I was still mulling over that moment with Rawling where he’d stared at me. It’d been as though our positions were reversed, and he was the dominant one and I was at his mercy.He must have been practicing in the mirror, or perhaps Phelan was giving tips on how to frighten me. Not that he did. No latent would ever make me nervous.
“Atticus, what do you think? Should we try? It might get us tossed out of school if it goes ass up.”
Zev was irritating me just by talking. Why couldn’t everyone just leave me alone? And unless they were discussing how to get Rawling expelled, I wasn’t interested in some squirrel or ferret shifter.
There was a downside to Rawling leaving Sombertooth and that was that Phelan might go too. But he wasn’t the guy I’d known most of my life, so good riddance to them both.
“Don’t involve me in this shit.” I grabbed my dishes and stood up. “Do whatever you want.”
My Sable Hounds friends stared at me and whispered, “What’s wrong with him?” as I strode toward the door and almost collided with that fool Bardoul. I enjoyed him scuttling off like a timid little mouse. Maybe I was still numero uno here. Nah, even my ego wasn’t that big. I was a sophomore, and some of the seniors’ beasts, especially the tigers, could scar me for life.
But after witnessing Bardoul’s reaction, I strutted along the corridor.
“Atticus, I caught up with your uncle over the summer.”
Professor Shaw was standing in the doorway of his office. Right, they were at school together along with Rawlins, the latent’s godfather, and Peregrine, my alpha father.
“He often talks about the good times you had as students.”
I hadn’t seen my uncle in a while, and he rarely mentioned the professor, but it was smart to stay on a faculty member’s good side.
“Those were the days when everyone was unmated and we shifted whenever we got the chance.”
Was the professor mated? I’d never heard he’d found the one, but I wasn’t privy to his personal life. Maybe I should ask Uncle. That information might come in useful.
My uncle had a family, and he and his mate owned a successful business, so he didn’t shift as much as when he was younger.
“He looks back on his time at Sombertooth with affection.” I was laying it on thick, but I always looked for an advantage, whether it was about school or life. Also, I was aware that the professor had been best friends with Rawlins at Sombertooth.
“If you’re free, I’ll brew tea and I have red velvet cake.” He stood back and extended an arm into his office.
I didn’t give a shit about tea and cake, but I accepted his offer.
Professor Shaw fussed over the tea, insisting the pot had to be warmed first. I nodded but gods, who cared. I was hoping he was going to share some juicy gossip about one of the faculty members which I could use as leverage and get better grades.
“It’s interesting how history repeats itself.”
He poured me a cup and asked if I wanted milk or lemon. I had no idea but said lemon because my beast didn’t like the smell of milk and said it reminded him of cow shifters.
History wasn’t my favorite subject, so I sipped the tea which was gross. The professor offered me a slice of cake, saying Rawling liked red velvet cake. Hearing that, I was tempted to grab the cake and toss it out the window.
“As I was saying, history just says ‘See you later.’”
I was bored already with all this talk of the past and bit into the cake. Huh, Rawling had good taste.
“When your uncle and I were students, there was gossip about another student.”
That got my attention because I fed on salacious stories of people I considered beneath me.
“The story was that this person, who happened to be latent, wasn’t.”
I frowned because I’d missed something important. “Wasn’t what?”
He glared at me but quickly replaced it with a half smile. “Wasn’t latent.” He leaned closer. “He was actually human.”
That concept was more ridiculous than me sitting here drinking this gross liquid.
“How could that be? Even a shifter who’d just met their beast would scent a human.”
