Mated to alpha triplets at all-boys school Chapter 59

Ashley pov

“What are you doing?” Elias asks as I bend down to fold the sleeping bag.

“I’m folding a sleeping bag, can’t you see?” I reply, a bit too harshly, but for the situation, I’d say it’s appropriate.

“No,” he groans. “I mean what are you planning to do? Why are you suddenly gathering up the stuff? We can sit down and have some food or whatever. It’s not like we really have to run out in the wild like our asses are on fire.”

I look up at the moron, struggling to believe those words actually just left him. God damn it, how can anyone be that royally stupid?

“Not on fire? Are you serious?” I whisper hiss at him and stand up to look Elias straight in the eyes.

“Haven’t you noticed how quiet it has gotten outside again? Must I remind you we’re on that stupid task, not on some tropical cruise, building friendships and all? We need to leave this place. The sooner we start on this task, the sooner we can leave.”

Although clearly hesitant, Elias thinks for a moment and eventually nods in agreement. Soon after, he starts helping me pack, grabs his stuff and looks around to ensure we don’t forget anything.

When we eventually leave the cave, we step back into the jungle and exchange worried glances. It’s supposed to be morning, but the place is so dark, it still feels like the middle of the night.

“Think the Professor is doing this on purpose?” Elias whispers the question and gestures around.

I nod. “Most likely.” My eyes scan the surroundings and for some reason, a sudden sense of dread washes over me, as if someone’s out there, watching us both from a distance safe enough for us not to notice them. “It would be pretty foolish of him to send us on a training assignment and not make it hard, right?” I add.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Let’s get over this then. Just try not to slow me down,” Elias bumps my shoulder and starts walking forward.

I know he’s trying to tease me, but that last sentence seriously irks me. Every assignment we have had, I’ve done my best to keep up with everyone and even won a few of them. By now, I wholeheartedly believe I’ve proven myself and my abilities, there’s no need to doubt me anymore.

As we slowly move through the darkness, we soon come to realize the whole place is set up like some death trap. A freaking maze.

We take turns and find dead-ends, which in itself is annoying as hell, but what makes the situation worse is all of the actual traps that we keep finding.

Step on a branch - oh, wow, look, there’s dozens of arrows flying your way.

Accidentally brush away a bush, wow, there’s a hidden massive hole in the ground with sharpened wood at the bottom of it, waiting for you to fall and suddenly become a human sacrifice.

These are only two, there are plenty more and every one of them seems worse than the previous one.

The more traps we come across, the more annoyed Elias becomes. His mood is so sour, even the air around us tastes the same.

At one point, he starts grumbling and cursing, even blaming the traps on me.

“If you wouldn’t be so freakishly slow, we wouldn’t have the fucking problem,” he eventually snaps at me.

I can’t believe the nerve and audacity this guy has. How is it my fault that someone set up the traps? And besides, isn’t it better that we actually find them, not fall victim to those?

Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I cross my arms in front of my chest, close my eyes and count to ten before I reply. “First of all, I refuse to let you get to me. Just because you’re in a shitty mood doesn’t mean you have the power to ruin my day now. Second, I’m literally right on your heels so how am I the slow one now? And third, be glad we found out about the damn traps and know what to look out for now instead of getting caught by one of those.”

Elias looks a bit taken aback, but once he regains his composure, he actually bloody snarls at me. “I should have known you’ll have some smartass response to get rid of the responsibility. That’s such a ‘you’ thing to do.”

While Elias looks very pleased with himself, I don’t want to do this anymore. Rolling my eyes at his nerve, I step aside and breathe out a very heavy, “fine.”

His eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Fine what?”

“Fine as in fine, you won. I won’t get in your way anymore and slow you down. Go on, do your thing, show me how a real warrior can deal with this task and all that crap. I won’t focus on team spirit building with an imbecile and you don’t have to pretend to care for my abilities. Go your damn way.”

“That’s the problem, we’re not supposed to go our separate ways. We’re supposed to locate and defeat a common enemy, you prick!” Elias momentarily loses his cool and screams at me at the top of his lungs.

I wonder if he understands how stupid he’s being right now…

“Elias, you moron, do you understand-” I don’t get to finish my whisper rant when my words are silenced by something big, heavy, and loud suddenly heading our way.

“Shit, I did that, didn’t I?” Elias hisses, finally realizing why I’ve been doing my best to keep as quiet as possible.

Now, the enemy knows where we are and instead of being the predators, we’re becoming the prey. Freaking great.

“We need to get out of here,” Elias announces and grabs my hand to start running Goddess knows where.

While I’m fully capable of escaping the situation and honestly, I would rather choose the trees to get away faster, I still follow his lead. I need to think about both of us getting away from the danger, not only me.

This time, we really run like our asses are set on fire, but the sound of whoever is coming our way only becomes louder, which has to mean the enemy is getting closer.

“There’s some kind of downhill ahead of us, think you’ll have the guts to drop down and slide into the abyss? Our best option,” Elias shouts over the awful sound.

“Let’s do it!” I agree without any hesitation. First, we escape this hellish thing and then, we deal with the rest of the mission so I can get home, have a long, hot shower and then, I can sleep for days.

“Almost there!” He says, rather excitedly.

There’s a loud bang behind us and I think I run over a bush because I suddenly have this sensation of a sting or scratch around my thighs, followed by a sharp sting. It’s painful, way too painful to be just skin damage, but I swallow the cry of pain and ignore it until we can get to a somewhat safer place.

“Jump!” Elias shouts and I follow his lead.

The collision with the ground is painful at first, but it’s manageable seeing that we’re both just sliding down the hill, but at least somewhere safer. Somewhere along the way, Elias lets go of my hand, or I let go of his, I don’t know, but for now - all I know is once we reach the bottom, I’ll have to look for him before we can get out of this mess.