Chapter 5 #3
Ryder calmed his laughter and offered me a soft look that had my fears easing. “I just realized that not only had I completely forgotten you were my student but that I was supposed to give a quiz on Wednesday as well as tomorrow.”
“And that’s funny?” I asked.
Ryder sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair, looking stressed despite his amused expression. “It’s something.”
That something didn’t sound good to him.
“Ryder has never missed giving a quiz to any class, ever,” Caedmon pointed out as Julian flashed me a smile, his words of ‘unraveling’ echoing in my ear.
“Is this because of me? Because of the mark? Because of the water thing?”
That was only a tiny understatement of the situation at hand.
Ryder’s face went completely blank, his eyes darkening. “The water thing?”
Why did I feel like I messed up?
I licked my lips. “Yeah… The one where I fell in the water.”
He inhaled and then leaned forward, my eyes fluttering at his closeness. His voice was low and even. “Effie, if you ever refer to yourself nearly drowning or possibly dying of hypothermia as the ‘water thing’ again, I’m going to turn your perfect ass pink.”
Oh.
My mouth opened in shock as Julian burst out laughing.
Caedmon groaned, making me look at the rest of them, a mix of surprise and amusement on their faces.
I felt my cheeks flush, because normally physical action of any kind, as he was suggesting, would bother me…
But the way he said it did the opposite.
I squeezed my legs together, trying to stop the near whimper that came from my throat at the idea of his hands there. Actually, anywhere on me.
“Ryder, if you make Effie uncomfortable, I will personally kick you out,” Tore grunted, his eyes narrowed on the man. The protective energy coming off him had me blushing less and offering him a small smile.
“Happily,” Dakota added, keeping his gaze on me.
Ryder pulled back from me but offered quietly, “I would never purposefully make you uncomfortable. I’m sorry if I did, Effie.”
“It didn’t make me uncomfortable,” I immediately said before looking down at my syllabus to hide my blush. “It just surprised me…but not in a bad way.”
Go with the truth, right?
Ryder made a noise from his throat at my words before finally answering my question. “I will be giving a quiz tomorrow based on what you were supposed to read for class on Wednesday.”
I nodded, but he wasn’t done. “But you won’t be in class, so you can take it whenever you have time.”
“What do you mean?” I said, confused. “I’m going to class.”
“The school knows you are gone until Monday,” Ryder countered.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to miss any more days. I already am feeling extremely overwhelmed by everything I need to make up.”
“Why didn’t you tell us you feel overwhelmed?” Julian frowned as I blinked, realizing that wasn’t something I’d thought to express. I shrugged and looked at all of them, their concern palpable.
“I know we don’t have a plan to handle the Hastain problem,” I murmured, “but I would like to go back to class. I want to give this a chance and prove that I do belong here, and not just for the reason he stated.”
Tore made a low noise in his throat, and the pencil he was using creaked under his hand. Normally I would be worried about his reaction, but I knew his anger was at the president and not at all towards me.
Dakota’s voice drew my attention though. “If you want to go, then you will go…but campus may be a bit different tomorrow. People have been made aware that you’re our mate, and they know about you falling into the ice caps.”
“What?” I asked about the second part. “How?”
I was glad to know that people were aware of them being my mates—it made me feel like they weren’t ashamed of our connection.
“One of the nurses at the emergency room probably said something, or the student volunteers there.” Ryder shook his head, looking frustrated. “There are few secrets at Silver Falls University.”
I wasn’t positive I believed that.
“I still want to go.”
“Then you go,” Julian agreed. It made me feel confident on standing my ground despite knowing it could be slightly dangerous.
Turning my attention back to my homework, I became engrossed in the material in a few minutes, and not just Economics homework—although that was more fascinating than I’d expected. It was also fun because Caedmon and Ryder were both sitting here and able to answer any of my questions.
Well, until I’d accidentally asked them something regarding current markets, something they were clearly divided on. They broke into a heated yet friendly argument that had me sneaking over to sit in Julian’s lap.
I spent around an hour in his lap finishing up my Econ 101 readings before finally switching to Shifter History and Groupings.
I had missed an entire section on lycans, which I regretted, especially since it was followed by bitten, fenrir, and then totemic.
I had very much needed to be there for the lycan portion because I knew so little about them. Crap.
I slid down into the seat next to Julian, wanting to be a bit more focused while starting on the first page of the lycan section. It felt essential that I absorb as much information as possible, considering Caedmon was a lycan and he was still working on opening up about stuff.
The history of the lycan kind wasn’t one I expected.
Apparently, they had all started out of Eastern Europe, where some of the most prominent families had a curse placed upon them.
This curse had continued down their bloodline, only affecting some branches and giving them the ability to shift into their lycan form.
A form that wasn’t described…until the next page.
My fingers moved over the bright illustration as my heart skipped a beat, realizing that it was possibly the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen before. It was almost unnatural… But clearly not. It was just so incredibly different from any shifted wolf I’d seen.
I examined it curiously as my wolf seemed to focus in on the drawing as well, noticing that instead of being on four legs, it had two.
Its frame was massive, I could tell that without reference, and its body was covered in thick black fur that looked coarse to the touch.
The lycan’s skin was black and almost leathery looking on its face, hands, and feet, matching the claws that dripped with blood in the illustration.
Sharp teeth dripped with the same blood, and amethyst-colored eyes stared at me through the page, making a chill break out on my skin.
It felt like the shifter could actually see me.
Yet I found I wasn’t exactly scared… That wasn’t the right word.
“Horrible, isn’t it?” Caedmon’s voice against my ear had me jumping.
I looked up at him, realizing everyone else had left the kitchen island, Caedmon looking almost defensive.
His energy was closed off to me, and his magic’s signature was essentially void.
I didn’t like that he seemed to be bracing himself for something, and I found myself wanting to comfort him but not knowing how he would react.
“I mean, it’s different,” I stated softly. “I wouldn’t say horrible. Do you think it’s horrible?”
Caedmon’s face blanked, his clenched jaw the only sign of his emotion, as he shrugged casually before leaning back in his chair, not offering a verbal answer.
I bit down on my lip and debated asking him questions instead of reading…
It probably wasn’t a good idea. At the same time, I didn’t like the tension between us.
“What is it?” he finally asked.
“I just wanted to know more, but I don’t want to make you upset,” I murmured.
Caedmon’s eyes flared before he sagged, his energy relaxing as he ran a hand through his hair in frustration, tugging at it slightly.
“You won’t make me upset. Fuck, I don’t want you to think that… I just wasn’t expecting your reaction to be so tame.”
“Do people usually react differently?”
Caedmon shrugged again, a shadow passing over his face, before sliding my book over. After a moment of looking over the page, a small smile filled his lips and he said, “It’s odd reading about lycans when the author was clearly not one.”
“What do you mean?”
“They mention that our shift is uncontrollable,” he pointed out in the third paragraph.
“That’s not completely true. We are called by the moon, so three days out of the month we shift into something far more powerful than our physical human forms. Essentially unstoppable, unbeatable… something monstrous.”
“Wow,” I said, considering his words. “So is it random, or do you know when you are going to shift?”
Caedmon froze and looked down at me, caution sliding into his gaze.
“Was I not supposed to ask that?” I whispered. “Sorry, ignore me.”
Caedmon cleared his throat. “It’s not that.
I know you are asking because you’re curious; our kind is just cautious…
During our shift, that transition part is when we are extremely vulnerable.
Silver is our normal weakness, but during that small span of time, we are pretty much completely unaware and defenseless.
So we keep the time of our shifts to ourselves. Normally, at least.”
“So I will never see you shift?” The concept made me sad.
Caedmon’s eyes darkened. “You would want to see me shift?”
“I would if you’re comfortable with it.”
Emotion clouded his gaze, and he nodded slowly but didn’t say anything.
Instead, he just pulled my chair closer, and I leaned into him as he began going through each part of the chapter.
I was so distracted, completely entranced by his words and his accented voice, that eventually my eyes started to close while absorbing his body heat.