Betrayal - The Matlock Pack: Book Two

Chapter 9 - Nat

Tuesday 19 January

~*Nat*~

I leaned back against the trunk of the large tree on the outskirts of the lunch area and sighed to myself.

Small groupings of two or three were scattered around the lunch area, laughing and joking while they munched on their sandwiches. And here I sat, all alone, staring at the sky, watching the clouds drift by because I had nothing else to do and no-one to talk to.

I looked at my lunch, groaned, then threw the remnants of the sad, sorry state of a sandwich I had made myself earlier back into the container it had crawled out of at the start of lunch.

Fuck it. I still had forty minutes of break time left; may as well go back inside and get a start on the homework Casey had set us yesterday.

I had devoted the first couple of hours of the morning with Cody and Nahi, working on some sort of water transfer thing. Just like last week, Cody had picked it up in an instant, where I had struggled. That was one more thing I was going to need to spend time on, but it wasn’t something I could do during lunch. It would raise too many questions from my fellow trainees. They already stayed away from me. I didn’t want to give them more reasons to fear or hate me.

I spent the rest of the morning on further training with Kadin. It appeared that Charlie had been instructed to take both Kadin and me under her wing and train us both. That seemed to suit all three of us—almost every trainee feared Charlie for some reason; everyone steered well clear of me for something I couldn’t bloody avoid; and Kadin… well, she just seemed thrilled to test how much she could beat me up.

Not that I’d let her.

She was quick and strong, though; I’d give her that. I had to admit that our sparring sessions were proving to be a challenge, but a welcome one. They distracted me enough that, for at least a couple of hours, I forgot all the other bullshit going on in my life.

The white-hot rage that was burning through me never seemed to let up. Whenever I was within sight of Bells, my mind would obsess over how he had treated me after I shifted into Alex at the last full moon. All other times I was consumed with grief over the deaths of my parents and the fact that I couldn’t visit their gravesites to say goodbye. On the rare occasions I wasn’t fixated on either of those things, my mind would drift to what I knew Alpha James had been doing and was likely still doing. Takeshi had told me to let him worry about it, but I couldn’t let it go. I was like a dog with a bone, but I had no idea what to do with the bone that I had.

My nights were restless once again, although thankfully the nightmares that I had suffered from during Camp were now largely gone, with memories of Bells and I having s*x typically taking their place. I would startle awake after every dream, usually when he would profess his love for me.

I would then throw the pillow across the room in growling annoyance and lay there until sleep either claimed me again or the alarm would go off, telling me to get up and get ready for class. Typically, it was the alarm that won out.

Now and then, I would still dream of the deaths of my parents. Those would also have me startled awake, but an overwhelming sense of dread would fill me, rather than the lingering orgasmic pulses that remained whenever I woke up from the s*x dreams.

I didn’t know which was worse, as neither would let me get any f*****g rest.

I got up from my spot at the tree and headed back inside and straight for my back corner desk. Grabbing out the work from yesterday, I did what I could on the tasks Casey had set us, and I was almost done when I started hearing everyone come back inside. I placed my elbow on the table and leaned my head on my hand and tried to block them and their noise out as much as I could. Just one more question to answer…

“Is this seat taken?”

I let out a huff and looked up to find the gorgeous tradesman from last week standing at the edge of the desk I was sitting at. I blinked, trying hard to remember his name. Matt? Mark? Mike? s**t.

“Uh… No,” I said, looking around at the rest of the room. Sure enough, every other chair was filled. It appeared that Emery’s medic training was popular. Even Murph was squeezed in between Bells and Owen. I shuffled my folders across to my side of the desk to clear some space for Mr. Hunky Tradie and shifted my chair over so as not to crowd him. Everyone else treated me as a leper; surely, he wouldn’t be any different.

He gifted me with a stunning smile and placed his satchel on the floor next to the desk as he lowered his magnificent frame into the chair next to me. “We met last week, yeah? My name’s Mac,” he said, putting his hand out for me to shake.

I gulped and blinked some more. “Um, yeah,” I hesitantly placed my hand in his, waiting for the electric shock to run its course. “Nat.”

I watched him startle as our hands made contact, but strangely, he didn’t pull back from me like I was expecting him to. He raised a delicious eyebrow at me and chuckled. “You’ve got quite the electric personality there.”

I stared into his warm, dark brown eyes, getting lost in the flecks of copper that gave them so much life. “Oh… Yeah… Sorry,” I stammered as I slowly withdrew my hand from his grasp, letting my fingers slide over his palm before carefully bringing my hand back. “Static electricity…” I trailed off as he let his own fingers linger over mine. I stared at our hands barely touching each other, almost seeing the sparks fly between them.

My mind went completely blank as I frowned and pulled my hand away, swallowing hard.

“Okay, everyone. Let’s get started,” Emery called out, pulling everyone’s attention to the front of the room. I drew in a deep breath and shook my head slightly to get my head clear, only to hear Mac chuckling away beside me. I refused to look in his direction but could hear him gathering some stationery out of his bag and placing it on the desk.

This was going to be a long class.

~~~

“You’re not going outside for a break?”

I jumped slightly at the sound of Mac’s voice in my ear. There was a lot of noise in the room as the class had just finished and we had a half-hour break before the next one. We had barely said two words to each other throughout the course of the session, because Emery had decided to start with a theory-heavy first class to get the semester rolling. It left no time for anyone to talk as we were all so busy trying to take as many notes as we could.

“Uh… No,” I said, shaking my head slightly. His attention was entirely on me, not distracted at all by the cacophony going on around us. I gestured to the paperwork still on my side of the table. “Easier to get a start on the homework now…”

He tilted his head at me, then looked at my paperwork. He frowned slightly. “You know it’s only the first week, yeah? No-one else is staying inside on their break to work in their first week.” He swung his gaze pointedly around the now fairly empty room. “Why not take the break that’s offered?”

I let out a soft sigh and leaned back in my chair. I narrowed my eyes at him but shifted enough that my left elbow rested comfortably on the back of my seat so I could play with the ends of my hair. “What do you have in mind instead?” s**t. Was I flirting? I widened my eyes and dropped my hand from my hair, and turned to glare at the mess on my desk.

“We could talk about why we decided to do this course,” Mac said, a laugh in his voice. “For example, I know you didn’t expect to see me here.”

I regained my composure before I turned back to him. “You’re one hundred percent right. What are you doing here? You’re a carpenter, yeah? What made you want to do the medic course?”

He leaned forward to loudly whisper to me in a conspiratorial way, “I was bored.”

I let my brow furrow in confusion. “You were…”

“Bored. Yup.” He sat back in his chair again, placing his right elbow on his seat back and intertwining his fingers in front of him. His dark eyes twinkled with mischief as he appraised me. “There’s only so many cabinets I can build every week before my brain turns to mush.” A hint of a smile played at the corners of his luscious lips.

Swallowing hard once more, I raised my eyes from his lips to look once more into his eyes as soon as it dawned on me how long I had been staring at them.

He winked at me when he knew he had my attention.

Shit…

“So… Uh…” I stumbled, completely at a loss on how to keep talking. What the hell?! I coughed before I tried to talk again. “So, you decided to become a pack medic.”

“Reserve pack medic,” he corrected, then shrugged like it was no big deal. “I felt like it was something I could do for the pack after they so graciously allowed my dad and I to join them.”

I let my head fall to one side as I considered his words. “You’re new to the pack, too?”

He grinned. “Not as new as you, it would seem, but yeah. We transferred in a couple of years ago.”

“You didn’t want to do the full course?” I couldn’t deny that he had intrigued me. It honestly felt like everyone had grown up together, so it was nice to come across someone who was also new.

“Goddess, no.” He threw his head back and laughed like I’d told the funniest joke in the world. “I’m no warrior. I’m much more of a lover than a fighter.” His eyes twinkled again as they darkened even further.

I felt my cheeks heat at his words. Nibbling my bottom lip, I let out a ragged breath and looked away, trying to hide my blush. Why was it so damn easy for me to get embarrassed?

Why was he flirting with me?

And why on earth was I flirting back??

I closed my eyes tight and shook my head slightly to try to clear my mind. Looking was okay. Looking only; no touching.

“Why did you decide to do the course?” Mac asked, apparently ignoring my embarrassment.

My head was facing what I thought was the desk, so I opened my eyes and shifted them to face him. He was focused entirely on me, curiosity heavily evident in his face. His eyes still twinkled with mischief, but had lost the darkened shade they held mere moments earlier.

I sucked in my cheek as I thought about how to answer. He didn’t need my life story; he probably already knew it. It wasn’t easy keeping any secrets in this small town. Everyone knew everyone else’s business, sometimes even before you yourself did. Which begged the question—if he already knew about me, why was he being so friendly when everyone else wasn’t?

“Uh… Well, Takeshi thought it would suit me, so he suggested I do the first year of the course,” I mumbled, waving my hands in the air slightly. “At least, until things settled down a bit and I could figure out what to do with the rest of my life.” I looked around the empty room, actively avoiding Mac’s gaze.

“Why is your life not settled?”

A frown crossed my face as my eyes swung immediately back to face him. He looked genuinely curious, but surely, he knew. Surely, everyone in this town knew. “You don’t know?”

It was his turn to frown, a tiny crease appearing between his eyebrows. “Know what?”

I studied the lost look on his face. It looked real. Maybe he honestly didn’t know. “I arrived in Matlock with amnesia. I only recently got my memories back.” My forehead crinkled as his blank look remained. “You know that, right? I thought everyone in this town knew that.”

I couldn’t stop my eyes from getting drawn to his beautiful lips once more as he pouted, then relaxed into their natural state of a resting smile. His shoulders rose and fell once. “I don’t really pay that much attention to the rumour mill. They tend to get things wrong more than they get things right.” The corners of his lips rose slightly. “I’m guessing your missing memories didn’t consist only of simple things like what you got for your fifteenth birthday from your best friend, or who your celebrity crush was, right?”

I chuckled. “You could say that.”

The classroom door clicked open. The noise echoed around the otherwise quiet room, so it drew both of our attentions. Bells stopped a couple of steps in from the threshold when he noticed we were watching him. He coughed quietly once before slowly continuing to his desk, his head hung low. Whether it was from embarrassment or something else, I didn’t know.

I pursed my lips before returning my attention to Mac. He was still looking towards Bells, a slight frown on his face. He gradually turned back towards me, his frown growing deeper when he absorbed the look on my face.

“Looks like the next class is about to start,” he said, worrying the bottom corner of his lip with his front teeth. “I should probably get a move on.” He picked up his satchel, slung it over his shoulder, and rose from his seat. “It was nice of you to allow me to annoy you during the break. I’ll see you next week, yeah?”

I felt a broad grin spread over my face. “Thank you for the distraction.” I glanced over the empty desks to see Bells settling himself into his seat, before returning my attention to Mac. “And yeah, next week.”

Mac nodded thoughtfully before tapping the tabletop twice with his knuckles. “Right. Have a pleasant week, Nat.”

“You too, Mac.” I watched him turn around and walk out of the classroom, his tight arse packaged very well in his work pants.

I nibbled my bottom lip nervously and gulped. Look; don’t touch.

As soon as Mac was out of sight, I shifted in my seat to get myself comfortable. My eyes carried over the relatively empty classroom on their way back to the paperwork on my desk, only to notice Bells half-turned towards me, watching me. A pained look had settled on his face, which only seemed to deepen as our eyes locked.

Once again, my heart twitched at the obvious sadness Bells was suffering, but my brain tried to shut it down. A flare of anger rose in me at both Bells and my heart, before it suddenly dawned on me that the constant rage I had been feeling almost non-stop over the last couple of weeks had disappeared over the duration of the last class and was only now returning.

I frowned at the revelation before dragging my eyes away from Bells and back to the paperwork in front of me. Trainees started pouring into the classroom, the sounds of footsteps and chattering filling the air.

“Settle down, everyone,” Charlie called out, striding into the room like she owned the place. She immediately began handing out paperwork to everyone in the class. “Raise your hand if you know what geocaching is.”