CHAPTER 144: 144-THEY SAY I AM TRUSTWORTHY.

Clementine:

I jumped in the car that had come to pick us, all the squad mates, and then smiled at Troy and Haiden. I sat down with them in the back seat. Yorick instantly turned around to give me a head nod, while Ian stayed looking outside the window. He had one foot up, resting on the back of the driver’s seat.

"Thank you, Clementine," Haiden started.

"When you sent the head back to me for the burial and I saw that her tears had finally stopped, it was everything I wanted to see," Haiden continued, mentioning that his sister was finally put to rest because she had gotten her revenge.

The only reason she had still been crying after her death was because the woman who slut-shamed her, even when she was the victim, the same woman who hammered her until she took her last breaths and left her in the north, that same woman was still alive and living a life of luxury–my stepmother.

"It’s okay. Remember I told you I was having these weird nightmares? It turns out they were distant memories. They were the memories of your sister’s last moments. That’s how I was able to put two and two together," I said confidently, though I still felt sad for Maya. She was just an innocent soul who did not deserve what happened to her.

"You know, when we put her head back on, she turned into flesh and bone. She was smiling. I got to see my sister with her features still intact," Haiden said, grinning ear to ear.

I could only imagine how he must have felt during those days.

"Haiden, I really wanted to be there for you," I told him as I showed him the bracelet I still couldn’t take off, the reason we couldn’t be there for the funeral.

"Wait, but what happened to your stepmother?" Troy cut in, reminding me I still had to tell them what happened. Haiden already knew because I had a brief call with him.

"So, after I left Maya in her room, my stepmother went in. She probably stared into her eyes after taking off the cloth. That’s when she began to feel all the pain, and she turned into stone," I explained, giving them the details.

"Oh, so who’s taking care of the pack now?" Troy asked.

"Actually, they gave Leysa a month’s notice to either find herself a mate or prove herself to be a worthy alpha of the pack. So let’s see what she does," I said, remembering how she was the one who found her mother’s corpse. It had taken her at least four days to even open her mouth and say something. Her first words were, ’Clementine is the reason this happened.’

I mean, the council did not believe it. I told them everything, and they believed me. They refused to give Glinda a proper burial, saying she deserved to be left in the north too. So after her body turned to stone, they tossed her into the north while Leysa cried her eyes out and begged them not to.

By the time we were talking, we had arrived at the academy. As we all got off and began heading toward our room, Yorick turned around in the passage, walking backward while facing us.

"This makes me wonder if the one person we claimed not to trust in the beginning is actually the most trustworthy among us," Yorick said, hinting at me. Troy and Haiden smiled and looked at me before straightening their backs again.

I felt kind of shy at the compliments because I had never been praised like that before. In the beginning, I thought I didn’t want compliments either, that they would make me uncomfortable. But now that I was being praised, and even though it was odd, I felt good.

"Yeah, I think we can all trust Clementine. If anything goes wrong, she will be the first one to find out and also rescue us," Haiden said confidently.

Hearing it from the alphas was actually quite comforting.

"Really? That is so sweet."

A girl’s voice almost jolted me. We all turned back to see Oriana coming after us.

"Clementine!" She opened her arms and hugged me tightly.

"You’re not headed to your room?" I asked her, noticing her squad mates were headed to their rooms. The passage was at a far distance, but since it was afternoon and there was no wind or fog, we could see them.

"No, I thought to come and meet you first," she said. "Hi alphas."

Her tone turned different when speaking with my squad mates. They were half turned around because we were interrupted on our way to our room.

"Hello," they all said in unison, except for Ian, who did not respond. I noticed him frown at me, like he was thinking about something, before he looked away.

"Your team is doing so well, I’m kind of jealous," Oriana pouted, folding her arms over her chest.

I sneakily peeked at my squadmates, just to see their reactions to her. I don’t know why I did it, but I had this inkling to look, and it seemed like they were checking her out, except for Ian, who was too eager to walk away. He kept looking around, rubbing the back of his neck, then shoving his hands in his pockets.

Apart from checking her out, my squadmates didn’t really indulge in any conversation. It was just a weird, observant look they were giving her.

"Okay, we will meet you guys again later, bye bye," Oriana said, jumping up and down excitedly before running out of our passage to the main building to reach her own.

"Guys, thank you!" Jessie yelled from her passage. We all gave her a head nod before walking back toward our room.

However, the minute we arrived, we noticed the door was open. Haiden stepped forward and pointed at us to stay behind, pressing his finger to his mouth to tell us not to make a noise so he could check first before we walked in.

We heard a weird noise coming from inside. It was groaning and moaning voices. We shared a glance, watching Haiden hunch down, his hand slowly placed on the door frame, ready to enter. We didn’t have our weapons with us, but we knew they were left under our beds, in our lockers.

I began to have all kinds of thoughts. This had never happened. Usually, when we arrived, our doors were locked.

And then, something crazy happened.