It must have been late afternoon by the time that Brody woke up from his nap. He opened his eyes to see the sun slowly setting outside, the warm light peeking through the shades. He was wrapped up in a mixture of limbs and sheets, feeling warm and safe. He closed his eyes and pressed his face further into the soft pillow, smelling nothing but the irresistible scent of his mate.
‘Why are you inhaling my pillow?’ Nate’s obviously amused voice whispered into his ear, and Brody jumped slightly with a laugh on his lips.
‘No reason,’ Brody said, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He looked over to see that Nate was lying next to him, his arm wrapped around Brody’s middle.
Nate smiled that classic smile of his, all perfect teeth and dimples in his cheeks. ‘It’s nice seeing you in my bed.’
Brody blushed, ‘Shut up.’
Nate only cheekily smiled back.
Brody unwrapped himself from Nate’s arms and carefully sat up on the bed, his head rushing for a moment before his vision steadied. He reached into his back pocket, pulling out his phone to check the time. It was just after three thirty, and he had four missed texts.
‘Oh, and Kayden texted me before asking for your number,’ Nate told him. ‘Since when do you two talk?’
Brody shrugged, ‘We had a chat before I came to your room, I guess we are friends now.’ Brody had to resist the smile tugging at his lips, he had more friends at this camp than he had in his whole life.
‘That’s good!’ Nate smiled, ‘I’m glad that you two are getting along!’
Brody smiled back. He then turned his attention back to his phone, reading the messages.
Hey, I spoke to a few of the other guys, and I think I might have found something. Do you want to meet at the library at five? – Unknown Number
Brody assumed that was Kayden, and quickly replied that he was happy to meet him there after adding his name into the phone. The next messages where, surprisingly, from Annie.
Hey, are you free? Can you come help me with my history homework? –Annie
Pleaaasssseee – Annie
I will literally give you chocolate. – Annie
That was a lie. I don’t have any chocolate. – Annie
Brody laughed, pressing the call button.
Annie answered in an instant, ‘Thank God, I thought that you were dead or something. I texted like an hour ago.’
Nate sat up next to Brody, looking at the phone in his mate’s hand with a curious expression.
Annie, Brody mouthed to Nate, and his mate murmured an Ohh.
‘I’m fine. Do you still need help?’ Brody asked his mentee.
‘Yes! Can you come to the gardens? I’m at one of the picnic tables attempting to do this impossible homework,’ Annie groaned.
‘I’ll be right there.’
‘Thank-you!’ Annie hung up.
‘Where are you going?’ Nate asked, getting up off the bed.
‘Annie needs help with her history homework,’ Brody explained, carefully stepping onto the ground aswell, careful not to jolt his injured arm too much.
‘Why didn’t she ask me?’ Nate asked with a serious expression.
Brody burst out in laughter, but Nate didn’t seem to get the joke, his expression neutral. ‘Oh, you were serious? I, uh-’
Nate’s serious expression dropped and he too burst out in laughter, ‘I’m just messing with you.’
Brody huffed with a smile, making his way over to the door.
‘Do you want me to come with you?’ Nate asked.
Brody was about to say that he didn’t mind when he realised that if Nate came with him, then he might not leave before he was to meet up with Kayden, and he didn’t want Nate to hear what he and Kayden were going to talk about, not unless they had some real proof to back up their vague suspicions.
‘That’s okay, I’ll just see you at dinner,’ Brody replied.
‘Are you sure? I don’t mind hanging out while you guys work?’ Nate asked, but Brody shook his head.
‘Nah, that’s okay,’ he jumped forwards and gave Nate a chaste kiss. ‘See you tonight.’
‘Okay,’ Nate smiled, opening the door for his mate.
Brody felt a wave of guilt hit him hard as the door closed behind him. Since when did he deceive his mate? It felt like a new type of wrong to have anything but one hundred percent honesty between he and his mate, and yet he knew that he wasn’t going to just turn around and tell Nate the truth. He had to figure this all out, then tell Nate.
Brody forced himself to walk towards the elevator, pressing the downward arrow.
He rode the elevator down to the lobby, walking out of the building and into the warm afternoon air. The gardens were quite vacant, a few groups of people huddled under tree’s and others reading in the open air. He knew that there were a few picnic tables near the centre of the garden area, and so he walked forwards, zigzagging in-between the tree’s and groups of Alpha’s to the middle. Sure enough, three of the four tables were vacant, the other one sitting two people.
Annie had her legs crossed under her as she leant over a thick text book, her blonde hair spilling over her shoulder and pooling on the picnic table top that she was leant over. On the other side of the table sat Lucas, the boy was running his hand through his hair in a way that clearly spelt out frustration.
‘Hey Guys,’ Brody greeted his two mentee’s as he approached the table.
‘Thank the lord you are here!’ Lucas raised his hands to the sky in a gesture that Brody assumed meant some sort of praise. Lucas’s face changed when he saw Brody’s arm. ‘What happened to your arm?’
Brody sat down next to Lucas, ready for the line of questioning that he was sure that he was going to endure.
Annie’s head whipped up from the book she had been studying, ‘What happened?’
Brody shrugged casually, ‘Oh it was nothing.’
Lucas shook his head, ‘That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one.’
Annie nodded at her friend, ‘I’m with you on that one. It takes a lot to hurt an Alpha.’
Brody shrugged, ‘It was just an wolf training session injury. I’m out of that class anyway and probably into your class, so its fine.’
The two didn’t look like they were going to let it go that quickly.
‘Who did it?’ Lucas asked. ‘Did Nate snap their neck?’
Brody knew that he should be annoyed, or slightly worried at the fact that Lucas would go right to neck snapping, but he was more annoyed at the fact that Lucas obviously didn’t think for a second that he had been the one to do the aforementioned neck snapping. ‘Why wouldn’t I have been the one to snap their neck?’
