It was Bardoul.
“What’s up?” It was nice to hear from someone who wasn’t involved in any of the drama that was playing out in my head on repeat. He was involved in a lot of what had happened last year, but the whole “Rawling is pregnant and alone and I was horny for the wrong guy” thing—he had no part of that.
“I just talked to Channon,” he said. “He’s not coming back.
“He, like, dropped out?” That didn’t sound right, but a lot played into whether you stayed in school or not, including money, family, and, frankly, desire. Not to mention last semester was hardly what you’d call uneventful.
“No, he’s staying in school,” Bardoul said, “but he’s gonna do it online, like long distance learning or something. I don’t knowhow he did it, but he worked it out with the admin. He got a doctor's note saying that his mental health needed a break.”
“Was he struggling that much with his mental health?” Great. I was officially a shit friend.
“Not so much that he really wanted to just be away for a while, from what I could tell. But when money can buy you that doctor's note, I guess it doesn’t matter.”
I wasn’t sure I bought into Bardoul’s understanding of the situation. Sometimes, if you’re willing to pay for a doctor’s note, it’s because you really do need that break. Until I talked to Channon, I wouldn’t understand his thought process, and in either case, us conjecturing about his reasoning wasn’t good for anyone.
“Hey, so I wanted to tell you something,” he said.
I did not like the sound of that tone.
“Listen, Rawling is human.” He didn’t wait for me to respond, which was good because I wasn’t sure how he knew and if he knew I knew. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but Channon’s grandfather warned him about Rawling.”
“Wait, he warned him?”
“Can you please forget I said that?”
I really wished I could.
“Rawling is trustworthy.” I went into full-on defensive mode. “He’s not going to tell anybody about shifters. You can trust him.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll let Channon know.”
Was it good if he did? I supposed friend to friend wouldn’t matter as long as he left out the part where he told me Rawling was human. He didn’t need to admit to breaking a trust, and I didn’t want to get sucked into shit with Channon’s family. I was doing a great job getting into messes on my own.
I hated phone calls. It was so much easier face-to-face when I could at least see people’s facial expressions.
“I don’t want to go back to Sombertooth either,” he admitted. “But if I don’t, I’ll lose my scholarship. I don’t have a choice.”
“We have a whole summer between now and then,” I said. “And you know what? I have a bed in my room.”
“What about Rawling?”
Bardoul didn’t know about the pregnancy, and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him.
“I think he’s looking for a single.” There was no way they’d allow a pregnant omega into our house.
“Can I get back to you? It’s a big maybe.”
“A maybe works for me.”
I really needed to talk to Rawling. There were too many puzzle pieces being juggled in the air to figure out what was happening and what I should be doing about it.
Atticus
Being home for the summer, I had one plan… doing nothing. It sounded great at the time, but I was already so over it, and we were only the first Sunday in. As much as I hated to admit it, my beast needed me to be on a schedule. I had no training and no job. Shit, I had no structure. I was living every person’s dream, not having to answer to anybody or do anything, and I realized that dream was a nightmare.
It didn’t help that I couldn’t get Rawling out of my mind. There was no sugarcoating it, I hated him. I hated everything he stood for. He was a freaking latent, the bottom of the barrel, and yet, in archery, he surpassed me every single time. He had to be cheating. There was no other way.
And Jack choosing his friendship over her situationship with me didn’t make sense. She’d say that wasn’t what happened,but we both knew it was. I was so far outside her league, she wouldn’t give that up on her own. He’d manipulated her, using his roommate status to poison her against me. He was latent garbage, and still, he kept coming out on top.
