Prologue
Theo
Theo growled in frustration while shoving his phone under his pillow so he could give his full attention to his roommate. Ethan was gathering his stuff to go take a shower as he shared a story about some of his teammates that made Ethan laugh as he tried to tell Theo all about it.
As much as Theo wanted to understand why the pranking of teammates was supposed to be so funny, his mind wasn’t really with his roommate. It had been three days since he’d seen Dario, Aleksander, or Mitch. Luckily, he got to see Wylder every day and even had meals with him, but Theo wanted to be with all his mates. Living in his little dorm had once made Theo proud, but now he missed his mates like crazy.
Ethan stopped speaking suddenly and Theo realized he hadn’t really been listening at all.
“You okay, bud?” Ethan asked.
“I’m good.” Ethan didn’t know about all of Theo’s mates yet. It was too hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t in the supernatural community. There was no way Theo could whine to his roommate about missing some of his men.
Ethan’s gaze dropped down to Theo’s arm.
Theo had thought about hiding the mating mark from Ethan, but it would be difficult to do when Theo lived with the guy. They did get naked or nearly naked around each other sometimes.
“I still can’t believe you and Wylder went and got tattoos. I am so jealous!” Ethan grinned.
Theo shrugged. “It felt right.”
Ethan nodded. “I’ve always followed my gut instincts. It was something that my father was adamant about as me and my brothers were growing up. He told us to listen to that little voice in our head. It saved me a few times in my life too. If it felt right, then I believe you. It’s awesome too, man!”
“Thanks, Ethan.” Theo peered at his roommate closely. Ethan was human. There was no doubt in Theo’s mind. Theo might not know a lot about all the different realms but even his nose could tell the difference between human andother. Still, there were times when Ethan would say something that Theo wondered how his roommate would take the supernatural orotherworld. Was it something that Ethan could handle?
Ethan was Theo’s very first friend and he’d hate when they didn’t room together any longer. He hated the thought they wouldn’t remain friends. No, Theo wouldn’t let that happen. Ethan had already taught him so much and Theo would make an extra effort to stay in contact with him.
“Alright, T!” Ethan said, heading toward the door. “I’m going to hit the showers. You’re meeting Wylder for dinner, right?”
“Yeah, I’m about to leave,” Theo told him.
“I might see you at the dining hall in a little bit.” Ethan left the room, closing the door behind him, and Theo flopped back onto his mattress.
He’d been hoping that one of his other mates would be able to come for dinner as well, but he’d just got the messages that they were all busy. Mitch was in hell handling his sire’s business, Dario had a late dinner meeting, and Aleksander was with his brothers, helping the pack with something. At leastWylder always had time for him. No, that wasn’t fair. His other mates were trying, but life just seemed determined to keep them apart. He needed to give his mates a break. It wasn’t like Theo was rushing to change his schedule or anything. That meant that Theo was going to have to bring up them spending more time together sooner rather than later.
Hearing a sudden tap, tap, tap, Theo sat up quickly.
What the heck?
Slowly he rose, cocking his head, trying to figure out what was going on. The sound wasn’t coming from the door.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Should he call Wylder?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The window! How was someone or something tapping on the window? Theo lived on the third floor of the dorms!
Theo shuffled forward, grabbing the lamp off the nightstand just in case before he shoved the dark curtain aside and gasped. “Garrett!” He set the lamp down to push open the window.
Hanging upside down, Garrett grinned at him. Fangs on full display but Theo wasn’t scared. Garrett was his newest friend.
“What are you doing?” Theo cried. He stuck his head out the window and looked up where Garrett was clinging to the side of the building with his massive claws. “What if you fall?”
Very slowly, Garrett lifted one hand and petted Theo’s cheek.
Theo giggled. He was so happy to see his new gargoyle friend. True to his word, Josh had found Theo on campus, andthey’d quickly figured out a schedule so that several times they walked to classes together or hung out under Theo’s favorite tree. Wylder had been the one that broached the topic of Garrett, which always had Josh stammering and blushing. It seemed the crush went both ways. Josh knew a lot about gargoyles and had been happy to share with Theo and Wylder.
