Stone Crest: Rise of a Raven

12. Chapter 12

Chapter twelve

Locke

T hank fuck I had some clothes stashed in the maintenance shed at the edge of the university property. As a shifter, you learn the tricks and sometimes when my wolf is too powerful and I need to shift, I make sure I’m prepared. I’ve been stranded stark naked a time or two and it didn’t end well. Nudity doesn’t bother my kind, but humans freak the hell out.

I rip my shirt over my head, pissed at myself for not controlling my wolf. I was up late, going over some things Hendrix had sent me regarding the vampire we abolished last night when I started to get the feeling. The one that started to thrash restlessly in my bones. Something was off, but I didn’t know what. I was anxious. I couldn’t concentrate and when I finally gave in to let him rage, I ended up here. Like I have every fucking night since she walked into my classroom. He raced through the trees of Stone Crest, all the way to the edge of campus. I knew where he was going.

Then I felt it. Saw her.

I curse under my breath as I step out of my sweats. I don’t know why he’s acting like this over her. Like she’s anything special.

She is special, dickhead. My wolf bites back to me.

I contemplate jogging back to the estate in my human form, keeping him caged since apparently, he can’t keep his shit together. He led me to something that’s forbidden. Off limits. We both know it.

A pang stings my chest as I picture her face. I could hear the harsh breathing of her lungs before I even approached. The rapid beats of her human heart. I could smell the pain. And once I touched her…...saw her face. I grit my teeth, taking three long strides before I shift.

I’m on the move, it will be quicker in my wolf form, then I can trap him back down. Being seen with my student at two in the morning in the wide open was dangerous. Stupid. Especially after the night I spent buried inside of her. And one thing I’m not is careless. I’m calculated. I have to be.

I leap through the tree line, landing in the grass on my bare feet. Running a hand through my hair, I jog the rest of the distance to the back door and slip inside the mudroom.

“Isn’t it past your curfew?” Declan’s voice flows from the living room.

He's sprawled out in a wing back chair, wearing a velvet purple robe.

“What are you wearing, Hugh?” I chuckle.

He takes a puff of a cigar. “It’s my after party attire.”

I snatch up some joggers I left on the bench and step inside of them.

“Overnight guest?” I arch a brow.

He scoffs, blowing smoke into the air. “You know I don’t do overnights. Too messy.”

I approach the bar in the corner, pouring me a shot of whiskey.

“From my experience you vampires tend to be messy,” I prod.

He ignores my jab. “What’s on your mind?” He asks.

I knock back the liquid. “Kingston.”

He lifts a brow.

“He paid me a visit today.” I clench my teeth at the memory of him speaking to Raven.

The look in his eyes.

She's ours my wolf snarls. I ignore him. Again.

“What did he have to say?” Declan puts out his cigar in the ashtray on the coffee table.

“He came with a warning.” I take a seat on the leather couch across from him. “Apparently they think it was us who crossed over onto their territory.”

“Their territory," Declan sneers. “That’s your fucking land.”

I brace my elbows on my knees. “Hadn’t been mine for a long time, Dec. You know that. I want no part of the pack land.”

“Alpha Malikiah still being a pussy I see. Sending his spawn to do his dirty work.” Declan stands from the chair and heads to the bar.

“You forget we do share the same genes,” I remind him.

“You share a mother. Not a father. Your father was nothing like Malikiah.”

He wasn’t. I was nothing like the beta, who befriended my father, the alpha, just to stab him in the back. I’m nothing like the man who destroyed my family then exiled me from the only home I had ever known. Regardless of his given position as the alpha of the Moonstone Pack, I was the one with the alpha blood. Not him.

“I told Kingston it wasn’t us.” I stand to meet Declan’s angry eyes. “That means we got company again.”

He nods and opens his arms. “Looks like we need to roll out the welcome mat.”

I shake my head with a chuckle, thankful the conversation is over, and he isn’t going to push on where I really was.

Or so I thought.

“I know you hate having to see your brother, but you want to tell me why you’re really out prowling around at two in the morning?”

I didn’t respond, which meant I clearly didn’t want to reveal where I had been.

“Alright. I’ll let you work it out. But don’t think I won’t ask again the next time.”

He disappears down the hall to his wing while I make my way down mine. I finally lay my head down a little after three. I could get a few hours of sleep in now. My wolf would finally rest. He always did after we watched her.