Chapter 36
THIRTY-SIX
RAWLING
If the professor had answers, I needed them.
I circled the sports center… Nothing. Zev went out of his way to make sure I got his note, and Professor Shaw saw firsthand that I was about to leave campus for good.
Surely, he wouldn’t lure me here and not show up.
Unless he planned for someone else to be here. But who?
My parents? No, that was irrational. We’d established they were dead, though we had no proof.
I took out the note and tried to read it, the light too dim for me to make out all the words clearly. It said I’d find answers, but that wasn’t the same as it saying he was going to be the one delivering them, was it?
“Your head is back to conspiracy theories, Rawling. Quit overthinking,” I whispered to myself. It didn’t change the different scenarios playing out in my brain.
Had something happened to Zev? He was the delivery guy, but was he involved in a sinister plan to get me away from my mate and friends? The security guard was with Eira. Shit. I’d been such a fool.
A light flickered as if from a cigarette lighter, and I shivered. It reminded me of a detective series. The catalyst often happened in the dark in an isolated area with a pinprick of light.
Feet crunched over the gravel. I didn’t need to be scared because I now had built-in protection. My wolf. I sniffed the air. I was still learning to identify scents, but I knew this one. It was that sort of musty smell of tweed that Professor Shaw’s jackets were made of.
He was smoking. What the ever-loving fuck was this? Tea and cake, yes, but I'd never seen him with a cigarette. Not that he could smoke on campus. But if he did, a pipe would be more appropriate with a tweed jacket.
Coach was beside him, and she’d never looked more like a squirrel. She was grasping something in her hands, and I was tempted to ask if it was a bag of nuts. But that would be rude.
“You came.”
I made a face because it was kinda obvious. I was here and waiting for answers.
He was taking his time, puffing on that cigarette and exhaling.
“So you want to know about your parents.” His nostrils flared. “Except they weren’t really, because Charlie, my Charlie, didn’t give birth to you, did she?”
“She was my mother and Arnie my father, and you took them from me.” Shit, I’d just accused him of murder. I could be locked up for that.
He scoffed and tossed the cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out with his foot. He was in no hurry to talk, and I glanced over my shoulder, wishing I wasn’t so alone.
“Charlie was mine and he took her from me, that filthy human.” He spat on the ground. “You’re right, she paid for that mistake, and so did he.”
He fiddled with the lighter he pulled out of his pocket.
“If I couldn’t have her, no one was going to. I’d done everything for her—everything! And what did she do? She rejected me. So I took everything she had. At least, I thought I did.” He stepped closer. “But Rawlins took you in, and I had to wait years until he died and then enticed you here.”
I needed to know where they were so I could pay my respects.
“Where are they?”
He placed a finger on his lips. “Someplace with a yellow door.” He grinned. “That’s the only clue I’m giving you.”
Oh, shoot, the photo. And that house we visited. They’d been there all those years and I didn’t know, and I assumed Rawlins didn’t either.
“I knew who you were because I was at Peregrine's house with Rawlins just after you were born, and I heard, well we did, things we weren’t supposed to.” He tapped his nose. “All the juicy things about hunters and rings.”
He kicked the dirt. “But Rawlins told his little sister, and she and that man took you in. You were supposed to wither and die. Shame.” That man was seething at me for existing, for not dying a miserable death.
None of this was really a shock, but hearing it said out loud, and not just by anyone but the perpetrator, was chilling. He took a step closer, speaking lower with each word. He was trying to unnerve me more than I already was. And the worst part was that it was working.
His voice was different. Usually when he spoke, his tone was measured, except for our last confrontation in class. Now it was full of venom, but there was a shrill quality to it, and he sounded more like a man who was about to crack.
I took a step back.
“I thought you’d want answers.” He smirked, knowing I was uneasy or just plain terrified.
“I have all the answers I need.” That wasn’t a lie. My friends and I had figured out most of what happened. And now that I knew where my parents were, I was done. But the last confirmation I needed was from Coach.
I eyed her very expensive watch. “Nice watch, Coach. Must have cost you six months’ salary.”
She didn’t have the professor’s control, and she spat out that she was entitled to nice things.
“At Mika’s expense.”
Her mouth gaped, and she half hid behind the professor and raged at him. “I told you he was snooping, and you said it wasn’t a problem.”
“And spoiler alert. I overheard you.”
“You little punk. I was nice to you because you were skilled at archery. But after each practice, I showered the latent scent off me.”
“Not latent now. Not human either but a big fucking wolf shifter who enjoys hunting and eating squirrels.”
She squeaked and looked at the professor, but he ignored her.
“Did you threaten to expose his dirty secret if he didn't get rid of Mika for you?”
“Forget her, she’s irrelevant.”
Coach pawed at his shoulder, blubbering that he promised he’d get rid of their little problem. Fuck, that was me she was talking about and possibly my friends.
“So you were planning on, what? Killing me and then running away together and living off the money she stole from this project?” I jabbed my fingers at the unfinished sports center.
“Nope, just me.” He shook Coach off him as she wailed that he’d double-crossed her.
“You’re such a fool.” The professor had never looked more manic as he sneered at me.
“I sacrificed everything, including my one true love. Do you think I have any regrets? I don’t, and if the entire shifter world knew what I did, do you know whose side they’d be on?
Mine. Not the human scum you called Dad.
” He shrugged. “Do you think the council will even care? I doubt it.”
I was pretty sure he’d slid from maybe rational into a pit of insanity. The way Phelan described the council, they were sticklers for rules.
“And I’m going to make you suffer the way I did. So when I hear your bones crack the way I heard your father’s, and I hear your screams, just like hers, it’ll be like watching Charlie’s life drain from her all over again.”
A growl built in my chest. My wolf had had enough. Like me, he was listening and waiting. But now, he was done. He’d told me why we had to come, and he was intending to see it through.
Blood debt.
But as my beast stirred and prepared to take his fur, I sensed something but couldn’t grasp what it was.
But my wolf picked up a scent belonging to someone I’d avoided during most of my time at Sombertooth. Atticus. My beast didn’t acknowledge him, but when he shed his skin, his beast communicated with his wolf sibling.
I’m here for you.
And the scent that was a permanent part of Eira and me because I couldn’t and wouldn’t ever shake it off.
Phelan. He was on my right side, still in human form, and the tension was evident in his shoulders and his mouth set in a straight line.
I expected him to plead with me to back off, but his gaze was resigned, and he gave a slight nod of his head.
And finally, Jack, the woman I considered my sister, who’d loved, protected, and lied for me.
I wasn’t alone.