Chapter Thirteen
Irushed into class right before it started and slammed into my desk.
I had lost track of time during my run and had to eat my lunch late.
Even though we ate half the deer, when I shifted back, I was starving.
I thought I would have more cushion, but everything that happened in the woods, I barely made it.
I opened my laptop and waited for the sub to come in. Mr. Oran was a decent teacher. But Rowan had promised to help with my hacking and then he disappeared. I shook my head as I wanted to growl. This was all stupid, and I shouldn’t be wasting my time waiting on him.
I buried myself in coding. We were working on setting up basic firewalls at this point, and I was thoroughly engrossed in the subject.
Not only was it fascinating to see what goes into this kind of system, but knowing how it’s built will help me get around it better.
Mr. Oran had gone over the subject the past couple of classes, and we were working on our first project. Setting up a firewall around one file.
By the time the teacher walked in, I had finally set up the firewall and I wanted to jump up from my seat and dance. Instead, I just clapped and smiled. I was still buried in my computer when a deep voice sounded over my shoulder. “That looks good.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin, and Megan and Nix were laughing at me. I turned around to find myself face to face with Rowan. “Holy fucking goddess, you scared me.” I clutched at my chest and he laughed.
“I noticed. You were too busy working on your firewall.” He pointed to my computer, and I nodded.
He took my computer and walked to his desk while speaking to the rest of the class.
“Welcome. I know I have been gone for a while. The downfalls of being king. But I am here today. And Mr. Oran said you were working on your first project, the firewall.” He sat my computer down and then turned back to the class.
“Once you complete the firewall, like Amy here, bring your computer to my desk so I can give your firewall a test. The longer I take to get into it, the higher your grade will be.”
Someone raised their hand. “What do we do after?”
“There is extra course work you can work on. Next week we will start on setting up new systems and I don’t want to get into that with only half the time left in class.
” Everyone nodded. Then they got back to work, and I just sat there.
I watched Rowan as he checked my system. I wanted to see how quick he got in.
It was by no stance a complicated firewall, but I still wanted to see. He finally sat down at my computer and connected with his own. After barely five minutes, he looked up at me and smiled. Fuck, he was already in. I wanted to groan. He unconnected my computer and walked it back to me.
“That was quick.”
“Actually, not really. Pay attention to the others and how fast I can get into theirs.” He dropped off my computer and knocked on a corner. His voice dropped lower. “I left a page open. I want you to start reading. It will help us with our session after class.”
I nodded and opened up the page. It was about hacking. So he hadn’t forgotten his promise. I started to read. Every time someone got up to head to his desk, I would stop what I was doing and watch.
Sometimes it took less than thirty seconds for him to crack into their firewall, sometimes a minute. Over all, I had the best time, and it showed with the defeated looks I would get every so often.
Rowan would talk to each of the students about their firewall and what went wrong. He went in depth on each of their programs, and I kept one ear open to hear what went wrong.
“You had a corrupted line of coding halfway down.” He pointed to the last guy’s firewall.
“How do you know?” He asked as he scrolled through it all.
“Well, I have been at this for many years.” His laugh caught me off guard.
I felt my brows furrow. How old was he, really?
He looked only twenty-five, but that meant nothing.
Some wolves looked young well into their first century.
Rowan looked up and saw my face and I watched something flicker over his, but it was gone faster than it was there.
I shook my head and cleared my thoughts as I turned back to the page on the screen. His age has nothing to do with me. But even as I thought it, I felt like I was lying to myself.
“You seem to be thinking pretty hard there, Amy.” His voice, once again, made me jump. I hadn’t realized that the class was over. I was still fully absorbed in what I was reading and this time I let out a squeak. He chuckled as he settled next to me with his laptop.
“Um yeah.” I wiped my face. “This is all confusing.” I waved my hands at the screen and he nodded.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it was hacking principles that made you make that face.” He turned to me. “So spill.”
“How old are you?” I blurted it out and then winced.
“What?”
“How old are you?”
“Why do you want to know?” He leaned back in his seat.
I raised my hands and shook my head. “Sorry. It’s none of my business.” I wiped at my face. “Just when you said that you have been at this for years, it made me think about your age. Wolves barely grow old, heck my parents look to be about thirty, and my dad is almost two hundred years old.”
“How old is your mother?” Rowan tilted his head.
“She is closer to sixty. They met when she was nineteen and stayed childless for a few years before they had me.”
Rowan nodded. “Most wolf pairings have gaps in age.”
I shrugged. “It makes sense. The goddess selects your mate, and we have to wait until the other is born or we find each other.” But I closed my laptop and turned to face him. “Why are you avoiding my question?”
Rowan laughed and scratched behind his ear. “I’m not.”
“You’re doing it right now.” I pointed out.
He huffed out a breath. “I’m only thirty. I was twelve when my father was killed. Younger when the Lycans started to be hunted to extinction.” He leaned onto the table and propped his head up on his hand.
I repositioned on my chair, pulling my leg up and turning completely to face him. “What happened?”
“What?”
“I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but my father has always been vague, and my mother…well she never wanted to speak about it. What happened to the Lycans?”
Rowan stared at me for a few moments before he closed his eyes. “They died.”
“I know that much. But why? What happened to them? You guys were the most powerful pack and then everyone but you and your dad were gone. How did everyone vanish so quickly?” The questions tumbled from my mouth, and I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to.
This was the first chance I had ever gotten to ask someone directly.
Even if he looked like he would rather die, then tell me.
I stopped the questions and waited. I waited for a very long time, with Rowan sitting silently beside me.
He stayed silent for so long I was just going to turn back to my computer before he started.
“It was a dark night.”
“Huh?” But he didn’t answer me. And I realized he was reliving this nightmare…for me. The guilt hit first as he continued.
“I was about six, and the night was so dark. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and I swore something was outside my window.” His eyes stayed shut, but I could see them dart back and forth.
“I ran to my parents’ room and woke them up.
My father, he told me to go back to bed, that no one was there.
But I was certain. My mother said she would come check, and we walked back to my room.
” He trembled, and without thinking, I reached my hand for his.
He wrapped his hand around mine, threading our fingers together.
“When we got back to my room, my mom went to the window to look. But when she got there a hand shot forward through her chest, ripping her heart out. I screamed. My mother turned to look at me and I saw her life fade from her eyes. My father burst through the doors just to see her drop, and then the mind links came. There were rogues attacking. Too many to be a coincidence. A pack of rouges, something our world had never seen before. Within the night, most of my pack was dead. My father was badly injured, and the world found out that even the Royal Lycan pack could be defeated.”
“I’m sorry.” I whispered as I squeezed his hands.
“That was just the start of the hunt. One by one, the remaining pack members disappeared. The rogues were blamed. But my father suspected that the pack of rogues were just hiding the truth.”
“What truth?”
His eyes met mine. “That some packs got together, banished their warriors for the sole purpose of becoming rogues, just to attack us. My father was tracing everything down for years until he was murdered. And now, it’s been left to me…and your father, to find the truth.”