The professor sat back in his chair. It was ancient and it squeaked, which irritated me.
“He wore a ring that masked his humanity and scented him as latent.”
That sounded like a fantasy and reminded me of stories I’d read when I was younger. Not that it was true. A piece of metal couldn’t fool shifters.
“The ring protected him from his peers. Instead, they just looked down on him because he was latent and inferior.”
He drummed his fingers on the desk as my mind went to a Sombertooth student who always wore a ring. And he was latent.
“Tell me more. Did the student ever remove the ring?”
He shrugged. “Not while they were here. As soon as the rumor started, they dropped out, and I never heard anything of them again.”
The way he was talking reminded me of the language used in ancient fairy tales. But it got me thinking about the ring Rawling wore. Jack said once it was a present from his godfather and that Rawling never removed it because it made him feel close to him.
But what if? What if what the professor was telling me wasn’t about a kid he went to school with but referred to freaking Rawling? Gods, I came in here hoping for tittle-tattle, but this was explosive. I could ruin Rawling’s life with this information.Phelan would be collateral damage, but he’d chosen to have sex with a latent, get him knocked up, and mate him.
I’d have to confirm it by getting that ring off Rawling, but I’d come up with something. It’d be harder now that he lived in the infirmary, because I’d been there once on game night and stormed out. I couldn’t tackle the guy and get it off him because he was pregnant. No matter how much my friends hated latents, no one would approve of me downing a guy who was about to pop out a baby.
And he wasn’t attending classes in person since he was so close to his due date. I nibbled a nail as I came up with scenarios. Maybe the best idea was to announce it to everyone and then make Rawling prove he wasn’t human. That was a fucked-up way of going about it, so maybe not. Or I could just start a rumor, and when the entire student body was whispering about Rawling, he might break down.
Hmmm, what if it brought on labor? Everyone would have sympathy for him, and babies were cute, according to other people. Babies, in my opinion, should be avoided until they were in their late teens. All that puke, spit, and shit was so gross.
I’d need to consider the best time to put my plan into action. Of course, there was Phelan to consider, but I doubted his beast would challenge me because of gossip.
Professor Shaw made a face and said humans were worse than latents. I agreed. It was a shame shifters hadn’t wiped out humans centuries ago.
The professor said he had to get ready for class, and I must have walked out of his office. I needed time to make a plan, because unlike when I hacked into the school’s computer system, I couldn’t have this go wrong and backfire on me. My folks would never forgive me if I got kicked out of Sombertooth.
Someone clapped a hand on my shoulder. Zev was babbling about a new scheme to mess with the heads of the humansin town. But my mind was on one particular guy who I was convinced was human. And I was going to bring him down.
SIXTEEN
RAWLING
I remembered back in high school science learning about how sex drives were related to procreation and how without them species would go extinct. And there was probably some truth to that, but also, I’d never been hornier in my entire life than I had been the past week, and I was already very pregnant. There was no procreation to be had by me, but these pregnancy hormones were on overdrive.
When my mate wasn’t there, I’d be smelling his pillow or staring at his picture, imagining all the things he would do to me when he got home. My imagination was often more flexible than my actual body, but that only meant I had a list of positions for us to try after the baby was born. And then when he came home, I all but attacked him. I hadn’t been able to keep my hands off of him and wasn’t past begging for him to make me come.
I didn’t mind being horny, as a rule. It wasn't like I didn’t have a mate who was up for the challenge. Except he wasn’t home all the time, and I couldn’t take matters into my own hands the way I used to. If this had happened two, four, or six months ago, I would have jerked one out or maybe gone so far as to use a toy or two. But now? Now I could barely reach my dick, much less get myself off.
So instead of relieving myself and moving on with my day, I spent hours without my mate in various states of hardness and trying to think about anything that would make me less so.
It was frustrating, and today was even worse than yesterday because Phelan had to meet with some people about a group presentation. I was all alone, needy and lonely. It was a shitty combination.
I waddled into the bathroom to take a cold shower, unsure if I was actually going to be able to manage the cold part. There were some days when my body was like a furnace and the cold water felt great. But on others, I’d step under the water and end up turning all the cold off and the hot water way up because I just needed that warmth on my back.
I took off my clothes and stood on my tiptoes, trying to see if I could even see my dick in the mirror. I couldn’t. I couldn’t get up tall enough, and looking down, all I got was belly. There were other mirrors, but my energy and curiosity weren’t up for that.
Funny thing was, I couldn’t see my feet either, but that didn’t bother me. It was kind of nice just slipping on my shoes and going, not worried about lacing up sneakers for archery. Just comfy shoes. Done.
I climbed into the shower, waiting until the water was warm and comfy. So much for a cold shower. I stuck my head under, letting the water pelt down on me, wishing my mate were home.
If he were, he’d squeeze in the shower with me, help me wash my hair and move on to my body, focusing less on cleanliness and more on exploring every inch of me. There would be an orgasm or two before we fell into bed and he made me come again.
But he wasn’t here, so I reached over for the shampoo, sudsed up my hair, and let the sweat from the day pour down the drain. This morning, I’d thought it would be a great idea to hit up the library and see if I could find anything that might help me.All I did was get side-eyed by students, get grime in my hair and on my clothes, and then get frustrated. I needed to learn to stay home until the baby came, which was going to be any time now. As much as I wanted to meet our sweet baby, actually getting them out of me still terrified me.
Omegas had done this since the beginning of time. As long as I held on to that, I’d be okay. At least that was my current theory.
