Claimed And Marked By Her Stepbrother Mates - Chapter 438

Chapter 438: 438-An Awkward Meeting
Helanie:

Maximus never said anything to me afterward. Norman had asked me to give him some time. They requested that I go back to the hostel and calm down my friends before they ventured out to look for me again.

I guess Norman told them I was fine and that they didn’t have to come to the academy. Of course, the brothers didn’t want them to meet the trainers and freak out about how dangerous things outside were. But my friends refused to believe them until they saw me for themselves.

I heard from Norman that my friends had also left the hostel last night to look for me, and it became a big deal because Kaye had to leave Maximus at the academy, then go with Argona to fetch them all and lock them inside.

I went back to the hostel and met my friends. They were all so worried about me—at least, most of them were.

Sydney never stopped taunting me, and I still had an issue to settle with Lucy, but I decided to deal with it another time.

I was wounded and had a fever, so I spent the rest of the day and the next one being taken care of by my friends. Rudy mostly cooked for me, while Sage tended to my wounds.

Salem stayed by my side even though her sister didn’t like it.

“They’re called Glims, and they usually come when someone summons them to fetch something, the big one is called Glimard” Norman said as I nodded, listening to him talk to me over the phone.

“What are you doing right now? Are you outside?” he asked.

I finally felt better, but I wouldn’t truly be okay until I met up with Emmet and Maximus. I needed to thank Maximus.

“I’m on my way to the mansion,” I said, sitting in Salem’s car. She was driving me there and had made me promise to come back with her.

The snow had stopped after a few hours, so we knew we had about two more hours before it started again. I figured I’d let it fall, wait for it to die down again, and then take the journey back to the hostel.

“Helanie, everyone is here. You know they’ll have things to say about you,” Norman sounded against the idea. But I knew the longer I waited, the more I’d look like someone who lets others fight for her and doesn’t even check on them.

“It’s okay. I can handle everyone,” I murmured, hearing him chuckle a little on the other end.

“Oh, I know. Trust me, I know you’re feisty,” he said, and the way he said it made me feel something—something odd, but not in a bad way.

“Okay, then. I’ll be waiting and will escort you to their rooms myself,” he offered, probably taking over Emmet’s role.

“Got it,” I replied, agreeing with him.

I would love to avoid his mother—and mine too. Norman told me that his mom and everyone else found out I had been outside the hostel, so the brothers had come looking for me.

I’m sure his mother knew about Maximus’s lycan too.

There’s no way a mother wouldn’t know.

Salem dropped me off at the entrance, and I met up with Norman, who was wearing a gray suit and looking at the stock market on his phone.

“Seriously? You’re not even going to the office. Why are you still in a suit?”

I don’t know why I commented on his outfit. I guess, with him, I just acted like him. He would always make comments, so it had become my first instinct to do the same whenever I saw him.

“And one might think that at least one of those bites would have made that old machinery in your head work,” he shot back, shoving his phone into his pocket.

“My brain works fine,” I replied with a scoff, my heart beating at a slow pace at the thought of meeting both Emmet and Maximus.

“At least you know it’s called a brain,” he rolled his eyes. “How are you?” he asked.

“Do I not look fine?” I bit my tongue the moment I spread my arms to show him I was okay. He quickly took the chance to scan me before realizing it was a weird thing to do.

“Let’s go before you turn me into someone like you,” he commented again, as if he were any better.

I followed him, avoiding the people in the living room having tea and noticing my arrival.

I rushed upstairs to speak with Maximus first because Norman told me Emmet was showering.

Norman knocked on the door and then opened it for me. He let me go inside alone.

“Yes? What’s up, Norman—” I guess Maximus didn’t expect me to come. He looked shocked and quickly sat up in his bed, the blanket covering his lower body. Even though he was only in shorts, I could tell.

“Hey!” I awkwardly walked toward him. “How are you now?” I asked.

“I was fine the minute I transitioned,” he replied.

“Then why have you been so down?” I asked. I had heard from Norman that Maximus hadn’t been himself.

“I don’t know,” he lied, obviously.

“It’s just—” he started again. “I expected you to at least turn and look at me—to ask Kaye if I was even breathing. But you left me there and ran after my brother.”

He stopped talking when the thought seemed to burden him.

I realized my mistake.

“It’s not that I didn’t care about you. I just knew you were fine,” I replied, but his scoff and sarcastic smile told me he didn’t believe me.

“This is what we say to people whose absence wouldn’t affect our lives,” he said in a heartbreaking tone. “It’s alright. I understand. I told you we should move on. Sadly, I couldn’t—but you did. You really are an obedient one.”

He laughed to himself and turned his face to the other side, secretly wiping his tears off his cheeks.

“Maximus—I—I’ll never forget how you saved my life. A lycan—”

The moment I reminded him that I knew his identity, I watched him close his eyes.

“And maybe that’s too much for you,” he smiled, looking back directly at me, implying that being with a lycan might be too scary for me—hence, I had moved on.

“And why are you in my fiancé’s room?”

Of course, I should have remembered that bitch would arrive soon.