“That’s right, but it’s strange seeing him like this.”
Regina told me the linework was first and the rest would be less painful.
Phelan and Jack chatted while Regina worked to keep my mind off the not so much pain but irritation. I couldn’t imagine being human and having this done.
“This will feel heavier,” Regina told me, and my mate gripped my hand. I was beginning to wonder if I should have chosen a smaller tattoo.
The machine buzzed, and Regina noted my skin was taking the ink fast. Go me.
“He’s guarding your heart.” Phelan studied Regina’s work as she instructed me on aftercare. He slung an arm around my shoulder. “And I am too.”
I admired my reddish skin in the mirror as Regina worked on Jack, telling her the wrist was sensitive and the tattoo would sting.
“She’s a warning.” Jack admired her bear etched onto her skin. “I love my wild beast.”
“Goodbye,infirmary. I hope the next students who call this place home will be good to you.”
Jack and I walked down the stairs and out the front doors as classmates and Phoenix House residents asked why we were leaving. Phelan was stoic and not showing much emotion, but whereas I’d never been fully accepted by my peers until my wolf appeared, my mate had interacted and grown up with many of the Sombertooth student body.
I asked how he’d deal with not attending a shifter college in the fall and leaving his friends. He told me it’d be a learning curve, but he looked on it as an adventure, and he’d added that as long as he had me and Eira, the rest was just background noise.
“We’ll miss you.” Bardoul was crying and wiping the tears with his sleeve as he stood by the car.
“You’ll see us during classes, we just won’t be at Sombertooth.”
“But it won’t be the same.” He took both my hands. “You and Jack changed my experience at Sombertooth, and I’m forever grateful.”
Now I was crying, and Jack was sobbing.
“Good luck.” Channon hugged me and then my mate.
I put an arm around Jack, and our tears mingled along with snot. Gross.
I worried about my friends because we were escaping. Phelan and I had tried to persuade the others to go home too, at least until after Christmas vacation, but they insisted the professor didn’t have a problem with them. Mika didn’t either and look what happened to him.
Holden and Riley swung by to wish us luck while holding hands and giving one another gooey eyes.
While Channon and Bardoul were helping Phelan pack the trunk, Atticus wandered over. He hoped we’d be back in the new year.
I doubted that, unless the professor transferred to another college.
“It’s going to be weird not having you here.”
“Seriously? You’ve been on my ass since the day I arrived.”
He gave me a look. “Not talking to you, newbie.” He clapped Phelan on the back.
“Ass.”
Atticus asked Jack about an assignment they were co-authoring. They started squabbling like brother and sister, or was that like an old mated couple? Nah, they weren’t mates.
Almost out of nowhere, Zev appeared and slipped a note in my hand. He scuttled off, and I looked up, expecting my friends and mate to ask what it was. But they were all talking or bickering, so I unwrapped the tiny rolled-up piece of paper.
My heart clenched and wouldn’t let go until I instructed it to relax.
You’re leaving with many things unsaid. You’ve been wanting to find out where your adoptive parents are, and it’s time to find out. Meet me near the new sports center and come alone.Shaw.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did he think I was going to waltz over there by myself when it was close to dark without anyone else accompanying me?
