“There you are.”

I startled so badly that I slammed the laptop shut and stared at Grace, who had appeared beside me out of nowhere with a raised eyebrow, a black dress, and her cardigan decorated with orange and black Brazilian patterns.

“What is my little cousin hiding from me?”

With a gleeful grin, she eyed my laptop, sat down next to me, and finally flipped it open.

Luckily, there was such a thing as passwords, otherwise Grace would have come across a red-headed curly-haired man with freckles by now and bombarded me with awkward questions.

“Julie?” Came the question now, with the familiar and often applied puppy dog look, usually used for any favors within temple lessons or if she wanted me to do anything for her.

“No, Grace... There’s nothing there,” I finally said with a little too much hesitation. “I just got scared,” I quickly added, fortunately benefiting from the noisy Copelands and their pack followers who were now also entering the campus and handling a football like savages.

My mind was back on Erik, who was also playing football, maybe even at Vanderwood?

There was a bang and we both looked around for the source of the noise.

“Holy Shit!” it came from one of the Copeland guys that I didn’t really know. He had to be new. And not only that... I instantly disliked him.

“Marten, you idiot! Can’t you throw any better than that?” it now came from Nash, who was the only one of them all who not only had the biggest muscles and wore the tightest top, but also had the smallest brain.

He looked at his buddy who was trying to justify himself, but unfortunately nothing could be heard as they were now talking more quietly and retreating from the open lawn near the parking lot to their oak tree while the other guys from the pack were laughing at this Marten.

“Ju...”

“By the way, where are Bayla and Larissa?”, I directly interrupted Grace, who stared at me, but then responded.

“Bayla is still asleep and Larissa wanted to spend the morning with her because she’s getting seriously worried,” she said, looking back at the Copelands, probably because nothing else exciting was going on here yet.

“Do you believe Julian?” I asked, because that thought had been on my mind since the moment he had shown up in our doorway, holding Bayla in his arms before laying her down in her bed.

I knew him from high school, but we had never exchanged a word there. Of course we hadn’t. He was one of them...

Grace’s expression filled with skepticism.

“I don’t trust any of them at all, and you know why...”

“But Julian isn’t part of the pack. His father even has a contract with...”

Grace raised both brows. “You think that changes who he is and what he has done?”

Indeed, what was heard about the Bardots in the Circle was nothing good, and yet my aunt tolerated their existence in exchange for their distance from the pack and because Graham Bardot was the town’s police chief. This was because of some stories that lay far in the past and were none of our children’s business, as Aunt Amara always said. I hadn’t inquired further, although I was interested to know if things had been as tense in her student days as they were now.

“Julian is a Senseque. He belongs with them, no matter how far away his father lives from them.” Grace sat down with a shrug. “But him living apart from them won't hurt, as long as he doesn’t screw anything up.”

I remembered my aunt’s words. “Your mother said that the young wolves would have to join the pack at some point, otherwise they wouldn’t learn about controlling their powers and would tend to run wild.”

“What?!” Grace looked at me in horror.

“Yes...” I continued. “That’s why I’m asking you if you think Julian...”

“Oh my God, we need to talk to Amara...”

“To your mother?” I asked skeptically. After all, she was the one who tolerated the Bardots and who had told me about the Senseque and how their pack structure worked. She had probably already thought about it.

“We can’t keep this to ourselves. He might have done something else to her...”

“Did you see any bite marks?”, I asked, scrutinizingly.

“No...” she replied with hesitation. “Let’s go check on her later, okay?”

A sinking feeling spread through my stomach.

Would Julian be able to do this? Did he have the alpha gene? As far as I knew, only one percent of victims survived this torture from hell. Just the thought of it...

“We need to talk to Julian,” I whispered in shock.

“We should stay away from him, Julie.” Grace responded quickly.

I looked thoughtfully across campus.

She was right. Julian was one of them, and we did, despite everything, need to be careful. We weren’t on our territory, which theoretically meant it was none of our business, but there was this contract for everyone that was supposed to prevent exactly such things from happening, so I didn’t want to believe that Julian would just hurt a person like that without fearing consequences from all sides.

He must have done something, though, because Bayla Adams was in bed for almost three days with an extremely high fever now, and not even Grace’s herbal tinctures had shown any effect.

My cell phone buzzed again.

Now he was present again, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he would even be very present to me very soon, because I had decided to sit down right next to him as soon as I entered the biochemistry seminar. And I already knew that my shyness would put a spoke in my wheel.

Chapter 29

Larissa

If I had known that, I definitely would have stayed with Bay.

The sign that read “Lecture canceled” made me groan and kick away a rock that seemed as out of place here in the hallways of the university halls as I was. The sound that emerged was deep and somehow scary because the place was empty, and I had no idea why my lectures were always canceled.

An icy breeze brushed the back of my neck and goosebumps spread across my skin. I turned and looked out through the arched windows onto one of the many courtyards that existed here. This one was abandoned.

Actually, I would have had art history now, but that fell into the water...like the ravens here liked to do.

Hopefully, Bayla was feeling better by now. If I was lucky, maybe she was already awake, which was about time.

Even though it would cost me some effort, I had decided to call Ms. Adams after the next seminar, who, I should point out, absolutely disliked me. And when I said absolutely, I didn’t just mean minor disagreements. Ever since she knew me, she had always been suspicious of me because I was good at involving Bay in things she should stay away from. Bay was her sensitive little angel and I had suspected that she had moved away to keep her daughter away from me.

I wondered how she would react when she found out that I lived in Blairville from now on. I had to smirk.

But the smirk disappeared from my face when I heard the echo of distant footsteps on the stone floor in the hallways, and shortly after, an all-too-familiar laugh ringing through the hallway. Miles.