JAY

"What was that?" Terrence chuckled as Jay walked away from the spot where he was watching Sydney and Mat from as they huddled at their lockers and their other friend joined them shortly after.

A growled bubbled from Jay's throat at him. There was no way to salvage anything left of his dignity, being caught following the two, not just by them, but by Terrence and countless others as well. "Fuck off."

Not only was he caught by the two, he didn't even get a chance to hear the rest of their conversation because once Sydney and Mat had spotted Jay after his awkward pause and trying to play it off, Sydney had told Mat they would talk about it later.

Terrence still held a smirk on his face despite the bite in Jay's tone.

"It was nothing, just the omega trying to get under my skin."

"You sure? Cause it definitely looked like your eyes were more on the girl."

Jay decided not to answer, and when Terrence realized this, Jay saw him roll his eyes. "Fine don't tell me. Anyways did you hear the Coach is going to have the school launch an investigation into whatever the hell last night was?"

They walked down the crowded hallway of students now swarming from their first block to their second period classes.

'We need to handle this situation before it gets out of hand.'

Jay agreed. This was getting out of hand. Sydney. The lacrosse team. This supposed investigation.

"It's not that big of a deal. I'll tell Coach he's blowing this out of proportion."

That's not a very me thing to say. Jay thought to himself.

Apparently, Terrence thought so too by the side eye he was giving Jay, but once again Jay found himself refusing to meet it.

☽✣☾

A physical sigh of relief left Jay after stepping out of his final class for the day. Part of him was pleased to find that Sydney wasn't in any of his other classes either, but reluctantly, deep down, he knew there was a small piece that was mildly disappointed at not getting to see her beautiful golden hair or her haunting green eyes.

Jay had caught Mat looking at him several more occasions than usual. They shared advanced statistics together, but between that class and just passing by one and other in the hallway, the omega seemed to keep finding Jay and it was beginning to irk him and his wolf.

Subconsciously scanning the hallway, Jay found himself looking for Mat and Sydney. By the time he reached his locker though to grab his gym bag, he saw neither and realized sometime on the field was the perfect way to get his mind off of the escalating issues coming up left and right.

Here Jay thought life was already stressful enough, looking at life after high school but before he officially took over as alpha, and now he had what appeared to be a human mate, that he didn't even know if he wanted, and this turmoil with the team being pranked.

In the locker room Jay was greeted by his teammates, some of which were loyal packmates. A few guys locked hands with him and pulled him into a shoulder bump. He made his way to his tall locker and pressed open the lever to open it up. The team had always felt like a place Jay belonged. He appreciated the sense of comradery and how they supported him so much, that this was his second year being captain of the team.

'This is what it will be like when we finally step up as alpha.' His wolf spoke.

Jay squeezed onto the edge of his now open locker door.

'That's not fair, we were born into that position we didn't earn it.'

This deeply angered his wolf, and in response closed off his thoughts to Jay's human side. It was always a weird feeling, but Jay knew he was upset and that it was best to leave him be.

After ten minutes of changing and corrawling everyone out of the locker room onto the field, Jay felt his muscles ease up.

The sun would begin to set early, probably around five as they were going into winter soon, but standing there at three-twenty though, Jay loved soaking in the the warm sun that was coating the bright green field. There was a slight breeze to the day, making the forest alcove say, but it was not nearly as cold as some of the days prior had been.

Everyone had started with their warm-ups beginning with jogging around the field or stretching. Jay caught up with some of his teammates about classes, girls, and any upcoming parties that were going on.

It was when Jay started checking in with two sophomores on the team, that questions about the details of Terrence's eighteenth birthday that had happened two weeks prior arose. To be honest, the night was pretty blurry to Jay, but he knew that Terrence had gotten involved in a fight that broke into multiple fights, and everything broke into chaos. Rumors about the events spread like wildfire throughout the school, especially the lower classmen, who weren't invited to the party for the most part.

Jay tried laughing it off by saying he handled the situation with his parents, since they held it at Jay's house, unbenounced to his parents.

Just another reason why I'm sure Dad thinks I'm unfit to take over the pack.

Before anyone else could ask any more questions, the coach started approaching the field catching Jay's eye. Jay waved at the two he had been talking to and made his way to the older man.

The coach's arms were crossed, taking in the guys running around the field, but then landed on Jay as he approached, "Jaycen, what can I do you for?"

Snagging his water bottle off to the side he asked, "Word on the team is you're petitioning for an investigation into last night?" Waiting for the response Jay squirted a stream of water into his mouth.

"That'd be right. Can't have your dad thinking I can't handle some nonsensical high school foolishness, especially when it comes to some of the more influential children of the pack on the team."

"All I wanted to say was it's not that big of a deal." Jay was trying to be nonchalant to stop this before an actual investigation was triggered and he wasn't able to keep Sydney hidden from the pack. Jay knew he was going to have to give a reason. "Some of the guys kinda think it makes us look like dicks trying to rat out some high school girls."

Coach raised his eyebrow at Jay, while Jay pretended to be taking in the team as well.

"Some high school girls you say?"

Jay didn't like the way he said that, but for a second time today Jay seemingly caught a break. Definitely not the break he would have preferred, but one that did get him out of lying about who the girls from last night were.

"The fuck?" The coach asked seeing the same thing Jay did.

Off of the sideline was Mat scowling at Jay, trying to force him to make eye contact.

"You deal with that I'll get the guys started," Coach said.

Mat started towards Jay as Jay approached him, "What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you privately." Mat hissed, his eyes seeming to focus on everything but Jay.

Jay scoffed in reply, "Fuck you, if it's about that stunt you and you're friends pulled last night I don't give a damn. I'll deal with whatever the hell it is after practice," he started to slip his head gear on to head back to the team

"It's about your mate, asshole."

'Sydney.' Jay's wolf came back full force into his mind.

Jay spun around and found himself in Mat's face. 'That is none of your business Omega.' Jay told him via the pack connection.

'Fuck off,' Jay growled as Mat said that, but Mat continued. 'I think someone's after her.'

Jay knew better then to growl out loud, but it was becoming difficult. His wolf was at full force in his mind.

'You better not be yanking my tail Omega.'

Mat smiled and chuckled at that leading Jay to scowl even harder, wanting to hurt Mat terribly at that moment.

'I'm assuming that was no pun intended,' Mat smirked.

'Shut your mouth Omega, and tell me what's threatening my mate.'

'So you have found her. Who is it? I'm sorry for this poor girl.'

Jay wasn't sure if it was possible for him to hate Mat more than at that moment. He grabbed Mat by the neck of his shirt and lifted so Mat was on the tips of his shoes. 'Over my fucking dead body I tell you. What the fuck you're talking about?'

Mat was startled, but realized Jay was serious. 'This morning I went to the bathroom but when I went in I heard someone talking on the phone. He just sounded familiar.'

'Share the memory with me.' Jay demanded.

Mat focused the memory of the stranger whose voice he recognized towards Jay. Suddenly Jay was blind and then the scenery from the serene lacrosse field melted and was replaced with the school hallway.

Jay saw through Mat's eyes that he had started moving away from Sydney and the Em girl. The two girls barely noticed his leaving as they went on talking as they leaned against the lockers.

He slipped into the men's restroom after dodging people in the massive cloud of students.

"-aven't found her yet." A familiar male voice spoke.

There was no answer to the man on the phone.

"I know, I know. Just give me a few days to find his mate."

The view of the memory moved further into the bathroom.

"Watch it, brother, or have you forgotten your place?" A growl came from the stall.

"I know I need to find her soon, everything will work out according to-."

More silence.

"Jaycen will learn the pa-" The male voice was cut off by a group of boys flooding the bathroom talking about football.

The memory faded and Jay's view was foggy, but he came to his realization he was still standing on the field with Mat beside him, looking equally disoriented.

'Where's my mate!?' Jay's wolf growled frantically.

"Mat where is she?" Jay harshly whispered to Mat.

He rapidly blinked, "Who?"

"My mate, Sydney. Where is Sydney?" Now Jay was demanding with the command of his alpha tone.

Mat's eyes widened, "Sy-"

His phone vibrated and he pulled it out, "It's her, she said-"

Jay ripped the phone out of his hands, and read the text: Dude, apparently the school has no kind of security, this twenty something-year old man just came into the class because 'the door was opened and he couldn't resist peeking in.' Man gave me the creeps. Anyways, I'm spooked and have lost my creative juices. Gonna wrap up and check lost and found, and hit the woods if need be. But just in case I go missing.

Jay felt a growl crawl out of his chest.

Mat took back the phone and read it before saying, "This guy sounded way younger. I don't think this was him."

"I don't give a fuck. Calmly text her back, I don't want to tip her off. Then we are going to go find her and make sure she is okay, and deal with him."

Mat nodded and briskly tapped on the screen typing out a message before putting his phone in his pocket. With that the two tore off the field with Coach yelling asking where they were going.

"Jay, who was the guy on the phone?" Mat asked running alongside Jay as they went towards the school to try and find Sydney.

Jay answered with one word. "Elliot."