DEDICATED TO 1-800-PLEASEBITCH :)

Shoutout to StarlightRyder for the absolutely wonderful insult and intuitive comments. :)

~

Chapter 24 - ❝That Shameless Harpy,❞

Tatum slammed the notebook shut, exhaling a gasp.

"What? What is it?" Angier tried to tug the book from her fingers, but Tatum ignored him and shot him a look as she quickly composed herself. She bent down to pick up her fallen phone, holding onto the notebook tightly and making it clear to him that she wasn't letting it go.

He gave up trying to pull it from her and looked at her in confusion.

"Ah, sorry, Alpha Daemon." Tatum cleared her throat, trying to sound as collected as she could, "I, uh, I dropped my phone by accident."

"Oh . . ." The Alpha seemed utterly confused because while it was normal for someone to drop a phone by accident, her Alpha-Wolf reflexes should've been quick enough to grab it out of the air before it dropped. The fact that she didn't, clearly implied that her mind was otherwise occupied, and that made it clear that she was hiding something, "It's . . . okay. Happens to all of us, I guess."

"Ha ha," Tatum let out a nervous chuckle, torn between telling the truth and hiding it temporarily from him, "Yeah. So um, Alpha, do you mind if I call you later? Something really important came up and I have to attend to it."

"Ah, alright." Finally, his tone implied that he had somewhat caught up to her secrecy, and was willing to let her get away with it, "No, it's no problem at all. Call me after dinner time, then. I have some commitments I have to attend to, as well."

"Okay, then." Tatum resisted the urge to sigh in relief, "Thanks for your time. Have a pleasant evening."

"Pleasure is mine. And I wish you the same."

"Goodbye, then."

"Bye," She waited for the call to end before she finally let out that sigh she was so desperately holding in.

"What's in that book?" Angier crossed his arms across his chest and glared accusingly, his eyes narrowed to two slits.

Dammit. "Um, nothing actually. I um," A quick excuse formed in her head, lighting up her expression, "I got a neck cramp! Yep, I got a neck cramp all of a sudden and the phone slipped."

Angier shot her a dubious look and then rolled his Caribbean-blue eyes in utter exasperation.

Really, Tatum? Neck cramp? That's all you could come up with?

Face-palm.

"So then why don't you just let me take a look at it?"

"Oh." Fuck, what do I do? "That . . . that's cause that note is personal! I've written stuff in it that I'm not sure I'd be comfortable sharing with you."

"You weren't that 'uncomfortable'—" He made air-quotes with two hands as he leaned closer and got right up to her face, his eyes scrutinizing every expression of hers carefully, "—When you handed it over to Llewellyn a little while ago. I mean, he flipped through the pages and you were not even a little bit fazed."

"That's 'cause he doesn't know me and I don't care what he thinks," Tatum shrugged, trying to appear like a nonchalant, care-free non-liar, "And he was gonna write some names in it. Not read what I wrote. I was there right next to him. If I'd been uncomfortable at something he sees, I'd have pulled it from his hands before he could blink."

"So, I'm standing right here and you're right next to me. Just show me the last page where he wrote it and I promise not to flip over," He challenged, and Tatum had no idea how to rebuff that.

Fuck.

"Fine," She opened the note quickly, holding it in such a way that her thumb was covering the top of the paper where Francesca's name was there, "Here have a quick look,"

Before Angier could finish smirking at her and glance down for a proper look, she slammed it shut, standing up, "Happy?"

Big mistake.

Standing up was a big mistake because she hadn't realized that it would put their bodies so close together.

Too close.

Fuck.

She turned her body slightly to put the notebook inside her open drawer and lock it, but the move brought their bodies to contact. Her breasts brushed up against his chest, and the zap of fire that raced through her made her jump back like he was a live-wire.

Double fuck.

"I—I think you should leave."

"Yeah," Angier's voice came out gravelly in a low growl, and Tatum took yet another instinctive step back, "Yeah, I'll go," He repeated, looking down and then looking back up, "I'm not letting this go, though." He slid his eyes in the direction of her still open draw, and then he side-stepped her and walked past her to the exit of her room.

Once he left, Tatum fell into her chair with a sigh loud enough to wake all the sleeping animals in the woods. Exhaustion crept up her spine and made her eyes droop because really, she'd never had a day as long as this one.

Fuck.

With that lost thought in mind, she pushed herself off her chair and fell onto the bed, not caring about her rumpled clothes or the fact that she hadn't even removed her shoes as she drifted off to sleep.

~

"Okay, I'm not sure I heard this right. Can you come again?"

"I said," Tatum whisper-yelled in frustration, looking around to make sure that no one around them in the corridor was eavesdropping into their conversation, "Francesca bullied the guy who I thought was my Mate and killed his Wolf."

"Holy fuck!" Ezra yelled, turning a few pairs of eyes around them towards him.

"Shhh!" Tatum slapped a hand over his mouth, glowering.

"Holy fuck," He whispered again once she let go, "No kidding! How did you find this?"

So Tatum recounted the entire events of that previous evening, right from the scene in the parking lot to Angier's decision to not make a choice—leaving out a few tidbits about them hugging and other unnecessary details—to finding Llew in her doorstep and him telling her his whole story and her conversation with his ex-Alpha. After Angier had left, she had called him again and explained that it was her future-Beta's Mate on top of the list and that she wanted to keep this stuff under wraps until it was proven.

He had been more than understanding, much to Tatum's relief.

"Oh," Seneca breathed once Tatum was done, eyebrows shooting past her crimson bangs, "If Dae says that he's legit, then I believe him."

"Yeah," Micajah and Ezra chorused, nodding in unison.

Tatum looked at the trio in surprise, "Wait, you guys know each other?"

Seneca turned slightly pink at that, "Yeah. We were kind of . . . best friends."

"Were?"

"Okay, we're slowly getting back to being best friends now, but some things happened and he declared war and . . . his Mate was in love with Cage and . . . "

Tatum's eyes widened further with every word out of her mouth.

"And then she kind of killed his Dad . . ." Ezra shrugged, and Tatum sputtered in shock, "W-What!?"

"Oh, it's not like that. We didn't have a fallout because of me killing his Dad. There was some other stuff; a huge misunderstanding. But we're over it now."

Tatum turned her focus to Micajah in surprise, "Lenora Andrews was in love with you?"

"Wait, you know her? Oh, right. Play practice." Micajah nodded to himself as embarrassment colored his cheeks as well, "Yeah, sorta. She was my best friend at school. And then she kinda froze me out and tried to drag me apart from Seneca so we stopped talking for a while after that. Now, we're amicable. Who knows . . . someday we might become best friends again."

What. The. Fuck.

These people had a ton of history she wasn't aware of.

Made her realize that she wasn't the only one with problems.

"Holy cow." Tatum whispered, staring at the three of them in complete shock as she felt something like awe bloom inside of her, "You guys have gone through a hell of a lot of shit, haven't you? You weren't always this happy."

Seneca chuckled, reaching forward to pinch her cheek and tap the top of her head like she was a child, "You're too cute, little Tatum. Now, c'mon. You made us stand in this corridor long enough. I need some food before my stomach eats my intestines."

~

The rest of the lunch hour went by a bit awkwardly because Francesca decided that she'd had enough of their table and decided to move to the one with the popular human jocks and cheerleaders. Tatum noticed that other human guy she'd done the activity in French with was sitting beside her, showing an awful lot of interest in her as he leaned forward and gave her every ounce of his attention.

Francesca—that shameless harpy, flirted back with him without an ounce of self-respect.

Angier, to his credit, was calmly putting away his large cheeseburger, not even glancing at Francesca's antics in a cursory manner. He looked like he didn't give two shits.

Tatum wondered if he was acting indifferent to guard his pride or if the bond between the couple really was that weak.

Then she wondered how it was even possible for Mates to be that indifferent towards each other.

You see Micajah and Seneca finishing each other's sentences and loving each other with every breath they take. That kind of love is not there between them just because they're Mates. It's only there because they fell in love.' Angier's pain-filled words from the other night echoed in her ears.

And they fell because they struggled to overcome all their fears and trust each other to catch them when they do. That's what it takes to have a partner for life like that.

So it was the effort on their parts and not just the Mate bond . . .

"Alright, see you guys, then?" Angier stood up, tray in hand, and Tatum realized that there were only five minutes left to the bell. He received smiles and waves and mumbled goodbyes as the three of them wrapped up their empty food containers as well. He then turned to her, raising an inquisitive brow, "You coming?"

It took Tatum a second to realize that they had the same class after lunch. And they used to go there together until a few weeks ago.

It felt like forever had passed now that she had changed her routine and almost gotten used to going everywhere by herself.

"Ah . . ." She glanced at her watch and decided that she couldn't get much plotting done with the Mordecai trio after he left, considering how little time was left, "Okay."

When they had almost reached the entrance, Tatum turned back and shot a desperate look of 'save me', not able to see their response as she had rounded the corner and had to leave.

She never thought she'd think this, but really needed to find a way to avoid Angier.

~

Play practice got over before she could realize how much time had passed by. Since Scene 5 hadn't been perfected the last time, they'd had to run through it again, and Tatum could literally feel the animosity radiating off Angier's Mate as they had stepped on the stage. She turned to the side to glance at her in an unperturbed manner to see what she was up to, and the blazing scowl on Francesca's face was hot enough to melt the Antarctic.

This time though, she really couldn't find it in herself to feel any pity for the woman. If what Llew claimed was true, Francesca was someone who deserved to rot in the deepest pits of Tartarus. She would confirm that it was her before going around throwing blames and accusations because she didn't want the woman to find a loophole out of this.

This was something far too serious than a petty rivalry over a guy.

And without confirming anything, she couldn't afford to tell Angier anything because he would act impulsively without regard to the consequences, and on the off chance that the Blythe bitch wasn't a bitch—okay, she could be considered a bitch for all the pettiness but not so bad that she was irredeemable.

It was for his good, and his good only.

There was no reason to burden Angier with the heartache of such a big revelation when it might not even be true.

After all, wasn't ignorance bliss?

"I can literally hear the cogs turning in your brain," Angier smirked, bringing her back to reality, "What are you hiding from me, Tate? You better be assured that I'll find out someday."

Tatum gulped at the spike of real nervousness running through her as a new possibility occurred in her mind. Would he feel betrayed when he's later informed about this? Would he be pissed off on her for hiding such a major thing about his own Mate from him?

But what if it's not true? Why put him through it?

"My mind is locked up tighter than the royal vault." Tatum shot back, grinning to hide her emotions, "I dare you to try and find out,"

"Hmm," He appraised her in contemplation, "I'll find a way."

"Alright, settle down, let's begin!" The holler from Mrs. G silenced the auditorium, and as the lights dimmed, they fell into character.

~

Tatum's mind was still reeling from that heartbeat-sky-rocketing kiss onstage as she stepped out of the auditorium.

What was up with that kiss, anyway? It had felt like Angier had put extra effort into making it as hot as possible. She could still feel the echo of that wicked swirl of his tongue against hers and it made her blush like it had just happened all over again. She was still disconcerted and slightly disoriented and felt like she was floating in a daze.

Okay, a lot disoriented.

Thankfully, she'd crammed her lines so thoroughly that she'd be able to recite them in her sleep. That had come in handy this evening and had helped her get through the hour without trouble because if not, she was sure she would've stood around like a fool and gotten ripped to shreds by Mrs. G for her lack of concentration.

"Um, hello?"

Tatum was so startled by Ezra's voice that she jumped ten-feet in the air in surprise.

Okay, not literally, but you get my drift.

"Goddess, you scared me." Tatum placed a hand above her thumping heart, glancing around to check if anyone had seen her pathetic-self getting caught off-guard like that.

"Yeah, I noticed." Ezra wagged his eyebrows in such a suggestive manner, she doubted anyone could do it better than him, "In fact, you've pretty much been in dreamland since the k—"

"Shh!" Tatum shushed him for the second time that day, glancing around yet again and sighing in relief when she saw Angier talking to some guys on the other side of the auditorium.

"Fine." He rolled his cyan-blue eyes in mock-contempt, "You're no fun. Nothing like my super-awesome Mate."

"Yeah?" It was her turn to roll her eyes at the love-sick fool, although she could feel herself smile automatically at the sheer happiness in his voice, "Glad I'm not your Mate, then." Tatum tried to shoot him a sour look in vain, "What the hell are you doing here, anyway?"

"I was sent here to get Angier and go out so that you can go meet the brain-twins at their dorm. Brain-twin 1 said that if I don't distract him, he'll tag along for sure and he can't know about—" Ezra glanced at something behind her and nonchalantly continued, "—so I definitely need a drink."

Huh?

"Who's going out drinking?" An arm slung itself across her shoulders, and immediately she was engulfed by the overwhelming scent of Angier. It was indescribable, because to her, that was the most scrumptious combination of scents that could possibly exist. It was a mix of his apple-scented body wash and woodsy cologne and just . . . pure man.

Wait. What the fuck was she doing, thinking about his scent like that?

Ezra smirked at her knowingly, turning to Angier with a grin, "Oh, just you and me. We're gonna get shit-faced because I'm super depressed."

"Um, you don't look depressed, though." Angier raised his dark-gold brows, running a hand through those golden locks flopping over his head, "Plus, we have class early tom—"

"Stop being such a pussy," Ezra growled, throwing an arm around Angier's neck and forcefully dragging him away, "I'm done with college and I need some bro-time today."

"But—" Angier glanced back at her, but she was already taking a step back in the direction of the dorms. She waved at him with a wide smile, "Take a cab, you guys! And don't send him home. I'll pick him up when I go back."

"But—"

"Just shut up."

She could faintly hear protests from Angier but she speed-walked in the direction of the dorms.

They had to find a solution to this problem.

~ * ~

QUESTION: OKAY, DAMN. THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION. DID FRANCESCA DO IT OR NOT?

If no, what's the reason?

If yes, what kind of evidence do you think she left behind?

YAY, I UPDATED. I'LL UPDATE AGAIN SOON!

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