Page 60 of Legacy Wolf: Semester One (Legacy Wolf #1)

RAWLING

The stomach flu had left the building. Or at least I was feeling better, as was Phelan.

We hadn’t been able to see each other more than passing in the halls since he got sick.

Atticus was a butt when I tried to bring Phelan soup, and then there was me smelling like a shifter without the ring that had me pretty much in my head for the past few days.

It was one thing to have a part of the hunter lore lining up with who I was and my experiences.

It was quite another to have each day adding another “coincidence” commonality.

It was getting harder to convince myself that I was reading too much into it and that everything was fine and I was just a human.

A human who had vivid dreams that felt like memories of hunting people I’d never known.

A human whose scent changed to shifter near my twentieth birthday.

A human who could hit a bullseye every time with no effort.

A human who was hearing voices, or one voice at least. A human who scented blood from the past and wanted more.

A human who was not pregnant—absolutely not pregnant.

“I need air.” Lots and lots of air. I shoved all of my books into my satchel, not even taking the time to hang it on its hook. School could wait. Or not. Either way, I needed out.

I swung open the door to see Phelan standing there. So many times, that was exactly what I wanted, but right now, I just needed to get out of Phoenix House.

“I gotta go.” I pushed past him and ran down the stairs and out the door, not stopping until I reached the warm late-spring air. I sucked in deep breath after deep breath, my heart that had been racing slowing to a more normal rate.

“You okay?” Phelan’s hand rested on my shoulder.

“Yeah. I don’t know what that was about,” and it was mostly true. Freaking out like that didn’t make sense. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been living with all of that knowledge already. “I think the pressure of finals, maybe.” That wasn’t helping, that was for sure.

“It’s your first semester. Next one will be better.” He placed his hand on the small of my back, right there where anyone could see. I hardly called it a confession of love, but it grounded me and had me feeling more myself.

Find . I wasn’t going to acknowledge the voice in my head. I refused.

“What do you say about grabbing food and bringing it outside for a picnic?” Phelan spoke low and close to my ear, his warm breath tickling my neck.

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” We walked side by side to the dining hall, my hand itching to hold his. This in and of itself was a huge step, I wasn’t going to ruin it by going that bit too far and reaching over no matter how much I yearned to.

We each went through the line and grabbed what we wanted to eat and met outside. I opted for a sandwich, and Phelan had some sort of salad. We weren’t ignoring each other as much as we both wanted different things. At least that’s what I told myself.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked.

“As long as it’s outside, I’m there.” I held onto my little to-go bag.

We ended up under a tree behind our dorm.

It was one of the nicer spots on campus, and thanks to the angle, it afforded us some privacy without making it look as if we were hiding.

We might not have been in your face, but the only-behind-closed-doors thing was over.

It had to be. The other way was eating me from the inside out.

The two of us ate our food, flicking away ants, laughing about the way they kept coming back, and talking about our finals.

We didn’t mention the summer or our future, and I was glad.

I needed things to be light. The stress of the past month, heck, the whole semester, was too intense to talk about anything too deep.

And when we were done eating, before the two of us returned to our rooms to resume finals preparation, he held my hand under the tree, right where anyone could see us.

Would he have pulled his hand from mine if another student happened by?

I didn’t know, but I liked to pretend that he wouldn’t have.

Find . And that voice inside of me wasn’t rearing his horrible head again—I refused to allow it. Or at least I pretended that I didn’t hear it. That would work, right?

It didn’t work.

Phelan

I left Rawling’s room after some afternoon delight.

It was nice, not having to pretend to myself that we weren’t anything but sex to each other.

It made the sex exponentially better, but also, I was finally allowing myself to get to know the real Rawling and what lay behind the mask he often put up.

The more I learned about him, the more we had in common.

Sure, our childhoods were very different, but that didn’t mean there weren’t commonalities we’d enjoyed as kids, like riding bikes and eating Pixy Stix.

We even had the same favorite childhood movie, both of us pissed as heck when they let the horse die, even if he didn’t stay dead. Stupid pits of despair.

I wasn’t sure how our relationship was going to progress, especially with summer coming, but I wanted it to continue when the new school year began.

And this time, I wasn’t going to fuck it up royally.

He’d given me a second chance, one I probably didn’t deserve. There was no way he’d give me a third.

Going back to my room to shower wasn’t what I wanted, but rumors spread like wildfire in this place, and scenting like Rawling would be like making a huge announcement that we were an item.

Fuck, I sounded like my folks. An item? Who said that shit?

Me, apparently. It was one thing to be more open and another to put up a social media post saying we were fucking.

“What is that?” Atticus started to be an alphahole before I stepped into our room. Why was he there? Didn’t he have class?

“Shut it,” I snapped back, the worst way to react to Atticus. When you bared your teeth, he came right back at you.

“You scent like that latent piece of dog doo.” Gods, my roommate was a prejudiced jerk. Not that this was new information.

“That’s because I was just with him.” I shut the door behind me, the conversation not for anyone and everyone walking by. “Not that it’s your business.”

“Dude, I know you need to get laid, but of all people, why latent loser?”

“You sure say latent a lot for someone who wants to get back with Jack.” At least that was my take on it, and given he didn’t immediately deny it, I was right.

“That isn’t the same and you know it.”

“No. I don’t know it, and neither do you.” I walked past him and toward the bathroom. “I like Rawling… a lot. It’s more than just sex.”

“You are so stupid. You are going to throw every last bit of your reputation away, for what? A college fling with a flipping latent.” Atticus was seething, and I knew better than not to poke him anymore, instead just listening to him as he continued on.

“They should never have let latents in the school.”

“I’m going to take a shower and go to class.” I stepped into the bathroom, sticking out my head to add, “And I really hope that Jack didn’t hear your little outburst. You may hate Rawling, but you don’t hate her, and shit like that cuts deep.”

The fucker had the decency to look at least a tiny bit remorseful.

“I do hate him,” he agreed, as if that was the point of what I was saying.

“I know you do.” I shut the door behind me, locking it, and then locking the other door as well.

I needed to be alone and away from all the negativity. I’d left Rawling feeling on top of the world, and in a few brief minutes, Atticus managed to deflate my mood until I ended up in grumpy land.

Cranking the shower as hot as I could, I stripped my clothing and climbed under the steamy water.

Washing Rawling’s scent away hurt. My wolf was all about showing off his conquest. He didn’t get that I lived among college students and that college students were a nosy bunch.

Nosy and mean. No, showering off was for the best, even if my beast and I were both in agreement that it sucked.

One day, I could walk around with Rawling’s scent melded to mine. Today was not that day.