Chapter 206

The phone pressed hard to my ear, I stand outside the lecture hall, tucked behind the door near the smoker’s bench. It’s the only empty spot this time of day, with so many busy students walking around. I don’t have time to find somewhere more secluded.

I need to talk to my Mom right now. With Wyatt on the loose, I need to make sure she is unharmed.

“Pick up, pick up. Please pick up.” Each ring makes my anxiety spike.

Then, finally, Mom answers the phone. “Chloe?”

“Are you okay?” I ask at once. I’ve been holding the question in so long that it bursts from me now.

“Yes, honey. Of course I am. What’s wrong?”

And, okay. I’m glad she’s fine. I have no idea how I am going to transition away from suddenly being so worried. Or how to gracefully ask my second question.

“I heard Wyatt dropped out,” I say. I wince after I say it. I have no way of knowing if Mom even knows that happened. I probably shouldn’t have dropped the bomb quite like that.

“Yes, dear. We know.” She sighs a little bit. “He’s come home to stay with Isaac and me for a while.”

My stomach twists further. This is exactly what I have been afraid of. The snake is loose around a bunch of delicious looking mice.

I don’t think Wyatt would hurt Isaac. I remember the picture of them I found in his room. They are as close as father and son could be.

It’s my mom who is loose end here. Wyatt hates me because he hates her. There’s no telling what he might do.

Neil’s warnings that day to Wyatt were to keep him away from me. Neil didn’t mention anything about my family.

“Mom, I’m going to say something, and it’s going to sound crazy. But I need you to listen, okay?”

“I’m listening. Of course I am.”

“Please be careful around Wyatt.”

“Your step-brother?”

“Yes, Mom. Don’t be alone with him, okay? Ever. In fact, maybe you should go on vacation somewhere. A spa or something. A getaway.”

I’m clutching my phone so hard, it’s digging into my hand. My heart is beating so fast, I worry it might jump straight out of my chest.

What am I supposed to do? Go home? I can’t protect them here. But if I go home, would that only make Wyatt’s anger worse.

I hope my words connect with Mom, but I know they don’t when she starts to laugh.

“Some joke, Chloe. You make Wyatt out to be some kind of monster. If you could see him help around the house, you’d change your tune.”

“Mom…” She’s not taking me seriously. At all.

“I’m, of course, so saddened that the academy couldn’t fulfill his needs, but I’m very excited to support him on his next chapter. He needs family now, Chloe, to give him a stable environment during this hard time and to help steer him back on the correct path while he reevaluates what to do with his life.”

Reevaluate his…?

Gods!

“But… how is he acting? Has he been erratic?”

“Sad,” Mom explains. “That’s mostly it.”

Sad. Not angry. “Okay.” I have to get back to class, especially if she doesn’t seem to be in any immediate danger.

But the worry lingers. It festers into fear.

Maybe Wyatt is biding his time. Building up their trust for when he’ll strike.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to stop it.

It bothers me all the way to dinner time, when I sit in the kitchen across from Archer. A chef finishes up at the stove, and suddenly two plates of amazing-looking food are placed in front of us.

I pick at mine, my stomach too nervous to eat.

Archer frowns at me. “What’s with you?”

“Wyatt dropped out of school.”

“Good.” Archer spears a broccoli. I notice his plate is mostly vegetables.

“Not good,” I say. “Because that means he’s moved back home.” I slump. “My mom is there.”

Archer stabs a steamed carrot next. “He won’t hurt her. Not right now, anyway.”

I consider him. He’s no less confident than usual. “How do you know?”

“If Wyatt attacked Isaac’s wife without the Alpha King’s help to cover it up, he’d be easily caught. Wyatt is a coward, first and foremost. He acted as bold as he did with us because he thought he had the Alpha King’s backing. Now that he knows he doesn’t have it, he’ll be scared to place one foot out of line.”

Archer chews, swallows. “At least for now.”

That’s not exactly the comforting thoughts I need exactly. I would prefer to hear a more permanent commitment to her safety. But for now seems to be as good as I can get.

I trust Archer, even if he’s frustrating as hell most of the time. He knows Wyatt better than I do, and I don’t think he’d lie to me.

So I try to get myself to relax.

Wyatt is a coward. He wouldn’t want to go to jail.

Mom is safe.

Those three things I say again and again on a loop in my mind, as I take a real bite of my salmon.

My eyes close with the immediate taste pleasure on my tongue. Gods, I’m going to miss the food around here. I need to remember this moment – this specific taste – for when I’m back to eating fast food and whatever goes in the microwave, I won’t forget.

“This is… so good…” I hum in delight, my worries temporarily forgotten with the out-of-this-world level of culinary genius on my plate right now.

Archer lowers his fork. “You’ll miss it.”

I think that’s a question. I’m not sure.

I joke, “I think I might stay longer just for the food.”

At once, Archer’s entire demeanor changes. He wasn’t exactly open before, and he was frowning, but now his entire body tenses, and his frown becomes something of a glower.

I have no idea what could be wrong.

“I’m only kidding,” I say.

“Are you?”

“Yes?”

He narrows his eyes, and I feel like he’s trying to see straight through me. This isn’t a goddamned x-ray. What the hell could he be looking for?

He stares and stares, but I finally get my answer a moment later.

“If you are thinking about staying here with us, you should just forget it.”

The words come coldly, a mimicry of how he was back when I first met him. Before our mutual understandings. Our kisses. Our shared moments of intimacy.

Our many, many arguments.

I thought we moved past the point where we would say things just to hurt each other. I know I can’t trust Archer my heart, but I do trust him with my life.

Why is he throwing it back at me now like a glass of cold water to my face?

Aren’t we something like friends?

Just forget it. That’s so much worse than what Neil said.

It hurts so much deeper. My heart is cracking like he hit it with a goddamn sledgehammer.

The taste of delicious salmon turns to ash on my tongue.

And he’s not even done.

“When your contract is up,” he says, “You should get out. And fucking stay out.”