Hey sorry for the late update. But I finished now so here you go

Twenty-one -

Chloe POV

Alex was annoying, period. I'd rather face the Order by myself than spend time with him. Okay, that was mean. But I still didn't want to hang around him. I was so grateful when it was time for dinner. I grabbed Jasmine's arm and dragged her down the hall.

"Slow down!" she hissed at me. "Alek's not going anywhere."

I ignored her and continued to pull her behind me. She was probably rolling her eyes at me. We met Alek at the entrance of the cafeteria. I let go of Jasmine and threw my arms around my boyfriend, burying my face in his chest. I heard him chuckle before he hugged me back.

"Hello to you, too," he told me. I pulled away and titled my head up. Alek smiled at me before leaning down and kissing me.

"I'm still here!" Jasmine announced, "And I really don't wanna spend my dinner time watching you to make out!"

I pulled away.

"Sorry," I told her. Alek wrapped one arm around my shoulder and opened the door with his other hand. He let Jasmine go first and then took me through the door. Everyone stopped – like they always did – and I could feel their stares all the way to the lunch line. I rolled my eyes. I felt Alek pull me closer. We grabbed our food and walked to the farthest table the cafeteria offered. Jasmine placed her food down and turned to the other Mai.

"Take a picture it'll last longer!" she snapped. Everyone began doing different things. She rolled her eyes and sat down.

"How was training?" Alek asked. Jasmine made a gagging sound.

"Irritating," she described, "Although Chloe looked ready to commit suicide."

"Yeah well you would too if someone continued to-"

"Hello Chloe."

I gritted my teeth and turned around.

"What do you want Alex?!"

"Thought I'd join you guys," he said. He sat down on the other side of me. Alek placed his hand on my knee.

"I don't remember asking you if you wanted to join," I said.

"You didn't have to," he said. He began eating his food. I took several deep breaths through my nostrils to calm me down. Asshole.

"You must be Alek Petrov," he said. He held out his hand in front of him. "I'm Alex. Alex Smith."

Alek politely shakes his hand. I pushed my food away from me. Alek looked at me.

"I just lost my appetite," I mumbled. I noticed him push his food away, too. I shook my head. "No. Eat."

"I'm okay," he said. He stood up and I rose with him. He looked at Jasmine. "We'll see you later. We're gonna go to the library."

Jasmine snorted. Even I cracked a smile. Alek pretended to look offended.

"You guys shouldn't be surprised," he said. "Underneath all these good looks is a genius."

I rolled my eyes and tugged on his hand. "Okay, boy-genius let's go."

We didn't go to the library. Instead, Alek took me to the rooftop of the academy.

"Is it safe?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Let's find out," he said.

"That's not funny," I snapped.

"I'm not trying to be funny," he replied. He sat down at the bottom of the ledge and waited for me to join him. I sat between his legs, looking up at the night sky.

"So are you going to tell me why you don't like Alex?" he asked.

"No."

"And why not?" he asked. He played with my fingers and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Because I don't want to talk about him," I said coldly. "Please drop it."

I wasn't allowed to discuss anything about Alex – part of the stupid deal.

He hesitated and then finally said, "Okay."

I sighed. I got up so that I could straddle him.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just really don't wanna talk about him."

His hands rested on my waist.

"It's okay."

"Besides," I whispered. I leaned closer to him. "I have other things in mind instead of talking."

He laughed. I leaned forward to kiss him, his arms wrapping around my waist as he met me halfway.

Jasmine POV

I was going to kill both of them. Library, my ass. As soon as Chloe and Alek left the room, a bunch of Alex's friends came to the table and attempted to make conversation with me – in other words, trying to see which one of them could manage to hook up with me. I pushed my food away from me and stood up, finally fed up with everything.

"I think I'm going to go sleep now," I said, my tone stating that if any of them followed me I'd kick their ass. "It's been a long day. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, hot stuff," the boy sitting beside Alex said. I gritted my teeth and left the cafeteria. I was so enraged that I hadn't been watching where I was going and collided with one of the Mai that was heading somewhere. I hit the ground hard.

"I'm sorry," a deep voice quickly apologized. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

He held out his hand and I took it, he pulled me to my feet.

"I wasn't looking either so it's okay."

"Hey, you're Jasmine," he said. "Chloe King's Protector. I'm Sam."

"Hi Sam," I said. I waited for him to be just like every other Mai guy in the cafeteria.

"What's it like to be the Uniter's protector?" he asked. I froze for a minute. No one's every asked me that.

"Well I'm not her only protector. Her boyfriend, Alek, is one, too. And it's…interesting, I guess."

"Well I'm glad I got to meet you. My clan's heard a lot about you."

"Which clan is that?" I asked.

"The one in Italy," he said. "I've never been to America, what's it like?"

"If you ever decide to visit, then I'll show you," I said, instead. "It's kind of hard to explain. You've got to experience it for yourself."

"Then I hope I visit soon," he said. "Are you headed somewhere?"

"Back to my room," I said.

"Do you mind if I walked you there?"

I was still cautious after the whole Zane thing. But Sam didn't seem so bad. And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let a psycho killing Mai into this academy – well if they were against our kind.

"I'd like that."

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