Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I took a shower and tried to cool off my insides, but that was unsuccessful. Wrapping a towel around myself, I walked back to my room. On my desk was the reminder of the meeting I’d had this morning with Professor Robinson.

Sinking into the desk chair, I laid my head against the cool wood top. This was what defeat looked like. I couldn’t do anything right. Everett left me wanting, in the worst way possible. Who was I kidding? I enjoyed it, encouraged it.

I turned my face, letting my other cheek feel the chill of the desk. The more time I spent with Everett, the less time I had to conduct my research. Even thinking about him took me away from my work. I was distracted. Robinson knew that I had been away from the cabin . How long until he connected the dots and found out about the shifters? I couldn’t be responsible for outing them.

The plastic bag of brown rot Everett had given me sat on my desk, inches away from my face. I picked it up and rubbed the outside of the plastic bag with my fingers. I’d held onto the rot Everett had found because I didn’t know if he had followed to correct procedures when harvesting it, but that made me wonder—had I made a mistake when collecting my own sample? It had been after my first weekend with the shifters that I’d collected the sample I’d given Robinson. Had they already wedged themselves so far into my world that I’d unintentionally broken protocol?

But that couldn’t be right. We’d learned proper collection techniques in Botany 101 during our first year on campus, so it was practically muscle memory for me. I knew what I was doing. I had collected that sample correctly. Something else wasn’t adding up.

Did everyone notice that I was distracted? If Jenny was mentioning something to her professor and Robinson was concerned, I needed to take a step back and reevaluate my relationship with Everett. It wasn’t working. I needed space from the way he made me feel when he was around me. It wasn’t worth losing my scholarship over. The thought of moving back in with my parents made my stomach flip.

The small envelope with my mom’s loopy handwriting was next to my computer. She’d told me before I’d left to let her know if I needed anything. Right now I needed my mom and whatever advice she could give me. I hadn’t talked to her or my dad in a few weeks. A letter postdated a week ago didn’t seem sufficient, especially with my dad’s health. I needed to call them.

I stuck my head out of my room, looking to see if Jenny or Leo were around. I didn’t see anyone, so I made a run for it, bounding down the hallway in my towel, grabbing the new phone and running back to my room, closing the door behind me. I punched in my mom’s cell phone number. It rang only once before she answered.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Mom,” I said.

“Ismet? Did you hear about my sculptures? Do you want to come view my pieces?” What?

“It’s me , Mom, your daughter, Elise.” I pronounced my words and spoke louder.

“Oh, Elise? Is that you?” I rolled my eyes. This was painful.

“Yes, it’s me, Mom.”

“How are you? I haven’t heard from you in so long!”

“I know. I’ve been busy here.”

“Oh, I’ve been busy too! So busy with my pieces. They’re selling quick! With your father’s medical bills adding up, it’s so nice to have the extra money.” What?

“What’s going on, Mom? Is Dad, okay?”

“What’s delicate?” Oh my god. Help me.

“Is Dad okay?” I asked again.

“Oh, Dad. He’s fine now. He broke his femur.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wrote you a letter.” I looked at the unopened letter sitting on my desk. “Bessie’s doing fine too. Don’t worry about her.”

I sighed. “I’m not worried about the cat.”

“What bucket? You need a bucket?”

Was it the connection or my mother? Definitely my mother. There was no way I could bring up my issues with the university now. She would confuse probation with vacation and think I was coming home. They had enough going on at home. I would have to figure this out on my own.

“I’ve got to go, Mom,” I said. “Take care of Dad. I’ll be home when I can.”

“Okay, dear. Thanks for calling!”

The line went static. This was so typical of my mom. Sandwiching important information between fluff, like how the cat was doing, and downplaying the seriousness of my father’s illness. I needed to go see them soon and find how serious my dad’s injuries were. It wasn’t in me to fully trust them after hiding their money and health problems from me for so long, but with the university breathing down my neck and the mystery of the rot, I didn’t know when I could get away.

The package she’d sent me sat on the floor by my desk. I picked it up and carefully opened it. Inside was a sculpture of a wolf sitting on its haunches, its head tilted back, howling at the moon.

Disbelief shook me as I set it on my desk. What was going on? My mom always pulled from her surroundings for inspiration for her sculptures. Were they seeing wolves around their home too? Wolves seemed to be infiltrating all aspects of my life.

I heard the front door swing open, and the wolf researcher herself burst through the doorway. “Time for drinks!” she called out.

I left the letter on my desk. The wolf sculpture I moved to the windowsill next to my plants. I still didn’t know what to do about that. My problems were those for tomorrow’s Elise to solve. Tonight I needed to get out and blow off some steam. With a clear head, I’d be able to figure everything out tomorrow.

Even though this was supposed to be a chill, blowing off some steam night, Jenny asked for some time to get ready before we left. I sat on her bed watching her primp.

“Do you think your guy will be at the bar tonight?” Jenny asked, rubbing her lips together in her tabletop mirror.

“I don’t have a guy.”

She turned around and cocked her head sideways. “Of course you do. Who else have you spent the last two weekends with?”

I sighed, folding to her theory. “I hope he isn’t there. He’s a huge tease.”

“Oh, well then, screw him. There are other cute guys. Maybe you should cozy up to one of his friends. That would make him jealous. One guy with him last week was cute. He was big—well, they all are big, but he was especially large with black hair and tattoos.” She motioned to her neck. Gavrill.

“I don’t think so,” I said with a snort. “How about no boys? I think I’ll take the weekend off, maybe the rest of the summer off. I have enough experience with the men around here. They’re all more trouble than they’re worth.”

My core pulsed, telling me I was a liar. Even thinking about Everett made my body warm. I was screwed. I just hoped he wouldn’t be at the bar tonight, or I would find myself disappointed not being screwed in a different way.

Jenny finished her primping and announced that she was ready to go. Leo wasn’t around, and I briefly wondered where he could be. With no Leo to drive us, I offered to drive. We drove the ten miles to No Bars and parked along the side of the building.

I followed Jenny into the bar. Once I saw Everett wasn’t in the building, I could finally let out the breath I’d been holding. Exhaling loudly, I walked up to the counter with Jenny to order a drink. She slapped her credit card on the bar and exclaimed that she was opening a tab. We both ordered whiskey sours, and I thanked her for the drink.

Taking the first sip, I looked around the room and saw Kleio sitting at the table with Gavrill and Jack. She smiled and waved eagerly, motioning us to come over and join their table.

I walked over, with Jenny following close behind, whispering into my ear, “That’s the cute friend. If you don’t want him, I’m going for it.”

“What about Leo?” I turned my head and asked her, a little surprised.

“What about Leo? He hasn’t been around, and we haven’t put labels on anything. It’s open season.”

Jenny finished whispering to me and made her way to sit down in the empty chair next to Gavrill. He looked annoyed at the intrusion but took a drink of his beer, pretending he was unbothered.

Kleio patted the seat next to her, and I sat down, placing my drink in front of me. “So…how’s your week been? How’s work? Have you seen Everett?” She bubbled with curiosity.

“I’ve run into Everett a couple of times. And his wolf once.” I glanced at Jenny to make sure she couldn’t hear our conversation. Jenny was so engrossed with talking at Gavrill that I was sure she wasn’t listening.

“You met his wolf?” Kleio seemed taken aback. I hadn’t thought it was a big deal, but maybe it was special to see someone’s wolf in an instance where they weren’t fighting and attacking?

“I didn’t get close, but his wolf showed up when I was running, and he ran next to me.”

“Oh, someone’s got it bad.” Her vague language left me with questions as she turned her head and patted Jack’s arm as if he knew what she was talking about.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw Kleio’s neck. She always wore her strawberry blonde hair down long past her shoulders, but today she had it braided and pulled back. Turning toward Jack had exposed two puncture marks between her neck and her shoulder. They were small but still clearly visible. The puncture wounds didn’t seem infected, but they looked fresh enough that the skin looked irritated and red.

I grabbed her forearm and pulled her toward me, suddenly feeling defensive of her. Kleio turned to me and could tell I was desperate to talk to her. She met me in the bathroom, and I turned around, locking the door behind us.

“What’s that on your neck, Kleio? Don’t lie to me and try to cover up what Jack did.”

“You saw?” Kleio’s hand shot up to the puncture marks on her neck, and she rushed over to the mirror to examine them.

“Of course I saw the two red marks on your neck, Kleio! We need to tell Everett and let him take care of Jack.”

“They are a little red today.” She ran her hand over the holes in her neck, looking at them in the mirror and seeming strangely relaxed about the entire thing.

“Maybe you can stay at my cabin with me if you need to get out of the pack house. We can share a bed…”

“Take a breath, Elise,” Kleio cut me off. “I always tried to wear my hair down around you so you wouldn’t be able to see them.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Everett didn’t want you to see the marks,” she said.

I took a step back. Everett knew about the marks on her neck? Why were they hiding them from me?

“I know you don’t know a lot about Lycans,” she explained. “Every Lycan has a mate, somewhere in this world. Someone who balances you—your counterpart. Jack is my mate, and yes, he did this to me.”

I stared at her. “Kleio, even if he is your mate or boyfriend or whatever, he shouldn’t hurt you.”

“He did it to me because I asked him to.”

My body seized with her confession. Who would ask for someone to make a deep mark on their body like that?

“There is no escaping your mate. The pull between you is too strong.” Kleio walked forward and took my hands in hers. “Part of the mating process for Lycans is marking. There is sex, of course, but marking your mate solidifies the bond.”

I looked closer at the two small holes along her shoulder and tried to picture what object could have made them. “How did Jack mark you?” I asked, even though I could guess the answer.

“With his teeth, of course.” She flashed her sharp, elongated canines at me.

I shivered at the thought of someone—Everett—biting me on the neck. Surprisingly, the thought wasn’t as appalling as I thought it would be. I flashed back to him grazing his fangs along my neck during the harsh kissing, body-consuming, turn-me-to-liquid make-out sessions that I had become accustomed to. His teeth dragging along my skin had done nothing but further turn me on.

“He bit you.”

“Yeah, he did, and I bit him back.” Kleio winked at me and turned away, heading for the door. “This is becoming too much like the birds-and-the-bees conversation someone has with their parents. Ask Everett all the questions you have—I’m sure he’d love to answer them.”

I looked down at my feet, trying to process all this new information. Every time I hung out with Kleio, I learned something new that sent me for a loop. Her footsteps paused, and I lifted my head.

She turned around and walked back toward me, holding my hands again. “Thank you, Elise, for caring enough about me to say something. It means a lot.” She squeezed my hands and walked out of the bathroom, heading back to the table.

The door shut, and I leaned against the sink which dropped an inch, loosening itself from the wall. I quickly backed away with my hands in the air. Kleio hadn’t been lying about the broken sink in the bathroom.

I shook my head, laughing to myself. My eyes glanced back at the mirror above the sink. I felt…different. Ever since I met the Cedar Moon Pack, my thoughts about friendship and family had changed. They were friends who supported each other and had each other’s backs, even when one of them was in trouble. I had never experienced that before. Previously I’d had friends, probably more like acquaintances, but never had I felt that feeling of unwavering support. I liked Kleio, Gavrill, Jack, and even Kostas. They made me feel like I was a part of their pack.

Something had changed in the last two weeks, and I was starting to think it was me.