Chapter 2 #2
“Ryder, I would suggest you never say Effie looks or looked bad ever again,” Julian said casually, but his face was filled with warning, his magic crackling with anger that had me knowing how he truly felt. “Understand?”
Ryder met his gaze, tension filling the space before he exhaled and looked down at me. “I didn’t mean it as an insult. I was concerned.”
And hearing that he was concerned made me feel good.
Made me feel almost special as I nodded before lifting a spoon of soup to my mouth.
I let out a happy hum at the explosion of flavors, and I wouldn’t lie, being surrounded by the five of them made me feel a sense of contentment I hadn’t realized was even possible.
“I’m feeling much better,” I assured.
Ryder saw the sincerity in my expression and nodded sharply. “Good. We need to talk.”
“Can it wait?” Tore asked, looking annoyed. “I know it’s important, but I need her to rest and eat something or else I am probably going to lose my shit.”
“Come sit next to me?” I asked Tore, his eyes moving to mine as he seemed to gauge how I was feeling before he sat down on one side of me.
I leaned back into him for comfort as Dakota sat on my other side and pulled my feet into his lap.
Julian covered me in a blanket and sat down in one of the chairs like Caedmon, all of them treating and watching me as if I was something precious they wanted to take care of…
The emotions it invoked were enough to level me.
Ryder shrugged off his jacket and I nibbled my lip, examining the tight sweater that he wore, my fingers desperately wanting to run over his chest but also fearing to touch something so expensive.
Much like Caedmon, I worried I would dirty him with my touch, the two of us very clearly a world apart.
“I have spent most of the morning arranging for you to do your classes from here, turning in homework online until you recover,” Ryder said, his voice calm and almost clinical. “The school is aware of your accident.”
I winced at that as he hesitated and added, “Most likely the president has found out as well, especially since he seems to be keeping tabs on you.”
“He what?” Dakota snapped, making me flinch. He immediately relaxed himself and intertwined our fingers.
“I should explain what happened,” I offered, and Ryder nodded in agreement.
“Is this why you were on the ice caps?” Tore asked.
“Yea,” I confirmed, looking down at the mug on my lap. “So, on Monday, Ryder’s sister and Ruby told me that I was your mate.”
Silence reigned supreme, and I swallowed, keeping my eyes on my soup. “I was confused and honestly hurt on why you hadn’t told me, but Dakota confirmed it and I figured that we could just talk about it the next day.”
“Preciosa…” Julian’s voice was cautious.
“Let me keep going before I chicken out,” I murmured. “That same day, Ryder touched my arm and placed a mark on me, so on Tuesday morning I went to his office before class to talk to him about it, but we never got the chance.”
Because he had drink plans with someone else.
Dakota made a concerned noise, but I kept on. “I found myself upstairs, clearly a bit lost, at Dr. Hastain’s office…”
Anxiety welled, and I felt word vomit come out.
“I ran into Aaren because he was going to a meeting with his father, who is the university president apparently, and when Hastain saw me, he got…weird? I’m not positive that is the right word.
He told me that I should be the mate for their blood-bonded pack and that he had bought me from the Whitepaw Pack for that purpose. ”
“What?!” Caedmon stood abruptly, his chair falling back. I blinked, trying to remind myself that he wasn’t mad at me, but man, if looks could kill…
“I am going to fucking kill Aaren,” Dakota bit out.
“No.” I shook my head adamantly. “He told his father that he was wrong. They helped me leave when Hastain tried to close the door to keep me there.”
Julian let out a deadly, vicious growl before standing and walking a path towards the kitchen and back, apparently needing to pace.
I wasn’t positive if it was in an effort to keep calm or something else, but the idea of my words upsetting him had me regretting them in the first place. I had to continue, though.
“When I finally escaped, I went down to the beach to cool down. I was pretty upset when Ryder caught up to me, and I made the mistake of going up on the ice caps to get more space, and apparently I fell in… You know the rest.”
“Not the rest,” Ryder murmured, but I ignored him for the moment because I had a more important question. One that I needed to get off my chest before I absolutely went crazy overthinking it.
“Why didn’t you guys tell me about the mate thing?”
Julian paused his pacing and answered, “We didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
Tore turned my chin gently. “I promise that was the only reason, lil bit. We were just waiting for the right time. I mean, even to us, who have been told from the start that we would have a mate, it seemed a bit rushed to tell you the day of meeting you that we were your mates… We didn’t want to freak you out. ”
Would it have? I’m not positive. The idea of belonging to these men did everything and anything but freak me out.
“Still possible we are doing just that,” Caedmon murmured almost to himself.
Dakota squeezed my ankle. “I’m glad you know, it makes it easier to protect you.”
“How so?”
“Later,” Dakota promised.
Why was everything always a ‘later’? I was trying to not get frustrated with it, but it was hard because I felt like I deserved answers.
Ryder’s voice drew my attention back. “Effie, I need you to stay away from Dr. Hastain as much as possible. I am going to try to find a way to know his schedule better, but I don’t trust his motives, especially since he revealed he fucking bought you from your pack.”
“Will he try to kick me out now?” I asked, the thought slamming into me out of nowhere. If he did, I had nowhere to go.
I would end up homeless.
“Never,” Tore promised. I winced, realizing I’d said that out loud.
“I don’t know what he is going to do,” Ryder admitted, looking frustrated. “This infernal school is so focused on mating and breeding pure blood lines that it’s fucked with everyone’s perception on what is goddamn acceptable.”
“I have a solution,” Dakota said casually.
“Yeah?” Caedmon’s expression was dry.
“What’s that?” Ryder asked seriously.
“Kill him.”
Julian laughed as I tried to figure out if Dakota was serious or not.
I mean… I didn’t know how I felt about that, honestly.
Should I feel weird that it didn’t bother me that much?
Did that mean there was something wrong with me?
I’d watched violence and felt violence enacted on me often at the Whitepaw Pack…
but it was hard to imagine killing someone.
It was hard to grasp onto the idea of completely extinguishing someone from this universe.
I swallowed, nervously running a hand over my throat, feeling like there was so much we needed to talk about still. I felt like all I could do was roll with the fast pace that had been set, but I hated playing catch-up, and I had no idea how to change that.
For once I wanted to feel confident in how I was handling things. Just for once.
An alert went off on the television, and I looked to the screen as the others checked their phones.
I could practically feel the charged air from outside, and it didn’t surprise me that despite the bright skies, the alert was for an approaching snowstorm.
The radar on the screen was turning bright blue, and my wolf moved under my skin anxiously, worried about our mates’ safety.
“Shit,” Ryder muttered, pulling my attention.
“I need to move my truck from out front.” Caedmon stood, jogging towards his room and grabbing his jacket.
“I’m going to go with and grab some food from the Student Union.” Dakota put down my feet and tipped my chin back in a surprising kiss. “Want anything?”
I felt breathless for a second before managing to get out, “Can we get some of those Bagel Bites again?”
“Anything for you, little wolf.” His eyes were filled with a brightness that I enjoyed much more than him being upset.
“What’s the big deal about the storm?” I asked Julian, who was watching me with a soft look from where he sat in the chair diagonal to me.
“If it is bad enough to send out an alert, then they are probably going to cancel class tomorrow, and we will be partly snowed in until they can get the trucks through the main parts of campus.” Julian sat forward and pulled up something on his phone.
“Any requests for takeout? I am going to order it now so that we don’t have to worry about places being closed later. ”
I took another spoonful of soup and tilted my head thoughtfully. “I am really okay with anything… I haven’t eaten this much food ever, so I am cool with trying whatever you like.”
Julian nodded, his jaw clenching at something I’d said but not commenting on it. This connection between our magic did allow me to recognize that he was angry, but not at me.
Tore grunted. “Hearing you haven’t eaten enough makes me furious.”
“Don’t be upset.” I tilted my head up but couldn’t see his expression, so I just tried to snuggle against him more. “Seriously. I didn’t even realize it until now.”
Ryder stood to take a call, moving in front of the large span of windows to talk.
My face fell in realization that he was going to have to leave soon if he had a drive back.
I wanted to say something; I wanted him to stay, but I worried that I was burdening Ryder with my presence, so I stayed quiet.
After all, he had made it very clear that whatever was happening between us was not welcome.
“Be right back. Stay on that couch, little wolf.” Dakota ordered as he stepped into the elevator with Caedmon, the two of them talking in quiet tones.