Page 6 of Legacy Wolf: Semester One (Legacy Wolf #1)

ATTICUS

“That was some grade-A fucking bullshit,” I grumbled to myself.

It was one thing to have the school allow the latents’ admission—someone had to take pity on them. It was quite another for Sombertooth to give them a spot on my team.

And yes, it was my team. I was captain for a reason—I brought our school to victory every single time. We were going to be the laughing stock of our division, and Coach seemed to be A-OK with that.

My wolf was itching to get out, but instead, I had barely contained him enough to not get suspended from the team. Being sent away for this practice had been bad enough.

“Chill, Atticus, I can see your beast.” Phelan gave my shoulder a squeeze as he came up behind me. “We’ll figure this out.”

It wasn’t like him to be the think first act later roommate.

That was usually me, and not out of any wisdom.

No, I just needed to make sure I kept my place at the top.

If doing so meant I had to be calculated, so be it.

This place was a means to an end—that end being CEO of my family’s company.

All CEOs since its inception graduated from Sombertooth cum laude .

It wasn’t an option, it was an expectation.

“Fine.” I had more to say, but not until I calmed down.

Rawling hitting the bullseye without even trying had me rattled. I missed more of my aims than I hit, and each time I did, it only made things worse. There was no reason for me to let the little latent get under my skin like this—none. It was bad enough he stank up the place.

You’d have thought he’d have gathered his stuff and dropped out of school by now. Shifters were far from subtle. Just the few times I saw him, the students made it very evident that he was both stinky and a joke. If he didn’t pick up on that, that was a him problem.

After Coach decided to be an ass, I got stubborn.

Fuck her for sending me away. Instead, I waited behind the sports center for everyone to be done with their practice so I could find out what happened after I left.

I’m sure Coach had meant for me just to go back to Phoenix House and shower and change, but she didn’t say it specifically, so technically I was obeying.

I needed to vent and possibly find someone to shift with.

My wolf needed out—or to get laid. Either would do.

The downside to using the communal locker room was that I couldn’t pick who was or was not there, and as Phelan, Zev, and I walked in, the place was already occupied.

Channon, Bardoul, and Holden were there in various stages of undress.

I wasn’t sure if they were on the same team or not, but whatever the case was, their departure would be welcome.

Channon was likable, if not unmemorable. He was here for some major that he’d probably mentioned a thousand times in my presence but had never sunk in. Why? Because he was forgettable, and for that reason, he was never going to amount to anything.

And then there was Bardoul. He belonged in this place as much as Rawling did, but for a different reason.

Bardoul came from a family of nobodies. They hadn’t even made enough to cover his tuition, and the wolf was constantly doing work-study jobs, including working at the dining hall.

Had I met him outside of Sombertooth, I’d probably not have been so argh at the guy, but he was here and he didn’t belong, and that had him right smack dab in the middle of my radar standing beside Rawling.

Probably the worst of the three dawdlers left in the locker room was Holden. With him, though, it was because he held a position of power over us. Being a TA meant that he had the power of the grade over me, and that sucked.

“Archery needs the room now.” I was being a dick. Didn’t care.

A few more members of the team wandered in, adding some credence to what I’d just said.

“I just need my shoes.” Bardoul grabbed all of his things.

My wolf let out a quiet, yet forceful growl.

“I can just take them with me.” And off Bardoul went, earning me a death glare from Holden.

He could stay pissed. Holden’s opinion wasn’t worth the time it took for him to actually form them. Still, I needed to suck it up and play nice with him. The other two could piss off.

“I’m sorry. We have a tournament coming up, and we need to talk about strategy.

” Both things I said were true. The main tourney for the semester was right around the corner, and we also needed to talk strategy, only we weren’t making a plan for victory with our bow and arrows.

It was 1000% about getting Rawling off the team. At least that was my goal.

“We’re going,” Channon answered for all three. “We were just last in from our run.” Meaning cross country, was my guess. If they had just been frolicking in their fur, there would have been no need for the locker room.

It was only a few minutes later and they were gone, along with some of my teammates, which was good.

I needed to talk to like-minded people, and a few of the underclassmen on the team were still a complete mystery to me.

Maybe they understood the reason latents were a danger to our kind or maybe they were all love everyone . I just didn’t know.

We all popped in our showers. The conversation could wait that long.

The nice thing about the locker room was that unlike in Phoenix House, the water pressure was perfect.

I stayed under the water a tad longer than planned, and when I got back out into the locker area, Zev and Phelan were already getting dressed.

“We need to do something.” I opened my locker and grabbed my clean clothes. “We can’t have latents ruining the school.”

“Agreed.” Phelan ruffled his towel over his head. “His family had to know he was latent from birth with that name. It’s so—wolf adjacent—wolf counsel, pish.” He rolled his eyes.

Phelan’s family was huge into naming their kids based on their beasts.

Their three kids were Lovell, Randolf, and Phelan—all three meaning wolf.

At least they weren’t one of those huge families that needed more than a minivan to get around.

I couldn’t imagine the names the younger ones would’ve ended up with.

“His name is neither here nor there.” I threw on my shirt. “His condition, that's a different matter.”

“I don’t see that he’s hurting anything.” Zev. Of course it was Zev. “He can hit a target, and sure, he stinks, but so does the entire cross country team after a run.”

“Not helping.” I closed my eyes, not wanting him to see how close my wolf was to the surface.

“Best you can do is a petition.” Phelan sat down to put his shoes on.

“Those never do much of anything.” Zev had a point. “Unless having a target on your back as the person who started it is your goal.”

“We just have to hope his ‘skill’ today was luck.” I didn’t want to make this all about me, but having him come in like that and try and take my spot. Yeah, no. Not gonna happen.

“I’m going.” Zev tossed his towel into the bin. “Don’t do anything stupid.” And out he went, leaving just Phelan and me.

“I don’t know why I took a shower.” I stepped into my jeans, not bothering with my underwear. I needed to go for a run and was only going to take them off again in a few. “I need to take my fur. Coming?”

Phelan was a good friend and had been since before we were roommates.

Our parents ran in the same circles, and I’d known him pretty much since birth.

But now that we lived together, our bond had solidified, and we were more like brothers than just friends, and I appreciated it. Unlike Phelan, I was an only child.

“Sure. But I can’t stay out too late. I have a bio assignment I haven’t started yet that’s due tomorrow morning.” Phelan was all about the history and literature classes. Science? Not so much.

“I don’t need long. My beast just needs some time to burn off energy, is all.”

We gathered up our things and snuck around to the treeline that abutted Phoenix House’s backyard, ditched our clothing, and then took off.

Had I been with an omega, it would’ve been a very different run.

Hunter and prey was my wolf’s most favorite game, only it required either an omega or an alpha willing to take that more submissive role. Neither Phelan nor I were that beast.

Instead, we ran side by side through the familiar terrain.

I was still livid about nearly losing my position as captain earlier.

Coach was not one for idle threats. If she wanted me to step down, she’d force it.

Would my father put up a fuss? Absolutely.

Did he donate enough to have that fuss matter?

Possibly, but I wasn’t going to risk it.

I just needed to bide my time until I could figure out a way to get Rawling out of my life and out of Sombertooth.