Chapter eleven

(Matthew's POV)

Finally!

Finally, after eight hours of back-to-back meetings and a whole load of crap that Michael left me to deal with on my own, I arrive at Cassandra's school in my sleek blue Camaro ZL1. It draws the attention of every person that looks in its direction and a little crowd starts to gather.

I park my car close to the entrance and alight from it with flowers in hand. I stand beside the vehicle as I look for my mate among the throng of impatient students.

After a few minutes, I smell her delicious scent before I see her and Michael's mate, Michelle, coming out of the gate and I drink in the sight of her with a smile on my face. Dayum! She's beautiful and miraculously she is wearing a blue skirt that stopped just below her knees and a long-sleeved white blouse. I thought she always wears baggy clothes but this is a welcome surprise since she won't have to go home and change.

As I watch her, I feel rather than see how tense she is and her usual nonchalant expression is scrunched up in anger which by the way makes her look like an angry bunny but that's by the way.

They are unconsciously walking towards me so I stay put and wait. Michelle is the first to see me and she smiles and waves at me, I wave back. She then taps Cassandra's arm and points at me while saying something I can't make out from the noise around me.

My mate looks at me and our eyes lock in a longing stare. The last time we saw each other was a few days ago and if what I am sensing from her is correct then she misses me just as much as I do her. The texts and calls just aren't enough.

She starts to smile but then it freezes and her lips turn down in a frown she looks away and stirs Michelle away from my position and towards a bus stand a few feet down the road.

My eyebrows draw in as I stare at their backs and I start to think back on what I might have done wrong. I take out my phone and read through our texts but nothing seems off. Okay, this is weird; I don't know what to do since I have never been in a situation like this before.

I text Michael to ditch whatever lecture shit he is doing and hurry over. As I wait for him I decide to try and find out what I did wrong so I walk up to them. I see my mate's shoulder's stiffen and I can sense anger and sadness from her and the thought of it being my fault eats at me.

"Cassandra," I called when I was just two feet from her. She is as stiff as a robot and once again I wonder what I had done.

"Cassandra," I called again, unable to mask the hurt in my voice. I hear a soft gasp from her but she still stands her ground. At that moment, Michael shows up and looks at the three of us. He seems to figure it out after a few seconds and moves towards his mate.

"Hello lollipop," he greets with a smile, and Michelle giggles a bit but cuts it short and schools her expression into an identical scowl like her friends'.

"What's wrong love?" he asks and tries to hug her but she shifts out of his reach.

"Cassie is upset so I'm supporting her," Michelle says and huffs like a total drama queen.

"What! No no no, that's their problem. Come on sugar, you know how much I've missed you," Michael whines and glares at me as if this whole drama is my fault.

Traitor. I feel the need to roll my eyes and I would have given him the finger but my mate's rapidly increasing anger is a cause for immediate attention.

"Cassandra," I called and this time I placed a hand on her shoulder.

She turns around to face me and the look on her face has me tugging her forward and I wrap my arms around her. She is still tense for a few seconds before she sags against me and hides her face in the crook of my neck.

Her breath tickled my neck which caused a warm feeling in my heart, but her next words snapped me out of my happy thoughts.

"They have no right to say such things," she says in a pained whisper.

Who are they?

I focus my wolf senses on my ears and try to filter what was being said among the little crowd that stood a few feet from us. I block out Michael and his mate's rambling.

".... mother also did the same thing to some rich guy."

"Like mother, like daughter."

"Maybe he'll knock her up and dump her too."

"History is gonna repeat itself."

The last statement causes Cassandra to stiffen in my arms and I tighten our embrace to stop her from pulling away.

My chest begins to tighten with anger and my wolf starts to surface; wanting to shred the bumbling idiots that are causing my mate such sadness. I'm almost sure my eyes are glowing so I snap them shut in a futile attempt to reign the change in.

A continuous growl escapes my lips and I feel my fangs tingle and start to elongate in my mouth. My claws strain against my fingers.

Oh shit. I can't stop it. If I turn in front of all these people, I'm done for. Mom won't be able to save me from the council.

All of a sudden, I feel a comforting back rub which immediately calms me. Waw, that was fast. I know it is Cassie that is rubbing my back but how she knew it would calm me down; I have no idea.

"Let's get out of here," I say after a few seconds and stir her towards my car with my arm around her shoulders. She squirms a little but doesn't refuse me.

As I open the passenger door for her, I hear someone shout my name. I don't have to turn to see who it is, instead, I glare at Mike. He is the only one that would have told her where I was.

"Matthew Preston Benson, how could you do this to your mother!"

Fortunately, there weren't many people around at that time, maybe they got bored of watching us and thereby missed my mother marching towards us like an amazon on her way to avenge her queen's death.

"Hello mother, how are you and what are you doing here?" I say just as she reaches us and I stand between her and the car.

The traitor is standing behind her with a smug smile. 'Smile as much as you want Mikey, because I'm going to slap it off your face after this' I think to myself.

"Don't even talk to me. What I want now is to see my daughter-in-law and future Luna, you insolent boy." She says with hands on her hips and a scowl.

"Mom, wait, I'll explain it all later but as for right now, I need to take...."

"No, you're not taking her anywhere. Now move over, let's have a look." She says and gives me an abrupt shove to the side.

I stumble a little but that is enough for mother to get her hand on the door handle and open it.

"Hi there. I'm Matthew's mother, please step out so I can look at you, my dear." Mom says with a smile.

This is the worst time for this to happen.

(Cassandra's POV)

As I sat in the car, I thought about what happened a few minutes ago. One moment I was trying to pull away from him and the next I was comforting him. I had felt like I needed to do it, maybe it is because of how he had tensed up or something, I don't know.

What those people said is still running through my mind and I am having second thoughts on mine and Matthew's relationship or whatever we have. I just.....

I hear a shout and look out the closed window. I see a tall, tanned, beautiful woman marching towards us, particularly Matthew and she looks angry. 'Maybe she is his ex' I thought.

They exchange words for a few seconds before she gives him a light push and opens the door.

"Hi there. I'm Matthew's mother, please step out so I can look at you my dear," She said. She's smiling at me as if she wasn't yelling at her son a few seconds ago. Weird.

Wait, her son?!

"Uuuu Mm good afternoon ma'am," I say awkwardly as I alight from the car. I look at Matthew for help but he just looks at me with a pleading expression and mouths' an apology.

"Oh my, you look too beautiful for that insolent child behind me. I hope you have a good attitude to match," she says. She is looking at me as if I hung the moon for her son.

"Yes ma'am," I replied. I mean what else am I supposed to say, she's so bubbly and so young. I can't believe she's his biological mother. "Sorry, but are you his stepmother? You look young," I ask without thinking.

Michelle gives me a chastising look while Matthew looks mildly surprised by my question. That must have sounded rude but I can't take it back and I really want to know.

Matthew's mother laughs, much to my relief, "oh please don't call me ma'am, makes me feel older than I am and yes, I'm your boyfriend's biological mother," she says and giggles a little.

I look at Matthew with wide eyes but he is busy studying the floor as if it held some deep secret. He told his mother that I'm his girlfriend?

"Anyway, come with me so you can meet the rest of the family," she says as she takes my hand and pulls me towards the parking lot.

"Mom I'll bring her," Matthew finally speaks up. Took him long enough.

"Yes, I'd like to go in his car."

His mother sighs and lets me go, "you better bring her Matt, or else.." she says with a smile that just made the statement much more threatening.

What is happening?...