. When daddy trained us as a warrior, he taught us how important it is to deceive your opponent if necessary. Nothing is black in and white in this world. There are shades of gray where you would tread one day. The intelligence lied in your tact.
It was impossible for me to eat food even as Bradley had his chicken burger carelessly. “You worry too much,” he said, stuffing his mouth with another bite. “Eat something. And if you won’t, give your steak to me.” He extended his hand toward my plate, but Matt squatted his hand away.
“Let her eat it,” he growled at Brad. “She is hungry.”
I huffed. “I’m not hungry,” I said, passing the plate to Brad. My brother happily ate it all. However, Matt didn’t touch his plate either. He was sitting beside me and his eyes were fixed on me. His hand was draped over the back of my chair. I turned to him, crossing my arms across his chest. “It’s all your fault that we are in so much trouble!” I just couldn’t help thinking if Tulip touched him or not. Anger simmered inside me all the more at the mere thought.
“My fault?” he said, raising his eyebrow.
“Yes, you should have submitted your assignment in time.”
He lowered his head. “I should have submitted my assignment in time, but you can’t blame me.”
“What do you
mean?” I hissed.
“I mean—” He looked into my eyes in a way that made my knees wobbly. Goddess, this mate bond was creating havoc inside me. He took a deep breath and brushed his finger on my back. Jolts of lightning sparked across my spine. “My attention was diverted by someone.”
“Get a room!” Bradley scowled.
But I didn’t- couldn’t pay attention to him, captivated by the dark eyes of a certain bear.
Matt continued, “Why didn’t you have dinner last night? If you had your dinner, I wouldn’t have to feed you, and would have completed my assignment.”
“Oh, so this is also my fault? I never asked you to come and feed me.”
He smirked. “You were sulking. That was my trigger.”
I clenched my jaw. “You are only making excuses, Matt!”
He chuckled. “I’m not, baby. I was so focused on you that I couldn’t do anything else.”
“Goddess above!” Bradley hissed. “I’ll fucking puke if you continue with this convo!” His phone buzzed. “Oh, we are being summoned!” he said, stuffing the remaining burger in his mouth.
In less than ten minutes, we were standing in front of the Dean. Tulip wasn’t there. But there was one more professor sitting with him. The Dean looked at the three of us. Then he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Look, this is really bad. I fully understand the way Miss Tamara manipulated me into going to see what Professor Tulip was doing. I can expel you for lying to me,” he warned. Ground shook beneath my feet and I felt dizzy. “But,” the Dean continued. “I won’t be doing any such thing. The crux of the matter is that even though you lied to me, you wanted to expose Professor Tulip. What she did was unimaginable.” He paused for a while as he glanced at the professor next to him, who nodded as if encouraging him to continue.
“I’m sorry, Dean Smith,” I murmured.
“No, I understand you, Miss Tamara. You saved your brother, and you also saved Matt. This was necessary and I don’t hold you responsible for your behavior. You only protected your brother and your friend. However, make sure that doesn’t repeat. I’ll punish you for speaking lies next time.”
“Sorry,” I muttered.
1/3
Chapter 183
“What about Professor Tulip?” Matt asked, his jaw clenching.
“That… Well, we request you to stay quiet until we find another professor for herbology. Until then, she will continue to teach you. We’ve given her a strict warning about it.”
“You should suspend her job,” Matt said through gritted teeth.
The Dean raised his eyebrow. “Don’t teach me what to do, Mr. Matt Erikson! Now get out before I take back my decision.”
I touched Matt’s hand as he opened his mouth to retaliate. But the moment I touched him, he snapped his mouth shut. The three of us came out. The moment we were out of the building, I breathed a sigh of relief. “That was close!” I rasped.
“He should have thrown her out!” Matt responded. “Then I would have taken a strict action against her.”
“You can take action against her now as well,” Brad suggested.
“Yeah!” he growled. “I’ve asked Seth to release an official statement that Tulip Montana doesn’t belong to my pack now. Not only that, I’ve asked my father not to take her in.”
“That’s harsh.” Brad said, not meaning it.
The weight of the incident was heavy on us. While Brad left for his math class, we both went to the psychology class. However, it was after the class when two girls approached us.
“Hey, are you on the beachball team? We are practicing. Do you think you can join us?” said one of them.
“Umm… I was shifted to volleyball,” I replied.
“How is that possible?” said the other one. “I saw your name in the list this morning.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “But the coach messaged me that I was shifted to the volleyball team.”
“That’s crazy,” she said.
As soon as they left, I said, “I saw the schedule for my practice. It’s in fifteen minutes.”
“Wait, so are you going there? Like now?” Matt asked.
“Of course!” Saying that I rushed to the volleyball court that was another fifteen minute walk.
“What about me?” Matt said.
“You can go back to your dorm and finish the assignment,” I deadpanned, Matt scratched his head sheepishly. I made him turn and pushed him. “Go!”
The volleyball court was buzzing with activity. The coach and students were talking excitedly about some upcoming match. I approached the coach. “Hi, I’m Tamara Vaslof!” I said excitedly as I glanced at the girls in the team.
The coach furrowed his brow. “So?” he shrugged. “Why are you here?”
Taken aback by his reaction, I said, “I got a message from the coach of the beachball team that I was supposed to join the volleyball team.”
He jerked his head back. “What nonsense? How come I don’t know what changes are happening in my team?” He looked at the chart in his hand and read the names. “There’s no Tamara Vaslof here.”
My mouth dropped. “How’s that possible?” I said, bewildered. I pulled out my phone and showed him the message from the coach. “I received this two days ago.”
He frowned as he read the message. “Are you sure this isn’t a prank? Because if this is, I’ll make sure you don’t play any games on this campus!”
Dread washed over me. Why were so many things happening in one day? “Y–you may verify it from her,” I said. All the other girls looked my way, like they were hoping for some kind of drama.
“Of course, I will,” he said and took his phone out. He walked away from me and talked to the beachball coach. He muttered words into
2/3
3/3
the phone, nodded, and then disconnected the call. “You aren’t in the volleyball team, Tamara Vaslof. In fact, your coach is angry with you for not showing up for practice for two days. And this message–she didn’t send it! Is this a ploy to come to this team or to taint a good woman?”
My mouth dropped. “N–no,” I muttered. “Why would I do that? I acted upon this message.”
“Stop wasting my time!” he shouted. “Go to your practice!”
What the hell just happened?
