Chapter 131: Travis Is The Girl In The Purple Dress?

Theo

Theo sat at the heavy wooden kitchen counter, staring down at his theory assignment. He chewed the end of his wooden pencil, a deep scowl settling across his face. Since when did theory assignments get so complicated? For the first time in his entire life, he was actually trying to do his schoolwork.

He had only one year left at Moonside, and he wanted to make it count, and wanted to actually learn something before his time here ran out. The whole incident that happened at the tournament with him and his brothers getting their ass beat made him realize he was dumb and couldn’t fight for shit against an actual strong person.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed down the hallway.

Theo’s ears perked up. He froze, listening. There was only him and Keali in the dorm suite right now. He slid off the kitchen stool, dropping his pencil onto the counter, and walked slowly down the dim corridor.

The noise hadn’t come from Keali’s room. It was coming from the room at the very end of the hall. Travis’s room.

Theo pushed the unlocked door open and stepped inside, his eyes widening. "Dude, what are you doing?"

Keali was absolutely ransacking the room. He was tearing through the closet, throwing books off the desk, and checking every single corner with frantic energy.

Keali didn’t stop moving. "I’m looking for the dress."

Theo stared at him, completely lost. "What? What are you talking about? What dress?"

"The dress she took from me!" Keali yelled, his voice cracking. "It has to be here! I need it back!"

Theo crossed his arms, stepping further into the ruined bedroom. "Keali... how high are you right now?"

"First of all, I have been waiting for this opportunity for the longest time," Keali ranted, ignoring the question as he clawed through a pile of laundry. "Travis—or whatever he’s calling himself—always keeps his door locked. This is the only chance I’m ever going to get. I need the dress back."

"What dress?! You need to calm down!" Theo shouted.

"I am calm! I am perfectly calm!" Keali insisted, though his hands were shaking violently as he started to cry. "I just need the dress!"

Oh, my goodness, Theo thought, panic flaring in his chest as he looked at the mess. This is the exact type of moment where I really need Malric. I cannot handle Keali on my own.

Theo stood there, internally scrambling. If I was Malric right now, he would just tell him there was no dress and Keali would believe me. I could say the same thing now but he’s not going to believe me because I’m not Malric. Oh, my gosh. What do I even do?

"The purple dress!" Keali sobbed, wiping his face with a dirt-stained sleeve. "She stole the purple dress from me!"

Theo rubbed the back of his neck. "Keali... are you talking about the dress from the Ironfang bash? That purple dress?"

"That dress! There is no other dress!" Keali cried, pacing back and forth across the floor. "It was her dress! I need it!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Theo said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I will help you find the dress. But it can’t be here." Theo walked over, grabbing Keali gently by the shoulders. He looked down into his brother’s eyes, seeing how completely unfocused they were. "Keali, look at me. The dress can’t be here. That dress was taken by our fated mate. She has the dress."

Keali blinked, sniffing heavily. "Yeah... she has the dress. Travis, whatever his stupid name is, has the dress."

"Oh... oh, Keali," Theo breathed out, realizing how deeply lost and confused his little brother is.

Keali pulled away and went right back to tearing through the room, checking closets and tossing pillows across the floor. "Help me! Help me look for the dress!"

"Okay, fine," Theo muttered. Not knowing what else to do, or how to get out of this disaster, he began half-heartedly helping his high brother look for an imaginary dress that wasn’t even there, wishing he never came into the room to begin with.

As he tossed a pile of clothes aside, Theo asked, "Keali... what makes you certain that the dress is even in here?"

"I promised I wouldn’t tell, so I can’t tell," Keali mumbled, Theo rolled his eyes stumbling into the on-suite bathroom.

He lazily opened the small wall cupboards one by one and when he reached the very last cupboard at the bottom and shoved his hand inside, his fingers wrapping around the straps of an old, dusty black backpack.

Theo dragged it out onto the floor, shouting back to the bedroom where Keali was probably turning everything upside down. "Keali, I’m helping you out so you have to tell me you think Travis has the dress!" Theo shouted to Keali in the room.

"Well, you know... I’m not even sure, but Travis is actually a girl! And she’s the girl who stole the dress!"

Yep, Theo thought. He is very, very high. He has completely lost his mind. He contemplated, not opening the bag but out of pure, burning curiosity, Theo crouched down by the old duffel bag. It looked filthy and neglected. He reached out and unzipped the rusted zipper.

Inside the bag sat an expensive wig.

Theo stared at it, blinking. "What the hell?" He reached in and pulled it out, holding it up by the strands. "Wow. Travis sure has some interesting hobbies."

He tossed the wig aside and dug deeper, pulling out a pile of worn-out wome’s clothing. Then, his fingers brushed against something hard at the very bottom of the bag. He pulled it out and found a heavy pouch of gold jewelry.

Wow, Travis has actual gold? Should I close this bag? I feel like I’m severely intruding on personal space.

Before he could zip it back up, a piece of folded parchment caught his eye beneath the jewelry. Huh. You know what? Let me check it out.

Theo pulled the paper out and unfolded it. His eyes scanned the lines. It was an official identification paper, a birth certificate. The name printed at the top read: Aina Whitelock. It listed her exact birth year and classified her clearly as an Omega.

Theo stared at the paper suspiciously, his heart doing a strange, frantic flip in his chest. Who the hell is Aina Whitelock?

He dug deeper into the duffel bag, pulling out a handful of old hair ties, and lifted it closer to his face. For some strange reason, it smelled strongly of wild jasmine.

Theo’s mind scrambled. He tried to block out the background noise of Keali rummaging through the bedroom. Wait a second...

He stood up, clutching the birth certificate, and started checking the bathroom with actual focus. He opened the bathroom medicine cabinet, nothing. Then he pulled back the heavy fabric of the shower curtain.

Sitting on the edge of the shower was a bottle of de-scenting shower gel. Theo picked it up, popped the cap, and took a cautious sniff. It smelled of harsh chemicals, what most de-secenting gels smelled like.

Why would a guy like Travis need to hide his scent? Why?!

His eyes drifted to the side of the shower stall, where a damp towel hung from a brass hook. Theo paused. He almost didn’t want to know. He almost wanted to drop the matter and walk away. But his feet moved on their own. He stepped closer to the hook, leaned down, and took a careful breath.

The towel carried a very faint, undeniable scent of wild jasmine.

"No way..." Theo whispered, the blood draining from his face.

He spun around and yelled into the room, "Keali! How are you so sure that Travis is a girl and that specifically the girl in the purple dress?!"

Keali emerged from the bedroom looking like an absolute disaster, hair tangled, sweat smeared across his cheek. "I once saw her naked," Keali answered blankly, "and I smelled her scent."

Theo’s jaw hit the floor. "You... you knew? You knew all this time that she was our omega, and you didn’t say a single word?!"

Keali shrugged lazily. "I did tell you but as usual, you all didn’t listen to me. Now... are you going to help me find the dress or not?"

Theo stood frozen in the middle of the bathroom, the birth certificate clutched tightly in his hand. He didn’t understand anything anymore. It felt as though his entire world had just tilted completely off its axis, and he was just standing there, utterly lost in the wreckage.