Page 57 of Legacy Wolf: Semester One (Legacy Wolf #1)

RAWLING

The day dragged, and when I checked the time, it was only eleven a.m. I shook my wrist, assuming the watch had stopped, but when I compared it to my phone, it showed the same time.

I wanted to put my head on the desk and sleep.

Thank gods, the summer vacation was just over the horizon because I was limping toward the end of the school year.

Instead of grabbing lunch in the dining hall, I stood at the door, my belly heaving at the smell of today’s special which appeared to be mac and cheese. I slapped a hand over my mouth and raced up to my room. The wave of nausea passed after I lay down and took a few sips of water.

I hadn’t been sick much since coming to Sombertooth, but it would be weird to escape a semester at college without catching some nasty bug.

But I was a little hungry, and I rummaged in a drawer for a protein bar but flung it in the garbage when I unwrapped it. Ewww. How did we eat these dry, tasteless bars?

Gross. Instead, I found some candy at the bottom of my pack and sucked on that.

“Hey, what are you doing here instead of eating lunch?” Jack raced in.

“I could ask you the same thing.” I folded the pillow under my head and closed my eyes.

“I forgot my cleats for soccer practice this afternoon.”

“Okay.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Why are you in bed in the middle of the day?”

“I’m tired.” That was part lie. I was exhausted, but I didn’t mention the nausea because Jack would fuss over me like a mother hen, and right now, I didn’t want that.

I adored Jack. She was my best friend and the sister I never had, but I wanted to be left alone for the next thirty minutes until class started.

“Okay. See you in class.”

I squinted at her as she opened the door and caught a glimpse of Phelan before she slammed it.

I was in no mood for a dick in my ass, and even though I was still wavering between him and me just being fuck buddies on my terms and us being something more, I sensed Phelan was someone who would make a mark on life.

But I pushed those thoughts away and set my alarm for thirty minutes, and when I staggered into Professor Shaw’s class five minutes after it began, there were whispers from some of the students that I had a hangover, I’d taken drugs, or I’d been fucking in the woods during the lunch hour. Jack just smirked when I sat down.

Sombertooth had a no-tolerance policy toward drugs and alcohol which had me wondering what a drunk or high shifter might do or say to a bunch of humans. Would they shift in front of them? Tell them tall tales?

I was so out of it, I didn’t register that Holden was handing me back an assignment until I was staring at it.

I got a good grade, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was sleep, and after not eating lunch, I was ravenous.

Maybe Bardoul could slip into the dining hall and grab some rolls.

I needed carbs. Not macaroni carbs because that was laden with cheese.

No, my belly jolted as an image of melted cheese popped into my head. Just bread, nothing else.

When class was done, Jack took off for practice, and I was torn between leaving with the other students and perhaps being cornered by Phelan or staying behind and having to chat with Holden. In the end, I tagged along with Bardoul to the dining hall while he did me a huge favor and picked up rolls.

“I owe you,” I said over my shoulder before gathering enough energy to climb the stairs. While I’d timed asking my friend for food perfectly, I’d fucked up as I was hauling myself upstairs. His scent announced him behind me, and as sick as I was, my dick reacted.

“You coming to archery practice?” Phelan asked.

Damn, how could that have slipped my mind? “I am but need to shower first.”

He nudged me, and while I wasn’t in the mood for sex, the intimacy of the gesture wasn’t lost on me.

“Need anyone to scrub your back?”

He was so freaking obvious. “Nah, it’s an in-and-out shower. Just to get rid of the sweat.” The fucking blazers not only made me itch, but also had me perspiring.

He was beside me, and I gazed at his gorgeous face as he raised a brow. “In and out? I can do that.”

I’d walked into that, and I giggled. “Stop it. I’m going into my room, and I’ll see you at practice.

” Not bothering to actually shower, as I was going to get more sweaty doing archery, I stripped down, washed under my arms, and changed my clothes.

Holding a roll, I tore out of the room and headed to archery.

Atticus was scowling as usual, but I ignored him and I scored all bullseyes.

Inwardly, I was cackling because the asshat did not do well, and Coach reamed him out for not concentrating.

Atticus and Phelan left together, strolling toward the woods, probably to shift, but the asshat noted that Phelan smiled at me as they were leaving.

He glared at his friend, but that was Phelan’s battle. Nothing to do with me.

My energy was depleted when I reached the room, and when I finally got in the shower, I let the water pound over my head while I rested my hands on the tiles. My stomach grumbled, but I couldn’t face a protein bar and I’d lost interest in the bread, so I went to the dining hall.

Mashed potatoes. I took three helpings, and Jack waved as I was searching for a place to sit. She was still in her soccer gear and she was alone. Knox was nice enough, but I wasn’t in the mood to have them making eyes at one another and playing footsie under the table while I ate.

“Wow! Not a leafy green or any protein in sight,” she noted.

I shrugged. “This is what I’m in the mood for,” I told her as I shoveled a spoonful of the mash into my mouth.

Jack put down her fork. “What’s going with you? Sleeping in the middle of the day and now eating weird shit. Are you upset over—” She jerked her head at Holden who was sitting with a bunch of other TAs. “You-know-who?”

“Nope.” I wasn’t. I was still at that awkward stage where I didn’t want to run into an ex, because what did I say?

But I wasn’t sad. I had invested in the relationship at the beginning, but I’d had so many doubts that when I ended it, I was done.

Besides, the ghost of my relationship with Phelan had hung over Holden and me.

Jack lowered her voice. “Thank gods you didn’t sleep with him or I’d insist on you taking a pregnancy test.”

The fork fell from my fingers and clattered to the floor, my interest in the mashed potatoes forgotten, especially with everyone staring at me.

“Did I say something wrong?” she hissed. “You didn’t, right?”

“No,” I said a little too loudly. Anyone who hadn’t been looking at me before was now.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“No problem.” Those potatoes with all that butter were not sitting well in my belly.

But it was my head that was more frantic than my flip-flopping stomach.

Pregnant. I couldn’t be pregnant because Holden and I hadn’t had sex.

I hadn’t even seen his dick. But what Jack didn’t know was that I’d slept with Phelan.

I hadn’t told her for obvious reasons. She’d moved on from the asshat while I’d done the opposite with my alpha.

My alpha? What? He wasn’t mine, even if we were in a sort of relationship.

I didn’t own him. My mind was flitting from one subject to another because the P-word was looming with the question unanswered.

Could I be pregnant? Fuck no! I was too young and so was Phelan.

I had my whole life ahead of me, not to mention the rest of college.

Leaving my plate where it was, I pushed my chair back, the screeching making people sitting nearby cringe, I mumbled, “Sorry,” to Jack and took off.

Wishing I had a room to myself, I got into my PJs and turned off the light when I reached the room, a signal to Jack that I wasn’t up for any more socializing this evening.

But the potatoes weren’t done with me. Refusing to be ignored, they slid up my throat, and hurling myself into the bathroom, I kneeled over the toilet and brought everything up.

When I finally flushed, I sat on the floor, head in my hands, and wept.

This should’ve been a joyous occasion, but I had no family to support me, and there was the whole hunter issue which was more terrifying than being a single teen father.

Shit, I was going to become a statistic.