Page 19 of Legacy Wolf: Semester One (Legacy Wolf #1)

ATTICUS

I walked along the hallway admiring Jack’s butt.

If my folks knew I was having sex with a bear, they’d raise an eyebrow and remind me it would be years before I met my forever mate.

That was code for yes, I was too young, but my fated mate was a wolf.

And while I agreed with them, I couldn’t get Jack out of my head.

And if she did come up in conversation with my parents, I’d omit to mention Jack was latent.

I was convinced she’d make contact with her beast at some point, maybe my wolf could help.

Heh-heh .

Glad you think so too .

Sex with Jack was freaking amazing. And the way she sucked me off. No one I’d slept with had me coming as hard as she did.

Having her living across the hall was perfect ‘cause I’d often catch a glimpse of her as she opened the door. But thinking of her room brought me to her roommate. That other damn latent, Rawling.

I hated him with every fiber of my body, and I was determined to have him first humiliated and then thrown out of Sombertooth.

I didn’t care that his godfather was friends with Professor Shaw and my uncle when they were students here.

And no way did he pick up a bow and shoot a bullseye first time and almost every time.

That sneaky little shit had to have been coached by Rawlins his entire life.

Him sauntering up pretending he didn’t know one end of the bow from another and his “Wow! How did I do that?” expression didn’t fool me.

I wasn’t in many of his classes, and Jack was loyal to the guy and shut me down if I tried to talk shit about him, so I had to get deets from others.

From what they’d told me, he was good at math.

That also pissed me off because I hated the subject and had to do online tutoring, though no one other than Phelan was aware of that, and he was sworn to silence.

According to the information I’d been given by my spies, Rawling was a good student. Not top of his class, but he passed everything. But not having his beast to guide him regarding lunar cycles, his worst subject was astronomy. Most shifters passed it with ease, but latents had to work at it.

Thinking of the moon had my mind going to human myths about werewolves, which were probably based on wolf shifters who’d gone rogue centuries ago. Werewolves were fiction, but they sure as shit scared humans. That I loved.

My plan was to prove to the astronomy professor that Rawling had plagiarized his latest assignment.

While my computer-hacking skills would never get me a job as a cyber crime analyst, the Sombertooth firewall was built by amateurs and therefore easy to crack.

The college insisted on students uploading their assignments rather than handing in paper copies—save the environment and all that shit, even though shifters and our beasts had been doing just that for centuries.

If I could manipulate Rawling’s assignment by adding a bunch of text from noted astronomers on the web, the professor would recognize it immediately. And if not, an anonymous email would point it out. No, why hide behind a fake account? I’d be proud to be the one to take down that latent phony.

While I wasn’t in Rawling’s astronomy class, I did take the subject—we all did—so I had a vested interest in anyone cheating.

But I had to think of a reason why I’d stumbled on Rawling’s assignment.

They weren’t made public. Maybe as I had the room across from him, I could pretend I was in the room chatting to Jack and his laptop was open.

And being the upstanding citizen I was, I had to report it.

It was the perfect plan.

As we had until midnight to upload an assignment the night before it was due, that fucker Rawling must have had a hard time with it.

I checked at nine and it still wasn’t there.

I cursed him forcing me to stay up late because the Phoenix House wolves were going on a dawn run tomorrow.

Shame Jack hadn’t been up for a quickie, I could have spent the time with her rather than in my bed alone.

Phelan was asleep, thank gods. He wouldn’t have approved. While he was my buddy, he had a strict moral code about cheating. Morals were for losers in my opinion.

Nine fifty-five and the damned assignment still wasn’t up. Perhaps the system was borked. Finally at one minute before ten, it appeared. I had a quick read through. Not bad. Maybe he’d been in touch with his beast and gotten pointers.

I really hadn’t thought this through, something I’d been told more than once in my life.

It took me two hours to find suitable places where I could insert sentences from first a textbook, then a lecture that had been published online, and finally, a stroke of genius from me, I added a paragraph written by AI.

We were forbidden from using AI-generated language in assignments at Sombertooth.

It was good enough. Because shifters were so attuned to the moon and the stars, the astronomy professor, Professor Stanton, didn’t pay a lot of attention to our assignments, but for the latents, I bet he’d pore over every word.

Getting less sleep would be worth it to see Rawling marched off school property. Now I had to wait a day or so before alerting the professor of the blatant cheating scandal. I was so proud of myself and intended to reward my friends who helped once we’d seen the last of Rawling.

Everything went according to plan, though I’d have expected Rawling to be dragging his ass after staying up late finishing his assignment.

I waited two days, which was difficult, because I wanted to shout that we had a cheater among us.

But when I finally sent the email to the professor, I took off to the woods, my beast itching to run and hunt.

My clothes were ruined because I gave him his fur before I undressed.

We stayed out for hours as he hunted rabbits and ran for miles, enjoying the freedom of being away from the college and people. It was early morning when I snuck into Phoenix House naked and scrambled up the stairs and into the shower.

“Where have you been?” Phelan walked out of the bathroom. “Your phone’s been blowing up.”

“You’ll find out.” Ignoring my messages, I jumped into the shower, enjoying this being Rawling’s last day. But when I came out, assured I’d achieved victory, Mrs. Adilla was at the door, glowering.

“Get dressed,” she hissed. “Now!”

Her tone didn’t allow for any questions, and when I followed her down the stairs, she led me to Professor Stanton’s office. I was supposed to be congratulated, so why the attitude? Did he not appreciate what I’d done for Sombertooth?

“Don’t sit.” His nostrils flared.

I’d covered my tracks online. No one would know it was me unless they were more skillful than the Sombertooth IT specialists.

“Care to explain yourself?”

Wait a minute. They were acting as though I was the culprit instead of the hero. “I thought I was doing a good deed by pointing out what Rawling had done.”

He slammed his fist on the desk. “What you did, Atticus! You're not Rawling!”

This was bad, but I’d gotten myself out of tight spots before. “I don’t understand.”

And he laid it out. That sneaky fucker Rawling had prepared a video assignment of him doing a powerpoint presentation, but the professor had insisted on him sending a written copy, which he’d done, hours before.

Unbeknownst to me, the college had hired tech specialists to upgrade our online security.

They’d delayed the uploading of assignments for some hours, which was why Rawling’s didn’t appear until late.

And worst of all, they’d pinpointed me as the one who altered his work.

“I can explain.” I couldn’t because I’d dug myself into a deep enough hole I couldn’t see out. Shit! Damn! Fuck!

“The only reason you’re not out on your ass is because your parents just threw a shitload of money at the school and because they have powerful friends on the school board.

Mrs. Adilla will decide how many house points to deduct from Phoenix House.

But you try a stunt like this again, and I’ll personally pack your bags and toss you out of Sombertooth. ”

He was leaning over the desk and in my face as he added, “Is that clear?”

No one had ever spoken to me like that.

As I made my way back to my room, other students must have heard Professor’s Stanton’s rant. Their beasts shone in their eyes. There were whispers and nudges. That was the treatment we meted out to Rawling. Not me. Not me!

I hated him even more.

When I reached my room, a group of Phoenix House students were huddled at the door.

“Nice work, Atticus,” one snorted and bumped into me as he stalked off.

“You really fucked up,” Phelan said as he grabbed his bag. “Not entirely sure what you did, but you messed up big time.” And he left me alone.