CHAPTER 19

KATHERINE. “You don’t know how to swim?” were the first words that came out of Theo’s mouth as he swam us to the edge with my arm around his neck and all I could do was cough in response. He grimaced and moved his head to the side. “My face is well moistened, thank you.” ‘Huh?’ I drew my brows together, wondering what he meant, before it dawned on me that I’d been coughing directly onto his face. ‘Oh God…’ My cheeks immediately heated with embarrassment and as I felt a tickle in my throat once more, I turned my head to the side to cough. I could feel his muscles against me as they worked and the feel of his bare skin against mine made the fact that he was essentially naked and we were both wet pop into my mind just before we reached the edge. “Katherine!” a voice called out as I grabbed onto the edge and I glanced in the direction it came from to see Priyanka rushing towards us with a slightly panicked expression on her face while a couple of people around stared at me. Poppy and her friend were nowhere to be found though. “Oh my God. Are you okay?” she asked as she and Theo helped me out of the pool and I nodded. The moment I was fully out of the pool, I glanced at Theo while fighting to regulate my breathing. I was pissed and soaked, and even though the boy I was staring at right now was a jerk, it was thanks to him that I was okay. “Than–” “Stay away from the pool’s edge.” And with that, he disappeared beneath the surface, leaving the rest of my words hanging on my tongue. I couldn’t even be irritated about him cutting me off because he’d saved my life so I just pressed my lips together. “Are you okay?” Priyanka asked again and I bobbed my head before getting to my feet with her help. “What happened? How’d you fall in?” I gritted my teeth at the last question and glanced around the room once more. That bitch had really left after pushing me in. “Poppy pushed me in.” Priyanka blinked at me in surprise like she couldn’t quite believe what she heard. “I’m sorry, what?” She quickly looked around the room, clearly searching for Poppy, and when she didn’t find her, she scowled. She then returned her attention to me and gave me a once-over. “Let’s get you out of those clothes first.” **** I was going to kill Poppy when I saw her… Okay, that was a lie, I can’t kill Poppy. I can’t fight her. I can’t even talk back to her. If anyone was going to kill Poppy, it was going to be my friends because the three of them were beyond pissed by what she’d done. Josie had even actually said it – that she was going to kill her – and though I shouldn’t condone anything that would lead to violence and I didn’t want them to get into a fight with Poppy because of me, my heart fluttered when she said so. I had taken a quick shower in the changing room and the swim coach had been nice enough to give me one of the swim club’s last year uniforms to put on, so now I was currently wearing a two-piece sweatpants and tank top that had the words ‘the only pressure is from the water pressure’ written on them as we walked through the quad. After we left the recreation center, Josie had gone back to Stavenger Hall to grab something while the rest of us had headed to the quad so Lenore and Priyanka could help the CMES with their booth and we’d only been here for less than a minute, but my anxiety levels were about to go through the roof because of Priyanka. Ever since we got here, she’d been asking a couple of her friends whom we walked past if Poppy had come through the quad. They’d all said they didn’t know and I was worried about what she was going to do to Poppy when she saw her. Sure, I ‘desperately’ wanted to see Poppy get her ass handed to her, but what if Priyanka got her ass handed to her instead. They both wielded the fire element and I didn’t know how a fight with elements would play out but I knew Poppy was quite trained in hand-to-hand combat. I didn’t know if Priyanka was. ‘I’m overthinking this,’ I thought before shaking my head side to side, like that would dispel what was going through my mind, and the fact that I wasn’t properly combat trained popped into my mind. “If you’re interested in self-defense and hand-to-hand combat techniques, sign up for the combat training club,” a student canvasser on my left announced and I jerked my head in their direction ‘Oh…’ I immediately headed towards their booth while the student kept talking to convince freshmen to sign up for them. “Katherine,” Lenore called out and I glanced at her and Priyanka before she pointed at one of the booths nearby. “That’s the CMES booth. We’ll be over there.” “Okay,” I replied and after they resumed heading toward their destination, I returned my attention to the booth in front of me. The students at it were nice and helpful, answering all the questions I asked, and less than five minutes later, I was done signing up with the combat training club. They had given me a small packet that contained information, a notebook, and a badge; with that, I headed over to the booth Lenore had pointed at. The booth was empty though and a glance around told me that they weren’t close by, so I just leaned against the table and waited for them to come back. The booth looked bare compared to the others around it but it had a couple of informationals on it and I busied myself by going through one of them. Based on what was written in it, the Campus Mysterious Event Society investigated unexplained happenings on campus and the corner of my mouth turned up when I read about the mysteries Lenore and I spent the early hours of Tuesday reading on their website. The packet also mentioned some legends and when I was done with it, I heaved a sigh and glanced heavenward. At the top of the booth was a poster that had a painting of the full moon face emoji and stars, and I tipped my head to the side as I studied it before my pack’s seer's words echoed in my mind. ‘You’ll meet your mate where legends are told and the moon smiles down on you. It’s a place where mysteries take place.” ‘What the–’ I jerked away from the table like it burned me and turned around to fully face the poster hanging from the booth as I processed those words one more time. The poster and the moon smiling down at me, the informational and the legends, the club’s activities and the mysteries. “Oh my God,” I muttered, not quite believing what was happening right now. I thought the seer had been messing with me when she said that so I told her to go fuck herself, but now here I was… “What the fuck is your problem?” “I don’t have a problem, Theo. Back off.” “Guys, come on.” I glanced over my shoulder to see Theo, Blake and Hunter heading towards the CMES booth and they all had different expressions on their face – Theo looked like he wanted to rip Blake’s head off, Blake looked like he didn’t care, and Hunter looked worried about the mood between the two. Finally, Hunter noticed me standing in front of the booth and his face lit with a smile while my brain still struggled to process the fact that my mate was a member of the CMES club. “Oh, are you signing up for our club?” he asked and my gaze slid over to Blake and Theo who were also staring at me now, then back to Hunter. “Uh, yeah? Are you in this club?” “Yeah,” Blake replied, the corner of his mouth turning up. “We’re the presidents.”