Chapter 27: Chapter 27

HARLAN

~Where are you?~

~Why haven’t you answered my call or texts?~

I shoved my phone back into my pocket as I exited the alpha house. Going there was a desperate plea to see if Everlee had stayed the night with him.

As I climbed the stairs, I could smell her scent growing stronger and stronger.

She stayed the night with him.

Why?

Things didn’t go great with her meeting Erick, but I would never let them harm her. Thinking that she left me because she was scared of me hurt worse than the actual leaving.

What happened? Was it the darkness she felt inside of me?

For a brief moment, I thought about hunting down Rage and demanding to know what he did to her. Did they brainwash her at his pack house?

She’d done a complete one eighty on me.

I skipped my classes for the day and searched for Kellan. I knew he’d be in class, so I waited outside of his classroom for her.

The door opened and students filed out. I found Kellan in the midst of them and grabbed his shoulder. “We need to talk.”

Kellan pointed toward the front doors. Once we were outside, he looked over at me. “Want to grab lunch?”

“In a minute,” I said, rubbing my eyes. “Something is wrong. Everlee is afraid of me. She says she senses something dark inside of me.”

Kellan lifted both brows and fiddled with the strap of his bag. “Dark? Like what?”

I shrugged. “She left my apartment in the middle of the night and went to him, Kellan.”

His face fell. “Damn. I’m sorry, Harlan. Maybe you both should sit down and have a talk.”

“She won’t answer my calls or my texts. She’s in class, and I can’t beg her. I can’t do it.”

Kellan scoffed. “You can’t beg your mate, Harlan? What the hell? If you really want to win this girl, you’ll do everything and anything.”

I knew that sounded right, but there was something stopping me from begging. Something stopping me from a lot of things. I felt…different. Odd. She wasn’t completely off.

About the darkness, yeah.

But not about the difference I felt in myself. In my wolf.

“I know. I just,” I looked out at the courtyard. “I don’t know what to say if I don’t know what’s going on myself.”

Kellan rolled his eyes. “Then figure it out, Bro. I’m starving. Can we please go eat now?” He turned to leave.

“I think you’re right about Erick.”

He began to backtrack up the steps he took and looked at me. “Now we’re talking. Dude’s insane. You need to get rid of him.”

“I don’t know if I can, Kellan. I think he’s out to get me, or I don’t know, I have a strange feeling he’s trying to get us to fight.”

“You and Rage?”

“Yeah.”

Kellan nibbled on his bottom lip. “That is weird. Maybe we can talk about it over lunch.”

I gave him a deadpan look. “All you think about is your stomach,” I mumbled. “Yes, we can go eat.”

Kellan nearly raced me to the cafeteria. We were halfway there when I caught her scent in the air.

My wolf mourned the loss of her touch.

I turned and saw her walking toward her dorm room with Bryiar. “I’ll be right back.”

Kellan yelled after me. “I’m not waiting on you!”

His shouting drew Ever’s attention my way. Bryiar elbowed her as I raced over and stopped in front of her.

“Ever,” I said breathlessly. “What the hell? I’m glad to know you’re okay. You haven’t returned any of my texts.”

“My phone is dead.” She pulled out her phone and showed me.

“Yeah,” I said. “Because you left in the middle of the night without your charger. Someone could have attacked you or anything. That was dangerous.”

Bryiar pointed toward the dorm. “I think I’m gonna go.”

Everlee gave her a pleading look before she slipped away. I hated that she didn’t want to talk to me. “Harlan,” she said softly. “Yesterday, I felt something inside of you. I think you’re not telling me something. What are you hiding? This isn’t the time to hide your feelings or things you’re going through. I’m having to make a really tough decision right now, and you’re making it hard—”

“And he’s making it so easy? Your big, strong, soon-to-be alpha king? Is that it? You want the title. You hate lycans.”

She stumbled backward at my words.

Her eyes were rounded in fear. “Your eyes. They’re black.”

I blinked several times and glanced at the ground. A blanket of heat swallowed me. The anger feasting inside of me felt raw and unhinged. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on with me.”

Ever reached forward and touched my cheek. “You need to get help. We need to talk to Mom and Dad. Figure out what’s happening to you.”

“How would they know?” I asked, placing my palm over hers. “They’re not like me, Everlee. I’m not a wolf. I’m a lycan.”

“You’re our family whether you like it or not. You should know that just because someone shares the same blood as you that doesn’t make someone your family.”

I chuckled. “Okay Hallmark card.”

“I’m serious. Those lycans aren’t your friends. I don’t want to get to know them, and I don’t want you with them. You’re better than that, Harlan.”

“You’re right.”

She let her hand drop. “Are you hungry? It’s about lunchtime.”

“That’s where we were going when I sensed you.” I looked over my shoulder. “Kellan couldn’t wait. Obviously, he would wither away.”

She smiled. “That sounds about right.”

Everlee fell into step with me. The silence felt tight. Worse than the time she ignored me for two weeks before I ate the last piece of her cake.

The closer we got to the cafeteria, the more anxious I became to figure out what was going on with me. There weren’t any lycan professors that I knew about. They had progressed as a college, but not that far.

Maybe Professor Sitton would know? He seemed smart and knowledgeable. Understanding.

I held the door open for Everlee, and we made our way to the lunch line. After we grabbed our plates, I walked her over to a small booth and sat down.

“I have to be honest with you,” I said. “I went to see Rage this morning.”

She dropped her fork. “Why?”

“I was angry that you left me. I thought he asked you to come over.”

“He didn’t,” she said, pushing her food around her plate. “I came because of what I said. I was scared.”

Her hazel eyes lifted toward mine. The honesty there struck me in the chest. My mate was scared of me.

~She should be.~

I stabbed my food with my fork.

Ever looked down at her plate and began to eat. “I’ve never been scared of you before. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left. I won’t do it again.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

~Is it?~

I slid my tongue over my teeth and shoved another bite of food into my mouth. The voice talking to me wasn’t my wolf. It sounded very much like my father’s from my dream.

I tilted my head and shook it back and forth quickly. Now I was hearing things. I continued to eat my food, feeling Ever staring at me from across the table. “I’m sorry I upset you. I didn’t want to leave, Harlan. I never meant for any of this to happen. I hate that I’m hurting you.”

I reached forward and grabbed her hand. The voice inside of me subsided when I pushed back. “We’re going to get through this. Whatever it is that you felt inside of me. I’ll figure it out.”

“Don’t hide things from me,” she said. “It won’t work if you hide things from me. It’ll push me away.”

“I don’t want that,” I said.

Ever pushed her ponytail from her shoulder and squeezed my hand. “Me either. I think I want to go home this weekend to see Mom and Dad. Do you want to go with me?”

“Sure, I don’t mind going home. I need to run, and I feel the best when I run on the pack lands.”

“Me too. I don’t mind running here but it’s so crowded sometimes.”

We finished our lunches and left the cafeteria. The tension had loosened but I still felt a wedge between us. “I need to go meet with one of my professors. Do you have something to do until I’m finished?”

“Sure. I have some homework to do. Can we meet for dinner?”

“I’d love that.” I leaned in and kissed her softly on the cheek. “I’ll see you then.”

I walked across campus to Professor Sitton’s office. My pace was hurried because I felt the voice was going to come back to me at any time.

I jogged up the steps of the journalism building and pounded on his door. Several seconds later the door opened, and Natalie stood on the other side.

Her glasses were perched on the end of her nose. “Harlan?”

“Hey, Nat. I was looking for Professor Sitton.”

She opened the door wider. “He’s here, just helping me with this article for the paper. Come inside, we were almost finished.”

Professor Sitton put his glasses on top of his head. “Hello, Harlan. Nice to see you again. What can I do for you?”

I swallowed nervously and took the empty chair in the corner. My legs began to bounce uncontrollably. “I have some questions about lycans. What do you know about them?”

“Well,” he cleared his throat. “I know a little. What specifically do you want to know?”

My gaze shifted toward Nat who stared at me over her glasses. She immediately shut her binder and stood up. “Sorry. I’ll see you all around.”

She slipped from the office and shut the door behind her.

“I’m hearing voices in my head,” I said softly. “A voice that sounds like my dead father that I’ve been dreaming about.”

Professor Sitton opened his mouth and then shut it. “Your father was the lycan king, correct?”

I nodded.

“Corrupt, wasn’t he? He had a sense of evil to him?”

I shifted. “Yes.”

“Perhaps he had something telling him to do things, too?”

“Like a…”

He shrugged. “Like a condition.”

I sighed and sat back in my seat. “You think I’m crazy? Like in need of counseling and medication?”

“I didn’t say that, Harlan. Listen, I can’t tell you that it’s normal to hear voices. It isn’t. I’m thinking that perhaps your father had something that made him do bad things.”

“I don’t want to do bad things. I have a mate to win. A life to have. I wasn’t raised to be bad.”

He nodded. “Right. Then you do what you can to beat the voice in your head. Maybe finding out about your father would help? Aren’t there lycans in your kingdom? One that knew him?”

Kellan’s Mom.

“Yeah, there is.”

“I would start there.”

“Thank you.”

He turned back to his desk and opened a book. “If you need me, you know where to find me. Stay strong. Go talk to someone. Get some answers. If it gets too strong, lock yourself up. You don’t want to do what the voice says, because then they know they have control.”

His nonchalance was either to keep me calm or because he didn’t believe me. I thanked him once more and found my way out of his office.

I was pretty sure Professor Sitton was attempting to keep me calm.

I felt calm.

I felt better.

I pulled out my phone and texted Ever.

Definitely want to go home this weekend.

Someone had to know something about my father. Maybe I’d find out a way to rid myself of him for good.