“I almost don’t want to go back.”
“Didn’t you see the suitcase in the car? We’re not going to,” I said.
“Really? You have more planned. I thought the suitcase was in case she had too many diaper explosions.”
“Yeah, really. I rented us a cabin by the lake. I figured we can sit outside, enjoy nature until the bugs come out, and then maybe start a fire in the fireplace. Just spend time together as a family.”
“As long as I’m with you, that’s all that matters.”
TWENTY-NINE
RAWLING
The atmosphere at Sombertooth had changed, or perhaps it was just in my friend group. Channon had returned and was sharing the same room he had last semester with Bardoul, and Jack was alone in our original room.
Bardoul was a different person with his bestie back at Sombertooth, and I hoped the knowledge that I wasn’t a hunter had eased his mind. The group who were hiding my secret had expanded, and Phelan and I discussed how long it would be before someone slipped up.
But I wasn’t thinking about that tonight because I’d asked my friends who were in on my secret to come to the infirmary. My mate went along with it, though he wished all the questions and confusion would end. But it wasn’t his story to delve into and unravel, and also, he hadn’t been part of our group last semester.
Phelan and I had fucked and parted and fucked again. We were fucking when Jack was with Atticus. But we weren’t friends. He’d kept me a secret, so we’d both kept things from one another, though he said me not telling him I was human was a much bigger deal than him treating me like a fuck buddy. I disagreed.
“So you formed a secret squirrel society and didn’t tell me?”
I narrowed my eyes and pictured him the first time I saw him. He’d been with Atticus, and while Jack had claimed the asshat, I only had eyes for Phelan.
“Rawling, you went somewhere.” He tapped my forehead.
I shrugged and smirked. “Just thinking of someone I fucked in the school gym after archery practice.”
There was a sharp intake of breath from my mate as he leaned over me and nipped the delicate skin on my throat. “You’d better be talking about me.”
“I am.” I’d almost lost the power of speech, and I considered canceling the evening and spending the night in bed fucking my mate.
Someone knocked, and Phelan adjusted his length and whispered it was my fault he’d be greeting the guests with a hard-on.
“Nothing to do with me.” I winked before opening the door.
Channon, Bardoul, and Jack tumbled in. They’d been shifting in the woods. One bear, a wolf, and a fox, and I was a little jealous that I couldn’t join them. When Jack had been latent, I’d been content to be human most of the time, but now, her finding her bear set us a little apart. But we loved one another, and she adored Eira, so I couldn’t deny that she was more content now that she had a bear.
Phelan got sodas from the fridge and everyone sat while I stood. I dragged over a whiteboard that’d been left here after I gave birth.
“I have so much to tell you.”
I tapped the list on the whiteboard that read:
-the letter I found from Professor Shaw in the boxes from Rawlins’s saying Charlie was his mate
-the letter from Charlie telling the professor she was mated to a human and adopting a baby boy
-the professor telling Atticus how much he loathed humans
-the bag the professor gave me that included scribbles from school and the hidden notebook
-how Holden said the professor was sweet on Rawlins
Channon sipped his soda as he studied the board. “Why would the professor lie and say the bag was Rawlins’s when it belonged to Rawlins’s sister, Charlie, who the professor wanted to mate?”
“Let’s go back to my childhood.”
