3

My heart pounded through my chest like a thunderstorm. Every beat of my heart, like a lightning bolt that hit me unexpectedly. He had pulled the ground out from under my feet and walked lightly over it himself.

Why did we meet here? Why did we meet again at all? Here in this place? It didn't make any sense. I kept kicking my feet into the frozen snow. He didn't want to give in any more than my feeling of running after him and asking him.

"How long do you want to stand here?" A dark voice echoed through the night and a heavy hand rested on my shoulder. The warmth she radiated seemed to melt even the snow beneath my feet.

I suddenly realized how long I had been standing here, that my limbs were hardly moving. Out of the corner of my eye, in the darkness, I just saw a huge shadow appearing to my right, out of nowhere. My senses were even frozen.

"It's cold and uncomfortable. I don't like this place," said a second deep voice, and an equally tall guy appeared to my left.

"Let's go," said a third, stepping past us towards the main entrance.

"Come on Stone, faster! It's fucking cold in here!" The one holding my shoulder now grabbed my upper arm and pulled me with him. My feet took one step in front of the other as if trying to get me out of the cold without my telling them to.

I wondered if these were new guards, but something about them was so familiar. They seemed somehow familiar, although I should be afraid.

These weren't guards.

They ran so fast with their long legs that I could barely keep up and almost stumbled. The one in front of us held open the door to the main entrance and the warmth of the building made me chill now. I realized how numb my limbs were and suddenly cramped from the temperature difference.

I moaned and rubbed my palms. "Don't do that so often, Stone," growled the one who was just holding my arm and shook himself.

In the dim light of the school, three huge guys were now standing in front of me, grinning.

"So where to go, Stone? Where do we have to register?" I raised my arm and pointed in a direction as if remotely controlled.

The three were all the same size, they all looked alike. They shared the same imposing physique, their faces resembled each other, only the color of their hair let me tell them apart.

"Come on then," the blonde said, grabbing my arm again. I didn't understand how we knew each other, why they knew my name and what they wanted from me. They just pulled me with them and I didn't do anything about it.

We stopped in front of the director's office and to my surprise the light was still on in his room. The brown-haired pushed the door open without knocking and stepped in confidently.

"Okay, then have fun," I found my voice again and was looking forward to a theater. If there was one thing, it was that Principal Bannister didn't want to be spoken to. I turned under the blonde's grip, definitely wanting to miss that.

"You stay here, Stone," said the black-haired one of the three and grabbed my other shoulder that the blonde wasn't holding and pushed me into the office together with the blonde while the brown-haired one closed the door behind me.

Principal Bannister sat bored behind his desk and lifted his head from his files.

"You're late Alaisters," and all he did was slide some papers across the desk, which the brunette grabbed.

If the cold couldn't freeze my bones, the name Alaister could.

"That's all then. Be more punctual tomorrow. Tara Stone will show you everything?" He looked my way for a second. "Because of me."

I show you everything? Definitely not. I'm going to run away and do it as soon as possible. Before my legs could process my command to run away, the blonde grabbed me again and pushed me in front of him.

"Alaister?" I croaked when we were out of the principal's office, trying to pull away from them, earning me three loud laughs.

We stood in the hallway and the three of them blocked every escape route I had. I backed away cautiously and leaned against the wall. This was a university. You couldn't hurt me here. So what did you want from me?

"How rude of us," the blonde grinned, pointing at his brothers. "We didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves the last time we met. I'm Grayson Alaister and this is Taylor and Trevor," he introduced the brown-haired man and then the black-haired man.

"What do you want from me?"

"We're your new best friends now, Stone. You won't go another step without us," Taylor replied and the other two nodded.

"You can't be serious? What kind of stupid idea is that?" I swore. Our families have been at odds for years.

"I have to call my brother" and turned towards the principal's door, before I could take a step I was immediately stopped by Taylor.

"You won't, your brother's mate is still in our pack," Taylor said quietly, but it sounded like a threat. He didn't even have to say it so sharply, even if he had sung the words they wouldn't have missed their words.

"What do you want from me?" My heart rate increased and I knew they weren't missing it. He walked so fast I thought they were about to laugh at me.

"We said we'd be your friends," he repeated, patting my shoulder like it was nothing. As if it would be the most normal thing for an Alaiser to tell a Stone that they were friends.

"That's impossible," I growled at him.

"We'll see about that, Stone," he replied mischievously. "So where's your room? We'll take you there." The whole thing became more and more absurd, like their waiting faces, which lacked any malice in their features or eyes.

"As if I were going to tell you that," I hissed.

"We can also ask Principal Bannister?" replied Taylor immediately. This wasn't a threat, more a nonserious, amused response, the kind you'd expect from someone you trusted.

I rubbed my forehead, wondering again what they really wanted. What they wanted from my brother, what his mate had to do with it. Why did you mention her?

At a loss as to what to do, I pointed in the direction of my room.

"Come on then," Grayson said, grabbing my heavy bag. I hadn't noticed until just now that they had taken her at all. He now held two bags in his hand and the other two also each had one of their bags in their hands. There was no doubt they would really stay here.

I went ahead into the wing where my room was. The closer I got to my room, the busier it got. Here and there other students stopped their conversation and watched us curiously.

My luck, isn't it? The three couldn't do anything to me if there were witnesses?

The eyes of my fellow students followed us far too attentively as we walked past them. Here and there came a " Hello, who do we have here?", which was certainly not meant for me.

I immediately opened my door as we got ahead of her and turned to Grayson to take my bag, but he just shook his head. He walked past me to my room as a matter of course.

He put my bag down, turned on the light and seemed to be taking a good look at everything. Finally he looked out the window and came back with a satisfied expression on his face.

"You don't leave the room until we get you in the morning!" Grayson left my room and turned back in the doorway. "I hear nothing, Stone!"

His last sentence was like an order and everything in me resisted it. What was he imagining anyway?

"You won't either," I hissed at him quietly. "We are not friends!"

"We will, Stone! We will," he winked at me before closing the door behind him. "We'll pick you up for breakfast tomorrow," I heard him say through the door.

This school year couldn't get any worse. Not only was Caspian here, the Alaisters were far worse.