“I’m sleeping under the same roof with witches! If Father knew!”
It made me so angry. And then it was those arrogant Blair cousins, of all people, and goddamn Vivienna Westcode!
“But he doesn’t know,” Alarik returned, shrugging his shoulders, and buttoned the second-to-last button of his white shirt, which he had just put on because, as usual, he had shown up here a little late with coffee stains on his other shirt.
He paced around the desk that belonged to his large office, which was flooded with light through the magnificent window. One had an excellent view of campus activity from this tower, which certainly had its advantages.
I looked at my uncle with a tense jaw. How could he just go behind Dad’s back like that?
Stunned, I stared at him and clenched my hands into fists so that I could feel my sharp fingernails on the taut skin.
“They’re just Quatura. After all, when you meet them on the street, you don’t jump on them right away,” he just said with a laugh, stroking his short brown curls that made him look even younger.
Alarik had never had a girlfriend, let alone a wife, although it felt like every second one was flirting with him. I had always suspected that it was because there were hardly any female Senseque, or that he didn’t have the heart to leave the pack for a human, for a short time. But in that moment, he proved once again how much he didn’t care about the pack.
It was a fact that witches, or Quatura, whatever they called themselves, were our competitors for this town. And that would never change. For them, we were inferior animals who could not control themselves and ate other living beings. But they were not one bit better. According to the stories, there were even some among them who had turned to a dark side some time ago and had taken human lives. Such a thing would not happen to us. Not as part of a pack, under the rules of the Code. The Code, the breaking of which had serious consequences.
Just then, I wondered if Alarik had ever broken the Code. I quickly pushed the thought away. He was still my uncle. Even if he almost dug his own grave sometimes.
“Why do you always think so well of them?” I asked, unimpressed.
“Because they’re just like us.”
If there was anything these crazy people weren’t at all, it was like us.
His words sounded like he was harboring sympathy. But he wasn’t allowed to, and he wouldn’t. After all, that was one of the many rules the Blairs and Westcodes had laid down for their damned peaceful coexistence. And now sharing a house with their offspring didn’t make it any easier. On the contrary. It was one of those many gray areas.
I knew for a fact that the witches didn’t want to live peacefully with us at all. They were trying to buy more and more forest from us, but they were playing with the wrong ones. In addition, there were those ridiculous rumors that the Bexleys spread about us. Father would never sell the hospital, not to anyone. And we weren’t broke, at least not if Alarik ran the university like a sensible director and didn’t make all the students de-register on the first day of the semester with his messy organization.
An idea came to me.
“Can’t you assign me to another house?”
I looked pleadingly at Alarik, and when he glanced up, I could see his thoughtful expression. But to my disappointment, he shook his head.
“It’s too late for that now.”
“But...”
“I can’t just throw any other girls out of their rooms. You know exactly how unfair that would be.”
Yet there was something much bigger at stake. I couldn’t even imagine all the things that could happen.
“At least try it, Emely. Quatura don’t bite.”
There it was again... That amused grin.
Very amusing. I couldn’t smile because I was serious. I wanted to get out of there somehow. I had to find another way, perhaps resort to more radical measures. The thought was tempting, and let’s admit it, I could think of a few things I could do....
A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Come in!” Alarik shouted, and we both looked at the door, where two guys with laptops I didn’t recognize appeared. Probably five-semester students from the IT-security team where my best friend usually worked, but he was abroad this semester.
“We’ll continue talking later,” my uncle said, directed at me, and welcomed the two of them.
Annoyed, I left the office without closing the door.
I didn’t like at all how he didn’t care. Father would have understood the problem, and I got the feeling that he really didn’t know anything about this disaster.
This was our territory, and here we could damn well decide what the witches did. These spawns of hell were not going to mess up my life. I had to take things into my own hands. And I already knew how.
All the frustration inside me wanted to burst out, but the campus was definitely the wrong place to transform.
My feet carried me across the soft forest floor and as I drew in the fresh air I immediately felt better. I had been running for half the morning. That was exactly what I had needed.
On principle, I hadn’t turned since the chance of running into any hikers or hunters was high.
Even though my father had enforced that no one went hunting here, there were still the one or other illegal fanatics in town. And let’s not forget all the life-weary reporters from the Blairville Daily. Just three days ago I had almost run into one of them in wolf form.
I stopped when I heard a crack behind me.
I was about to turn around and investigate the area, but it was already too late when Julian appeared from between the trees and jumped straight at me.
We collided, and both landed on the forest floor with a thud. His upper body had become more massive and defined.
Embarrassed that that was the first thing I had noticed, I pressed my hands against him.
“Julian!” it escaped me in shock, and he immediately pushed off of me.
