Chasing his Mate

Chapter Six

She could tell that a lot of time had passed while she had been unconscious. It had to be near morning, but she felt somewhat better.

Denali opened her eyes to find herself still on the bathroom floor. That surprised her in a way. She would have thought Mr. Kenald would have carried or somehow moved her to a bed.

She felt slightly dizzy as she rose but managed to stay upright. She then changed into the clothes left in her rush to get in here last night.

She felt better in them and decided she was going to rest today. She had a final, but she wasn't going to take it like this. She would send her professor an email explaining she was sick all night. He should cut her some slack since she hadn't missed a day since semester started.

When she opened her door, she heard a grunt and looked down to find Mr. Kenald who had been sitting on the other side of the door. Part of her was happy he was worried; the other part was kind of weirded out that he had stayed the night outside her bathroom door.

"Are you alright? How are you feeling?" He immediately asked as he seemed to jump awake from his half-asleep state.

"I'm better now. I can take care of myself." She answered, feeling defensive that he thought she couldn't take care of herself.

"I never said you couldn't." He answered with an amused tone.

"What do you remember after you passed out?" He quickly asked as she thought back.

"Nothing, just sleeping after I embarrassed myself in front of my boss." She admitted then had to restrain herself from smacking herself on the forehead for saying it.

"I will have someone else take care of your duties. Rest for now." He ordered before he left. She shrugged before she got into bed and sighed in relief as she closed her eyes again.

She woke sometime in the afternoon and went to the kitchen to find Rhetta and Xena fighting.

"Where is he, Rhetta? He has been spending less and less time with me." She yelled at Rhetta who looked at her like a mother disappointed in a child.

"I am not his keeper. If he was truly your mate, he wouldn't want to spend time away from you. So, my question is what game are you playing this time." Rhetta calmly said back before she turned and ignored Xena knowing she wasn't really going to get an answer to her question.

"He was spending time with you, wasn't he?" Xena immediately accused as soon as she saw Denali.

"You went with him last time." She declared as she came closer and got up in Denali's face. This time, Denali didn't walk away. She stood her ground.

"Guys can do things with other woman. Why are you so worried about it?" Denali taunted.

It felt good to be the one dishing it out for once. At this point, she figured she would have to look for a new job anyways. Her reason for restraining herself was gone.

"It's because he's my mate that I miss him so much, but someone like you would never understand that." She taunted with a grin.

"Understand what? Feeling like I can't keep a guy unless he only looks at me?" She taunted and was rewarded with a small sound of amusement from Rhetta.

"My mate will hear about this. Both of you will be replaced. " She said in an offended voice before she stomped off like a child.

"I knew you had claws in their somewhere." Rhetta immediately commented.

"How that man deals with her I will never understand." Rhetta added as she turned around to do the dishes. The comment made Denali smile. Xena was high maintenance.

"Mr. Kenald said you weren't feeling well today. You alright?" Rhetta asked, changing the subject.

"Yes. I feel better now." She answered just more strange dreams, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Denali should have known Xena wouldn't let her comments pass. When Denali was walking through the dining room, Xena called out to her.

"Come here, street rat and don't think of ignoring me or I will fire you myself." Denali considered still ignoring her and risking her job, but she still had two finals, so she obeyed.

"Yes, ma'am." Denali answered, making sure to exaggerate her words as she made her way out to the side of the pool where Xena sat on a tanning chair in a bikini.

The second Denali was in front of her, Xena moved fast and shoved her. Before Denali could recover, she sank into the pool and surfaced to laughter as Denali glanced around and saw all Xena's friends gathered around the pool. Anger immediately flared inside Denali. She had been laughed at too much in her life. No more and not by someone like her.

"Know your place, street rat." Xena said as she leaned down closer to Denali. Denali immediately smiled seconds before she grabbed Xena and pulled with all her might.

"As I recall, you can't swim" Denali taunted as she took satisfaction from Xena's panicked and fearful look seconds before she plunged into the pool.

The stupid bitch panicked, not realizing she could stand up in the dam pool. Her friends immediately scattered, panicking. Denali scuffed as she watched them scramble in every direction. Some friends she had. Why did doing something this bad feel so good? Had she found an evil streak she hadn't known she had? Where had the courage to finally do something come from?

She was standing on the edge, dripping and watching Xena with a smug look when Mr. Kenald came around the corner, then darted over to them with narrow eyes the moment he saw what was happening. He immediately bent down and pulled Xena up by her arm to the side of the pool, further showing that though he looked human, he was far from it.

"What the hell is going on?!" He immediately demanded as Xena coughed and Denali felt a little bit of regret when she saw true tears of fear on Xena's face. Instead of apologizing though, she turned and walked away.

"That crazy bitch pushed me into the pool knowing I couldn't swim." She heard Xena yell between breaths. That was half true. Denali had known she couldn't swim.

"I suppose I just jumped in with my school bag and clothes on then huh? Karma's a bitch isn't it, Xena and its past time it came full circle." Denali answered as she went around the corner and headed to her room.

It truly felt good to do something bad and it was even more satisfying knowing it was to Xena after everything she had done to all her friends that had left.

Wanting to avoid more drama, Denali locked herself in her room. Sometime later though, she frowned when she heard a knock on the door.

"Please tell me you did! Please tell me the rumors are true." Rhetta's voice begged as soon as she opened the door and Denali grinned.

"You mean pushing Xena into the pool in front of her friends?" Denali teased as Rhetta grinned.

"I don't know what's got into you, but I like this new you that doesn't take crap from anyone." Rhetta said as she sat down on Denali's bed.

"Maybe I'm finally getting to you." Rhetta said in thought and Denali was reminded how much she loved spending time with Rhetta when she was just a friend and not a boss. She was completely different.

"You're such a bad influence." Denali teased before they both laughed together.

"You and I are having a movie night, no arguments." Rhetta suddenly said as she rose.

"Chick flick or dick flick?" Rhetta asked as she picked up to movies and waved them back and forth while she eyed Denali questioningly.

"Chick flick." Denali immediately answered with a small laugh.

"I miss these times." Rhetta said with a sigh as she plopped on the couch next to Denali.

"Between school and miss terror running around, there doesn't seem to be time." Denali agreed as they sat down to watch the movie.