“Not as dark,” I admitted, because it was true. Some days my grief seemed like this monster in the room, terrifying and brooding and impossible to ignore. Others it was more like a weight I had to carry, but the load was manageable. At least most of the time.
She gave me a soft smile, squeezing again before releasing me as everyone gathered at the door in their coats and boots. I hurried to pull mine on too, tugging a hat down over my hair and falling in amongst everyone as we headed out into the frosty night.
Everything was quiet as we walked up the path, the soft hoot of an owl echoing over the lake as our breath rose in clouds around us. Tatum walked in the middle of our group and there was something about that which just felt right. Like that was where she belonged. Between us all.
I didn’t bother to ask where we were going as we headed up towards the main part of campus. If we were looking for the stalker then I guessed we were heading for the dorms.
It was fucking freezing out, the world glittering silver in the moonlight and Tatum hugged her arms around herself as she shivered.
I moved to wrap an arm around her but before I could do it, Kyan got there first, tucking her close to him without a word despite the raging anger that I knew still boiled between them. Sometimes he surprised me with the shit he did. Like, he was always the biggest, meanest asshole in the room but from time to time he’d just let it slip how big his heart really was without meaning to.
She was still shivering even with his arm around her and after a moment’s hesitation, I wrapped my arm around her too from the other side.
She glanced at me in surprise and I winked at her. “We made you come together, sweetheart, I think we can keep you warm together too. Why do you look so shocked?”
Monroe cleared his throat and moved to walk ahead of us a little, striding along at Saint’s side like a man on a mission.
“I guess because…there’s nothing in this for either of you,” she said in a low voice, like the idea of us just holding her to be nice or because we wanted to look after her didn’t occur to her. Or it did and it was such a fucking alien concept that she couldn’t comprehend it.
“There wasn’t a whole lot in it for us when we made you come, either,” Kyan muttered, but he had a smirk playing around his lips that said he didn’t mind that so much.
“I still enjoyed myself,” I said with a shrug. “Not as much as I might have liked to, but…I guess we deserve a bit of that treatment from you.”
“A lot of that treatment from me.”
Kyan snorted a laugh and leaned close to murmur in her ear. “You might be able to resist Blake’s cock after having a taste of it but once you’ve fucked me, you’ll never want to tell me no again.”
“Please,” I scoffed. “I guarantee I could make her come more times than you in a single night.”
“Doubtful,” Kyan replied. “You might win a lot of shit, golden boy but that’s only because I don’t care to compete for much. But in this, I’d wipe the fucking floor with you.”
“Wanna bet?” I taunted.
“Are you seriously betting on how many times you can give me an orgasm in a single night?” Tatum asked, sounding somewhere between thrilled and outraged by the idea.
“You’re a pair of idiots,” Saint snapped without turning to look at us. “It’s against the rule to do any such thing and it’s rude to presume she would want you to.”
“Rude,” Kyan mocked. “That’s my main personality trait. Girls tend to forget to be mad about that when I’m between their thighs though.”
“Christ,” Tatum cursed but she didn’t try to pull away from us and I smirked at Kyan over her head.
We made it to the path which split, leading off to the boys’ and girls’ dorms. Kyan slid his arm from Tatum’s shoulders and gently scooted her closer to me so that I could wrap both of my arms around her with her back pressed to my front. He headed off towards the boys’ dorms and Saint headed for the girls’ without a word.
Monroe pulled his silver coach’s whistle out from beneath his jacket and placed it between his lips. His gaze kept sliding to Tatum in my arms and away again like he didn’t want to look, but also couldn’t help himself. It was impossible to tell whether she was having the same problem with him or not with her back pressed to me, but there was definitely tension lining her limbs.
It didn’t take long before both dorms’ fire alarms blared out and soon the thundering of feet pounded down the stairs from both buildings.
Monroe blasted his whistle loud enough to bust an ear drum and started barking orders at everyone, demanding they go to the canteen for a head count and striding away after them as they all grumbled, casting suspicious looks our way as we failed to follow.
Saint and Kyan were grabbing the Unspeakables out of the crowd and once they’d gathered all of them, they directed the terrified bunch of students down to the boys’ dorm. Bait was holding his mask to his face, fumbling with the knot as he tried to tie it and I took the opportunity to offer him some superglue if he needed it, but he just scurried away without replying. I guided Tatum after them, my heart pounding with excitement as this plan came together.
“We are looking for evidence of a fucking creep hiding amongst
