Chapter 30 Rawling
THIRTY
RAWLING
“Where are you going?” Phelan caught me as I raced out of the classroom and almost bumped into him.
“Forgot my laptop.” I’d assumed the pregnancy brain I experienced when carrying Eira would have cleared once she arrived, but it hadn’t. My head was still foggy at times.
“I’ll get it for you.”
“Nah, I got this,” I yelled over my shoulder because I was almost glad that I’d get to see and kiss Eira again.
I raced up the stairs three at a time, thankful I was no longer lugging my bump, and I swerved around Zev and some of his Sable Hounds brothers.
Giving birth to Eira had given me renewed energy, and so many of the minor inconveniences of life at Sombertooth no longer bothered me.
They were as inconsequential as the weather.
As long as Eira and Phelan were in my life, nothing else mattered.
They swore at me as I skirted them. Fuck them and their group.
There were whispers Atticus was out of favor with the rest of the Sable Hounds for being overpowered by Jack’s bear and having a latent brother.
I wished I could climb up the turret and yell that I’d fooled the lot of them and that I was human.
Charging into the infirmary, I yelled to Scottie that it was just me and I wasn’t staying.
He’d been caught in traffic this morning, and Mrs. Ardilla had stayed with Eira until he arrived.
There was no answer from the bedroom, and the stroller was near the door, so he hadn’t taken our daughter for a walk.
My heart rate chugged up a notch. Hugging the laptop to my chest, I raced into the bedroom. It was empty. My heart was no longer cantering but sprinting.
With shaking hands, I pulled out the phone and tapped out Where are you?
Scottie’s response was almost immediate. You told me not to bother coming today.
I gripped my belly that was threatening to throw up my breakfast. My brain had forgotten I needed oxygen, and after not taking in air for however long it was, I instructed it to breathe. But the ragged sound of air rasping and choking in my throat mirrored my emotions.
“Eira!” I screeched as pain wrapped its tendrils around my body and shook me until my teeth rattled.
My feet were stuck to the floor. Someone had glued them to the wood as I tried to heave one leg up and then the other.
But there was no glue or nefarious plan to keep me in place.
It was my brain unable to process that my daughter was gone.
Someone had deliberately kept Scottie away from Sombertooth.
Mrs. Ardilla. She was looking after my daughter. But she adored Eira and would never harm her. My heart slowed a tad as it all made sense. She’d decided to take care of Eira and told Scottie to take the day off. Right. Because she often snuck in during the day to check on her, Scottie told me.
My panic attack was for nothing, and I strode to the window and opened it, embracing the fresh air and gulping it into my lungs. But as the stress was released from my body, I focused on two people in the distance walking toward the woods where the shifters took their fur and scales.
One, a woman, was holding a baby over her shoulder wearing a pink knitted beanie that my in-laws had given her. Mrs. Ardilla had taken her out. Any remaining anxiety vanished for a second until I turned my attention to the second adult.
It was a man I recognized because he’d befriended me when I came here and he was aware of my secrets. And he was reaching out to Mrs. Ardilla, wanting to take the baby.
I screamed like a freaking banshee and the pair turned.
Mrs. Ardilla put her hand up in a half wave as Professor Shaw grabbed Eira.
Mrs. Ardilla yelled at him to be gentle, but her voice was only an echo in my head as I flung myself out of the infirmary and down the stairs.
Phoenix House blurred as I shoved students out of the way and focused on how many seconds it would take me to reach my daughter.
I was human and the professor and Mrs. Ardilla had beasts, though hers was a squirrel that I could overpower because the adrenaline speeding through my veins was enough to stomp the life out of a godsdamn shifty squirrel.
It was as though I were flying over the grass, and my vision narrowed to a pinpoint that focused on the professor holding Eira.
“Stop! Give me back my baby!”
Someone with a familiar scent appeared on my right and yelled at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you? He’s not going to hurt Eira.”
Gods, no. The last freaking person I wanted to see was him when my daughter was in danger.
“Shut it, brother of mine.” That would keep him quiet and get him out of my way because we never referred to each other as brothers. I shoulder-checked him, and he stumbled.
Atticus
That freaking latent just called me his brother and shoved me! Where did that strength come from? Had to have been from my family.
Of course the whole school knew what he was to me, biologically, and I no longer held the esteemed position in the school hierarchy that I did because of it. But that fool announced it so anyone who hadn’t heard, that handful of people, were ignorant no more. Fucker.
And he was tearing over the grass, screeching at Professor Shaw because the guy was holding the baby.
It was kinda odd because the professor was walking away and picking up speed as he ignored Rawling.
Mrs. Ardilla was being very squirrely with both hands up to her chest while telling the professor to stop.
What the fuck was going on?
Eira was crying, and I automatically put a hand to my head because that noise hurt.
Rawling’s screams were folding in and blending together until they were just raucous sounds. They were almost feral. And what was he doing shedding his clothes? Was he going to mud wrestle the professor?
No.
My wolf was paying attention, but what did he know about crazed humans protecting their young? But even as I thought that there was a flicker of something inside me, maybe in my heart. Or I was about to be sick.
The raw emotion Rawling was exhibiting tugged at me. I’d witnessed that in wild animals protecting their young. I couldn’t understand why the professor was doing what he was doing, but I had a glimpse of why Rawling was so upset.
Except he wasn’t Rawling, not anymore.
Holy shit. No. That fucker, my biological brother, wasn’t latent or human but a magnificent wolf shifter.
Bigger than me.
He was huge, with a white streak slicing though his dark fur that ran over his head and down his back. I braced myself for blood and guts, but his wolf paced toward the professor. He lifted his head and howled, a sound that echoed in my brain and rumbled my gut.
I rubbed my brow as my wolf responded. No one else could hear him because he was inside me, but he recognized that beast.
My brother, my wolf told me.
Damn it, why was everyone using that word? But as my wolf repeated it, it seeped into my bones. Shit, shit, shit. Was this the blood transfusion’s doing? Did I make Rawling a wolf? Crap!
No. He was always there but hidden.
It would have been great if you’d told me that.
I didn’t know, but now I understand.
Why was I always the last to know stuff about Rawling? I needed to get my wolf schooled on how to determine who was a shifter and if I had any more siblings roaming the earth.
The professor faced Rawling’s wolf as Mrs. Ardilla scuttled toward him, still being very squirrel-like. She took the baby, and he mumbled that the baby could have been his grandchild if life had turned out differently. Mrs. Ardilla backed off, holding Eira.
The professor’s face was drained of color. “This is impossible. You weren’t a shifter. You were something else,” he yelled.
I’d had enough of this shit, and I strode toward the professor as Rawling took his skin. Well fuck, I’d seen him naked during the pledging activities last semester, but I hadn’t paid much attention to his junk. Why was he so impressive in every area.
We were standing shoulder to shoulder, and I realized we were the same height. Rawling wept as he took Eira from Mrs. Ardilla. I took off my blazer and put it around his shoulders. Nice wasn’t in my nature, but I could make an exception.
“I don’t… don’t know… what just happened. Can someone explain it?” His face was buried in Eira’s hair.
“You found your wolf. Big deal.”
Every shifter experienced their first time differently, but thinking you were latent and discovering you had a beast—and not just any beast, but probably the biggest in the school—must have been disconcerting. Not that I cared.
“Rawling.” Now Phelan was here, and they’d be lovely-dovey and they’d hold it over me about my brother’s wolf being bigger and scarier than mine.
“Get me out of here, Phelan.”
A crowd had gathered, and Phelan led his mate away who was still clutching Eira. I waved at her and then yanked my hand back. Who did that? Wasn’t me.
“My ring.” Rawling paused, and I went to pick it up. It was in four pieces, but Phelan pushed me out of the way. He placed the bits on his mate’s palm, and Rawling curled his fingers around it. We shared a glance.
“Show’s over, folks.” Mrs. Ardilla was waving her hands, and the crowd dispersed.
“You misled me.” No one spoke to a professor like that, but he’d put an idea in my head, and now with Rawling being a shifter, I outranked everyone in the school again, and I needed answers from Professor Shaw.
“Atticus, remember your place.”
I ignored Mrs. Ardilla.
“You made me believe he was human and the ring was protecting his true identity.”
“You’re lying, son.” He puffed out his chest, but he appeared to have shrunk. He was always so confident, with his tweed jackets and stuffy attitude, and now he’d aged ten years. “I did nothing of the sort.”
He lifted his chin and stormed off, muttering, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
I didn’t know what he was going on about, but I put my hands in my pockets and strolled back to Phoenix House.
Students slapped my shoulder and congratulated me on having such a powerful shifter brother.
My first instinct was to snarl at them and say I was better and bigger and more beautiful.
It wasn’t true, but that had never stopped me before.
But I was kinda enjoying being associated with Rawling and his beast. We were brothers, and we could take on the world together, though that was me getting ahead of myself.
Maybe it was time to let the animosity go, or some of it, anyway.
It had festered inside me long enough, and I didn’t like who I was when I was constantly snarking.
I doubted Rawling and I would ever be best friends, but I could bask in the spotlight of having a brother with a formidable wolf.
Life had taken a downturn after Jack beat me and Rawling’s identity was revealed.
I fingered my scar. But now the future was looking up, and I was going to enjoy every minute.