Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates - Chapter 370

Chapter 370: 370-The Sweet Apple And The Alpha
Helanie:

“I am glad you came,” Rudy was in the woods, finishing up when I showed up. He only gave me a smile when he noticed my two friends behind me, and his smile started to fade a little.

“Hey guys, I didn’t know I was getting lucky with so many students today,” he managed to smile, despite looking visibly unhappy.

“I hope it’s okay,” I confirmed with him, and he gave me a nod. His sudden shift back to a good mood was helpful because I was seeing this practice as just a way to train and not for other reasons.

In the next few minutes, he helped us warm up and then began to reminisce about his own first classes. He brought out his old registers, which shocked me. He used to give himself daily tasks—exercises he had to do, including very hard ones like taking rounds of mountains without much help from his wolf.

He got us on our feet for a few rounds. Since they were also using a little strength, I didn’t fall too far behind. In fact, there were times when I was running ahead of Rudy.

I thought he was just slowing down on purpose to make me feel better about myself. But the others were also behind me. We finally arrived at our starting point after three hours of running and noticed how the boys were able to catch their breath.

I guess I needed my wolf fully awake to be able to do that.

“That was impressive,” Rudy said, clapping his hands. Since it was just my friends, no one was shy about celebrating my strength.

I shyly looked down and then squared up for the next lesson. It was going great. Everything was going just like I expected when I’m with my friends. Lamar and Gavin were pretty goofy during the breaks.

The two seemed to have bonded well during their time together.

“Okay now, we will rest,” Rudy raised his hand to stop the exercises. Lamar and Gavin threw their bodies on the ground to rest.

“I saw some apples on the trees, Helanie, do you mind coming with me to pick some?” Well, I guess I knew what Rudy was up to.

He wanted to spend time with me, and he was going to do it, whether my friends were around or not.

I turned to look at my friends and found them giggling and laughing about something they were whispering about in secrecy.

“They’ll be fine,” Rudy laughed, noticing my concern. “Besides, we’ll be getting them apples.”

He added, extending his hand to me. I didn’t take his hand but quickly followed him to let him know I was joining him.

“So, how do you feel being back at the academy?” he started talking softly, walking beside me and leading me into the deeper woods.

“It’s good. What helped the most is that Lucy has woken up,” I wasn’t lying about that part. Even though she had proven to me that our friendship didn’t mean anything to her anymore, I was still glad she woke up.

“Yeah, that was crazy. We got a month of holidays for her, and then she woke up to join us,” he joked, making me smile at his little attempt to cheer me up.

“What’s going on? What’s upsetting you? You’ve been so silent and sad ever since you returned to the academy,” he said, very talkative, unlike Penn.

That was the difference between them. Other than that, both of them were very respectful towards me.

“It’s just—the stress of combat classes approaching,” I lied, but hearing him laugh made me raise my eyebrow at him.

“Yeah, it’s because Lucy is hanging out with those twins, isn’t it?” he sighed, making me remember that the top seniors always had their eyes on us.

“What do the seniors talk about us?” I asked out of curiosity.

“They have a strong opinion of you. They don’t really talk about the others,” Rudy explained. “They talk about how you were a wolfless one, yet you’re the most talked about now. They also think I’m hitting on you because no top seniors hang around a junior like I do with you,” he smoothly shifted the topic to his feelings.

But I knew what my friends had told me about him and his confession about hitting on me.

“That’s a good thing. I hope I give them more to talk about me,” I joked, attempting to move the topic away from the romantic side of it.

I wasn’t ready to talk about or move on from what happened between me and my two mates. It was also better for me to stay away from Rudy at the academy, or else Kaye would lose his mind. He most certainly did today.

“Here we are,” Rudy jumped ahead and quickly pushed the branches away to reveal the area he wanted me to see.

It was a beautiful small river with so many fireflies that the whole place seemed to be lit up. I gasped at the beautiful sight, my hands flying over to my mouth.

“It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it?” he asked from behind me, whispering right into my ear.

“It is,” I replied shyly, but quickly took some steps ahead and then turned to him to create some distance between us without making a fuss about it.

“So, the apples, huh,” I nodded my head, admiring the view. The tall tree had such red apples, as if someone had painted them red.

“Yeah! I love apples,” he commented, grabbing one and taking a huge bite from it. He wasn’t lying when he closed his eyes and enjoyed the taste.

The apples looked so tasty. He then grabbed one for me with a smirk on his lips. I accepted it and took a bite, and when I said I was stunned, I was really stunned.

The flavor exploded in my mouth. It was such a tasty apple that I couldn’t even comprehend what I was eating at the moment. It tasted as sweet as candy.

“Let’s grab some for them,” I added, reaching for another when he did the same, and our hands touched in the air.

He didn’t pull his hand back but pulled his body closer to mine, staring at me with his head down.