Chapter 40 Raven
Raven
My bear had disappeared. When Glynda and I arrived for our PT class, a wolf-shifter dude stood in the gym waiting for us. Naturally, all the wolves in the class cheered and whooped. I assumed they knew him.
The class went rapidly downhill after that.
The shifter had us doing laps of the outdoor obstacle course in the forest. For a brawny wolf shifter, leaping over giant obstacles, navigating rope bridges, and climbing trees was a breeze. For a puny witch, not so much.
The troll struggled too. He was strong, but also heavy. The poor guy snapped the rope bridge on his last-go-round. Landing in a bog saved him from serious injury while causing much hilarity among the shifters.
While I tried to treat all people fairly, I had decided I really hated wolves.
They were all arrogant, abusive assholes.
After an hour of mental and physical torture, I’d added several more names to my orange trumpet flower revenge list. Once I found the time to head back into the forest at midnight to harvest the leaves, I’d be pushing the likes of Kain and Dagger up to the top of my hit list.
“I figured he’d bounce,” Kain snorted as he stood, hands on hips, watching the troll drag himself from the bog.
“Nah, my money was on him going splat,” replied Dagger. The two wolves fell about laughing while several of their friends watched with smirks on their faces.
I clenched my fists in anger while searching for the stand-in coach. Instead of supervising, he stood flirting with some shifter girl with huge tits and shorts so tight I could tell she’d not waxed lately.
Glynda appeared, panting and covered in sticky mud. She’d fallen foul of the last obstacle, like I had. Both of us looked like swamp monsters, although not as bad as the poor troll.
He dragged himself out of the bog and grimaced, ignoring the shifters cackling and pointing.
“Are you OK?” I asked under my breath.
He grunted and nodded. Kai was nowhere in sight, which surprised me. Those two were usually joined at the hip. I had a feeling Kai’s absence was down to me. The merman had avoided me ever since the pool incident.
I sighed.
“One more lap for everyone but the shifters,” our coach yelled when he finally dragged his attention away from the shifter girl. “Witches, I want to see more effort from you! Your performance was truly pathetic and will be written up as such on your report cards!”
“What a fucking asshole,” Glynda muttered behind me. My eyes widened in surprise. It wasn’t like her to swear up a storm.
“Shifters, hit the showers. Good job, you guys!” The wolves all whooped and cheered before running off as a pack. As irritating as it was that they got preferential treatment, at least we could finish the exercise in peace now.
“Move!”
The coach glared at me when I rolled my eyes. “Make that two laps!” he yelled. Everyone groaned.
“I’m hexing that bastard later,” Glynda muttered.
I mentally added the coach to my hit list and followed Glynda to the start of the obstacle course. The end of class could not come soon enough.
By the time the dickhead wolf-shifter coach let us leave, none of us had time to shower off the mud before our next class. The wolf-shifter contingent howled and fist bumped each other when we arrived for the last class of the day: Magic that’s awful.”
“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” he said with a flash of teeth. “Speaking of…I have shit to do.” He cocked his head to one side. “Your bear mate is back.” Before I could question how he knew this, he blinked out of sight.
My phone buzzed. When I checked the screen, I saw a message from Maverick. My lips curved up in a smile. I’d missed my bear.
Care bear: Back now. Speak soon.
Me: I’ve missed you!
I waited for him to reply, but… nothing. A flicker of disquiet trickled through me. My bear was always excited to spend time with me. He’d never once made me feel like an inconvenience or less than. It was why I lo—
Oh. I clapped a hand over my mouth in shock.
It was too soon to catch big feelings!
What if he had doubts about us?
The more I stared at my phone and he didn’t reply, the more I wondered whether the prevailing belief that cross-species matings were undesirable had filtered down to my bear.
Sure, he’d seemed happy to have found his soul-bonded mate. But after spending time away from me, perhaps he’d come to his senses?
Ten minutes passed… fifteen minutes… and still nothing. He’d read the message but not replied.
By the time an hour ticked by and every other witch had left the common room, I’d officially lost my mind. All kinds of awful scenarios played on a horrible reel in my head, like nightmares on repeat.
Was Maverick injured?
Had he hooked up with a sexy ex and didn’t know how to break the news to me?
I still had no clue why he’d disappeared without explanation. Zane had mentioned something about a trip back home but refused to say more. I wasn’t sure how he knew Maverick’s plans. Zane didn’t seem like a male Maverick would be friends with.
For starters, Zane was still a student, and second, the incubus was an asshole. He’d grilled me for ages about the vampire prince. And I still had no clue why he even cared. Or whether the whole dream-walking episode had been real.
I knew dream walking was possible, but it seemed like the sort of gift only a super powerful witch would have (i.e., not me). Still, the ring the vampire gave me was real.
It occurred to me that the ring might be valuable.
Zane had noticed it, which meant others would as well.
Which was why I’d slipped it inside a shoe in my closet.
The only people with access to my room were Glynda and Zane, and neither of them was the type to go snooping in my closet.
The ring would be safe in there until I could figure out a spell to locate Rasmus.
Since it was late, there was nothing I could do about the vampire right this moment, but I could go to Maverick’s cabin and find out why he was leaving me on read. If he had changed his mind about me, I deserved to know why.