Mated to alpha triplets at all-boys school Chapter 57

Ashley pov

“No way, Prof. There’s no way I’m teaming up with a weakling for a task. If you want it done and done properly, let me go solo,” Elias protests before I get a chance to.

He is so disrespectful, for a brief moment, I want to scream at him, but then, I decide against it. If his attitude is what will get me out of spending one on one time with the asshole, I’ll take whatever he dishes out.

“Are you the Professor now, Elias?” The Professor asks, arching an eyebrow in a clear challenge.

“No,” Elias huffs. “I’m just saying,” he starts, glances at me and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “That I’m better off solo. Ash will slow me down. When it comes to training, I prefer to deal with everything on my own - no distractions, no need to rely on anyone, especially weaker ones.”

The Professor nods and smiles. “I understand where you are coming from, but your preferences are irrelevant to me. Your stubbornness is what made me think of this exercise and you will be a part of it.”

“And what if I refuse?” Elias keeps pushing.

The Professor laughs in his face. “You fail the subject and face the risk of getting expelled. We all know the rules - stay at the top unless you want to leave.”

This revelation seems to open Elias’ eyes. He has more to lose by refusing to tolerate my presence for a bit than to win.

“Fine,” he finally gives in and drops his arms to his sides in defeat. “What’s the task then? Who’s the enemy?”

As soon as the questions ring through the gym, the Professor grins. “You won’t know who’s the enemy until you two find it. You two, my lovely elite students, are going out in the wild. Survival, teamwork and a common enemy. You’ll get it all.”

I could have lived with a fight inside the gym, but this seems excessive even for me, so I raise my hand like a kid and clear my throat. “Why must we go out in the wild, though?”

“Team spirit building skills.”

The answer is so dry and meaningless that I quickly understand it’s pointless to ask more questions and instead, focus on gathering whatever pieces of gear seem to be the fittest for the situation.

While Elias inspects his stuff on his own, Everett helps me and even tries to give me some pointers on how to deal with his brother.

Once we gather everything we think we need, the Professor leads us to a door that literally appears out of nowhere. “This is you. I had some help to cook this place up, all thanks to your wonderful magic guy. Now, hop in and enjoy. Once the task is completed, you can return.”

I’m about to ask how we will know if the task is done, but my lips barely twitch as the Professor opens the door and literally shoves us both inside.

It feels like we’re falling off a skyscraper and it takes minutes for us both to finally reach the ground. Thankfully for me, I don’t land on the ground, but on Elias, which is another reason for the sulking guy to hate me even more.

“Get off me, you little creep,” he snarls.

I laugh at the hint of panic in Elias’ voice and roll off him before I start whining, “but why? You’re so soft and comfortable, like a cloud, better than any mattress I’ve had on my beds.”

I know I’m testing my luck, but a little teasing is the smallest revenge I can get for the shit this guy has been throwing my way. A little revenge goes a long way when it’s been a long time coming.

“You’re so annoying,” he grumbles and gets up. “I could have dealt with this on my own twice as fast, but no..”

Snapping back at him would be fun, deserved even, but I hold back. Now that we’re out here, not really knowing what awaits us ahead, it’s better to stay close.

As I slowly get up and start gathering my stuff, I realize this forest setting looks more like a jungle. Cold shivers instantly run down my spine as my mind starts conjuring up ideas about what creatures might be hiding around.

On cue, a bloody snake stretches its body all over my backpack right when I reach for the handle. A loud scream tears out of me as I jump away and pull my hand back so sharply, the action nearly sends me on my butt.

“Aww, is big boy Ash scared of snakes?” Elias taunts me and starts laughing while I struggle to calm my raging heart.

“Shut up, Elias!” I snap.

My response only makes him laugh even harder. “Not my fault you’re such a coward, Ash. Don’t be mean to me just because you can’t deal with a tiny snake like that.”

By the time the snake finally disappears somewhere into the wild, Elias and I stand arguing about him being a pain in my ass, and me, apparently being a coward and too weak to be paired up with him.

We both get so carried away by the petty fight that at first, we don’t notice the night approaching. Elias is the first to point that out. “Whatever bullshit simulation this is, we’re basically in some jungle forest hybrid and it’s about to become dark. We need to find a place where to sleep for a night. Safe enough for this invisible enemy not to find us.”

For once, I agree with him, so we gather up the remainder of our stuff and head inside the jungle.

Thankfully, it’s not completely pitch dark when we come across a cave system - it has many entrances and seems to lead very deep into a mountain.

Elias nods towards one of the entrances and I follow. When he deems we’re decently hidden away and could have a good chance at escaping if ‘shit hits the fan’ we stop, drop everything and unroll our sleeping bags.

“You want food?” Elias asks, almost sounding like he has grown some humanity in that big black heart of his.

“No, thank you. I’d rather sleep,” I mutter and unzip my sleeping bag. “Shit,” I hiss under my breath.

“What?”

“My sleeping bag is useless. Looks like it’s been completely cut through. Now, I need to figure out if I want to freeze off my backbone or just freeze. It’s freaking cold here, sleeping in that thing won’t be pleasant.”

Elias makes a sound, so I glance at him. The guy looks so unhappy and disgusted, I can’t even describe the look on his face. And then, just to make this awkward rather than tense, he unrolls his sleeping bag and clears his throat, “I fucking hate to say this but we’re sharing tonight. You’ll probably freeze to death, body to body provides heat and I must keep you alive if I don’t want to be kicked out of school.”

Although he sounds like he’s doing this with much disdain, one look back at my sleeping bag is enough for me to agree with his idea. I get in the sleeping bag first and Elias follows, closing the zipper as he does.

My back is turned to him, so I curl up in a ball in an attempt to get warmer. I have no idea how he does that - Elias is wearing only a thin jacket and he seems unfazed while the cold from the cave seeps into my bones even through the thick layers of clothing I’m wearing.

Eventually, despite the cold, I manage to close my eyes and just before I fall into a deep sleep, I feel Elias shift next to me and carefully put something over me. I end up falling asleep with a slight smile across my lips, knowing he cares a little - otherwise, he wouldn’t pile his own clothes over me to keep me warm.