"What if something were to happen to me, Mike? All because you blocked me out of our mind link."
Elle pleaded desperately to her mate, really turning up the pout as she tried to draw in his attention so that Jane could remain hidden away unnoticed.
"That's why I tell you to come and watch Elle, so you're close to me. But you hate football fields or anything to do with sport in general. Which is why I'm wondering why you're here?"
Come on Elle! Don't let him get off that easy! Jane thought as she braved it out, laying as still as she could amongst the extremely uncomfortable bushes. Not to mention as she mentally encouraged her best friend to hang in there, and lay as still as she possibly could something was moving up over her hip.
She wasn't tall by any standards and so she knew without a doubt that the wandering creature was covering the short distance from her legs to her face in quick succession. This was not good.
"I was lonely without you."
Jane knew that her friend's fake confession was delivered with just the right amount of lip tremble. Because she heard Mike sigh, "Well where's Ja-"
Elle cleared her throat loudly to stop Mike from revealing Jane's name, "You really want to openly discuss our relationship in front of your cousin?"
"Hey don't bring me into this," Levi's voice caused Jane's heartbeat to become erratic as she lay there hiding from him in the stupid bush.
"Mike, just text me when your keeper decides to let you interact with other human beings," Levi joked, but his tone shifted to something a lot more serious, "And uh, don't forget about the uh... the problem you're helping me with tomorrow."
That piqued Jane's interest, there was too much-unvoiced context for that to slip past her ears. What did Levi mean by problem? Could he possibly be referring to her? Was she his big problem?
The sound of Levi's footsteps fading away sent a feeling of both relief and discomfort through her. She was glad that Levi had finally left before he noticed she was there but her wolf was whining in the back of her mind sad that her mate was leaving her.
She felt the crawling creature making it higher up along ribcage and she hoped that Elle would give her the all clear so she could get out of this damn bush, and away from this damn critter before it decided to do more than just explore her and possibly make a meal out of her.
"Okay he's gone," Elle announced to which Jane rapidly scurried out of the bush like she was doing some form of army drill, hoping whatever it was that had attached itself to her would take the hint and get off her body. She really did not need to be attacked by a tiny bug on a day like today.
"Jane?!" Mike demanded his eyes wide in shock as he jumped away from her. "What the hell are you doing in that bush?!"
She could imagine that she looked pretty terrifying all dirty and messy with her hair all askew and her cute, worn PJ's on. But she ignored Mike's astonished reaction as she hastily asked Elle, "Is there something crawling up my side!"
Elle, helped her to stand.
"Don't worry Janie there's no spider on you. You know you and your family hallucinate that you have spiders crawling all over you."
As true as Elle may be, Jane knew for a fact that something had been roaming all over her. The little movements of something making an obstacle course out of her flesh was too hard to ignore.
"But there really was something crawling all over my leg, though! In future hiding in bushes is out the question," she informed her best friend whilst pulling a leaf out from her wavy brown hair. She was no doubt covered in all types of debris but she didn't care enough to get rid of it all. She'd just wipe off the dirt and remove any objects that were becoming irritating as they remained tangled in her dark hair.
"Well, we were out of options! Just be glad Levi didn't notice you."
"Can one of you please tell me what's going on?" Mike begged, looking extremely confused, but who could blame him really. The poor guy just got conned by his mate and he hadn't even realized it yet.
Elle looked around her surroundings before she lowered her voice, "Not here. Follow us back to the dorms and we'll explain everything."
Jane nodded pulling a twig from the base of her hair that kept stabbing her painfully. Her frown deepening as she realized how much the bush had truly attacked her. And no matter what Elle said, Jane was positive that something had been crawling up her leg. And it was true that her family's history of arachnophobia came with severe hallucinations, but she was old enough to know the difference between a hallucination and the real thing and she knew what she just felt was real.
As Elle grabbed onto Mike's arm and steered the pair back towards the dorm, Jane struggled to keep up cursing her short legs in comparison to the giants she'd befriended.
***
Once she and Elle had managed to drag Mike back to Jane's dorm room and confessed about her being mated to Levi – conveniently leaving out the part where she got "rejected" - she expected him to be in shock, not burst out laughing. Especially not laughing to the point that he was hunched over with tears streaming out of his eyes and begging for mercy.
Oh, she would give him some mercy alright.
She couldn't deny the obvious facts of how much more violent she had become after meeting Levi. Weren't mates supposed to bring out the best in each other? And here she was transforming into a violent, little hothead!
"Wait, wait," Mike struggled for breath as he righted himself up and wiped the tears of undulated joy from his still smiling face, "You're actually mated to my cousin?! Aw, this is just too funny."
Jane knew that the idea of someone like her mated to someone like Levi was laughable. After all, he was a powerful alpha and she was just... well, she was just Jane. No more, no less. Her parents weren't high ranking members of the pack, nor were they low ranking either. She was just painstakingly average and more often than not just disappeared amongst the sea of ordinary. But still, she wanted to know what exactly made Mike laugh to the point where he nearly passed out.
"I don't see what's so funny?!" She tried in a serious tone whilst folding her arms across her chest and arching her brow at him. Something she'd seen Elle muster a lot, but with her best friend currently eating up the cupcakes Jane had made earlier, she could see Elle had left it up to her to be the intimidating one.
"What's funny is that not even twenty minutes ago," Mike went on to explain, "Levi was begging me to help him find out the name of his 'mystery mate' and now that I know it's you just makes this whole situation unbelievably hysterical."
Mike erupted into another round of bountiful laughter. His imposing, muscular form quaking with every chuckle that let loose from his lips, "Wait till I tell Levi that his mate is Jane Archer."
Mike took one giant step towards the door and Jane frantically thrust out her hands to keep him from advancing any further as she demanded, "Where are you going?!"
He frowned, trying to sidestep her, but she matched him step for step, "Uh... I am trying to go find my cousin. What are you doing Janie?"
"You never let her finish explaining," Elle shouted out, her voice muffled by a large amount of cupcake that she'd shoved in her mouth, "Mike you can't tell Levi that Jane is Jane because then he'll reject her. That's why he's trying to find out her name so he can reject her!"
Elle sucked the icing off her thumbs and fingers loudly as Mike's teasing expression fell off his face, and he stood there deep in thought thinking over what Elle had just explained to him.
"But if Levi commands me to tell him then I'll have no choice. Besides, he's my cousin I can't keep things like this from him."
"This is why we hauled you up here dummy!" Elle replied with a pop as she released one of her fingers, "You're going to have to avoid Levi for as long as you can."
"Avoid Levi?! Did you hit your head? Is this why you don't run because it makes you dizzy and a little crazy?" Mike questioned with general concern in his voice. He looked over at all as though analysing her for any obvious signs that she was clinically ill and Jane couldn't help the snickers that ensued as she watched him worry over her because Elle engaged in a little exercise.
"Don't insult me!"
Elle snapped jumping away from Mike who was headed over towards her, "Unless of course you've got a better idea. Hmm? I didn't think so."
Mike gave his mate a knowing grin, "Actually, I do have a pretty good idea."
***
~*~
Authors Note
The response I've gotten on these last few chapters has been amazing and I want to thank all of you for your kind words and support on my story! Chapter 6 will be out later in the week and in the mean time please keep up all the voting and commenting that you do it encourages me to write better :)
Early Update: 45 Votes
Jasmine