I convinced myself I was only doing it because I was bored when I decided to put an end to my hyper-fixation by digging deeper to find out what the deal was with Rawling. If I found all of his dirt, I could destroy him and rid the school and my life of his presence.
My searching found nothing. Not about him, and more importantly, not about his parents. I couldn’t find their job history. I couldn’t find criminal records for them. I couldn’t find a single social media post. Nothing. I even threw money at the problem, using one of those sites where they take your money and are able to track down all the details. Nada.
“No one’s this clean.” I grabbed the bridge of my nose, willing the headache that was beginning to brew to run away.
If his family was scrubbed from the internet, it meant they were into some shady shit, and if they were, Rawling was too.
My wolf pushed and pushed, needing to break through and devour something cute and furry. I needed to get out of here, too. The walls were closing in.
I ran outside and let my beast burst through, not caring about the clothing I was wearing.
My wolf took off, scenting the air and looking for his prey. It wasn’t long before he felled a rabbit, tearing it to shreds and downing his flesh. Next came a fox, then a squirrel. But they weren’t enough.
None of them sated my beast. This wasn’t working, it wasn’t calming me down. I forced him to go back home. The shift back was painful, my wolf fighting me every step of the way.
“Fuck this noise.”
Maybe I just needed to suck it up and ask my parents to investigate. They had far more power to find information than I did using my credit card and a sketchy website. But then what? The odds of them saying yes and following through were slim.
They were more likely to tell me to focus on school, to be the best, to be the most powerful. They’d want me to focus on my future, my power, my image, not some random latent. And they were right. I should be.
But it wasn’t that easy.
Phelan wasn’t talking to me.
Jack wasn’t talking to me… or more importantly fucking me.
Rawling was turning into the golden child.
Everything was going wrong.
Rawling needed to be expelled. That was the bottom line, and I was going to make sure it happened.
I needed to protect the school.
Because if I didn’t, no one else would.
FOUR
RAWLING
The doorbell rang, and it was all I could do to get myself off the couch and over to the door. I wasn’t even sure what day of the week it was anymore. I’d been home for days, but how many? I couldn’t say without looking at my phone and counting back.
Between sleeping, wanting to puke, and dealing with the house, it was all just blurring together into one long day. It didn’t help that my hormones had me in an exhausted state where my brain didn’t fully function.
The doorbell rang again.
“I’m coming!” Whoever it was, they better have a good reason for bothering me. And whatever time of day this was, it was still light out. I had no right to be this grumpy about it, but I was. I didn’t want the intrusion.
I opened the door to find a delivery man holding out an electronic clipboard. “You need to sign for this.”
“Oh. Okay.” I was hesitant but took the stylus and scribbled on the screen, and he handed me a box.
“Next time, come sooner or I’m leaving a sticker on the door, and you can pick it up at the central office.” Wasn’t he in a good mood.
“Well, thank you. I was—” I didn’t get to finish my sentence. He stomped off.
I hadn’t been expecting a package and didn’t remember ordering anything. But when I glanced down, it was my name. I brought it inside and opened it up. It was a huge-ass bottle of prenatal vitamins and a book about pregnancy. I dug for the gift receipt, but it could only be one of two people, and I wasn’t really wanting to talk to either one of them. Not today. One of them, not ever. Though I had also received a box of goodies from my… what? In-laws? Wow, that word was weird. They seemed lovely, and I wondered how they’d produced an asshat of a son who’d mated me without consent.
