Page 61 of Legacy Wolf: Semester One (Legacy Wolf #1)

RAWLING

Tossing the covers to one side, I got out of bed, peering toward the dark shape in the bed that was Jack and making sure I didn’t wake her.

I was wide awake. My sleep had been disturbed for a while now, with me reading about hunters, thinking I was pregnant, and Jack telling me my scent had changed. It was too much, and I tossed and turned almost every night.

But when I was getting ready for bed, I checked if Jack was already asleep—she was—and I put a tee and shorts on rather than PJs.

Not that she would have cared what I wore to bed ‘cause she often put on a baggy old T-shirt.

But I usually wore PJs. It was my thing ‘cause Rawlins and I had the same PJs.

It was a Christmas tradition. When I was little, he’d buy a pair for me and an identical pair for himself. But when I was old enough to choose the PJs, we’d take turns to order them each Christmas and surprise the other person.

A rush of grief overwhelmed me, and I leaned on the door, unable to move, a single tear trickling down my cheek. Another quick glance at Jack who hadn’t moved and I slipped out the door.

Phelan’s scent was in the hallway. His banishment by Atticus was over, and he’d recovered.

And we’d been fucking a lot since we’d both gotten over the flu.

I traced my finger over his name on the door and sighed.

I was nineteen and so was he, we had a lot of living and learning to do.

It had to be lust. Yeah, I was in lust with him.

Not the other L-word that I was convinced he’d been about to say the night of our reunion.

Definitely not the other L-word , I repeated in my head as if I was trying to convince myself.

Stepping lightly along the passageway, I avoided the creaky boards and crept down the stairs.

We weren’t supposed to leave the building at night, unless it was an emergency, but the college gates were closed and there wouldn’t be anyone around.

There were rumors the school had installed hidden cameras around the perimeter and on the buildings, but when I’d mentioned it to Holden before we broke up, he’d scoffed at that.

Not that he was privy to that information, but he, along with the other TAs, were in that hybrid position of still being students but having privileges the rest of us didn’t.

Anyway, I didn’t want to think about Holden. He wasn’t a bad guy, not at all. But I didn’t want him taking up space in my head.

Walking out of Phoenix House, I embraced the rush of cool air on my face. Even though it was almost summer, the temperature dropped suddenly in the wee small hours.

A creaking to my left had me pause, and my heart rate increased. A battalion of goosebumps marched over my skin, and I shivered as I tried to get air inside my lungs.

There was no beast inside me who could protect me from an intruder or whatever…

I removed the ring and stuck it in my pocket.

If I came across anyone in the dark, they’d think I was a shifter.

And if I did meet a student or professor, would I greet them or would I…

No, no, I wasn’t like that. That wasn’t me. I was no hunter.

On realizing the sound was caused by a tree branch, groaning in the breeze, my blood pressure which must have been spiked, lowered, and I took a breath.

Why did I come out here? Occasionally Sombertooth buildings were suffocating.

I’d loosen my tie, earning me a glare from whichever professor was delivering the lecture.

I’d take deep breaths, and the shifter scents emanating from every shifter in the room would have me desperate to rush outside and fill my lungs with fresh air.

I’d wondered if they were panic attacks or claustrophobia.

Maybe as a human, I wasn’t supposed to be surrounded by all shifters, all the time.

Shifters existed in every community, but from what I’d learned, it was rare not to have a mix of them and humans.

Perhaps I was allergic. I used to have a cat allergy, but I’d outgrown that.

Was that why Holden, a tiger shifter, and I weren’t meant to be together?

My brain finally sent a message to my legs, and I wandered along the path, not having any plan as to where I was going. But I found myself heading toward the woods, behind the buildings, the place where the shifters, at least the bigger ones, shifted.

Once again, I paused. The book, the one about myths and legends in the professor’s office, said the hunters—when they were animals, at the beginning of their time on earth—had four legs. Not fins and gills. They had four legs.

My shoulders sagged when I thought of how many animals did have four legs. But… but what if they were wolves and when they evolved and took their human form they only killed wolves. Sasha was a wolf, but what about Mika? I sighed when I recalled he was a raccoon, so that theory went out the window.

Looking up, I found myself where the grassy Sombertooth grounds ended and the forest began.

The woods, always a little forbidding during the day, were cloaked in layers of shadow and gloom.

I imagined ghostly fingers, made of nothing but mist swirling around and reaching out to me, tempting me to come closer where I’d be swallowed by…

Shit! Shit! Someone was standing in the shadows.

Run , I told my feet. Get out of here . They didn’t listen.

The blood in my veins turned to ice. I was going to crumble into a pile of icy chips and no one would know what happened to me because I’d have melted by the time anyone discovered I was missing.

My synapses were firing, making questions ping around in my head. At least this put paid to me thinking I had hunter blood. The guy, or whatever he was, was going to kill me, thinking I was a shifter. I fumbled in my pocket but my hands were shaking so much, I couldn’t pick up the ring. Fuck!

I thought of that stupid itchy blazer that I loathed. Being dead, I’d never have to wear it again. That was one plus against a whole column of minuses. Should have brought the phone and I could have asked the device’s virtual assistant to call 911.

The man sort of smiled, except there was no warmth in his grin. He beckoned me closer, but the voice decided to speak up. Right before we both died. Great freaking timing.

Friend .

No, a guy in a darkened forest in the middle of the night, saying nothing and wanting me to come closer, is most definitely not my friend. What the fuck?

But there was something else, not a second voice, not really. Or if it was, there were two voices? Any more and we could have a party. A team?

Unlike the voice, this feeling or sensation was looking out for me, loved me, was a part of me. The word Run flashed in my mind.

You think?

My legs got the message, and I got the fuck outta Dodge. Everyone in the movies looked back, and I always yelled, “Just run.” But like all those fools, I glanced over my shoulder. The stranger wasn’t coming after me. Instead, he turned and disappeared into the shadows.

Part of me experienced a tug, wanting to follow the guy, while the other part insisted we get away. There was a tussle. Not a real one but in my mind. I put my head down and charged ahead.

The distance to Phoenix House seemed like an age. I was gripped by terror that someone had locked me out and the man would appear behind me. But my fear was unfounded, and I raced inside.

Taking the steps two at a time, I hurled myself into my room, thankful I’d remembered the keycard when I left. Huddled under the covers, I put on my ring as my trembling body had the bed shaking and creaking.

“Rawling!” Jack sat up and flicked on a lamp. “What the fuck?” She peered at me, one eye closed. “Oh, I thought you’d brought someone into your bed. What was that noise?”

My chattering teeth told a story, more than any words, but I managed to get out, “I’m… I’m c-c-cold.”

“Do you want an extra blanket?”

“N-n-nah. Thanks.”

Pulling the covers over my head, I closed my eyes, trying to recall everything about the man. He looked like an ordinary guy. Did he have a scent? That area was awash with shifter scents of every description. Think, Rawling, think , I told myself.

As I relived the experience, I pushed away the wolf scents, Phelan’s in particular, the bears, squirrels, big cats, and raccoons.

There was another one, and from everything Jack had taught me, it was shifter.

But it had an edge to it, as though it’s been seared by fire.

I imagined it as metal, having been forged in pain.

That was ridiculous. What did I know about unique shifter aromas?

Next I examined what I’d come to think of as the voice.

It didn’t have my best interests at heart.

But the second sensation, more distant and kind, was that just me too?

It felt good, as though it wanted to hold me tight.

In great literature there were stories of people who had a good version of themselves and a bad one. Was that me?

There was no way I was going to sleep, so I grabbed my phone and filled my head with celebrity gossip, the ins and outs of the day’s political doings, natural disasters, and adorable pics of kids with their pets.

When the cruel gray light of dawn filled the room and I was no closer to sleep, I had a shower and got ready for the day.

“Can’t believe I missed you last night,” I told my blazer as I put it on.

“You need a vacation,” Jack grumbled as she stumbled into the bathroom. She had no idea how true that was. “You’re talking to your clothes.”