Chapter 37
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Serena lay in her narrow dorm bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling as the hours ticked by. Her thoughts ran in tight circles, replaying the funeral for her father, the fear and guilt she felt about Theo, and the murmur of scandal that still rippled through the academy. She couldn’t rest with so many worries pressing on her. After another agonizing minute, she pushed back the covers and slipped on a pair of sweats, heart pounding with a restlessness that wouldn’t let her stay still.
She crept outside, careful not to alert the other students. The campus was quiet as she moved toward the forest. Serena stripped out of her clothing and let her cougar form emerge in the dark chill. The shift came more easily than usual, driven by the tumult of her emotions.
She padded forward, breathing in the damp scent of moss and earth. Moving through the woods helped calm the storm raging in her mind. Crickets chirped in the distance, and the cool breeze fluttered along her whiskers.
She heard a low voice in the darkness. The words were almost swallowed by the night, but something about their hushed urgency caught her attention. She lowered her body, muscles tense, and she stalked toward the sound. She crouched behind thick ferns near a tent set up for tomorrow’s climb. Kai stood in the moonlight; his phone clutched to his ear.
Kai murmured about a “final diversion” for the event. He sounded smug as he said, “All eyes are on Theo now.” The blood rushed in Serena’s ears when she heard Theo’s name. Kai continued, voice dripping with satisfaction. “He ran off into the woods, just as I’d anticipated he would. It’s perfect. No one will suspect me tomorrow. Everyone will think it was him.”
Her mind spun, fury and relief colliding in her chest. Theo was innocent, which meant all her doubts about him had been wrong. A wave of guilt rose inside her when she remembered how frightened she had been of him. Her cougar flared at the realization of Kai’s treachery. Her entire being roiled with anger and deep regret for having doubted Theo.
She felt a sudden tug in her soul, as if an unseen thread connected her to Theo’s presence somewhere out in the darkness. The mate bond pulsed inside her, and her cougar ached to run to him. She almost followed that instinct. But another thought crashed in. The charity climb was tomorrow, and Kai posed a real danger if his sabotage continued unchecked.