Chapter Sixteen Dylan
Sometimes I wished the world would understand that some people have a lot of shit going on, and it would be nice if everything could just stop for a few days.
We’re told the gods care, but it’s hard to see it that way.
Silas disappearing sat in my mind all night long.
Even with Hunter’s and Jackson's warmth, sleep evaded me.
Where the hell could he have gone?
Silas knew to follow Noah. Sera didn't notice foul play like someone attacking Silas before he disappeared. The crowd of people who walked by only broke her line of sight on him for a few minutes. Silas was a big guy. It wasn't like anyone could overpower him in just a few seconds.
So where the hell did he run off to?
There were a few encroaching thoughts that Silas returned to his pack. Why wouldn't he? I gave in to urges and allowed him to have something he still should have worked for.
It wasn't until the morning light turned the room orange did the thoughts stop. Hunter woke up first, his energy filling the bond, which perked me up a bit. It wasn’t enough to make me happy but enough I wouldn't groan as I rolled out of bed. Jackson helped me by rolling me on top of him first.
"I could always turn that frown upside down before we head off to class,"
Trying to roll off while snorting didn’t go the way I planned. His muscular arms wrapped around me to keep me against his chest.
"I wish we had the time, but I’d rather not be late to class."
“Since when do you care about being on time?”
"Since now. I’d rather not deal with anyone telling us we cannot stay together or something because we are late. Let's not give Lupe a reason to keep more eyes on us," I growled.
It's not like they could do these things since it's in the handbook that mated pairs may sleep together.
It's just that too many things weren't going my way, and I didn't want to risk losing anything right now. My wolf had been on edge since Silas disappeared. She wanted her mate here with her now that the bond felt close to being reclaimed after our night of passion. It made her uneasy that he was gone, and we didn’t know where.
We should go out to look for him.
No. What if we find out he returned home? I don't think either of us could bear that kind of betrayal right now.
What if Lupe took him?
It's not like the thought didn't occur to me.
It just seemed unlikely. Silas could be lethal if someone attacked him.
As an alpha-heir, they trained him to fight back, and it was high-end training that would make it hard for anyone to take him without someone noticing.
Sera didn't even see a car nearby for him to get into.
So where the fuck did he go?
If he was, then my anger will disappear. Until then, I'm going to believe the asshole left me. He abandoned me once already at this school. Why wouldn't he now?
The Moon doesn't make mistakes, little one.
Oh yeah? Then how did Jackson end up here and then bonded to me? His mate rejected him. He ended up here, and then the Great Moon gave him to me. Are you telling me she didn't make a mistake there?
No. She gave him that path to lead him here to you.
It didn't calm my anger much, but it did enough to allow me to continue the small conversation with Jackson.
I noticed Hunter had left the room, and he came back shaking his head.
Silas didn't return to his room last night.
I wanted to believe he wouldn't do that to me, that he had changed and wouldn't have abandoned me again.
The possibility of the past repeating itself, of him casting me aside, always came to mind.
It annoyed me to no end to turn down being pleasured by my mates and ignore all my classes to escape into them, but I had to pass everything to leave here.
If I wanted to see my family and become the Luna of my pack, that's what I needed to do.
My people needed to come first, and I've been away from them for too long already.
I wanted to go home.
Breakfast went by in a blur. When Sera joined us, I continued to ask questions and re-asked previous ones to ensure I had all the data on what could have happened to Silas.
Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary outside of him disappearing, so the only conclusion I had to Silas was that he returned home.
Sera suggested asking one teacher if they knew if he did, seeing as he would have needed their permission to leave.
It wasn't a bad idea. I'd just have to wait until Pack Magic to ask her.
It was going to be a long fucking day.
And a long day it was.
It was as if time ticked by slower because I had somewhere I wanted to be.
Staring at the clocks didn't make it go by any faster, either.
An itching in my chest reminded me about the bond not being completed with Silas.
Everything felt like it was being stacked against me now.
Hunter and Jackson tried to help by pushing their supportive emotions through the bond, but it didn't ease the pain in my chest. Before, I was only able to ignore it for so long because Silas had been miles away.
After showing up here, I wanted to beat him senseless for what he had done to me.
That stupid night, with my hormones demanding his touch and being screwed silly, changed everything.
And I hated it.
I thought I could hate Silas, but I couldn't. He could have fought back that day in combat class, but he let me strike my anger out at him.
He took it. Silas, the next alpha of his pack, someone who was too proud to claim me as a mate because I was a Shadowborn, let me strike him.
It wasn't just to appease me. Silas let me do it because he believed he deserved it.
I think that's when the hatred I had for him chipped away. In that moment, I saw the good in Silas that I doubted anyone else could see. The image of a pompous prick faded once I could see he believed he deserved my wrath. Not the day in the office when he spewed words from his lying mouth.
He could have chosen not to say the spell that kept me from becoming pregnant during my heat.
Every male wanted to see their female's bellies swollen with their pups.
He knew I still hated him, and he didn't want that to be how we conceived our first pup.
Other males wouldn't have been that honorable.
There were stories of females not being in harmony with their mates, but they still impregnated her during her heat.
They bickered for a while, and at that moment, their female was unhappy to belong to them.
Instead of speaking the spell, they just went on with it.
"You can still hate me in the morning." That's what he said to me. Knowing I hated him, but I needed to be taken care of, Silas pushed aside his needs and took care of mine–something I thought he wasn't capable of, yet he showed me he was.
That's what I had needed from him since he came here. He showed he could make my needs a priority like Hunter and Jackson have, like I asked him to do.
But then he took off.
When we finally got to Wilcox's class, I was growling. Hunter and Jackson tried to ask me what was wrong through the bond, but I ignored them. They didn't need to know the issues I had rolling around in my mind. It would make them ditch class and track Silas down to murder him.
Though...
No! Silas is ours.
My wolf threw the walls up to block out our mates so they wouldn't hear those thoughts. It was hard to argue with her when she could control the bonds like I could.
Wilcox’s face was a mask of displeasure; she clearly wasn’t enjoying herself.
With all the whispers about her dating Leahy and things not going her way in recent weeks, it seemed like this class wouldn't be a fun one.
The grunge look on her wavy brown hair didn't bode well either.
Wilcox's brown eyes scanned the room, and I could see the pain within them.
If I knew her more, I would track Leahy down and hurt him for causing that pain.
Though it didn't feel that way, the more I examined her body language.
Her tightened jaw, pursed lips, and furrowed eyebrows, as she scanned the room, revealed her true feelings.
As she looked around, she didn't look into anyone's eyes.
She crossed her arms over her chest as if hugging herself, and her shoulders sagged as she paced in front of the classroom.
My wolf allowed me to drop the walls so I could reach out to my mates, opening the channels so we could all talk to one another so I could see if they noticed the same things I did.
There's something she doesn't want to tell us. Both of my mates' backs straightened as I entered their minds, and the relief that I was talking to them came through the bond first.
Hunter recovered first. I can't tell if it's from the pacing or the way she's hugging herself.
Both. Jackson said. Both of those things. I thought it was because of that chosen mate of hers.
This is more, I told them. Even the hint of fear coming from her tells us that.
I could feel their agreement through the bonds, and they were now more alert than they were before class had started.
"Class, please listen. I have some news to share."
Well, this doesn't sound good.
Everyone hushed their conversations. I found it interesting that they could ignore the fact our teacher was pacing when they were all wolves. We were supposed to be observant beings, not ones who ignored odd behavior.