Chapter 7
SEVEN
PHELAN
We got out of the car and stood at the entrance to Sombertooth, and I studied the turret that poked up from the roof. Rawling figured someone had hidden in the turret like a prince imprisoned by a jealous relative centuries before.
I squeezed his hand, and we shared a look. There was no escaping that he was pregnant because he was six and half months along. To my eyes, he was gorgeous, blossoming as our baby grew. But he tugged at his oversized shirt and said it didn’t fit properly.
Father put a hand on each of our shoulders. “Ready?”
“Not really,” Rawling muttered, “but let’s get this over with.”
My mate had told me this arrival couldn’t have been more different than his first, a semester ago. But he was glad he didn’t have to lug his belongings up four flights of stairs.
“That’s what a mate is for, along with said mate’s parents.”
My brothers were living a day’s drive away, and though they’d volunteered to help out, I told them we’d create enough of a scene with the four of us and we’d see them over the next long weekend.
Every eye was on us, or on Rawling and his bump specifically.
I smiled and did that awkward head nod at people I knew and wished Sombertooth had an elevator.
The stairs in Phoenix House were narrow enough that my mate, his belly, and I couldn’t climb together, so I went in front, still gripping his hand, and my folks followed, with Father grumbling that he hated the stairs when he was a student and loathed them even more now.
I thanked the gods that my folks were supporting us, both emotionally and financially, and hated to think of what Rawling would have gone through if we hadn’t been together. Though I would have stood by him even if he hated the sight of me.
I turned left on the fourth floor and asked Rawling if he wanted to rest. His former room was nearby, and Jack would have let him sit for a while—though she was now sharing with Bardoul—but he wanted to reach our new quarters even though the exertion had given him rosy cheeks and he was sweating.
The word “quarters” was odd because no student here had that, but despite all the sex people had under these roofs, apparently there had never been a pregnant omega on campus, or not a heavily pregnant one.
“This is it.”
I unlocked the door with the keycard and ushered Rawling in before me.
“Wow. I wasn’t expecting this.”
My folks had paid for us to have the infirmary that had two main rooms plus a bathroom and kitchenette. No one at school ever used the place because shifters didn’t suffer from most human ailments, though many of us had been felled by the flu last semester.
Sombertooth was required by law to have an infirmary and have it staffed, so Mrs. Ardilla, as well as being a house mother, was a qualified nurse.
But before my folks organized it for us, it’d been a dusty, unused space that most people weren’t aware of, and it sat just under the turret.
I wasn’t sure how the college got around us using the infirmary, but in my parents’ world—just like with Atticus’s folks—money talked.
“This is where I slept last semester when I had the flu and Atticus kicked me out of our room.”
“You never told me that.”
I didn’t think we were talking at the time, and it wasn’t a topic I brought up when we got back together.
Thinking of Atticus had me grimacing because I’d have to face him. But I could put that off until tomorrow.
I sat Rawling on the couch and fetched him a glass of water, while my parents and I put the bags in the appropriate rooms. There were still all the boxes of documents to be brought up.
Dad went to get the groceries from the car, because even though we’d be eating in the dining hall, having a tiny kitchen allowed us to make snacks and tea, especially as my mate often experienced cravings in the middle of the night.
I ran the words “my mate” over in my head. I was getting used to saying and thinking them, but now that we were back at college and in our second year, I had to merge the Rawling I knew when we met, the guy I fucked hard,and the omega I fell for, with the pregnant mate that I adored.
“Unless you need us for something else, we’re going to take off,” Father said as they glanced around our new home. They both looked exhausted after bringing all the paperwork up four flights of stairs.
I was going to set up the kitchen before unpacking our personal items.
“Thank you for everything.” Rawling hugged them both.
Seeing my mate’s relationship with my family gave me the warm fuzzies, and I got teary every time I thought back to him arriving here knowing no one.
I sent a silent thank you to Jack for being so kind to him, especially when Atticus was an asswipe and I’d been distant, except when I’d been inside him.
Not for the first time, I berated past me and vowed always to be honest with Rawling going forward and not be a coward when it came to showing how much I cared about him.
By the time I climbed into bed, my mate was already asleep, and he didn’t wake until the phone blasted out the irritating song from my childhood that I used as an alarm.
I’d been awake most of the night because my world had been Rawling, our baby, and my internship for the entire summer, and now I had to be a student again.
“Do we have to go to class today?” My mate rolled over and his bump pressed against me.
“Mmmm.” We smooched, and I considered skipping class for naked time, but we were students and had to finish our degree. Besides, my mate would probably sleep the day away.
“This is ridiculous.”
Rawling had always hated the Sombertooth blazers, saying they were itchy, but paired with his baby bump, it looked hot.
And he loathed the ties too. He poked his tongue out when I told him that, and he was still yanking at it and hissing how much he hated it when we left the room and headed for the dining hall.
As we walked in, everyone stopped talking and hands froze in midair. Every pair of eyes were on us as we chose our food.
“Hi, Bardoul. Did you have a good summer?” Rawling was balancing his tray on one hand while he extended the other to his friend who was working the breakfast shift.
But Bardoul’s face drained of color and he scurried off.
My mate stared, open-mouthed, after his friend, and I guided him to a table.
I was going to have it out with Bardoul after class and maybe kick his ass.
What was wrong with him? Rawling and Jack had befriended the guy last semester and now he was acting as though my mate was the carrier of a deadly disease.
Math was first, and Rawling and I were together.
He greeted Jack, and she and I nodded at one another.
Jack and I had never had a relationship—I suspected she wasn’t my biggest fan—she’d just been the person Atticus fucked, and she was Rawling’s bestie.
It would take a while to iron out the wrinkles in this new dynamic.
But at least she hadn’t given him the finger which was what Bardoul did—figuratively, not literally. The guy made sure he sat on the other side of the room than us and refused to say hello, even when Jack beckoned him over.
Rawling
I plodded through my day, both with Phelan in the same class and when we were apart. Bardoul’s weirdness had me worried Jack had spilled I was human. But I knew she’d never let that slip.
Pulling up my class schedule, I groaned.
First day back and I had archery practice.
Damn. I hadn’t held a bow since last semester and doubted I could hit a target even from ten feet away.
Hoping Coach would go easy on me, I changed into the tight-fitting long-sleeved shirts and long pants that was the PE uniform.
Gods, the shirt barely made it over the bump. Way to emphasize I was pregnant.
I trundled over the grass and discovered everyone was already there. Coach gave me a look, but Phelan reached for me and kissed my brow. Some of the team awed, and I grinned.
But there was one guy glaring at me.
“Atticus.”
His upper lip curled, and he muttered something about Phelan being trapped.
“Not trapped but very happily mated,” Phelan hissed.
I was up first. Go me. I drew the bow and released. The shot landed in the center ring. Everyone clapped, whereas Atticus’s arrow drifted wide and missed the center by a clear margin. He cursed that I had an advantage because of the baby, and Coach yelled at him.
When I was up next, my arrow buried itself deep in the target, whereas Atticus frowned as his shot fell short. When the others retrieved their arrows, Atticus sidled up to me and hissed that he knew who my parents were.
That almost knocked me over because what did he know about my folks? Oh shoot, had he found out they were human and then jumped to the conclusion that I was too? No, if he had, he wouldn’t be keeping it a secret. And there was nothing about my folks online because I’d looked.
If Atticus wanted to come at me, I’d deal with it, but to attack my late parents was too much, and I glowered at him. He gasped and took a step back. Yikes, had I given him a hint of the hunter in me? I was almost as freaked out as he was.
Phelan shoved Atticus out of the way, told him to cut it out, and took my arm, but as we left the practice session, I looked up.
Professor Shaw was striding toward Coach who was shading her eyes from the sun.
The watch she wore glittered. He was staring at me.
He joined Coach, and they huddled together, nodding and gesturing toward me.
“What’s that about?”
Phelan shrugged and said they’d gone to school together so they were good friends, and we kept walking toward Phoenix House. We passed the new sports center that was being built. Coach was overseeing the project, but it’d been stalled for a while, and the construction had only just restarted.