Chapter 9 Tate
Chapter nine
Tate
The quiet whispers of pages being turned brushed my ears. Students murmured to each other. While that was perfectly polite in a library, it was pointless among supernatural beings. They may as well have been shouting for all the good their whispers did.
The library doors opened. My eyes dipped from the book — I was only pretending to study — to the library doors. A random female student walked in. She caught my gaze, smiling shyly as she tucked her hair behind her ears.
I dropped my gaze without offering a smile in return.
A month ago, I would have winked and grinned at her. Flirted a bit. Maybe even taken her out for a drink or back to my room. Then I’d tell Kyren all about it the next day.
Now, I only had eyes for one female.
After my encounter with Jack outside of Supernatural Law and Enforcement, I didn’t see her at lunch or around the hallways. I tried to find out where her new bedroom was, but apparently the students cared more about what the Durands thought of them than staying on my good side.
Same went for the faculty. None of them would divulge the information stating student privacy. I said they are trying to cover their asses for the people who sign their paychecks.
So here I sat in the library for the last hour, hoping Jack would wander in and I could “accidentally” run into her.
I sighed and tugged on my ear. My former self would laugh at how low I’d fallen to get the attention of a singular woman.
I’d always had the mindset that there were plenty of fish in the sea. If someone wasn’t interested, that’s no skin off my nose. Someone else would be.
My ability to not let rejection get me down had always been a strong part of my personality, and yet here I am, chasing after a woman who has clearly told me she wasn’t interested.
Except… while her mouth was telling me no, her scent had changed drastically. Jack might have had hang-ups because of the drama with Kyren, but she still wanted me.
And I wanted her. Not just that, I loved her. There were very few people who I could claim to love as wholeheartedly as I did Jack. Kyren was one of the other ones, and he hadn’t been this hard to convince to let me love him.
“She’s not coming.”
My head jerked up. The tiny Asian woman stood next to my table, eyes full of pity. I grunted, flipping the page of my book mechanically.
“You don’t know that.”
Xinyi sighed and slid into the chair across from me. “Yes, I do.”
I ignored her, still flipping pages. I refused to give up hope that I’d get to see Jack again today.
“Hey!” Her hand slapped down on my book, forcing me to glare at her, “I do know. I just ran into her. Her hair was wet.” She wrinkled her nose. “And she smelled of blood.”
“Blood?” I jerked to my feet, panic shooting through my veins like a shot of silver nitrate. “Whose blood? Her blood?” I rounded the table, grabbing her shoulder. “Do you know where her room is? Where was she coming from?”
“Hey, hey, dog boy.” Xinyi shifted her shoulder out of my grip. “Take a breath. Breath. She’s fine. Pissed to all hell but otherwise unharmed.”
Relief had me sinking against the side of the table, leaning my weight onto the surface. I focused on my breathing, trying to slow the racing of my heart.
“You said she was pissed?”
Xinyi’s eyes slid off to the side, chewing on her lower lip. I’d never seen her be closed lipped about anything ever which meant what she knew she wasn’t sure about telling me.
“Come on, Xinyi,” I urged, bumping her arm with my fist. “We’re all friends here. You know I’m just as worried about her as you. I just want to protect Jack.”
Xinyi winced. “I don’t know if this is something you can protect her from.”
My brow rose. “What do you mean?”
She didn’t answer me right away, making a sinking feeling to twist my stomach into knots.
“Xinyi,” I prodded, shifting on the table. “What is it?”
Xinyi yanked on the long black and colorful lengths of her low pig tails. “It’s more about where she was coming from that’s concerning, not the blood.”
She licked her lips and then pressed her hands to the top of the table, leaning forward her eyes wide. “You can’t tell anyone. I don’t want Jack to get into trouble.”
“Why would Jack get in trouble?” I huffed a laugh. “Her parents own the school.”
Xinyi’s eyes slid off to the side. “Yeah. I don’t know if this would go over well with her parents.”
All her evasion was starting to worry me.
“Xinyi,” I said my voice restrained, “where was she coming from?”
Xinyi’s eyes slowly lifted to mine, her eyes looking larger as she blinked up at me. “The teachers’ apartments.”
The information crashed into me like a tidal wave. Suddenly, a hurricane of little interactions I’d taken note of between Jack and Professor Fawley started to create a neat little picture.
Kyren and I had already known that Jack had some kind of history with the hunter-turned-professor. It had been an annoyance that Kyren bitched about constantly. But, now that we knew Jack was a Durand…?
That history was clearly more significant than we ever thought.
It made today’s interaction with the professor even more meaningful, if I didn’t look at it like a faculty member getting annoyed by his students’ drama in his class and instead looked at it like an ex getting jealous. It made all Professor Fawley’s comments and dirty looks make sense.
“Tate?” Xinyi placed her hand on mine. “You okay?”
I cleared my throat and nodded. “Uh, yeah. I’m fine. Great. Thank you for telling me.”
“You know, this doesn’t mean she’s with him.” Xinyi offered me a reassuring smile. “She could have hunted him down outside of office hours to talk about class or something.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed thickly and smiled back at her, but even to me, I knew it was weak. “You’re probably right.”
Xinyi stood and patted my shoulder. “I’m still rooting for you, dog boy. You and your drool worthy boyfriend, if he ever gets his head out of his ass, that is.”
I chuckled. “Thanks. I’ve got my work cut out for me with Kyren.”
“Sometimes people need time to realize what’s important. I’m sure he’ll get there. Just be patient.” She patted my shoulder once more before walking away.
I sat there at the table for a long moment before gathering my things and leaving.
My mind kept swirling around the possibility that Jack wasn’t just mine and Kyren’s.
If Jack was with the professor too and they had a relationship before the academy did that make her part of the Hunter’s Guild?
Or did they just happen to meet because of her family?
Jealousy and possessiveness screamed from every facet. I hated the idea of someone else having Jack’s attention. Her smiles. Her laughter. Her love.
Sharing with Kyren was as natural as breathing, but this other person — this hunter? Even if I could come to grips about it, there was no way that Kyren would be so accepting. Not that he was admitting he even wanted Jack still at the moment.
But that was a problem for another time.
I was so caught up in my warring thoughts, I didn’t notice the two large men waiting next to the Vampire Crypt’s door until they stepped into my path.
“Tate.”
My eyes locked on the two of them, my brows burrowing in confusion. My two younger brothers, Jacob and Kolby, just as I remembered them. With their broad shoulders and the same square jaw we inherited from our father, no one would mistake us for anything other than relatives.
“What are you two doing here?” I tucked my hands into the pockets of my jeans, shoulders up around my ears.
Jacob, the older of the two, stepped forward, his head shaved to the scalp. “Can’t we just want to see our brother? It’s been a while.”
My head cocked to the side, taking them both in. Jacob had been the one to speak, but Kolby had his mouth pressed tightly together, his arms crossed over his chest so that his muscles bulged from beneath his white T-shirt.
If I knew anything about my brothers, they’d come here for a reason, and whoever sent them told Kolby to let Jacob do all the talking. Probably because Kolby was a bit of a hot head and didn’t care two shits if he hurt anyone’s feelings in the process.
“You could have called first,” I commented, suddenly wishing I’d stayed in the library longer. “It’s not like you to just show up.”
Jacob and Kolby exchanged a look before Jacob spoke. “We didn’t know if you’d answer.”
It’d been five years since I’d left the Mountain Ridge Clan in Utah. Five years since I’d seen or heard any of my family or former friends. Not that any of them had attempted to contact me. I didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms.
“Okay,” I drew out, my eyes slipping to the side, watching the human servants and vampires watch us as they walked around us and into the building. “Well… it’s good to see you, no matter the reasoning. Did ma and pa come?”
Kolby’s face flashed with anger, a low growl coming from him. Jacob shot our younger brother a look before turning back to me.
“No, ma couldn’t come and pa…” he trailed off, sadness filing his face.
A sudden anxiety filled my chest. If my brothers just wanted to catch up, they would have called. They wouldn’t have just shown up out of nowhere. There was a reason for their visit, a reason that was making my chest tight.
“Is pa alright?” I choked out, my heart race picking up.
“What do you think?” Kolby spat out with such venom that I took a step back.
Jacob placed a hand on Kolby’s chest, trying to hold him back, but just because he was the youngest didn’t make him the smallest. Kolby had sprouted up so he could look me straight in the eye, something he hadn’t been able to do five years ago.
“Pa died of a heart attack over a week ago, not that you’d know.” Kolby shook his head with disgust. “You never even check in with your real family.”
“Kolby,” Jacob growled, pulling our younger brother back by the collar.
My brows furrowed. “A heart attack? Pa?” I let out a chuckle of disbelief. “No way. Not in this lifetime. He’d never let himself go out like that.”
“It’s true.” Jacob nodded solemnly. “Ma said the doctors had warned him time and again the last few years, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“But why wouldn’t she have told us sooner?” I glanced between the two of them. “Did they tell you anything about this before?”
“No, ma said pa didn’t want us to worry for nothing.” Jacob gave a sad smile. “You know pa, always thinking of everyone else. Never wanting anyone to see him struggling.”
I dragged hand through my braids, nodding. “Yeah, I could see that.” I paused for a moment to register the information.
My pa and I’d never really gotten along. He was the more serious one who put everyone’s happiness before his own, while I’d been more of a free spirit. I’d rather have been running wild in the woods than sitting in on pack meetings.
When I bond myself to Kyren and told them I was going to Georgia with him, pa had been livid. He’d called me all kinds of irresponsible, that I was abandoning my family and duties. But all I heard was the steel bars of the cage they were trying to keep me in closing in around me.
A part of me thought I’d get to make things up with him before he died. Now, I’d never get that chance.
I breathed out a breath. “So did you have a funeral already?”
It’d been a week. They could have been waiting for me before they had the ceremony. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a flight back to Utah. Kyren had a lot of connections that made getting around much easier than flying commercial.
Maybe if I offered to bring the two of them along with me, it’d make them see that being bound to a vampire wasn’t as bad as everyone had no doubt told them it to be.
Jacob just stared at me, then Kolby barked a laugh.
“I told you. I. Fucking. Told. You.” He smacked his hands on his thighs and shook his head. “This mother fucker had no intentions of becoming pack alpha. We waited for nothing.”
My gaze shot between the two of them. Suddenly, everything registered. They hadn’t come to just tell me pa had passed away. No, they’d come to bring me back. To shut me in that cage that pa had tried to do all those years ago. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Not now, not ever.
“Tate,” Jacob began softly, glaring at Kolby, “you’re the eldest. You’re next in line to be alpha. It’s always been this way.”
I shook my head, waving my arms in front of me. “No way. I defected, remember? Vamp lover?” I gave a lopsided grin as I pointed a thumb at my chest. “That makes you next in line. Not me.”
Kolby snorted. “Doesn’t work that way, asshole. Pa never announced Jacob or me as the next alpha. That means you are it.”
My face pinched in confusion. “Why would he do that?”
Jacob shrugged. “I think he always held out hope that you’d come back. Take up the family mantel and all that.”
My mouth gaped open slightly. “But… I’m blood bound to Kyren. That’s for life. Didn’t he understand? I can’t ever break that bond, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”
“You don’t understand—” Jacob tried to plead with me, but Kolby grabbed his arm.
“Forget it, Jake. He’s exactly like he’s always been.” Kolby shook his head and stepped away. “Only thinking of himself.”
“That’s not fair,” I shot back, but they were already walking away. Jacob shot me a look full of sadness and regret.
Well, I didn’t have getting blindsided by my family on my bingo card for this year. What else could possibly go wrong?