Oceantide

by Everly Taylor

  Jet sat next to me in his normal seat and Beck took Eva’s seat to be near me as well. I wanted to yell at him to get out of her spot and he had no right to sit there. I stopped myself though since it was unreasonable to expect everyone to leave her stuff alone. She wasn’t here anymore, and it was just an empty desk. She would have been thrilled for me to have another guy that I liked and that he might be interested in return. I remember all of the conversations we had about her own harem when I was assuring her it was okay, and she would ask me why I didn’t have more than Jet. As I told her then, I just hadn’t found anyone that fit, but now things might be changing.

  There was no assignment on the board today, so I figured they had found some guard to replace Sebastian. So, when a guy walked in, lacking the uniform the guards wore, I was a bit surprised. His presence was dark and commanding, and I knew right away he was not just a new student, nor was he just any lackey guard.

  It wasn’t just his dark features that made him intimidating. It wasn’t even the deep scar that ran down his neck or even the all black clothes with gold trim he wore that made him look like a sensei. It was the way he carried himself and the energy that poured from him. Somehow, his body looked bigger than it was, and despite his stature he looked like he wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Hell, he was the kind of guy that if I saw him in a dark alley, I would run the other way for sure.

  I shivered and looked around. All of the other students were shifting nervously in their seats, various looks of fear and shock on their faces. Everyone sat silent while the new guy stood in front of the class, his gaze roaming over us, scrutinizing and intense. I struggled not to fidget when his eyes met mine. Just breathe, I told myself, he’s just a normal man.

  Finally, he spoke, and I swore I could hear everyone shift to sit a little straighter as the deep timbre of his voice echoed through the room. “I am Chan and I will be taking over for Professor Sebastian.” His eyes narrowed as he looked around the classroom, “I will not tolerate any fighting in this classroom. You will do the work I assign and turn it in on time. I have zero tolerance for tardiness to my class or with your work. You are all adults and will act like it in my classroom or face the consequences. You will address me as Sir or Sir Chan, is that clear?”

  The students all gave various “yes” answers or the more common “yeah” and he again gave us that look that made me want to disappear into the floor or run and hide. He was one scary mother fucker. “Yes, Sir,” the entire class, including myself, said in a chorus.

  “Good, now get out your notebooks. You have had a few assignments in the absence of your old professor, but you can forget whatever it was. We will be continuing where Professor Sebastian left off before his untimely departure. The only thing you need to learn from here on out is what I teach you. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Sir,” we all said together again, and the new teacher turned to write on the board in the front of the class.

  I scrambled to get my notebook, stealing a quick glance at Jet, who winked at me. This Chan guy was serious, and I wasn’t going to push my luck with him. I had no idea what he was magically, but he was scary as fuck. I didn’t think I had ever spent so much time writing as I had during that class. My hand was cramped at the end and I was relieved when it was time to leave.

  “Miss Una,” Chan’s gruff voice reverberated through the room, making my relief short-lived. “I would like to have a word with you. It seems you missed a few days of class and will need to make it up. I would like to go over your assignments with you.”

  I internally groaned as Jet squeezed my hand, eyeing the teacher with suspicion, “I’ll be right outside the door waiting for you.”

  Beck gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and said he would keep Jet company before they both turned to leave. I faced the frightening new teacher and waited for whatever was coming.

  As soon as the door closed, Chan’s demeanor relaxed and he became completely different. It was as if all the shadows that were surrounding him had gone into hiding and a normal looking man was left in his place.

  “Una, I was instructed to give this to you,” he said quietly as he quickly passed me a folded piece of paper. I stared at it in surprise for a moment before his voice returned to normal. Or what I thought was normal because I couldn’t be sure now after seeing the drastic change in him. “I would like you to do this assignment and return it as soon as possible.” he passed me another piece of paper, this one unfolded. “Your time in solitary is no excuse to fall behind on your studies. If you need extra help to catch up, I will be available each day for tutoring for an hour after the last class of the day ends.”

  I looked down at the two pieces of paper in my hand. The unfolded one had the words “Can’t talk here,” scrawled on it. I assumed it was Chan’s writing but couldn’t be sure. The next one was folded and had my name across it in Eva’s handwriting. I gasped when I saw it.

  “Miss Una, do you have any questions about your assignments?” Chan asked gruffly.

  “No, sir,” I choked out.

  “Then get to your next class,” he commanded, his scary appearance from earlier returning.

  I nodded and scrambled out of there, my mind racing and even more confused than it was before. I wanted nothing more than to disappear into my room and read the note that I was sure was from Eva. I also needed to process everything that just happened. Gods, this day was getting stranger and stranger by the minute.

  I didn’t know who this Chan guy was, and I had no idea if I could trust him. I knew Frost was pissed when I had nothing of value to give him and I wouldn’t put it past him to plant a fake note to get more information from me. There were very few people I could trust in this place and Chan was not one of them at this moment. Though there was no denying it was Eva’s writing on the front of the note. Of that much I was certain.

  I rounded the corner and found Jet and Beck in some sort of intense conversation. “Jet, I need to go to the room,” I interrupted them, not giving a fuck what they were so riled up about, this was more important at the moment.

  “We can’t. They’re buckling down now. If we don’t check into classes, we get marks. After three marks, we get sent to solitary.” Jet informed me.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? Now they decide to act like they give a shit about what we do?” My exasperation was clear in my voice.

  “Why? The new teacher wants you too, doesn’t he? I can’t say I’m surprised but him, Una?” jealousy laced his words as he questioned me.

  I rolled my eyes, “Oh please fish boy, get a grip. If I wanted Chan, that’s my business. You know that’s how our kind do it.” I told him as his brows drew together. “That aside, that’s not what this is about at all. There’s something else and I can’t talk about it here.”

  “I sure the fuck don’t have to accept anyone else in our relationship. We aren’t under the sea anymore, Una. Those rules don’t apply here.” Jet retorted. It was very unlike him to be so angry, or loud for that matter. He had been such a go with the flow kind of guy, and I wondered what was up with him.

  “What the fuck Jet? We talked about this before we got serious. I’m not changing my wants and needs because you suddenly have the need to compare dicks!” I raised my voice and I saw out of the corner of my eye that the guards were starting to make their way over to us.

  Beck put his hand on my shoulder, which Jet zeroed in on and glared at it. “Why don’t we take a few minutes of a breather and talk about this later. None of us want any trouble right now,” Beck’s voice was soothing.

  I huffed, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore anyway. We need to get to the next class before the big guy decides to lock me in the dungeon for good.” I turned and stomped off, not looking back to see if they were following me. I didn’t really care at that point.

  I had enough emotional turmoil with the reality of my friends being gone hitting me all over again. Then to see a note that might be from Eva and not be able to read it ri
ght away, not knowing if it was from her or some plot to try to get me to lead them to her. And now Jet was being a jealous asshole; I was just done with it for the moment.

  The whole day dragged by, the note a heavy reminder in my pocket that I needed to figure out what the hell was going on around here. I grew more and more agitated as the day went on and Jet and I not talking didn’t help at all. Beck seemed to be glued to us and kept trying to make jokes to lighten the mood. I laughed at a few and that just seemed to make Jet angrier, which only irritated me further.

  At last I had enough and rounded on him as we walked through the hall, “Whatever your problem is, Jet, I don’t need it right now. You need to figure your shit out. I’m having a shitty enough day as it is and I would appreciate if you would chill the fuck out and be an understanding boyfriend today,” I seethed.

  He had the decency to look abashed and muttered an apology. I ignored it as I wasn’t willing to forgive him just yet. Jet needed to pull his head out of his ass and change his ways if he were to get back in my good graces.

  Dinner came and I told the guys that I needed time to myself. I just couldn’t deal with them, so I took my tray to a spot over by the window and looked out at the clouds. A dragon flew by, a beautiful sight that I would never cease to amaze me. I patted my bra and heard the crinkle of the notes that were stuffed in there as I wondered if Eva got away okay and if Sebastian was able to control the dragon for long enough for them to get to safety. I wondered if maybe I was watching the dragon that had allowed my best friend to soar through the sky on its back.

  Alayna walked by me with Carmen and muttered something under her breath that I was sure was nasty. I was too lost in my own thoughts to hear them completely or give a shit for that matter. She could say all she wanted but I knew the truth of how weak and pitiful she was. Her fake little ‘my shit doesn’t stink’ attitude was not going to work on me. I was not going to be pulled into the same shit that had screwed over Eva in the end and made her have to escape the way she did. I would defend myself only if I had no other choice.

  Something told me the headmaster had no clue I had been the one to cause the tidal wave and I wasn’t going to push my luck by letting him find out. With Jaxon gone, I had no inside information on if Frost was planning the same thing for me that he had planned with Eva. If he did that, then I was really fucked.

  I thought about it for a moment, maybe I needed to find an insider. Someone to slip me information about what the headmaster was trying to pull off now. Maybe Henry would be an option. I knew he had seen the headmaster’s true self, and after that he might be more open to helping us. Or maybe Craig, the person that was closest to Frost. He was definitely loyal to his boss, so I knew I couldn’t just convince him to tell us what was going on. I didn’t want to, but if needed, I could use my song to convince him otherwise.

  All the things I had to do were swirling through my head and I realized that I couldn’t stay mad at Jet. For one, I loved him, even if he was acting like a jealous ass. Two, I would need all the help I could get. I wasn’t sure where Beck stood in all of this, but I hoped Jet would know if he were trustworthy, and be willing to let him in on all of this despite his own jealousy.

  Chapter 8 - Jet

  I watched Una walk over to the other side of the cafeteria and kicked myself for being such a dick about things. I couldn’t stop the jealousy that raged inside of me though. It had been days since I had seen her and when she finally came out of solitary, I couldn’t have her to myself. Instead, I had to deal with other people giving her so much attention, and her reciprocating it in some cases. It wasn’t like I wasn’t used to people having more than one mate, it was completely normal with our kind. Especially those of my pod as we were so deep and isolated from the rest of the ocean. Even so, I found myself wanting to shout to the world she was mine and keep her all to myself.

  When she was gone, I had to bite my tongue while I listened to other students talk shit about not only Eva and her mates missing, but Una as well. To top it off, I had to deal with everything from pity to outright assholish behavior from everyone who thought she up and abandoned me. Of course, I knew what happened, but I had to play the part of being oblivious like everyone else. It fucking sucked.

  Beck was the only one that kept me sane. He had seen the destruction that the headmaster had caused while everyone else was frozen and as he was one of the few to avoid having his memories erased, we were able to bond over our shared knowledge of the truth. It was strange that we had gone from sworn enemies to friends in the time Una had been gone, but I was glad it happened. He was actually a pretty cool guy once I gave him a chance.

  I hadn’t told Una yet, but I brought him to our hideout so we had a place to talk about everything that had happened. He was amazed at all the treasures she had collected and the way she decorated the place to make it homey just by using things she found around Shadow Isle.

  It felt great to be able to talk to someone about not only what happened, but about Una too. Being able to talk to someone about her personality and her quirks made it a little bit easier to deal with her being gone.

  Now, I was kicking myself for talking to Beck about her so much. Clearly it led to him liking her now, and I wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about that aside from my immediate reaction of being jealous. He admitted that he’s always felt drawn to her and thought she was beautiful, but she was so unapproachable before. I laughed and agreed with him. She really did give that vibe that told people to stay the hell away. At the time I thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he connected with Una. But now, seeing the flirting firsthand, I fucking hated the idea.

  When she was kept after class by that new teacher, I felt even more jealousy boil up inside of me. That guy was scary as fuck and I didn’t think I could take him on, especially not knowing what kind of powers he held or what kind of a sup he was. I couldn’t protect my woman and that pissed me off. I had failed her during our attempted escape, and I feared that I would fail her again.

  “You know, Jet, whatever is going on through your mind at the moment, you need to move past it,” Beck said with a grin. Normally, I would have told anyone else to fuck off, but this was Beck’s normal personality. He was a mixture of Zen and a jokester.

  “Man, I just need to figure out how bad I fucked up with Una and what I need to do to fix it,” I growled.

  “Seems you’re having a bit of a jealousy issue. She’s not the kind of girl to put up with that, so you really do need to figure it out,” he said out loud what I already knew. “Look, I’d rather not be the cause of you two breaking up. I know how much you love each other. I’ll back off if that’s what you want.”

  “Yeah. No. Fuck! I don’t know what I want,” I said honestly as I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. “I want her to be happy more than anything, but I don’t know where all this jealousy is coming from. I haven’t felt like this about anyone before. She’s my everything and I can’t lose her.” I blew out a breath, “Fuck, my kind aren’t like this. I shouldn’t have a problem with her wanting to share her love with others.”

  “Maybe it’s just the stress of everything that happened. I mean, she almost died, and you spent days not knowing where she was, or what was happening to her. You just got her back after such an emotional time. It’s probably normal to want her to yourself for a bit. But these are less than normal circumstances, so she is probably thinking why wait when she just learned how quickly things can change.” I could feel how right Beck was and remembered why we had become such good friends so quickly.

  “You’re probably right. I just hope that I can get my shit together before I lose her for good.” I pushed my food around on my tray and glanced over at Una. Alayna and Carmen were harassing her, and I smiled as I watched her blow them off like they were nothing. That was my girl, strong and confident. I didn’t need to worry about her at all, but she shouldn’t have to deal with their shit, or anyone else’s by herself.

  “I’m sor
ry, Beck. I’ve been a real asshole,” I apologized. “I don’t want you to stop flirting with Una. I think she really likes you and you would make her happy, too. At least you’re better than a lot of other assholes around here. It wouldn’t be so bad to have you in our family.”

  He smiled broadly at me, “Thank you. But I’m still going to give you the time you need to get used to the idea. I’ll take it slow.”

  I held out my fist for a bump and he obliged. I felt Una before she made herself known, her scent hitting my nostrils as she drew near. I glanced up hopeful that she would stop, and I wouldn’t have to chase her like some lovesick puppy. Though I knew I would if I had to. Hell, I would get on my knees and beg for her forgiveness if that's what it took. She sat next to me and relief washed over me. I still had a chance with her...

  “Una, I’m sorry for the way I acted. I was a real ass about everything, and I shouldn’t have been. I just was so worried about you and all I want to do is wrap you up in a cocoon of seaweed and never let anyone hurt you again,” I told her earnestly, hoping she would forgive me.

  She waved her hand, “I get it. We are both going through a lot. But wrapping me up isn’t going to remove or fix the problem. I think you need to get down on your knees,” she said seriously.

  I blanched but agreed. As I got up to do just that, she pulled me back up and cackled, “Not here silly. The way you’ll be on your knees is nothing these twats will let us do here.” She wiggled her eyebrows and me and relief flooded my system as I laughed.

  Once I stopped, she looked at me seriously, “We have a lot to talk about. Do you trust him? Like really really trust him?” She nodded her head in Beck’s direction.

  I glanced at him and he was trying to pretend that he wasn’t bothered by her questioning his integrity right in front of him. Her bluntness was one thing he would have to get used to if he were to try to become her mate. “I do. He’s one of the very few that saw, and the only one outside of yourself that I would trust.” I tried to talk generally as I knew that there were eyes and ears everywhere.