“Seely and Camdon didn’t come back to campus last night.”
I scratched the back of my neck. The feeling of several sets of eyes bored into my back.
They didn’t seriously think I had something to do with those two idiots not coming back, did they?
They continued to chatter about things that happened at the bar last night. None of them were brave enough to ask me directly if I had something to do with the two missing guys.
A loud scraping against the floor dragged my attention away from their comments to the person who appeared at my table.
My lab partner rarely came to class. Out of the last month, they had not shown up once, so rarely was more like never. Except today.
He was a string bean of a boy who hardly could be called a man, and there was no way that he was older than eighteen. He had pale skin covered in freckles, ruddy orange hair, and large glasses he kept shoving up his nose. He wore a button-up plaid shirt, he tucked into his pants, and shoes that looked far too big for his body.
“Hey.” I held my hand out to him when he sat down. “I’m Jack.”
The boy-man sat his stuff down with a loud plop, blatantly ignoring my outstretched hand. He sniffed and shoved his glasses up his face while he dug into his bag.
After a moment, I dropped my hand, feeling a bit silly. I didn’t take his dismissal personally. It was more than likely he was on the ‘I hate the Durands’ side rather than the ‘kiss the ground you walk on’ side.
A quick sniff of the air told me told me he was human... no, wait... I sniffed again, really focusing on his scent. Werewolf?
My gaze slid over my lab partner again with new eyes. With such a scrawny build, it was hard to believe this boy was a werewolf. Most werewolves, even the females, were muscular with large imposing auras and personalities to match. This boy... wasn’t.
The professor began the lecture, instructing us to open our textbooks before they began to drone on about the anatomy of a werewolf.
Instead of taking notes, my pencil began drawing absent mindedly.
“Is that Tate?”
My eyes jerked up from the page, blinking as I realized it was my lab partner talking. Glancing down at my page, I realized I had indeed drawn Tate. His large frame, dark eyes, thick braids, a lopsided grin.
“Uh, yeah.” Flushing in embarrassment, I closed my notebook and stared off to the side.
“I’m Flynn.”
I lifted my eyes, briefly meeting his. “Jack.”
“I know.”
He was quiet for a long moment before he started again. “Look, no offense,” Flynn said, his eyes on his notebook, “but I already get picked on enough for my size. If they know I’m being friendly with the Durand bitch, I’d never hear the end of it.”
I arched a brow at the name.
“Sorry,” he winced, shifting on his stool. “That’s what they call you.”
“Been called worse.”
I sat there for a moment, contemplating his situation. I understood not wanting to get in the middle of the Durand lovers versus Durand haters, especially if he was already being bullied by his pack mates. I could almost forgive him for his blatant dismissal of me earlier, except we had a class to pass and, as lab partners, there was a level of civility required.
“If it helps,” I leaned toward him, lowering my voice, “I can be mean to you in front of the other weres?”
Flynn snorted. “They’d probably just make fun of me for getting pushed around by a human.”
I cocked my head to the side. “I’m not all human. You know that, right?”
Flynn finally turned to me, his nose twitching, clearly sniffing the air around me. “You smell human enough. Aren’t you a human servant? They’re just souped up humans. If not for their vampire bonds, they’d be like any other human. And if their vampire dies...” Flynn shrugged. “The werewolves don’t count human servants as much more than more durable humans.”
I hummed.
