Tranferred Mate

Chapter 4

Jethro POV

                I held the ear cuff and looked at it as I lay down on my bed. It still had a faint scent of her on it. I admired it, but the thought of someone else giving it to her still stung. Images of her bloody and collapsing to the floor flood my mind as I think. I don’t even know her name yet and she’s all the consumes my thoughts now. I wish I had met her under different circumstances, but at least I know she is here now. I don’t have to look farther. I knew that my father would know who she is, but I couldn’t ask too many questions about her or he would get suspicious. I heard the door to the house open and close, my dad’s voice followed. I frowned, what is he doing out so late? I put the ear cuff on my dressed by my door as I exited. I saw him standing in the entrance hugging my mom before they both headed for the kitchen. I went downstairs and started for the kitchen when I heard my mom mention the hospital. I stopped in my tracks and listened in.

                “-alright. She ate quite a bit of food, but she’ll be alright. The nurse had a scare when she woke up however. Her heart rate was erratic for a couple minutes before calming down.” My dad’s voice muffled through the door.

                “Erratic?” My mom sounded concerned.

                “It was really high when she woke up, but after about a minute it dropped suddenly.”

                “Is she still having nightmares?” My mom asked quietly. Nightmares?

                “I believe so. I hope with the arena event coming up that someone will know her from her old pack.” I heard him set a glass down. “She is healing though. Most of her cuts are gone already.”              

                I heard footsteps behind me and I quickly walked up to the door and walked in. My dad’s head snapped in my direction.

                I rubbed my eyes pretending to be tired. “Oh hi.” I yawned and went to the refrigerator. My dad nodded back and my mom composed herself.

                “Oh dad,” I said through another yawn, “That girl Jace and I brought in, what’s her name?”

                “Why?” He eyes my suspiciously.

                “If she gets picked on again, I might as well know what to called her. ‘Hey girl’ sounds very general.” I rummaged through the refrigerator and found a yogurt.

                He seemed to buy it, “Wildkat. Kat for short.”

                I nodded, “Wildkat.” I loved it.

Kat’s POV

                The nurse was trying to keep me in my room. I was already dressed and ready to leave and she kept telling me I couldn’t without Alpha Zachary’s approval. Why do I need the approval of an Alpha and not a doctor? No idea. But she had called him and told me I must wait here for him. So here I was. Waiting. The door to the room opened and I was greeted by Alpha’s familiar face.

                “Connolly.” He greeted.

                “Alpha.” I responded.

                “The nurse says you want to leave.” He eyed me taking note of the fact that I was dressed.

                “Yep, healed up, now I’d like to go to class so I can go to practice.” I stated matter-of-factly.

                Amusement crossed his face. “Are you sure you’re completely healed?”

                “I have bruises where stuff was broken, but other than that, I am healed completely.” I looked at him truthfully.

                “Then I’ll drop you at school?” He stated more than asked.

                “I can walk, it’s not far. Besides, you’re supposed to not supposed to like me, remember?”

                “Point taken.” Alpha looked around the corner to where I assume my nurse is, “She can go.”

                I got up and walked to the door and he stepped aside letting me out.

                “Here is the stuff that was brought in with you.” The nurse handed me a small tub of items with my bookbag.

                Confusion crossed my face, “Um, I was wearing a copper ear cuff. Copper with green beads, silver chain and moon. It’s not here.”

                “Sorry, honey that’s all you were brought in with.” She replied with sympathy. “Maybe someone found it as school and it’s in the office?”

                “Probably.” I hoped. I looked at her, “Thank you.” I then turned to Alpha Zachary, “Alpha.”

                “Connolly.”

                I left the hospital and went on my way to school. The hospital and the school weren’t too far apart. About a fifteen-minute walk. I arrived at the school just as the bell rang signaling first period classes.

                Most students seemed surprised to see me, but no one was more surprised than Mr. Byrne.

                “Hello Connolly, I see you’re finally able to attend one of my lectures.” He smiled. He didn’t mean it in a mean way, which was comforting.

                I laughed a little, “I apologize Mr. Byrne. Here are the missed assignments from the past few lessons.”

                “Ah, thank you. Did you understand it?” He looked over the papers, I assume to see if they were all there.

                “Yes, I did, thank you.” I smiled in a reply.

                He smiled back, “Go ahead and take a seat.” He dismissed me.

                Other students started filling the room and taking their seats. Mr. Byrne started the lecture and I did my best to pay attention. He turned out to be a good teacher, he was funny, memorable, and made stuff easy to understand. The bell rang and it was time for lunch. I put my stuff in my locker and turned into a fist. I was knocked into the lockers for what felt like the hundredth time this week. I was having a good day and I didn’t want to deal with this now. But my thoughts went back to my conversation last night. I always had to remind myself not to fight back though it went against every instinct I was born with. I blinked and looked to see who it was. I internally groaned when I saw Kelanie.

                “What are you doing back here you little b***h, I thought I taught you a good lesson yesterday.” She growled.

                I ignored her and started walking away. Not my best idea ever. She grabbed my shoulder and ran me into the wall. Well, at least it wasn’t the lockers. We had attracted the attention of a bunch of students.

                “How many beatings are you going to take before you get the idea that we don’t want you here?!” she let go of me and I turned to face her.

                “That was a beating?” I lifted at eyebrow at her. This angered her. She swung at me too predictably and I just dodged. Her hand instead connected with the wall and a quiet snap followed. Her eyes widened a little before she screamed in pain. She must have fractured her wrist. She looked murderously at me.

                “Hey, I didn’t touch you.” I put my hands up as her friends rushed to her side looking at her.

                “I’ll f*****g kill you.” One of them growled at me.

                “If you’re going to do that, can I know for what? Cause I didn’t lay a finger on her.” I sighed and scratched my neck taking a quick look around scanning for exits.

                 “Well- you… she’s hurt! You hurt her!” She struggled to find words.

                “How?” I asked finally finding my exit. There was a split in a few students who had gathered around watching.

                She glared at me before looking at her friends. They were about to come after me. I prepared my exit as I watched them start to gather around me. I just need to dodge I reminded myself. So, I did. Dodging their grasps and punches allowed for me to escape as planned, so I started sprinting. I heard thundering footsteps behind me I glanced behind to see the group of girls in pursuit. I turned a corner and ran into someone. They spun around and I instinctively ducked and their elbow came at my face. I went through and realized it was a group of boys. Then I saw a familiar face: Jace. He did a double take at me.

                “Are you okay?” I glanced at him and the door behind him. I ducked under his arm and went into the room quickly closing the door. I’m not sure they really had time to process everything that just happened. The group of girls finally caught up.

                “Hey boys, did you see a little b***h run through here?” A familiar voice came through. “She broke my friends’ wrist.” I. Did. Not. Touch. Her. But whatever.

                “Yeah, she ran that way like the devil was after her.” Jace responded.

                “Thank you.” I heard footsteps taking off. A few seconds later there was a soft knock on the door.

                “Uh, they’re gone.” Jace stated.

                I opened the door and peaked out. It was a group of four boys. One definitely caught my eye. He was the one I must’ve run into as he was standing closest to the corner. He is the one that smells so good.

                “Thanks.” I glanced around. “Sorry for running into you earlier.”

                “It’s not a problem. Um…” He looked confused and glanced to his friends.

                “What?” I looked at the rest who looked as confused as him.

                “We took you to the hospital yesterday.” He said.

                “Oh, well thank you.” i***t. Of course, they would be confused. I had some pretty bad injuries.

                “Shouldn’t you still be there?” Jace asked.

                “If I was supposed to still be there, I would still be there.” I said then realized it sounded snappy, which isn’t what I meant. “Um, thank you taking me there, and thank you for not telling that group I was in there.” I looked at the ground and turned on my heel for the lunch room.

                “Wait!” The one I ran into called after me. I turned to face him, “Um, I’m Jethro. That there is Colton,” he nodded to the boy with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. “The other one is Eric.” He nodded to the one with black hair and green eyes. “You already seem to know Jace.”

                “Hi. Yeah, I met him at the football try-outs.” I looked at each of them do my best to assign their names to their faces.

                “Come to lunch with us?” Jethro asked, he seemed kind of hopeful, and he did help me out, so why not? Plus, he’s handsome, what could go wrong?

                “Sure.” I said.

Jethro’s POV

                I didn’t think she was going to agree at first, but she thankfully did. On our way to lunch, I noticed we were going to be about fifteen minutes late. I thought back to impact of someone running into me from behind. It took us all a minute to process everything, which was kind of funny. She was really cute too. Dark brown hair and grey eyes.

                “So, you broke someone’s wrist?” Jace looked amused

                “I did not!” She defended herself. “She swung at me, I simply dodge and she hit the wall instead. I didn’t lay a single finger on her!”

                I chuckled at her exasperated look.

                “Well that’s not what the girls chasing you said.” He lifted his hands in surrender.

                “Not my fault they need their eyes checked.” She retorted as we arrived at the lunch line.

                “Oh yeah, what’s your name?” Jace asked.

                She glanced at him and mulled it over.

                “I mean, we did carry you to the nurses, the hospital, saved you from a group of angry-“ He was cut off.

                “Okay, okay, I get it. Name’s Kat.”

                “Kat, okay. Are you going to come to practice today? I was telling Jethro about a girl that was at practice and he didn’t believe me.” He looked back at me with a small glare.

                “I plan on it.” She chuckled a little.

                “Goodie.” Jace smiled. Eric and Colton started pelting her with questions as well. We picked up our lunch and went to a table bringing her with us. She kept glancing around the lunch room and I realized why. There were quite a few glares coming from most of the girls, and there was one particular group watching her.

                “Hey, Jace, I think your cover is blown from the corridor.” She said. He looked up and saw what she was looking at.

                “Meh,” he shrugged, “What are they going to do?”

                She looked surprised and suspicious at his response. We sat down and motioned for her to do that same. She followed suit and sat between Jace and I. My heart rate picked up as I took in her scent. My wolf Xavier danced around at having her so close. He wanted to kiss her and hold her. To protect her. Why wasn’t she reacting to me? Is she eighteen yet? Maybe not and that’s why. You can’t tell who your mate is until you’re eighteen. If you’re eighteen and your mate is seventeen, you can sense the bond, but they can’t. That had to be it. So, until she turns older, I’ll use this time to get close to her and figure out how I’m supposed to be able to keep her.

Jace’s POV

                Jethro was watching Kat as we all talked. I could feel the eyes on us from around the cafeteria. It seems Kat could as well and it seemed to make her uneasy. Our table was situated in the center of lunch room so it was pretty hard to miss anyone who turned to look at us. Any large noise behind her made her jump a little, and I mean a little. She was pretty good at concealing the fact she was uncomfortable. I watched Jethro observe her as well.

                ‘She’s pretty jumpy.’ He opened a mind-link to me.

                ‘Yeah, I’m watching. I wonder if it is where the table is positioned.’

                ‘What do you mean?’ He seemed confused.

                ‘Notice most of her jumping is when the noise is from something she can’t see or determine the threat of.’

                ‘Oh.’ He seemed to understand. We have a blood-born warrior on our hands.

Kat POV

                Memories kept flooding me as noises kept popping up from behind me. Bad memories. I’ve never been able to have my back to the open, to a door, or anywhere that someone or something could attack me from behind. At least outside, I can hear around me, or in my room, or walking down a hallway. But here in the cafeteria, there is too much noise. Someone dropped a tray behind me and I just about leaped out of my seat granting concerned looks from the guys sitting at the table with me. I was done eating, so I decided it was time to leave.

                “Thank you again for your help. I need to go.” I didn’t wait for a response. I dumped my tray, put it on the belt to be cleaned, and left the cafeteria for my next class. I was a little embarrassed about my exit but I couldn’t take it anymore. Ms. Cindy was already in her room and I asked her if I would be allowed in at the library for this period. She smiled and assured me that I was indeed. She gave me a pass incase someone stopped me, which no one did, as I found my way to the library. The bell sung out signaling the end of lunch. I showed the librarians my pass as I looked around the library. It was massive and I loved it. The ceiling was about twenty feet high and it was completely packed with books. I noticed a little cubby tucked into the bookshelf about fifteen feet up on one of the walls. I inquired about it and one of the librarians showed me how to get up there. I was content with my space. There was on easy entrance and I could watch it. I pulled out my homework and put my headphones facing the entrance.