Chapter 12: The Pool

Amara and Mr. Shaw laughed and sputtered water as they splashed each other. Amara swam away from him but he followed her, still splashing at her. She crawled out of the pool and started running around, giggling. He chased after her out of the pool. Amara ran out of the indoor pool area and up the stairs, hearing foot steps behind her.

"I'm gonna get you!" Mr. Shaw laughed.

"Not on your life, Shaw!" she barked out. Amara ran into Benjamin and she giggled, enjoying that he was in nothing but his swim trunks. "Oops, sorry."

Benjamin looked at her in shock then looked past her at Mr. Shaw. His eyes narrowed at him and Amara rolled her eyes. The jealousy was strong with this one.

"Amara, what were you both doing?" Benjamin asked defensively.

"Just fooling around," Amara replied.

"Uh huh," Benjamin said, looking at Mr. Shaw with a growl.

"Hey, don't be so defensive," Amara said. "We were just-"

"Fooling around."

Amara scoffed at Benjamin. "Yeah. So don't growl at him."

"Oh, it's alright, Amara," Mr. Shaw said. "A little growl never scared me off."

Benjamin brushed past Amara to stand up to Mr. Shaw. "Do I have to do more than growl, then?"

"You'll have to do plenty more than that," Mr. Shaw snarled.

Amara rolled her eyes again and got in between them, being careful not to touch Mr. Shaw. "Now boys, you should not be fighting."

"We're not fighting," Mr. Shaw corrected. "We're having a discussion."

"Yeah. A discussion on how I best kick his ass," Benjamin added. "You need to stay away from my girl, Shaw."

"I don't need to stay away from anybody. That's her decision."

Amara smiled at Mr. Shaw, admiring how he looked just then. He looked like the devil in disguise and it really turned her on. Then there was Benjamin, being protective and jealous. Also a turn on. Amara snickered at them both and she walked away.

"Where are you going?" Benjamin asked.

"Back to the pool. I have swimming to do."

The pitter patter of feet followed her and she smiled as she turned to look at both her boyfriend and her mate. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. A devious one.

"I also have to ask one of you a question."

"Yes?" both the men said.

Amara stopped, turned and faced them. "I've decided that one of you is going to go to the Metallica concert with me."

Both Mr. Shaw and Benjamin's eyes lit up, then they looked at each other competitively. "Wait, why is he a choice?" Benjamin asked.

"Because he's a Metallica fan," Amara replied.

Benjamin growled while Mr. Shaw smiled. "Actually, I wouldn't mind going at all. I've always wanted to meet James Hetfield," Shaw commented.

"James who?" Benjamin inquired with confusion.

Mr. Shaw chuckled. "See, this is why I'm obviously the better candidate to accompany you, Amara."

Amara smirked at Mr. Shaw's confidence. "You really want to go despite how scandalous it would look going with a student?"

"It's Metallica!" Mr. Shaw exclaimed. "Need I say more?"

"Fair point, Mr. Shaw."

"What are you doing?" Dakota asked suspiciously.

"I'm enjoying myself," Amara replied in her head. "We're gonna make this rivalry into a game."

"But why? Mr. Shaw is the obvious choice here."

"You say that because you're biased."

Dakota growled and receded, making Amara cackle loudly in her head. This was going to be fun.

"So what are the terms?" Benjamin asked, crossing his arms. "How are you going to choose?"

"We're gonna play a little game," she said, brushing a finger up Benjamin's chest as she walked up to him. "Whoever can follow me through the maze wins."

Benjamin chuckled. "That'll be easy."

"Not without my scent, it won't."

Benjamin's smile faltered. "Oh yeah."

Amara grinned. "But we'll play that game later. I want to go back to swimming."

Amara left the boys to their own devices and walked down the hall to the stairs.

Mr. Shaw watched Amara walk away, admiring her rump in her bikini. She wasn't a minor anymore so he could at least allow himself that. He walked after her immediately and went back down the stairs after her but Benjamin smushed past him and ran to her, picking her up in his arms. Mr. Shaw immediately let a low growl emanate from his chest out of jealousy. He really wanted to go to that concert with her.

"You better win the maze run," Darragh warned.

"Oh, I will," Mr. Shaw assured his wolf.

"How are you so confident in that?"

"I have a plan."

Mr. Shaw watched the couple in the water and his eyes burned with fury when he saw them kiss. Still, he made himself pull back on the reins. Amara was still his student. Even though what his wolf said to him earlier was getting to him, he had to maintain propriety and decorum. He jumped into the water and went swimming around, losing himself to his thoughts.

There was no denying it now that he wanted Amara. It was stronger than before, and yes, there was a familiar pull tugging at him when it came to her. Maybe Darragh was right. Maybe she was his mate. But why wouldn't she say anything about it to him?

Oh yeah. She didn't want a mate.

This saddened him. To be rejected once was bad enough, but to be rejected a second time? That would probably kill him.

Besides that, Amara seemed happy with Benjamin, despite how mean he'd been to Amara in the past. That whole thing about Amara's locker was especially troubling to Mr. Shaw.

Mr. Shaw pulled himself from the water and stood up, shaking the water off his body. He turned to see some girls ogling him and he laughed a little before looking at Amara who was staring at him. He smiled and lowered his gaze to the water. Mr. Shaw knew he was good to look at, but to have her look at him like that made him blush a little. He went to sit down in a pool chair and grabbed his towel, drying himself off.

"Hello, Mr. Shaw," a girl said.

Mr. Shaw looked up to see Debra and he smiled. "Hello, Debra. How are you?"

"I'm good. Real good," she said with a lustful smile.

"Oh great," Darragh said. "Another admirer."

Mr. Shaw chuckled and stood up. "Is there something I can do for you, Debra?"

"Oh yes, you most certainly can," Debra giggled. "I was wondering if you'd like to swim with me?"

Mr. Shaw sighed. "Actually I was gonna take a break from that."

Debra pouted. "Oh come now, you don't look like you need a break at all."

"Well, I do," Mr. Shaw replied.

"She's not taking the hint," Darragh said.

"No kidding," Mr. Shaw replied.

Debra smiled and touched Shaw's arm affectionately but then a hand slapped on Debra's arm and yanked her away. Mr. Shaw was shocked to see that it was Amara who was now dragging Debra off and tossing her into the pool. Debra resurfaced after falling in and she sputtered, rubbing her face and glaring up at Amara.

"What the hell, Cursed?!" Debra snapped. "What was that for?!"

"Keep your filthy paws off of him!" Amara snarled loudly.

Everyone looked at Amara, gasping and talking amongst themselves about what had just occurred. Mr. Shaw was very confused, and even more so when Amara turned to him, revealing black irises. Her wolf was coming out. He walked up to her and cocked his head.

"Amara, are you okay?" he asked.

She was snarling and breathing heavily, pacing back and forth by the pool. "She was touching you!" she snapped.

Mr. Shaw blinked. "Um, okay?"

"Why is she being so aggressive?" Mr. Shaw thought.

"She's acting like a mate protecting her other half, Rory. Isn't that proof enough?" Darragh asked.

Mr. Shaw considered this but shook his head. There was no way it was true. "Amara, it's okay. Just calm down, alright?"

Just then Debra came out of the pool and grabbed Amara by the hair. Amara growled and swirled her arm with Debra's, causing Debra to let go and sink to the floor on one knee as Amara held her arm in place.

"Ow, let go!" Debra yelled.

"Then don't grab my hair!" Amara shouted.

Mr. Shaw went to intervene but Janine came quickly and made Amara let go. Debra got up and favored her arm as two adults came running over to comfort her. Mr. Shaw assumed they were Debra's parents. The woman glared at Amara.

"Don't ever touch my daughter again!" the woman snarled.

"She started it!" Amara yelled.

Mr. Shaw blinked a few times while Sonya and Gabriel headed over. What the heck did Amara mean that Debra started it?

"What's going on here?" Gabriel demanded.

"Debra was touching Mr. Shaw," Janine explained. "Amara didn't like that."

"You need to keep Cursed on a leash, Alpha!" Debra snapped.

Alpha Gabriel growled and took a step toward Debra. "Do not call her that again!" he shouted in his alpha tone.

"Yes, Alpha," Debra submitted lowly.

"And I suggest your daughter learn to keep her hands to herself!"

"Yes, Alpha," the parents said.

"Good. You can leave the party now," Gabriel commanded.

Debra and her parents left the pool area and people were still talking amongst themselves. Gabriel crossed his arms and eyed Amara. "You wanna explain what that was all about?"

Amara lowered her gaze. "Not really."

Benjamin came up to them and put his arm around Amara. "What was that all about?"

"It's nothing!" Amara snapped, getting out of their grasp and walking out of the pool area.

Mr. Shaw watched her go with a sad look. He was very confused. Gabriel and Sonya followed after her.

Amara ran to her room and locked the door behind her.

"What the hell was that, Dakota?!" Amara snapped in her head.

"She was touching our mate!" Dakota snapped back.

"That doesn't mean you get to take over and attack someone!"

There was a knock on the door. "Amara? Honey? Can we talk, please?" Sonya asked.

"No! Everything's fine!" Amara shouted.

"Amara, please open the door," Gabriel said.

Amara sighed and unlocked the door. Gabriel and Sonya walked in and closed the door. "Okay, now..." Gabriel said, pulling up a chair and sitting down. "What happened down there?"

"Nothing. Just...Dakota took over," Amara said, staring at her feet.

"Why?"

"I dunno."

Gabriel rubbed his face with irritation in his eyes. "Amara."

Amara kept her gaze averted to the floor. "...It's nothing. Really. She just went out of control, that's all."

"That's all?!" Gabriel yelled, standing up. "You threw a girl into a pool for touching Mr. Shaw! What the hell is going on?!"

"Nothing!" Amara shouted. "I don't want to talk about it!"

"Amara!"

Sonya pressed a hand to Gabriel's chest. "Keep calm, my love," she said. "Let me talk to her."

Gabriel put his hand on Sonya's hand and sighed. "Alright, alright," he said before walking out of the room.

Sonya approached Amara and put a hand on Amara's shoulder. "Sweetheart, please tell me why Dakota tossed Debra into the pool."

Amara frowned and looked into Sonya's face. Amara knew she could trust her surrogate mother with this, so she might as well tell her. She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

"Mr. Shaw is my mate."

Sonya gasped. "He is?!" she asked excitedly. "Oh, this is wonderful!"

"It is?" Amara asked with a cocked brow.

Sonya clapped her hands together. "Yes! Does he know?"

Amara shook her head. "No."

"Well you better go tell him!"

Amara shook her head again. "I'd rather not."

"Why?"

Amara blew a raspberry. "He's my teacher. And then there's Benjamin to worry about. I want to keep this a secret, at least for now."

Sonya sat on the bed with a frown. "But Amara, what about your scent? What are you going to do about that?"

"The same thing I've been doing. Cover it up."

Sonya shook her head. "I don't think this is a good idea."

Amara shrugged. "It's my decision, you let me worry about whether or not it's a good idea."

A chuckle escaped Sonya. "This is going to bite you in the ass."

"Well, like I said, you let me worry about that."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Just Janine."

Sonya nodded. "What should we tell Gabriel?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He can't know about this either."

"But he's the Alpha. What am I supposed to tell him?"

"Tell him I swore you to secrecy or tell him I didn't tell you diddly squat."

Sonya raised a brow with intrigue. "You suggest I lie to my husband?"

"Up to you."

Sonya chuckled and stood up. "Oh, Amara..."

"What?"

"You're just so funny sometimes. But fine, I won't tell anyone about this, okay?"

"Thank you," Amara said.

Sonya went and hugged Amara. "You're welcome. Now, shall we go back down to the party?"

Amara nodded. "Okay."

The two females left the room and met Gabriel downstairs. He was waiting impatiently at the foot of the stairs.

"Well?" he said.

Sonya confronted him first. "I've been sworn to secrecy. I cannot tell anyone what she told me."

Gabriel's mouth dropped. "But Sonya, I-"

Sonya put a finger to Gabriel's lips. "Do you trust me?" she asked.

"You know I do," he said softly.

"Then let me just say that whatever is going on with Amara will resolve itself soon, okay?"

Gabriel huffed in resignation. "Okay."

Amara walked past the couple to the pool room, the precious incident now seemingly forgotten...except by Benjamin. He was very curious as to why Amara threw Debra into the pool but Amara told him to drop the subject and just kissed him to make sure he did. He stopped asking after that.

"Are we still doing that maze run?" he asked her. "For who gets to go with you to that Metallica concert?"

Amara nodded, kissing his cheek. "Yes, although I'm not too sure why you'd wanna go," she teased. "You don't even like Metallica."

"I'll pretend to like them for you," he said, holding her in his arms.

"Oh really?" she whispered.

"Uh huh."

Amara giggled and kissed him softly. "What else would you do for me, hmm?"

"I'll make a list," Benjamin said before stroking her black hair.

Amara threw her head back and cackled. "A list, huh? Okay. I look forward to reading your list."

They kissed again before Amara went and jumped into the pool.