Page 16 of Ronen (Sweet Alps Legacy #1)

Chapter Twelve

Ronen

“Ohhh, I love her dress,” Emily exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly. “Gosh, I wish I could change outfits, just once. I mean, this was super stylish when I died, but it’s so outdated now.”

“Well,” I reminded her, turning off the ignition and staring out the windshield at the college students hurrying to and from classes, “retro always comes back in style. Why are you here? You rarely tag along with me outside the library.”

While Emily often vanished for short periods of time, she usually only manifested for me inside the library. It had been that way for as long as I could see ghosts.

She turned in the passenger seat, giving me a wide-eyed look. “Ro, it’s been a big day for you! Mason’s fall, finding out you’re fated to that hunk a hunka sexy man meat. I figured you could use a friend.”

“Please don’t ever put those words together in a sentence again, especially when describing Mason. ”

Glancing in the rearview mirror, I ran my hands through my hair, trying to tame it into something that looked like a brush had seen it at some point in my life. Giving it up as a lost cause, I made my way into the building Matty had told me his office was located in.

Before I had driven over, I had sent him a text asking if he was free to talk. He’d said his last class ended around three-thirty and then he would be in his office for a few hours. He’d suggested meeting for dinner, but I had told him that this couldn’t wait.

When I finished picking Matty’s brain on every single thing he had learned in his research on fated mates, I needed to go see Mason.

Emily floated next to me, and I did my best to ignore her presence, as she looked around.

“Man, I wish Sweet Alps would have had a college when I went to school. Hollow Ridge was nice and all, but it would have been sweet to have something this close.”

I don’t know why she insisted on carrying on a one-sided conversation when she bloody well knew I couldn’t respond to her.

Maybe that was exactly the reason she did it, because there was no way for me to respond to her and she could just carry on.

The hallway was crowded with students moving on to their next class, or just trying to make their way out of the building at the end of their day.

The sounds of talking, laughter, and too many bodies in one space threatened to overwhelm my senses, when an arm sliding through mine startled me.

“You lost, stranger?” The light voice of my cousin Rory’s mate, Becca, had me grinning. Mostly because I adored her, and a tad bit because I was relieved to see her. She’d be able to get me to Matty’s office. All these bodies moving around, the laughter and talking, was making me edgy.

“I was thinking of enrolling,” I teased, “Can you help me out with that.”

She threw her head back and laughed, her black curls bouncing. She was a short, petite, brown-skinned omega, who for some reason adored Rory. They had met at their freshman orientation at college–when I had been around thirteen–and had been inseparable since.

They weren’t fated, but that didn’t matter to them, because they were crazy in love. Honestly, they were perfect for each other, and I had my doubts Fate could have done a better job of matching two people than Rory and Becca.

“I don’t think we have any classes that would challenge that extra-large brain of yours,” she teased. “We used to only be a community college until about twenty years ago, remember. If you want to be a nurse or teacher, we’ve got you covered.”

It was true. Sweet Alps had been a small community college until about twenty years ago, when they had received a grant, and some financial backing from some donors with deep pockets.

I suspected my family might have been one of those donors, but not one of my uncles, or even my grandmother, would fess up.

Regardless, they had added on to the campus and buildings, built several dorms, and gotten more accreditations. While we didn’t have a law or medical school, we did have a superb teaching program, as well as a nursing program that was beginning to be highly sought after .

Leaning down, I kissed her cheek. “Is the morning sickness better?”

Her brown eyes turned soft, her free hand resting gently on her small visible bump. “Finally. Once I started avoiding garlic it got much better. Speaking of morning sickness, I have a bone to pick with you.”

“Me? What did I do?” And what did it have to do with her morning sickness? “Can we talk and walk? I’m assuming you can take me to Matty?”

She waved a hand in front of her in the direction we were facing.

Becca was a lot shorter than me, so I slowed my stride to match her smaller one.

“Right this way, sir. I need you to not let Rory borrow anymore books on pregnancy from the library. She is making me insane. I swear, if it’s not her, it’s Lachlan.

I mean, I’m glad he wants to be an involved grandparent, but not this involved.

I need him to be the helpful, ‘hey, you need a few hours away from the baby, we’ve got you covered’, type of grandparent. ”

I laughed, “It’s not my fault she was too impatient to wait for Amazon to deliver.

I mean, I can cut her off, but she’s gonna find ways to get what she wants.

Uncle Lachlan is just excited for his first grandbaby.

You’re carrying the first Sinclair grandchild and great grandchild, Becca,” I reminded her. “That gives you instant street cred.”

“Does it?” She arched her brow, looking impressed with herself. “I mean, I feel like I should get treated like royalty.”

“Absolutely. Use that power to your advantage and hold it over all their heads. How has Uncle Quinn been? I feel like he is totally not ready to be a grandpa. ”

She laughed, “Quinn is keeping me supplied with his famous cookies behind Rory’s back. Quinn is my guy. Quinn understands my needs.”

“So, he’s your cookie dealer?”

“Fuck yeah, he is. I’m craving the shit out of those cookies.

And Logan said next appointment we have to do some test to check for gestational diabetes, and Ror lost her mind.

She has done nothing but freaking worry about it.

She is convinced I have it or am going to get it.

Logan literally told her to calm her tits in the office, that it’s a routine test and I am showing no early signs of it, at all.

But she has taken all the good stuff out of the house, then waved her finger at Papa Quinn and told him he is not to bring anything home from the bakery for me. ”

Wincing in sympathy, because my uncle made some damn good cookies, as well as brownies, and cakes, I said, “Harsh. Well, I’m sure Uncle Quinn just took that as a challenge to see how much he could sneak to you.”

“Oh, he did! Quinn is good people. Hands down, my favorite father-in-law.” We stopped in front of a closed wooden door. “Here’s your brother.”

The door opened and a cute, young omega was backing out of the room, talking as he went. “Thank you so much, Professor Sinclair, I appreciate you taking me on.”

“It’s no trouble, Myles. I don’t want you to worry about failing. We’ll get you on the right track.”

The omega–Myles–nearly ran into Becca and me, in his haste to exit, blushing and stammering a sorry, as he hurried down the hallway.

Matty’s eyes followed him until he was out of sight, before he blinked and seemed to realize Becca and I were standing in his doorway, watching him .

Grinning, because I had seen that look on my brother’s face once or twice, I observed, “He’s cute.”

Matty scowled, tossing a pen across his desk. “He’s young.”

“And he’s a student,” Becca reminded him.

“And he’s a student,” Matty agreed. “Section five, paragraph three b of the administration handbook explicitly states that any relationship between a student and teacher are grounds for dismissal. The only exception is in the case of fated mates, of course. Don’t worry, I’m just tutoring him in his algebra class.

He’s having trouble and Emery sent him to me.

Her schedule is full, but she doesn’t want him to fail. ”

“Damn, Becca,” I teased, “that’s harsh. It’s not like the students are underage.”

“I don’t need my professors playing grab ass with their students or TA’s,” she told me primly. “Now, I need to get to a meeting with the dean. You boys be good.” She waved a finger at me, “No tattling on me either, Ro.”

“I would never!” I pretended to be offended, as she shut the door behind her.

“Secrets?” Matty questioned, looking mildly amused.

Shrugging, I sank down into one of the two empty seats in front of his desk. “I’ll never tell.”

“Is it the one about Uncle Quinn supplying her with cookies?” he asked, grinning. “Because Rory already knows.”

“Of course she does. And she hasn’t put a stop to it?”

“I talked her out of it. At least for now.”

“You always could calm her down. Becca said I’m not allowed to let her check out any more pregnancy books.”

Matty sat back in his chair, arms behind his neck. “Rory is a bit nervous about the baby. I think she’s more nervous about something happening to Becca, honestly. She overheard stories of Uncle Quinn’s delivery of her and Patrick and I think it has her scared. Though she won’t admit to it.”

Sounded like Rory. She was an alpha wolf through and through. A lawyer who was tough as the day was long, but Becca was her one soft spot. Rory’s dad, Quinn, had nearly died delivering her twin brother, Patrick, so I could understand where some of her fear was rooted.

“But you didn’t come here to talk about Rory and Becca,” Matty said, putting his hands on his desk and leaning towards me. “What’s up? You sounded serious on the phone.” He gave me a long look. “You look like you’ve had a day.”

“Understatement of my life.” Running a hand through my hair, I looked around his small office. Really, there was barely room for the desk and two chairs. The row of windows behind Matty let in some light, but it was no bigger than a shoebox.