Chapter 16: Chapter 16

HARLAN

Feeling Ever relax in his room made my wolf pissed. As if he needed another reason to be mad at me. He seemed on edge most of the time, unless she was with us, and he seemed to think I was in charge of her or something.

~You’re weak~, he taunted.

Pressing my teeth together, I tried to keep my anger in check. Alpha Allaire always said a good wolf kept his emotions in check.

I dumped my books onto my bed and pulled out my phone. I knew seeing Ever again at dinner would only make my wolf pissed. He’d smell Rage on her and drive me insane.

~Skipping dinner, lots of things to do tonight. See you in the morning for breakfast?~

It hurt to send that text, but it needed to be done. I needed to see her without his scent all over her skin. I clung to the things she said at the pond. She wanted to run away with me. Leave all this behind.

And I’d been serious when I told her that it would never work. He would find us, and we’d have the same problem in a different place. I grabbed some of my dirty clothes from my basket, in an attempt to walk down to the complex’s laundry unit, when something fluttered from the pile.

I bent down and grabbed the card with Erick Ward’s name on it. He’d talked about the lycan fraternity on campus. I bit the side of my lip as I walked my laundry down to the unit.

I dumped them into the washer and fished out some coins from my pocket. I dialed Kellan’s number, and he answered in a huff.

“What’s up your butt?” I asked.

“I’m trying to get a basketball off the girl’s dorm room roof for this girl.”

“Kellan. You’re going to break your neck for a piece of ass.”

He scoffed. “Yeah right. I’m stealthy, you know that.” I heard a loud thud, and then a groan. “Oh crap. Nope. I’m fine. Here’s the basketball.”

“Do you just hang around the girl’s dorm looking for a damsel in distress?”

He scoffed. “No, but I just got a number. I’m smarter than I look, for sure.”

“Right,” I said, glancing down at the card I flipped in between my fingers. “I want to go to the fraternity meeting tonight.”

“What fraternity meeting?” he asked.

“The one that Erick Ward guy invited us to.”

Kellan scoffed. “Seriously? That guy was a creep. We don’t need to associate with some kind of loser lycan fraternity, Harlan. Why would you even want to do that? We’ve been here for three years and suddenly—wait, does this have something to do with Ever? I mean, come on, Harlan. You know the girl loves you. You don’t have to join some lycan group because Rage is part of the alphas.”

“That’s not it, Kellan. I mean, I do need something to take my mind off what they’re doing when they are together,” I hissed. “But wouldn’t it be nice to be a part of something other than a hybrid pack?”

Kellan’s voice became jumbled, and I felt him near me. I looked over my shoulder as he stopped in the doorway of the laundry unit. “Dude. We are a pack well beyond our years. We’re wolves and lycans mingling, co-existing together, why do we need to go be with a bunch of lycans?”

I shrugged. “I want to give it a shot. See what it’s like for other lycans growing up. You don’t have to come.”

“~Right~, because I’m going to let you go mingle with the potential serial killer alone. What kind of best friend do you take me for?”

I smiled. “One that’s down for whatever.”

“Damn straight,” he said.

***

We stopped in front of the second set of on-campus apartments. Kellan looked uneasy, but I wanted to at introduce myself to other lycans. I knocked on the door, and it opened several minutes later.

A tall, very muscular lycan stood in the doorjamb. The apartment was noisy behind him, but suddenly went silent at our intrusion.

“This was a bad idea,” Kellan whispered into my ear.

“Harlan?” the guy asked, sticking out his meaty hand. He had tattoos woven up and down his coiled forearm, a shaved head, and a straight face. “I’m Greg. Come on in. Erick said he was expecting you.”

We walked into the living room of the apartment. It was set up like mine but the opposite layout. Erick sat on the couch, with a smug smile, and a female lycan sitting beside him.

“I wasn’t sure if you would come or not,” he said, offering for us a seat in a loveseat across the room.

The furniture screamed broke college kid, with mismatched pillows, no wall decor, and an awful green rug. Greg shut the door and gestured toward the small group of lycans standing around.

I was surprised to see females, since it was a fraternity, but I was just there to observe. “It’s good to have you both here,” Greg said. “We don’t have a lot of members, seeing there are mostly wolves here, but it’s exciting that we’re growing.”

Kellan elbowed me in the ribs, but I ignored him.

“When did you start this?” I asked. “This is my senior year and I’ve just now heard of it.”

Erick sat forward, pushing the girl’s legs from his. “Last year. We’re new. But we participate in all of the fraternity sports and go by their rules. We’re interested in hearing about your upbringing since you grew up in a hybrid pack.”

The blonde girl with a high ponytail and button nose asked, “Aren’t you mated to the hybrid that is also mated to Rage?”

~Someone should post a neon sign to my forehead.~

“Sarah, I told you not to talk about it,” Erick hissed.

She shrugged. “I just can’t imagine why she’d even consider Rage.”

“~Drop it~,” he said. “Jamie,” Erick asked the quiet guy standing next to her, with a sarcastic smile on his face. “Why don’t you take Sarah back to her dorm room?”

“Sure thing, Erick,” he said, tossing her over his shoulder, he carried her out with little effort.

“Sorry about that,” Erick said. “She has a big mouth.”

Kellan made a noise under his breath, and Erick heard it. “Everything okay Kellan? I’m surprised you made it since you didn’t seem interested in the gym.”

Kellan sat back on the loveseat. “Where Harlan goes, I go.”

“A ride or die,” Greg said, opening his fridge. “Want something to drink?”

“I’m good,” I said, looking at the other lycans in the corner. “Well, is there an initiation or something? A contract? Hazing? What do I have to do to try apply?”

Kellan gave me a crazy look.

It was a crazy thing to do. Sign up for a fraternity that I had no knowledge of, but it was a part of something that wasn’t just wolves. I wasn’t a wolf. I was a lycan. A lycan king’s son.

Erick smiled. “We meet every Thursday at Greg’s apartment. We have a softball team, meetings regarding lycans being seen on campus, and a Sunday night run. We participate in any school events, because the school makes us. If we want to be considered a fraternity, we have to participate in any competitions that the campus holds. It’s fun. We get to know one another. Meet each other’s mates. We are friends.”

“We practice for softball on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Maybe you can bring Everlee down so we can meet her. We don’t have anything against wolves, plus, she’s half-lycan. I’ll bring my mate next time. She’s studying at the library tonight.”

“Sounds great. I’ll be there.”

Kellan kept quiet as I mingled and dismissed myself from the dorm. But once we made it out of hearing distance, he turned me to face him. “I don’t like that,” he said.

“Like what?” I asked, scratching my head. “You don’t like them?”

He shrugged and glanced back at the dorm room. “Something about Erick gives me the creeps.”

“He can come off a little uppity.”

“No, that’s not it. Are you sure you want to do this, Harlan?”

The worried look on his face didn’t set well. “I’ll try it out, and if something starts to smell fishy, then I will quit.”

Kellan frowned. “Promise?”

“Promise,” I said. “I need to get back to my apartment. I do have some homework. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

He waved as I jogged back toward my room. There was a bit of excitement inside of me. I’d always wanted to know more about my heritage than I did. I grew up with a few lycans, but it was never like the way it was before, when my dad was the king.

Curiosity got the best of me.

~Curiosity killed the cat~, my wolf replied.

I ignored him. He was just pissed I didn’t spend the evening with Everlee. He’d get over it. Plus, they wanted to meet her, and I was sure they’d love her.