Chapter 12
TWELVE
RAWLING
I was late meeting Phelan for lunch. I’d made the mistake of lying down just to close my eyes for a few seconds. The next thing I knew, it was already time to leave, and I still had to change into my out-of-the-house clothes. I was pretty sure too-big boxers and a tank top weren’t going to cut it.
I raced to get ready and ran to meet him, not wanting to call in case he was still talking to one of his professors. We already stood out as “the pregnant couple.” I didn’t need to add “rude” as well, simply because I couldn’t wait to talk to him.
It was interesting that I was the one who was pregnant, and yet Phelan was swept into it too.
People were constantly referring to us as “the pregnant couple.” They sometimes replaced couple with mates but I’d also heard “pregnant losers” thrown around.
At least they rarely did it when they knew we could hear, so that was something.
Stepping outside, one drop, then two hit my face.
“Great.” It was only drizzling out, and I decided to go for it instead of heading back to the room and grabbing an umbrella. Only the drizzling didn’t stay drizzling for long, and I was getting drenched
Running while pregnant wasn’t ideal. Running while pregnant in the rain was even worse. Running while pregnant in the rain while focusing on the ground in front of you and not the people ahead of you? That was asking for trouble.
And did I ever find it, by slamming into Professor Shaw, his satchel falling to the ground with a thud.
“I’m so sorry.” I went to pick it up but started losing my balance thanks to my growing belly.
“Stop. Just… just stop.” He was pissed. I could hardly blame him. It was raining, his bag was now wet, and I wasn’t his favorite person. I used to think I was, but something had changed since I mated and got pregnant.
“I didn’t mean to hit you,” I said. “I was just—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Everything about his tone said it did matter.
And this was when I had either my most brilliant idea or one of the dumbest ones yet.
My head had been reeling since I found out that Charlie Dempsey was Rawlins’s sister. That discovery left me with far more questions than I had answers to.
Without thinking, I opened my mouth and said, “Charlie Dempsey was Rawlins’s sister. He never told me.”
Maybe it would catch him off guard and have him tell me some new information? Or perhaps he’d invite me to tea. Fine, I knew that wasn’t in the works. But even a small fact would be helpful.
But him grabbing me by the arm, dragging me back into the school building, into his office, and slamming the door shut was not on my bingo card.
“Charlie left the country. You need to keep her name out of your mouth.”
“But—”
“No. Out of your mouth. Good riddance to her. She didn’t belong here.”
I went to push more, but then his eyes flashed. They weren’t human anymore. They belonged to his beast. If I kept pushing him, I was going to end up being the one paying the price.
I should’ve known better. If Professor Shaw really thought Charlie was his mate, as Phelan’s father suggested, of course he’d be bitter about this, especially if his rejection was for a human.
I couldn’t even imagine rejecting Phelan and I wasn’t a shifter, and yet, she rejected him.
I couldn’t imagine Alphonse Shaw being Rawlins’s brother-in-law, but I suppose she didn’t either, since she left.
“You need to keep your nose out of business that’s not yours. Got it?”
Flashes of when I overheard Coach talking to the professor about me being nosy last semester flashed through my head. What was everyone hiding? One thing was for sure, Sombertooth should be renamed Secret University.
There was so much more I wanted to know about Charlie, but poking at the professor was not going to do anything but make my life harder. It was time to leave and do so without pissing him off any more than I already had.
“I gotta go. My mate’s waiting for me.”
His eyes flashed at me again. All I said was I was leaving, or was he upset I said “mate” after bringing up his one that got away? I needed to be more careful now that it wasn’t just me and think my words through.
“Fine,” he said, “but remember what I said.”
As if I could forget.
Jack
“Hey, Jack!” Bardoul caught me at the front door. “l was thinking about going to get some coffee in town. Wanna come?”
I hated town. No, that wasn’t altogether true, but I wasn’t in the mood. “How about I just make us some cocoa in the room?”
“That works.”
Something was off with him, but it had been for a while, so it didn’t surprise me. Once back in the room, I made the cocoa out of some packets. It was the crappy powder kind, not like what we could get at the coffee shop, but it would do. I handed him his mug.
“We’re friends, right, Jack?”
Crap. Nothing good ever started with that phrase.
“Yeah, we are.”
“Then please know that I’m saying this not to hurt you.” And that made me dread this conversation more.
“Just spit it out, Bardoul, because whatever is going on here, you’re making it exponentially worse with this lead-up.”
He closed his eyes and whispered at the speed of lightning, “I think we have to report Rawling to the school board.”
“For what? Being pregnant? They know. Look at him. They know.”
“No, not for being pregnant. Any stupid omega can get their ass knocked up.”
My jaw nearly hit the floor. This wasn’t the Bardoul I knew. He immediately looked remorseful. At least he felt bad about it.
I pulled myself together the best I could, not wanting to make things worse. “What do you think we should be reporting him for?”
Then, he whispered even lower, “For being human.”
I stared at him blankly, shocked by his words and not sure how best to respond. Pretty sure telling him he was being an ass wasn’t it.
He continued, “His presence violates shifter law, tradition, and school rules. It puts us all in danger.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. He’s done zero harm to anyone.
He’s pregnant, so if he wanted to do harm, he couldn’t.
” Although that wasn’t true. Weren’t there stories of pregnant omegas being strong enough to lift a car off of a loved one even if they’d never lifted more than a can of soda in their life?
“I bet he can’t aim his bow as well with his belly getting so big. ”
Bardoul stared at me. Was anything getting in?
“And he’s protected shifters.”
“What if he’s more than human? What if he’s a hu—”
I held my hand up. “Do not even say that. Even if it were true that they exist and he is somehow related to them, the hunter of this generation made their kill before Rawling attended Sombertooth. He’s not…
so just stop.” I couldn’t remember being this mad.
“He’s a person, not his identity, not that we know anything.
This is all conjecture, and if you’re going to pull this, I don’t think we should be friends anymore. ”
“You’re delaying the inevitable. Secrets like this can’t be hidden forever. Even if he’s never hurt anyone, even if he’s your friend, and even if he’s been friends with us for thirty years and we’re sitting at our class reunion laughing about the good old days, that doesn’t make him safe.”
“Sounds safe to me.”
“No, Jack. One day, something could trigger it. He could lose control, and you or another shifter won’t be there to tell anyone about it, because you’ll be the one on the ground bleeding out.”
His words slammed into me. He wasn’t shouting. He wasn’t even angry. That made it worse.
What if he was right? I didn’t agree with him, but his logic was sound.
“Can we just not talk about this now? The problem will still be there later. Let him have his baby in peace, maybe?”
“I don’t know if we should wait that long.
” He set his mug down and reached over to take my hand.
“But I’ll wait. I’ll give you some more time to think about what I said.
But loyalty to one person, no matter how important he is to you…
to us… is never more important than risking the lives of everyone, including us. ”
A knock on the door broke our conversation, which was good. I needed time to think about all this. I’d never been more grateful to someone looking for laundry quarters in my life.