Chapter 9 Mate

• *Cali POV*
• We arrive at school to find everyone busy setting up their projects. I get envious looks as Marcus escorts me around until we reach our table. He always makes me feel like a princess and his admirers hate it. Well, it’s my birthday, I don’t care who gets offended.
• A Mexican wave forms as everyone bows to Leroy who makes big strides towards us.
• “Your Highne…”
• I am whisked into Leroy’s arms before I could complete my sentence. His cologne rushes into my nostrils rendering me breathless.
• “Leroy,” Marcus warns while his best friend squeezes me so tight I cant breathe and I can’t think.
• Leroy literally growls at Marcus who takes two steps back away from us.
• I can feel Leroy relax but he squeezes me tighter in his arms and inhales loudly.
• “Happy birthday Gorgeous. You take my breath away,” he murmurs, making me blush and my heart race.
• “You are making a scene,” I manage to whisper to Leroy whose heart is hammering against mine. I can see Rose sending daggers my direction while the rest of our school mates take photographs of us.
• He curses under his breath and slowly loosens his arms around me before taking a few steps away.
• “Fine. Don’t hold to him like that, it’s driving Sky crazy,” he says softly, careful not to be heard by eavesdroppers.
• My cheeks are now burning and my heart is fluttering out of control. His wolf is possessive of me. That’s another proof I did not need that this man is my mate. I can’t wait to give myself to him.
• “I am sorry,” I apologise to Marcus the moment Leroy is a distance away.
• “Don’t do it,” Marcus warns while I give him my innocent look.
• “You know exactly what I mean,” he adds, not buying my act.
• I can’t help but giggle. This is really the best day of my life.
• Marcus and I have just finished setting our station up when the bus from Palmland pack arrives. Phoebe, the second daughter of the Alpha C of Palmland pack is the first to alight. Oval face, almond eyes, full lips and flawless honey tone skin. Add her and curvaceous body, Phoebe is quite a beauty and she knows it. She flips her long curly hair, attracting everyone’s attention.
• “Mate! Mate!” an unmistakable familiar husky voice shouts, sending chills down my spine.
• “Mate! Mate!” Leroy repeats, literally running towards Phoebe, possessively pulling her in his arms.
• I can feel my heart shuttering before everything starts spinning.
• “What? No!” I am screaming inside, my body shaking. Leroy and Phoebe are completely lost in each other’s eyes. This can’t be happening. It’s my birthday for heaven’s sake!
• I blink back my tears while Marcus holds my trembling hand.
• “No, it can’t be. It just can’t be!”
• I close and open my eyes. They are still there. It’s not a dream. Leroy is really Phoebe’s mate. He looks like a smitten puppy around her.
• “I am so sorry,” Marcus says softly.
• “It just can’t be,”I mutter, blinking the tears threatening to escape my eyes.
• “I can’t explain the connection between the two of you,”Marcus confesses but that offers me no comfort at all.
• “We can go home if you want,” he suggests, already leading me away.
• I nod, peeling my blurry eyes away from the man I believed to be my mate and his mate. Phoebe is just perfect for Leroy no matter how I look at this. She is the Alpha’s daughter, his mate and I hate her!
• Marcus and I are walking towards the pick up point. He takes out his phone to make a call to the driver. I can immediately tell that something is amiss when he lets go of my arm and starts shouting.
• “Mate! Mate!”
• I turn around to see who it is. Flora of Palmland pack. She is Phoebe’s best friend. This is a double blow for me. Diana was right that I am cursed.
• Marcus looks apologetically at me before turning to his mate.
• “It’s okay, I am fine now and I am gonna head home,”I reassure him with a feigned smile. He’s been really kind to me, I can’t mess up the day he found his mate by making him worry about me instead.
• He nods before striding towards his mate. I don’t think he heard a word I said.
• Picking up my steps, I head towards the pick up point where I wait for a good ten minutes before realising that the driver is not coming. Marcus did not manage to make the call because he sensed his mate before that. I can make the call to Nora and ask her to send the driver but I need time alone and I know just the place. Walking there should take me about thirty minutes but I have all the time on the world.
• I can’t help but let out a depressed sigh when thinking about what the implications of Marcus and Leroy having mates. I will be out in the streets if either of their mates don’t like me. The mate bonds will guarantee that they stand by their mates no matter what. I can’t believe that I have been looking forward to my eighteenth birthday and this is what it had in store for me.
• It must be my doomed day because the last people I needed to see show up together.
• “Rumours are your master found his mate,”Carl says while he and his equally despicable friend close in on me.
• “Get out of my way!” I shout, glaring at them.
• They both grin before sandwiching me between them, blocking my way.
• “Don’t be cocky. Marcus will no longer have use for you from now on. You should be nice to the people who could buy you or you might end up being Beta Diana’s nameless slave again,” Leon sneers while running his lecherous fingers over my shoulders. The two of them tried to buy me as their sex slave from Diana before. Just being so close to them makes me want to gag and my stomach revolt.
• “Get the fuck away from me!” I yell, using all my energy to push them away. Unlike the time I was a nameless slave with no rights, I am a Beta now and can stand up for myself. Well, until Marcus lets me go that is.
• “Is there a problem here?” I hear a familiar no nonsense voice. It’s Doctor Grey, Marcus and Leroy’s friend. She’s is the one who tended to me when I got hurt after trying to run away from Marcus before I knew him. She comes around Marcus’ mansion a lot but we are not close. She always gives me this look I can’t quite read. I don’t even know what she feels about me.
• “Not at all Doc. See you around Cali.”
• The two idiots run off with tails between their legs and I can’t help but sigh with relief.
• “Are you okay?” Doctor Grey asks while looking worriedly at me.
• I nod my head and blink my tears back.
• “Where is Marcus?”
• “Somewhere with his mate,”I respond and see a shocked expression on her face before she recollects herself.
• “And Leroy?”she asks.
• “Somewhere with his mate too.”
• She narrows her eyes at me, no longer hiding her shock.
• “You are kidding right?” she asks in disbelief.
• I shake my head and blink back my tears. Only if it was a joke, but it was not. Before I know it, she has pulled me into her arms, hugging me tight.
• “Oh sweetie. Come here,” her tender voice gets to me. I shake my head before backing away from her, my tears finally dropping down. I don’t need any pity right now. I just need to be alone.
• “I have to go,” I mumble and run as fast as my feet can cary me and only stop five kilometres away from the school.
• The images of our kiss with Leroy, him possessing over me and him with Phoebe, plays in my mind like a horror scene.
• I must have been walking absentmindedly because I bump into someone and completely freeze.