Page 11

Chapter Eleven

Arley

“Y ou promised me you would wait until I got out of class,” Fen growled over the phone. Such a growly mate, my rabbit chittered in my head. “Why aren’t you waiting in the hallway for me? Where are you?”

“I wanted to grab us some chai from the campus café. I’m only on the south side of campus. Relax.” I shifted my backpack from my left to right shoulder, wishing I had opted for the double-strap kind and not this single. The load of the books and travel was beginning to weigh down on me. “I’ll be there in five minutes, and we can walk back to the house. There are a bunch of students around me, I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t underestimate those guys. They will find a way if they want to get you alone. Walk straight here and follow the main path, no shortcuts. Those have too many places they could be hiding to attack from.” Fen grunted, and I could imagine his facial expression in my mind’s eye. “And if you aren’t here in five minutes, I’m heading your way. Scratch that; I am on my way. We will meet in the middle, and I’ll be able to prove to my wolf you are safe sooner. He’s pushing hard, wanting to get out and come save you. He’s convinced you and the pups are in danger.” My mate sure was growly. But I should have been more considerate.

“No danger here, babe. But feel free to meet me. I’m getting kinda tired and am going to sit on the bench outside Growley Hall. My feet hurt and…” I put a hand on my stomach. “How am I so big already? I swear we just found out they are in there, and I am already showing like they are about to be here.”

“That’s because they are about to be here, Arley.” Fen chuckled, his mood changing to positive. That was good for now. I understood my mate’s worry. “I think we both keep forgetting that the days are counting down and we don’t have the nine months of the humans but instead a measly six weeks from conception to birth…and most of that has already passed by the time we found out. We only have two weeks left.”

“Fuck, Fen. How do we only have days to prepare?” I hadn’t realized how little time we had left. I wasn’t ready.

“Don’t worry, babe. We’ve got this. The house is big enough and we have got a bit of time. Maybe I should call my parents up and convince them to move up here.”

“Let’s discuss that later. I’m…”

“Oh, look. What do we have here? A lone little bunny without any protector? What kind of mate do you have that he leaves you alone, Arley?”“Marcus.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, even as a slight shiver ran down my spine; but of course the damn man had a knack for showing up unannounced and unwelcomed. And go figure that they’d showed up the one time I didn’t wait for Fen. He will never let me live this down, nor will my rabbit. “What are you doing here?”

“We came to bring you back home.” Marcus stood before me, glaring at my belly with a snare on his lips. “Looks like we are just in time. Need to make sure those pups grow up with the right mindset. Not poisoned by this big-city trash thought.”

“I’m almost there.” Fen panted into the phone. “Don’t let them take you anywhere.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I spoke into my phone, ignoring the group in front of me.

Marcus narrowed his eyes. “Who are you talking to?”

“My mate.” I held my head up high, showing no fear. Predators like Marcus fed on their prey’s emotions, and I refused to let him know how afraid I truly was.

“Oh good, he can watch us take you, powerless to stop us.”

“Are these guys bothering you?” A few of the guys from the university football team now approached our group, surrounding me in a protective formation. I recognized a few of them from my philosophy class and smiled. They were lions and dragons, and together ruled over the campus as if it was their clan or den. Perhaps it was, I’d have to ask Fen to verify if this was officially their lands we were allowed to be on. Either way, if anyone could put a wolf in his place, it would be these two types of shifters.

“Mind your own business, guys. Arley here belongs in our territory.” Marcus waved his hand and smirked. The idiot. “We just came to bring him back home.”

“He already is home.” Patrick Galligar inserted himself in the space between Marcus and me. “I think you guys need to get back in your truck and head to where you belong.”

“I don’t think so. We aren’t leaving,” Marcus snarled, as if the man had any other expression.

“Oh, but you are.” Patrick nodded at his two best friends, Samuel and James. “Why don’t you guys have the team show these…gentleman…to their car and make sure they know their way out of the city?”

“Let’s go.” The larger shifters I was thankful I had built a friendship within class the last few weeks, took the arms of my small-town bullies and led them off into the direction of the parking lots.

“You okay, Arley?” Patrick sat down and put a hand on my shoulder. “Is Fen on his way?”

I opened my mouth to speak but was silenced when my frenzied mate dropped down to his knees in front of me and pulled me into his arms.

“Oh, thank the goddess.” Fen kissed me and then turned his head to face Patrick. “Thanks, man. I saw your guys draggin’ them away and knew I didn’t need to worry about dealing with them and could focus on making sure my mate was okay.”

“Anytime, man.” Patrick shrugged as if what he did was nothing. It was huge, at least for me. “I can’t stand idiots like that. Thinking they can do whatever they want just because nature deems them a predator.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at the intimidatingly large but sweet giant. “It’s nice to know that I had backup.”

“Of course you do, Arley.” Patrick winked. “We are all family here on campus. Regards of your shifter species. Hell, even the humans and witches are under our protection. No small-town small-minded fools will get to you. Not on our watch.”

It felt good to know we were creating that out here on campus. I liked knowing that my support system expanded out from Fen, his family, and our roommates. “Thanks.”

“Why don’t I walk you two home? I know you can handle them, Fen, but I think you should focus on Arley and those babes right now. Let me be on the lookout and get you two safe.”

“I appreciate it, brother.” Fen held out a hand, and the two shifters shook. “Let’s get back to the house. You can let me know what your friends did to Marcus and his boys later. I hope they heed the warning and leave us alone.”

“I can almost guarantee they won’t,” Patrick chuckled as he stood, and we began to walk toward our house. “I’ve met their kind before. They might need a bit of a larger push to finally run home with their tails between their legs. I hope we didn’t make a bigger mess for you. Just wanted to make sure Arley was all right.”

“They are the ones making a mess.” Fen shook his head. “Arley and I left town and don’t plan on returning. My parents even said that they will visit us instead of us ever needing to step foot in that town again. Marcus just doesn’t know when to stop.”

“Well, if they show up again, call us. We will help you punctuate your message to leave you alone.”

Fen

“They got away. Sorry.” Patrick shook his head. “We chased them through campus but lost them once we hit the city streets. We tried tracking their scents but the cars diluted it. There was just too much traffic.”

“It’s okay, man.” I slapped my friend on the back. “We appreciate all your help. Hopefully we scared them enough that they ran back home to their backlands.” Although I had my reservations about Marcus’ intelligence. Didn’t he understand no meant no? “I doubt it though. I can’t believe this is the third day this week they have shown up on campus and bothered my mate.”

“Well, we are here to help. Between all of us on the team and you, we can keep Arley protected. Let us know any times you can’t walk him to class or back home and one of us will be there to make sure no one messes with him.” Patrick’s dragon made himself known in the roughening and deepening of his voice. “I know you aren’t officially part of my clan, but I will still ensure the safety of all shifters on my lands.”

“Thanks, man.” I really felt Patrick’s sincerity; it eased a part of my heart that had been on edge with the entire Marcus ordeal. “I think we are ready to be part of the campus pack. Clan, pack, dens whatever you all use for the mixed shifter collection we have here.”

“I think we use all thousand terms interchangeably. But officially the council uses pack.”

“So you have an elder council and then an alpha?”

“We have the elder council, but also we have three alphas that represent different types of shifters that sit on the pack council with the elders.” Patrick described the setup of his pack. It was impressive. I knew a little bit about it but had been focused on my classes and being so close to graduating now that I hadn’t dug deeper. For all they were doing for me and Arley, I’d have to see if I could help them any. “As we grow, we can add more. But all decisions go through the council ultimately. Although the alphas do have authority to act justly and quickly if a situation arises and there’s no time to wait for a council vote to take action.”

“I like that structure, honestly.” I nodded, sounded too good to be true, but I had witnessed it in action. They ran their pack the way a pack should be run. “My old pack was attempting that but Marcus doesn’t want to give up claim to the alpha seat.”

“Marcus needs to be brought to heel.” Patrick sneered, a wisp of smoke leaving his nostrils. “He doesn’t deserve the title of alpha and I really hope your old pack realizes that and sticks with the council.”

“That’s what we are hoping as well. We may not live there still but we grew up there, have ties to the land. We don’t want to see the area destroyed by Marcus’ antics.” It would be more than just my parents that would suffer, and that just didn’t sit right with me and my wolf.

“And the guys he runs with are idiots. I bet if he went down, they would soon fall as well. Maybe I should dig a bit deeper for you guys and make a friendly call to a fellow pack about the things their potential leader has been up to.”

“You could try. I plan to call as well. Maybe once the council sees that Marcus really is no good, they will put an end to his bullshit.” That was all I could do for now. With my mate safe from Marcus for a third time now, I still felt apprehensive. Like it wasn’t the last time we’d run into Marcus. That thought alone had my wolf’s hackles rising. “Have your friends found anything yet about the virus that is plaguing the pack? Maybe Marcus is involved in some way?”

“They did find that there was magic involved and they are attempting to unweave the spell to see the situation more clearly. They were able to treat some of the members and they feel better, but without knowing the source of the issue, the virus will just keep recurring and spreading.” Patrick confirmed what I had suspected. There was someone behind this mysterious cough. “Don’t worry though, my friends are working on it and have been advised to bring in the Shifter Council if they have no progress over the next week.”

“I really appreciate this, Patrick. I am grateful for everything you have done for me, Arley, and for my parents and our old pack.”

“Like I said, Fen, we protect everyone who is on our land or is connected to our friends. We will find out what is wrong and we will help rectify it. No one deserves to be threatened and no shifter deserves to be kept ill. We will fix this.”

“I am going to get going. Arley needs rest.” I placed a hand on Arley’s round belly and felt a bit of movement. Our pups had gotten a bit of adrenaline when their papa was in danger. Hopefully they were settling down now and would be okay.

“Take care of your mate and pups.” Patrick slapped me on the back and placed a hand on Arley’s shoulder, transferring some of his alpha calming power to him and the babies. “I hope that helps bring them peace. Let me know if you need any more help.”

Walking away from Patrick, I did worry about what was going on in my hometown and where Marcus and his men had gone, but there was one priority I had to focus on. Regardless of what was to come, I needed to get my mate home and fed. He was all that mattered.