend over."

His voice held a dangerous edge that matched the sparkle in his eye. His other hand moved towards the hem of my towel, right next to my ass, as he warned me.

Just thinking about his threat, the knot in my stomach tightened on hearing those words as my heart stomped its way out of my chest.

Goddess, this mate bond was going to ruin me.

Xaar opened his mouth again, but before he could form any words, someone started banging on the locker room door.

The sudden interruption startled both of us, causing Xaar to retract his hand.

"Aria, it's me. Open the door." Sole, who was knocking on the door from the other side. "I have got the gauze dressing for you."

What the hell was Sole doing?

The banging grew louder and more urgent, as Sole kept at it.

"Come on, open the door; you know you need this. You are not made for this; you are too delicate, baby girl."

"'I can fight my battles myself'. Yeah right"

That jerk mocked me, repeating what I had just said seconds ago.

The glint in Xaar's eyes had changed to a different emotion, one that mirrored anger and irritation.

In the next flash, he released his grip on my shackled body, hurling me to the ground as he moved toward the service door of the locker room to leave. As he did so, he yanked the towel off of my body in a swiveling motion, leaving me standing butt-naked and frustrated in the locker room.