Chapter 11: Tour Guide

Luci’s POV:

All I could do was stare after Carlos. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to yell at him or strangle him, or maybe both, for ditching me out of the blue like that.

I’m sure it came from a good place, but how could he leave me here with a literal stranger?

I glanced at Gavin who was collecting his trash. He seemed so chill about the situation. How could he be so calm?

Just as Gavin got up to throw things away, I heard my phone buzz twice.

I saw two text notifications, and neither was what I wanted to see at the moment.

The first was from my father, and I wasn’t about to click on that right now. I swiped the message aside, already assuming it was for me to call him to talk about Alex.

The second message was from my traitorous best friend.

I clicked on Carlos’s text as Gavin started to walk back to the table.

‘I checked the perimeter, and I didn’t pick up any wolves in the area. Have fun playing tour guide!’

The message was followed by a series of winky faces and purple heart emojis.

As annoyed with him as I was, I could appreciate that he checked the area for me before leaving the commissary.

If he didn’t pick up any wolves, then whoever had been tailing me must have dipped out once they saw me enter the building.

I knew I couldn’t let my guard down once I went outside, but at least I wouldn’t have some weirdo stalker watching me walk around with a human guy.

‘You’re still dead. You know that right?’ I sent back to Carlos.

Almost immediately my phone buzzed in response.

‘You don’t mean that! Let me know how it goes,’ Carlos replied along with a few more winky faces.

I loved my bestie, but legit he was giving me a migraine. That was the last thing I needed right now.

“When’s your next class?” Gavin asked as he sat back down next to me.

“Two hours,” I sighed. “It’s writing for short stories.”

At that, Gavin perked his head up.

“Really? Same.” Gavin picked his bag up with one hand and stood up. “You know, you don’t have to hang out with me until then if you have something else you want to do.”

Did he give me an out? Why would he do that?

Maybe he was a decent person. I mean, maybe he was just being polite and humoring Carlos by coming over. But he did share his meal with me.

Even though we hadn’t said much to each other, the thought of not spending time with him made my stomach lurch.

It didn’t make sense, but honestly, this entire day had already been a sh*t show. If Gavin was going to be the best part of my day, then why would I turn him away?

Gavin was still a complete mystery to me. Yeah, we had the same classes and he was new to the university, but I really didn’t know a lot about him.

Maybe this was my chance to find out more.

“It’s cool.” I stood up and slung my bag on my shoulder. “We should go now before it gets hotter. Our next class is in the same building as earlier. It has a lounge area in the basement of the building we can wait in.”

“It’s going to get hotter?” Gavin said as his head tilted down as he inspected his long sleeve shirt.

“Yeah, so the faster we leave, the faster we can go back inside.”

I nodded toward the door, grabbed my tea, and headed for the exit with Gavin right behind me.

Just as Carlos had mentioned, I couldn’t sense the wolf presence I had picked up on earlier. Whoever had been tailing me was gone, at least for now.

I’d have to be even more on guard than I usually was around campus, but at least for the moment, it seemed like everything was back to normal.

Everything except for the handsome guy who was now glued to my side.

I couldn’t explain his behavior, but to be fair, I couldn’t explain mine either.

For all I knew, Gavin could be sketchy and someone I should avoid. Being around him though, I didn’t sense any danger.

Maybe my wolf skills were getting rusty after being on campus so much, but I didn’t get any sort of sign that Gavin was a threat.

Just as we both got outside in the bright sun, I felt a buzz come from my bag.

I pulled my phone out hoping to see a text from Carlos, but as I shielded my screen from the glare, I could feel my eyes grow wide.

Another message from my father.

I felt my brow furrow as I cleared the notification and stuck my phone back in my bag.

“Everything ok?” Gavin asked from my left.

“It’s fine,” I lied as I shoved the phone back into my bag. “It can wait.”

I looked over and forgot for a second just how tall Gavin was. He had to be close to six feet before you added the height from his boots.

Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I had the feeling he knew I was lying. His smile was gone and his lips subtly pursed together. If I hadn’t been looking, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed.

“Well, besides the humanities building and the bursar’s office, where else do you need to go?”

Gavin’s head looked in one direction and then the other.

“Found the library and the registration office, so basically everywhere else,” he said with a small laugh as he adjusted his backpack.

His laugh was soft and brought a warmth to my face that wasn’t related to the heat. I lifted one hand to pat away the heat from my cheeks in the hopes that Gavin didn’t notice.

I smiled and forged ahead. “Well then, let’s get started.”

***

The walk was mostly quiet. Gavin didn’t talk a lot.

It wasn’t that he was bored or disinterested though.

He didn’t goof off on his phone while I pointed out the tech building or the gym. His focus was on me the entire time.

I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or not, but I didn’t hate the feeling of him hanging on my every word.

I pointed up ahead to a series of tiered buildings on our left as the sun’s rays pelted down on us. Our teas were long since tossed and it was getting hotter by the second.

“That’s the building for foreign languages. Our university is famous for that, so it was built with donations a couple of years ago,” I noted as we took a small break.

I looked over to see Gavin’s cheeks shine from being under the sun. He didn’t move around like he was uncomfortable, but even I was starting to feel gross in the heat.

“We should get going. We can grab some drinks before going inside,” I suggested.

“Do we need to go back to the commissary?” Gavin asked as he looked around and pointed behind us. “It’s that way right?”

“It is, but we don’t have to go there. There’s another place closer to our class.”

I started to lead him toward our next destination when a buzz sounded from my bag.

I didn’t even try to hide the groan this time. My phone had been buzzing like crazy, and I was pissed I hadn’t even turned it off.

To be fair, if I had, my father would have probably barged into my classroom. Even though I was a few hours away from the pack, I wouldn’t put it past him to already be in the area after our conversation this morning.

I pointed up ahead to a shady spot with picnic tables that were currently empty.

When we got to the bench, I pulled my phone out and saw the fifteen messages I had missed.

I swiped them away, but as soon as I did, the phone came to life in my hands emblazoned with my father’s name on the screen.

I let the call go to voicemail and felt my breath stick in my throat.

My eyes drifted away from the screen to see Gavin’s head pointed in my direction.

Before I could think of anything to say, the phone began to buzz in my hand again.

My heart sank as I knew there was no escaping this conversation.

How was I going to get out of this mess?