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Chapter 19: Anxiety and Anticipation

Ashton decided to check up on Caleb once he was done changing. He didn’t get a chance to do so due to all the ongoing chaos in the field. By the time he went to the medical room it was emptied out.?It made sense cause he must have been transported to the Pack Hospital.

He tried not to worry too much, knowing well enough that he would be taken care of. But still, he was curious as to why he collapsed so suddenly when he literally made the team win. It was the weekend, so he was busy doing his chores, but he knew that there was some kind of attack going on. So he tried to stay as much alert as he could.?More than that he was worried for his family than he was worried for himself.

He lost his family once when he was?young, he was not ready to lose them again. He was mistaken for a human, but his family wasn’t. What if someone tried to attack them.

After two days when he went back to school, he watched out to spot Caleb. He didn’t know what happened to him and the only person who could tell him everything properly was Caleb.

He couldn’t see him the whole day, but he did see Matt as usual. He knew if there was anyone whom he could ask it was either him, or maybe Sara since she was his girlfriend. He decided to try Sara first

“Hey, did you hear anything about Caleb”? He asked her after their chemistry class was dismissed.

“No”. She shook her head sadly before she asked “Why do you care so much”? She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

“What do you mean? He collapsed right in front of the whole school. Anyone would be interested”. Ashton shrugged.

“Yeah… but you aren’t just anyone. You like to keep to yourself, stay out of every high school drama”. She tried to dig deep as she pestered him.

.....

“Well, it’s certainly is not a drama. It’s about someone’s health issue”. Ashton tried to justify.

“Alright”. Sara seemed convinced. “Why don’t you go and ask him yourself”? She suggested.

“He is absent”. Ashton blurted out without giving much of a thought.

“Wow” she snorted. Ashton gave her a ‘Are you crazy’ look which is why she continued, “Well, for someone who doesn’t give much of a damn, you clearly keep an eye on him. It’s not even lunch yet, and you know he is absent”. She smirked.

“What are you suggesting”. Ashton decided to ask her directly as he was tired by her beating around the bush.

“Can I be any more obvious”? she raised her eyebrows at me then sighed. “I saw you two, the other day, coming out of Janitor’s closet. What is going on between you two”? She asked suggestively.

“It’s not what you think. We were just talking. There is nothing inappropriate going on between us”. Ashton sighed.

“Sure”. While her words made it seem like she agreed, her tone of voice however expressed otherwise.

Ashton knew she wasn’t convinced but he couldn’t care less. It’s high school, everyone loved to gossip here. No matter what he said it was clear that it won’t be of any use.

He wondered if asking anyone else would be any useful or if they will simply assume, again, that something is going on between Ashton and Caleb. It wasn’t as if they were caught doing something which would heavily indicate that. Maybe the wolves took it more seriously because of the whole fated mates concept.

He usually never went to lunch at cafeteria. He hated going there because of the people who were so loud. He preferred peace and quiet which is why library was the place where his lunch hours were spent.

Many people assumed that he studied there, which won’t be a complete lie given that he was trying to score better. But most of the time he just simply took a nap. His mother always packed him two big sandwiches which he ate on his way, and thus kept his stomach full for the day.

You can imagine how people reacted who were either infatuated with him, or irritated by him, felt when he showed up in the cafeteria for lunch on that particular Monday. Nobody dared to ask him anything to his face, but they did whisper and talk amongst themselves.

Ashton wasn’t supposed to hear them, but the words ‘what’s that freak doing here’ or ‘Am I dreaming or the handsome nerd finally got bored with the library’ or ‘I am so glad he is here, I don’t have many classes with him,?so I see him less’ did reach his ears. He couldn’t bother less about all this chatter concerned with him and thus he focused at a particular table with his ears attentive to every other word said.

“What did the doctors say”? A blonde girl whom Ashton have never seen before but was present on the table asked. She must be from a different year. From that distance he couldn’t make out whether she was werewolf or something else.

“Nothing much, Mel. He will still need time”. Matt told her as she nodded. They went back to different topics of conversation and thus nothing much came out of lunchtime eavesdropping.

He did notice that Matt was quieter than usual. He usually behaved all dominant and short tempered, but when when another guy called him out he didn’t pay much attention to it and simply ignored him. That got Ashton thinking, does it have something to do with Caleb? Was he in more danger than he expected initially?

His anxiety and anticipation got the best of him so he finally decided to approach Matt. Not that he would tell him anything more that a human should know, given that he agrees to say anything at all.

“Matt,” he called him when he found him the hallway on his way to Algebra. “Is Caleb alright”? Reluctantly he popped the question.

“Why do you care”. He asked him the same thing as Sara which is why he felt frustrated because he did not want to repeat the same conversation. “He was sick”. He shrugged.

Matt gave him a suspicious look before he said, “He is not okay. We have to wait and watch”. He said and left without waiting for any reply.

When he was gone Ashton smirked and instead of going to Algebra he went to the men’s room. He took out the phone he swiped off from Matt and started to go through his messages or anything that could give him some idea of the situation. He got lucky that Matt was distracted, otherwise stealing from a wolf is not an easy task.

The last text exchange between Caleb and Matt was the day of the match when Matt asked him where was he. He also found a text from someone named Chris who asked him to be safe out there because the hunters were still at large. A few texts before he also saw an update about something related to wolfsbane poisoning and that it’s taking longer than usual.

While Ashton didn’t want to assume the worst, he couldn’t help but think ‘wait, was Caleb poisoned?’ He was aware of how wolfsbane kills someone once it enters their system as he himself witnessed it when he was nine. While his repressed memories flooded into his mind, he also felt anxious for Caleb’s health. If only there was a way to check up on him in the pack hospital without letting his secret out.