My Enemy, My Mate

Chapter 4: The Chase

***Ariana's POV***

I looked up from my hands with sorrow in my heart. Alex had chosen Patty from the neutral pack. I had a hard time accepting this fact. Patty was so pretentious and proud. How could she be the mate of my sweet Alex?

I noticed Alex suddenly froze entirely. I stared at him strangely, and he struggled to keep a straight face. He shifted on one foot nervously, and I couldn't decipher his behavior. I decided to shift my gaze away from Alex and followed his gaze.

Finally, after a long trailing gaze, my eyes fell upon the object of his attention. There, no more than 3 feet from me, was Patty. Her brown hair was straight and fell so sexily around her face. The mascara made her eyes seem to be like crystals. She had a proud, self-satisfied smile on her lips.

She moved towards Alex, their eyes locked, but she stopped and faced me before she reached him. She touched my collar with her hand and examined it. Her nails were painted black, which seemed to suit her.

When she finally stopped examining me, she stepped back, looked at Alex with a grin, and then began to laugh.

To my horror, she laughed raucously. Nothing held back. Her head was flung back, her mouth agape, and her face was turning red. Her body shook. I began to feel so mixed up. I wanted to shout at her to stop, but instead, tears started to form in my eyes. My body began to shake too, but instead of being from laughter, it was from misery.

"Hey, Patty," Alex said quietly as he reached out his hand to touch her arm. "I don't think that's appropriate."

"Stop, Alex!" I declared immediately. I did not want him to defend me. I did not want to like him or have any good associated with his name. I felt my heart hurt and was no longer the one who could comfort me. So, I did not want him to defend me either. I wanted him to realize I did not need him.

"You have no idea how pathetic you look!" Patty declared amidst her intense laughter. She apparently did not care what Alex had to say. I knew people were beginning to notice. I felt their eyes on my neck. There was no dignified way for me to end this.

I decided to just walk away. I knew she was mocking me because she won. She got Alex, and there was nothing I could do about it. And, it was fate that decided that she would have him, which made it even worse than if he was just shallow. I walked briskly down the hall. In my ears rang the laughter of Patty. I did not even know if she was really laughing still or if the horrible noise just continued in my brain.

"Hey, hon." I heard Carol's voice from behind me. I continued to walk briskly in no direction in particular, and I felt her fall into step beside me. I did not acknowledge her. I did not want to talk about what had just happened.

"Hey, hey, hey." She said again, and this time she reached out and grabbed my hand. I tried to shake her hand off from mine, but her grip was hard. I decided to finally stop. My head was downcast, and I did not want to look her in the eyes. I didn't want her to know I was crying.

"Don't shove me off, girl," Carol said in a quiet voice. "Tell me, what happened?"

I slowly looked up at my best friend. She had the nicest, fluffy blonde hair. It wasn't so fluffy as to make her seem like an 80's popstar, but it was just fluffy enough. I saw the tattoo on her arm, which displayed the bright moon contrasted against the black sky. She wore that image proudly. She was not ashamed of the fact that her lineage was mixed. She had a parent from each pack. She was not ashamed of it.

"I wish I was more like you sometimes," I said quietly as I continued eyeing her tattoo. I really wished I had her strength and brazen personality at times. She just seemed so certain about who she was. Since losing Alex, I no longer knew what I should be doing or who I even was anymore.

"Don't be so serious, Ariana," Carol said with a grin after a long pause. She took my hand and led me into the school cafeteria. I sighed.

"You never take things seriously!" I rebuked her.

She was practically dragging me now, and I kind of found it funny. I decided to slow down and drag my feet to make it harder for her. She grunted and pulled me harder through the crowd of people. I noticed there was a large crowd of mostly girls all gathered around a single table. I couldn't help feeling curious.

"Hey, Carol," I shouted over the noise of the cafeteria so that she'd stop. She turned around and looked at me with a perplexed look on her face. I gestured towards the throng of people.

"Oh, you know how I said that Triton, the son of the enemy's Alpha, broke up with Jessica?" She said to me, her gaze now shifted to look at the group. "I guess Triton is enjoying himself with his newly found independence."

I tried to spot him clearly through the gap of people around his table. For a brief second, I saw him eating his lunch while a tall, blonde girl rubbed his shoulders and whispered in his ear. He seemed to like it, but there was more to his look than just that.

"Come on," I told Carol as I pulled her away. "We need to avoid the enemy pack."

She nodded and followed me.

Lunch and the remainder of the school day were pretty dull. Carol stuck by me pretty much the whole day and even walked me most of the way home. When we came to the large woods which stretched on towards my home, I asked Carol to let me go the rest of the way alone.

"Well, I guess." She relented after some back and forth between us. She was worried about me, which I appreciated. But, I really needed to get some alone time to think about things.

She said her goodbyes, and I started to make my way through the woods. After a couple of minutes, I heard a noise from behind me. I spun around to see what it was. My heart rate picked up when I saw Patty on the hillside on the wood's edge with three others. They shifted their form, and I haven't turned 18, which means I can't shift now. I started to dash away as quickly as I could.

*** Triton's POV***

I shifted the weight of my backpack as I stepped out into the sunshine. It was a beautiful day, with the sun's heat mingling perfectly with the coolness of the breeze. It would be all perfect if my heart did not feel so heavy. Not only have I lost my girlfriend, but I've been unable to discover who my mate was because I didn't see her face at the ball. I sighed.

I heard a commotion from the edges of the woods outside of the school, and I lifted my head to see what it was. All I heard was a scream, and I saw the form of Patty and three of my pack members shift into a wolf and dash into the woods. My blood immediately began to pulse fast.

"What are they doing?" I said under my breath, and I dashed after them into the forest. I needed to see for myself what was going on.

Into my nostrils flooded the scent once more—the scent of daffodils. My mind rushed as I thought back to earlier that day in the cafeteria. I smelled it earlier today when that girl, Ariana, was standing near my table. She just left to go home with Carol, and now I smell her again.

She's in the forest, and so are Patty and my pack members. I began to run faster after them. I had an overwhelming urge. I needed to be there, now!

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