[Stephanie's POV]
"You'd approved? "
A fainted sneer crossed Mr. Dodgson's face, "Arthur, is it obvious that you are giving preference to this young girl?"
"Yeah, she is worth it. And you don't." Arthur nodded. I was flattered to hear he didn't deny his partiality to me, honestly.
But Mr. Dodgson definitely didn't want to get Arthur's nod only. When I saw him lay the evil eyes on me, I had a bad feeling.
"I got it. No wonder you said my son offended you and almost killed him. No wonder Stephanie forbade Carl and Freya to enter her territory."
Mr. Dodgson nodded his head a few times and continued his bullshit, "Because you wanted to be with her by killing my son. She wanted to be with you by avoiding seeming my son. Very perfect plan, isn't it?"
I was right. Once again, he proved Carl was his son. They both liked to speculate on others with their malice.
"No wonder your son's not saying anything good. Now I found who he learned it from." Arthur frowned, with his eyes locked on Mr. Dodgson's long face.
"Seriously, Triton, if you want to experience the feeling of being choked by my hand, you don't need to speak out those bullshits."
He turned his head to me and added, "And if I want to be with Steph, what does it have to do with your son? Your son's game has been over before I showed in Eric's pack."
Before Mr. Dodgson opened his mouth, my father had interrupted him,
"Triton. I don't want to fight with you. But if you keep slandering my daughter, I don't mind declaring a war." The blue veins on my father's forehead protruded out due to his fury.
"A war?" Mr. Dodgson showed a contemptuous smile to my father. "Eric, do you think your puppies are currently strong enough to win against my pack members?"
That was weird. Because the number of our pack members was more than the Demon Forest Pack. And from what I observed in my last lifetime, their pack members were more like party animals, rarely trained.
So why was he so confident?
"Sounds like you're very confident, Triton," Arthur said. It seemed he also noticed something.
"Yeah, if you terminate the Friendship Agreement, you'll know it." Mr. Dodgson said, still holding his unfriendly smile.
"That's not gonna happen." Arthur returned him a smile.
For just a second, I felt like they gonna shift and have a fight. Arthur and Mr. Dodgson seemed not to get along well. He knew my father and Mr. Dodgson a long time ago. But I had no inkling of what had happened among them.
I wanna know more about Arthur. Not the ones I read in textbooks or heard from others, but he talked about himself to me.
"Ahem, ahem..." Someone's coughing.
Hell, I rolled my eyes. Who was coughing here? Why couldn't I have just a quiet moment to think about something serious? Like how I could stay alone with Arthur to know more about him?
"Steph."
Oh, I looked down and found out the coughing came from Carl.
He covered his chest, pretending to have a hard time standing up from the ground. "Steph, can we talk in...."
"No! " I interrupted Carl, "Mr. Carl Dodgson, please don't keep calling my nickname. I don't know you well."
"Come on, son. Let's go home. I'll call Doctor Ann to come." Mr. Dodgson had Carl by the shoulders. When they passed Arthur, Mr. Dodgson shot him a challenging look.
"Maybe I'll see you next time, Arthur. Have fun in Eric's pack." He just left, along with my ex-boyfriend or ex-mate.
"Mr. Woodville, can we have a talk a moment?" Mr. Cranston asked my father.
"Take care of your sister, Patrick." My father nodded and didn't forget to remind Patrick.
"I'm really ok. Dad, don't worry about me." I smiled and saw my father go with the teachers and principal.
The sky was cloudless, and the light of dawn made their backs as misty as the thin morning fog surrounding Mt. Lyete. I breathed out in relief.
Carl and Freya could no longer enter my pack from now on. My revenge could stop at the first step, I supposed. It could be the easiest moment since I was reborn.
"Steph, I also feel so relaxed now. And I even wanna come out and run wild in the Lyete Mountain." Rose's cheerful voice rang in my head.
"Maybe we can do that tonight." I knew her feeling.
"And maybe, plus our mate." She giggled.
As Rose and I were discussing our exciting night plan, I caught sight of Arthur again. He gave me a gentle smile and moved his gaze to the lower left to remind me to notice something.
My lower left? I followed his gaze, seeing Freya stand up from the ground.
Why was she still here?
"Then..." She stopped beside me on purpose and showed me a perfect sweet smile, "I'll see you soon, Steph."
"What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow. Did she just say I would see her in soon? I suddenly got a bad feeling about it.
Patrick came up to me and snarled at Freya, "Fuck your see you soon. You'll never step in our territory again."
"Yeh, you'll see. "
She was hiding something. I could read from her strange smile given to Patrick.
What was going on? Had she done something I didn't notice?
"See you." She turned her glare at my pocket quickly. Then she just headed to Gate 2 to keep up with her alpha and Carl.
"Be careful, Steph. She wasn't joking just now." Arthur came up to me and reminded me in a whisper. His eyes were locked in the direction of Gate 2.
"Come on. Ignore her, Steph. She said that on purpose...and she...she wants to get you to change your mind." Patrick patted me on my shoulder, panting.
"Why are you so panting?" As I turned to Patrick after asking, I was shocked. His nose was bleeding.
"Wait, Patrick, you have a nosebleed. Are you okay?" My heart was jumping faster.
"Oh, do I? It's okay. Maybe it's because I stayed up last night." He was still smiling at me as he wiped his nose with his hand back. But his nose was bleeding more and more. And the blood's color was abnormal.
"No, you're not okay at all. Hold on, I had tissue in my bag."
"Patrick!" I heard Arthur's shout after I fetched my bag with a dart.
I turned around and noticed Patrick had fainted in Arthur's arms.
"Patrick!" I rushed and kneeled down next to them.
"He looked poisoned." Arthur laid Patrick down gently on the grass.
My mind went blank when seeing what happened to Patrick.
Dark-red blood dripped from his nose and even his ears, same as when I saw Patrick's body in my last life. Was Patrick dying?
"No, no, please, Patrick, no." Tears filled my eyes. I could barely breathe, and Patrick gave me no response, lay there quietly, just as he had in my last life.
"He was dying," I cried. The fear and sadness I experienced in my last lifetime came back again.
Arthur's eyes drifted on Patrick's body, and he was saying something.
Rose was shouting in my mind.
But I couldn't hear them.
I held my head in my hands with my fingers scratching my hair.
"AHHHHH!!!" I screamed out in pain.
It's so painful. Each and every vein and nerve in my body was suffering pain.
It was totally different from the pain I suffered when I was killed by Carl and Freya. It was like something suppressed deep inside my body would rush out of the trap.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to shake away all the pain, fear, and sadness.
This must be a nightmare!?
Patrick wasn't dying. My mate wasn't Carl. He didn't kill me. I didn't die. Mom wasn't missing for 18 years.
I was fine!
We were all fine!
I kept hitting my head which was about to explode with pain.
Why couldn't I wake up?
"Steph, Steph!"
Someone grabbed my arms and forced me to stop hurting myself. I gazed at the pair of deep-blue eyes through a mist of tears.
"Calm down, Steph! He wasn't dying. I won't let him die." He told me with his firm tone.
"Arthur?" My vision became clear. I grabbed his big warm hand, recognizing his deep voice and gentle eyes.
"Yes, it's me. It's ok, it's ok. I'm here." Arthur was relieved and smiled at me. But his forehead was covered with sweat.
I saw the weak rise and fall of Patrick's chest, knowing Arthur didn't lie. Patrick was still alive.